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Sigh….. I’ve had this headache for an year and a bit longer now. This headache started within around the time I joined freshman year of high school, around the time I started back in habitually practicing Chi every day while doing something (I just usually move my hands or focus my chi into palms or body or whatever), and around the time when I had many goals in mind. I am not sure if these factors all contributed to stress which in resolve concludes to a headache, or it was because of the simple reason that I started doing Chi again and I’ve focused too much Chi in my head.
This headache, I can best describe, is a headache that has NEVER STOPPED ONCE IN MY LIFE WHEN I OBTAINED IT AN YEAR AGO (around September 2012 when I started high school), and when I mean by never stop, it is a 24 hour headache for A WHOLE YEAR (AGAIN NEVER STOPPED) that drives me crazy. The feeling of this headache is best described as like a “brainwave”, yet ever so dim that you are slightly able to feel it, but enough to drive you literally insane. It literally vibrates, and feels like you are focusing your general Chi there, but for 24 hours in a constant basis. The intensity if the vibration changes daily and throughout the year. When I am stressed, I get large throbs, but every time I wake up from sleeping, I feel refreshed, until I realize that I have the headache again and then the awareness catches on to me that I have the headache.
At least half the people around me has told me I’m going insane, but you know what, screw them, literally. I am not on drugs, I am not an idiot, I am perfectly fine and I am a complete human being, but I say this comment to those people because I feel afterward after they tell me I don’t have a headache and that’s it’s “all in my mind”, I feel …… very lonely and depressed that no one can understand me. The only people that try their best to understand me is probably my parents only, and that is because I told them over and over that they should trust me no matter what, that I have a real headache, and the pain is real, and that no matter what happens, keep believing in me and don’t give up on me, because when the time comes when my parents finally say “Son, You do not have a headache. It is just your imagination” that is the moment I will probably lose 5 years of my life due to insanity and loneliness.
I have been trying to solve this headache all year long, and I have gone to medical appointments with many doctors. I have seen a psychologist, but he did not understand what it was. I have seen a neurologist three times before, and all the medication he prescribed for me was no way or shape solving the headache, and he told me the type of headache I had was either 2 options of a headache: a stress headache and some other headache (I forgot), and he determined these options by my general description of the headache. I’ve seen my general doctor, and all the medications he prescribed to me did not work either.
I understand that this summary may be too long to read, but honestly I will be content if just one person could take some time and understand me. I am a 16 year old boy, Asian, and I live in Texas. I am a normal American Citizen, nothing too special, until I got into Chi 2 years ago, quit about an year and a month ago, and got back into Chi an year ago, and that is when my headache occurred. The reason why I post this problem in a Chi related forum is because I think this headache has something to do with me being involved again in Chi an year ago. The reason why I feel this is because when I breathe, drink water, or sleep, the headache barely vibrates and the pain drops, but when I am stressful, or when I simply focus my Chi there, it feels like I’ve added chi into an already chi filled place (in this case, my head), and I feel my head is about to explode like a water hose with a stopper on it in the end or something. I feel that one day, I will grow so insane and that chi might collect so much in my head that my head might just internally explode, and at this point, I have no problems believing something like that could happen.
If by the chance it is not a Chi caused headache, this is the other possibility. 2 important people in my life, my best friend and my dad, told me a common thing. The Placebo Effect. I could possibly have a Placebo Effect headache because at the time my headache occurred, Remember? I had 3 factors (when I joined freshman high school, I started practicing Chi again, and lastly I had many goals), and all of them contributed to stress. My dad and my best friend told me that I could have “created” this headache and believed it to be true (although I have no idea how I would do such a psychic-like thing, or at least it sounds that way) and developed my own headache, or something of that general idea.
In conclusion, I am a 16 year old American citizen who has obtained a mysterious, 24 hour, constant, vibrating headache that I believe it 99% to be Chi related, because of mainly 3 evidential reasons:
1. The medical doctors cant fix it, and don’t even know what the hell is going on
2. The headache occurred around the time I started doing Chi
3. I feel the same Chi, or vibrating energy, in my head as I would if I focused it somewhere else in my body. It is just more throbbing and constant in my head, thus creating this headache.
And speaking in this same conclusion, if by the chance it is not a Chi headache, it is most possibly a Placebo Effect Headache. Although this is all based purely on my feelings, evaluation, thoughts, and beliefs. I need some answers from… anyone. Should I go see a Chi Master in my area, or maybe even China to understand my headache? Should I go see a hypnotist if this headache is possibly a Placebo Effect headache? Could there be other types of headaches that suit my description of my headache? (The last 3 questions are just starting ideas)
Thank you all for your time. But ever so slowly, I am growing insane, and I need an extra hand from somebody, anybody. That is why I say thank you so much in advance.
