It’s 1 month into my life in Beijing, China and I am on the quest to become healthier. One of things that I have done this past week is the Stomach Fireburning. I have never done this before so it was so exciting to try!

Every Chinese Doctor I have been to says that I have cold energy in my stomach. So I am always willing to try anything to get rid of this cold energy. Rather than living a healthy life of constant physical activity, restricted computer use, and all the other modern things that we do to make us unbalanced creatures - I chose to put myself through ancient practices - like STOMACH FIREBURNING or MOXA (mugwart) steaming!!!!

Now contrary to what may appear as a stunt to prove my fearlessness, I am actually undergoing the fire stomach process for the purposes of rebalancing my energy.

So the philosophy behind fireburning is that the fire’s heat will warm up your stomach - it will start moving the cold energy out and help you restore your yin energy. After 5 times of lighting a fire and putting the fire out on my stomach - I felt so wonderful. Here’s a rough explanation of the process.

The doctor first wraps my stomach in saran wrap. Then he lays down cloth soaked in medicinal herbs and alcohol.

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Then I am doused with a oil. The doctor strikes the match and lights the oil on fire. The oil is glazed on me in various patterns. The first pattern is the “heart-to-stomach” pattern, as seen in this photo to the left.

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In between each fireburning, the doctor massaged my stomach - it’s the best feeling in the world. It felt as if he was caressing every part of my large and small intestinal track and giving it lots of love and care.

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And then after the massage, the next fire is lit!

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And the best part is that in the end- when the fire burning is done correctly - he takes off the saran wrap, medicine cloth, and starts Doggy Paddling down from the top of my stomach to the very bottom of my intestines - you can HEAR A RIVER of activity going on inside! it’s totalllly FREAKY - I could hear a river gurgling - as if he was totally giving me a full plumbing system overhaul!
he said that when performed with the right type of fire shapes, the doggy paddling takes all the released coldness and moves it out.

the whole entire time I focused on using qi gong breathing techniques - because I am super sensitive to energy I could feel the cold air flowing out of the bottom of my feet.

okI lied, I was TOTALLY FREAKED OUT about being burned alive! This was my first when the fire was lit the first time.

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But here’s my face post-treatment - see I’m alive!  The rest of my fire stomach photos are here.

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While I was being lit on fire, I kept thinking that I was inadequate as a human being for even go to the Chinese doctor for this. It just reminds me of how out of touch I am with my body, the earth, and the stars.  So going to the Chinese doctor  for me is like a form of rebirth and a bit of self-punishment (for not being healthy when I am living in the states).

But then I think - is it only when I travel - when I’m farthest away from everything and everyone that I intimately know - is that the only time I feel that I can take care of myself without feeling guilty? Is it only when I am unreachable that I recover from everyday life in the states - when my family stuff is so far away that it is absolutely out of my control?

Then I start thinking that’s stupid tricia - peace is where you are - but sometimes I feel that the only way to really extract myself out of my own life is to leave the country and cross an ocean away.  I wonder if this is a pattern of modern life now - middle class people overworking and then leaving for a few months every year or few years to prevent burn out and just to re-balance. It certainly has become a pattern in my life - is the amount of traveling we do equivalent to the amount of stress we have at home?  sometimes I think so…

well anyways this is seriously the best form of self-punishment - when the doctor tells me that my yin-yang isn’t balanced - it actually makes me really excited to become more balanced again. I am always excited for them to say:

ok here your energy is blocked, so that’s why your hair is turning white or that’s why your bowel movements aren’t regular.

When they tell me how unbalanced I am, I start thinking about how I can take better care of myself.

AFter fireburning, the doctor told me of all the herbs and foods that I should eat to heal my body. for example, I need to eat more lemon peels.  This time the doctor told me that my health was pretty good, but my back and neck is messed up from years of sitting in front of a computer. Plus I haven’t been meditating or dancing as much lately :(

So I love this herbal/ancient practice - only in china…only in china. In India I tried going to the medicinal doctor - I actually went to 3 of them because I really wanted to give it a chance - well each on told me that I was too much of a “pita” and they threw my naked body on a slap of hard wood and started dumping herbal oil on me and then the woman rubbed the oil on me forcing my bones into the wood table and I slid around like a dead fish - I tried to grab onto the wood but it was impossible! - may  sound wonderful-(hmm hands + oil) BUT NOT!!!!!!  it was painful and the worst part was that  I didn’t feel more balanced afterwards.  SO I’ve decided China is the place for me to go for medicinal care.

oh and here’s another fire-like treatment called Moxa - I did this the week before. It’s much less scarier than fire stomach treatment.