Mantak Chia - Emotional Wisdom: Daily Tools for Transforming Anger, Depression, and Fear

Are you crazy? Smile to my organs? Talk to them? No way! I was a typical Westerner, all in my head, until I got lung cancer and lost a lung. Out of desperation, I started to smile and talk to and love my other lung and all my inner organs. By God, it works! I learned to love my organs as much as I love my cat, which is a lot. Now, I converse and smile to my dear organs every day. Only 4 percent survive lung cancer; my organs are keeping me alive. I really love them theyre my inner family.

The Sounds and Inner Smile have been extremely valuable for my spiritual growth and my everyday life. Two surprising benefits are: better focus and ability to relax during my golf competitions, and letting go of old resentments, especially of my mother-in-law.

I have so many choices to make every day that it can be very stressful. After I do the Healing Sounds, its easy. The right choices are clear.

My five-year-old daughter and I do the Healing Sounds together. She loves them, and they calm her down before bedtime. When our baby is fussy, my wife holds him on her lap and does the HEEEEEE sound, and he settles down.

Practicing the Healing Sounds offers me an escape valve for the built-up emotions that can clog the body and create chronic disease.

When I do the Six Sounds, I feel balanced and together throughout the day and week. Negative situations dont throw me off balance.

I had insomnia for six months. Doing the Six Healing Sounds for twenty minutes before sleeping helped me have sound sleep.

I had poor digestion for years. Ive been doing the Sounds and Inner Smile for a few months now, and Im happy to say my digestion is actually good.

My bowels have worked much better since Ive been doing the Healing Sounds regularly.

The Inner Smile has brought such a radiance to my whole being. I feel such love and gratitude for each part of my body. This practice has heightened my awareness of the beauty and joy in my life experiences.

In the morning, before I get out of bed, I imagine myself standing at the foot of the bed, smiling lovingly at me. I use that loving energy to do the Inner Smile. Then, in the shower, I do the Six Healing Sounds. I wash out the old and bring in the new energy. After I do these two practices, Im filled with happy energy, and my emotions stay balanced throughout the day.

Copyright 2009 by Mantak Chia and Dena Saxer

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Text design by Tona Pearce Myers
Interior photographs by Fae Horowitz

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chia, Mantak.
Emotional wisdom : daily tools for transforming anger, depression, and fear / Mantak Chia and Dena Saxer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-57731-612-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Qi gong. 2. Qi gongTherapeutic use. 3. Hygiene, Taoist. 4. Emotions. I. Saxer, Dena. II. Title.
RA781.8.C46926 2009
613.71489dc22

2009027551

First printing, October 2009
ISBN 978-1-57731-612-1

Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

New World Library is a proud member of the Green Press Initiative.

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If you are currently experiencing a severe emotional crisis, or you have unresolved emotional traumas from the past, we urge you to work on your issues with a skilled therapist, counselor, or spiritual advisor.

The techniques in this book are safe and effective for ordinary, mild emotional stresses. However, severe crises or deep-seated traumas may be aggravated by relying on these techniques alone without professional treatment or guidance.

All recommendations given in our book are based on the ancient Chinese teachings of chi kung (qigong) and Traditional Chinese Medicine, as well as on our own experience, intuition, and research. As always, your own experience, intuition, and research are the best and final guide to what works for you.

To deepen your use and understanding of the tools in this book, or to learn more advanced chi kung methods, you can locate a trained and certified Universal Healing Tao instructor in your area at http://directoryofuniversaltaoinstructors.com/.

OUR SOCIETY IS EMOTIONALLY DISABLED. According to statistics from the National Institute of Mental Health for 2005, every year one in four Americans age eighteen or older suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder. Considering the present economic recession, the current number of people with mental disorders is likely greater. The NIMH list of mental disorders includes depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders, and suicide. Even many adults who have no discernible emotional disorders feel stressed out by the complexities, pressures, and uncertainties of modern life. Clearly, theres a need for practical and accessible tools for emotional health.

Emotional Wisdom presents a powerful self-healing program that transforms the painful emotions of anger, depression, fear, and guilt into kindness, courage, joy, and peacefulness. Our book presents three clear, easy ten- or twenty-minute Taoist practices with step-by-step directions and helpful illustrations that will allow you to guide yourself through the techniques. The first two practices, the Six Healing Sounds and the Inner Smile, have been used for over two thousand years in China. The third practice, Releasing One Emotion, is our unique extension of the other two. All three are forms of chi kung. Chi