Hi Brain,
I’m really sorry to hear about your problems. It sounds like an intense and lonely experiance. As someone whose lived with debilatating chronic back pain for most of my adult life, I can relate to how lonely the experiance can be. Most people don’t understand what it’s like to live in constant pain. They’ve never experianced something like that, so they have no idea how to relate to it.
I’ve also had people tell me “It’s all in your head”. Once they say that, they give you this look like “see, I’ve solved your problem for you!”. My retort these days is “That isn’t helpful. Even if the pain is all in my head, telling me that doesn’t make the pain go away! What would be helpful is if you could tell me how to get it out of my head and make the pain stop!“. Very frustrating.
So know that you are not alone in your experiance
Could you give as much detail as possible on what Chi Practices you started doing when these problems started? Bruce teaches lots of different practices. Which practices did you start doing? How long did you practice them? Were these the first things that you had ever practiced or did you have any prior experiance?
Janak
Hello Brian,
I have suffered from chronic migraines for over a decade and your post strongly resonates with me. I started getting them my freshman year of college, at a time of transition, just like you. I had a different chi practice however – I was an avid runner and athlete. Recently, what was originally diagnosed as “cluster migraines” (because I got them everyday at the same time for weeks on end), have cropped up again. There’s a lot of fear for me because once I get one, I usually end up getting more…and unlike yours, mine are debilitating. I can’t sleep, eat or even drink water. Some doctors call them suicide headaches because you literally want to smash your head into a wall. The Energy Arts instructors I’m working with have encouraged me to accept that I will get headaches and instead of fighting the fact that I will get them, I should learn to mitigate the pain, which seems to help. I’ve also started tuning into the migraines on a more regular basis and find that the pressure is in my head always. In the past, I only noticed it if it was very extreme, but the more I “feel” into it now, the more I’m realizing it’s sort of always there. I’m working on dropping my chi by practicing standing qi gong and making sure to take the time to practice relaxation and breathing everyday. Now that I’m tuning into it more, I’m working with different methods of dissolving or dispersing the tension. I think it’s important to be sure that the chi practices you are using are the right practices. You can increase the chi in your head, or decrease, depending on what you are practicing. I also work with an acupuncturist and being consistent with that also seems to help. I hope this has been helpful. Be well, Katy
I know someone who has used acupuncture to improve the condition of someone who has had a stroke 3 times. One would presume that if you find someone good then surely they could do something about bound chi in your head. Targeting the surface of the scalp can apparently trigger deeper points.
In Bruce’s Power of Internal Martial Arts book he talks about Wang Shu Jin putting a chi ball in his upper back which caused immense pain and needed 3 months of intense acupuncture to cure. This is at a point where presumably he was quite good at sinking chi himself.
This is not something I know anything about. I would suggest getting in touch with someone good in that area. Doing something like tai chi would probably be good also (sinking chi = big part of tai chi).
I am not so involved with Chi like many other dedicated ones. I activated my Chi 2 years ago when I got interested in it from watching youtube videos of it. At that point when I started doing Chi, which was when I was 14, I have been involved with it really hard, and I have been doing some meditations as well as being able to feel Chi every day and move the vibrations consciously. After a few months, I was able to move my Chi easily and focus it wherever at. Even when I was really involved hard with it, I did not really practice any mainstream techniques that other Chi instructors did, because I was just a kid and I did what I wanted to do at that time. It became a habit of generally moving Chi, and soon enough, I felt like my whole life changed after a few weeks because I get these weird vibrations every day, and I am certain I did not feel those warm vibrations before I started doing Chi. After a few months when I activated my Chi, my best friend, Bryce, told me his father (a pastor) told him that Chi is a magic art and it is somehow linked with Satan. I of course was puzzled and curious if this was true, but nonetheless, I was demotivated and scared to keep practicing Chi, so I combined all my Chi into an area right below my stomach (Which was really a coincidence, because that is where Chi instructors tell you to store your Chi, the Dan Tien, but at that time, I was not aware of such information, I just felt it was proper to store it in the center of my body) and I locked it away for a whole year. An year later, I was like, “Hey, why not?” and I started getting in the feel for Chi again, and did some dandy two shoes chi moving with my hand and through my arms and body, and at this time, my headache occurred (this happened last year when school started).
I did not do any actual practices, other than moving my Chi to wherever I felt like (as I was curious at that time).
I practiced for several months until the point my best friend told me it was a sinful magical art, and I was demotivated and tried to lock away my Chi. An year later, I got back into it, then my headache occurred.
These were the first things I practiced, because they were the only things I practiced. I was a kid back then, so meditation was not my cup of tea, and that is also why I did not do any actual practice.
I did not have any prior experience following the headache, although I was much stressful with Freshman Year of High School (homework, etc.), which could notably be an important factor somehow.
You don’t activate chi. It’s a natural part of your body. The fact that your friend thinks it’s satanic is purely based on misinformation. Perhaps he is correct based on his definition of chi. I am in no position to argue that, but clearly his definition is just plain incorrect.
Your chi is always there. It’s in you and it’s in your friend. You can only open up your body so that it can flow more freely, and use your mind to direct it. You didn’t lock it away. You just chose to not be aware of it just as you can choose to not be aware of your heart pumping your blood, and your lungs filling with air.
Saying that energy work is satanic is like saying body building is satanic. Both are to do with the improvement of natural aspects of the body.
By the way, if you locked away all your chi you would be dead.
Hi Brian,
Sorry to hear about your headaches. I don’t think you are crazy and I don’t think you are imagining it.
I strongly suggest you stop your chi practices until you can find a qualified teacher who can guide and help you. If the headaches go away after you stop, then it almost definitely has to do with how or what you are practicing. If the headaches still don’t go away after you have stopped for a while (within a month), then you need to find a good acupuncturist or a good medical chi gong doctor.
Please don’t go back to doing chi practices until you find a qualified and experienced teacher.
I have a background of over 30 years doing chi gong/martial arts on and off with Bruce and have been an acupuncturist for over 10 years.
Hi brian
sorry hear about the headache situation. I practice tui-na and qi-gong tuina in tempe az, and in my work I see a fair number of people who have headaches similar to what you describe. these people are often at the end of their rope, because they have very real pain, but the doctors seem to not understand how headaches work very well, unless there is a physical reason. a LOT of people with headaches get frustrated with MD’s, however, with a good quality therapist, it’s not too difficult to remedy.generally, I can relieve the pain through tuina, and a good cranial sacral therapist or polarity therapist can also do so. so I might suggest looking around your area and find someone, ask them what they can do for you. there are other modalities that can work, these are ones that are common and ive seen good results from them. I would suggest finding someone with a good record of helping headaches, someone with some experience.
I would also suggest that you might consider finding a good chi gung teacher to study under. there are many good EA instructors out there, as well as others. teachers who attended this year’s marriage of heaven and earth qigong instructor training learned specific techniques for getting the chi out of your head, check out the website, perhaps there’s someone in your area.since you have been doing qigong via video, I also might suggest bill ryan’s video program to learn dragon and tiger qigong; it’s a good balanced qigong set, and might do you a lot of good.
tai chi could be very useful as well, and it’s easier to find.
I feel like I should share this as well, it’s a simple healing technique that I began using as a teenager.
sit quietly and comfortably
allow your arms, head and neck to relax
as you breathe in, say to yourself RE
as you breathe out, say LAX
(get it? RE-LAX?)
keep letting yourself relax with each breath
allow your breath to come more and more from your belly and entire torso, and allow your eyes,head, brain and neck to relax more and more
id try this one twice a day for 20 minutes. ive cured headaches this way, and taught others to do it.in any event, brian, I don’t think your going insane, but you are probably really stressing out, and it’s messing you up. which is a pretty normal thing for people to do these days, but not really necessary or helpful.
I hope this helps, people should feel GOOD.
be well
richard shapiro
Hi Bri
2 things have saved me ~
i had always wished for acupuncture without needles et voila i found this book at my feet in New Age bookstore on Jin Shin Jyutsu ~ Touch of Healing by Alice Burmeister
Doing the trinity flows while lying in bed at friend’s house for about an hour, enable me to recover from a debilitating ailment (my review is the first one – peachy.
Basically you put your hands on various “safety energy locks” on the body and breathe… you are jumper cabling the universal energy, and reharmonizing the energy flow in your body.
Also you can just hold each finger (or toes) and breathe – and you will reharmonize as well – as the organ function energy flows all go through your fingers and toes.
Have been using JSJ since 1998.
Took the classes in it as well.
Another thing very useful (chimachine4u -site) – i have a ‘fake’ chi machine – i call it my wiggle machine as i put in on bed on a piece of cardboard and pillow on it for my ankles and wiggle back and forth – it’s an old masage trick, wiggling the body back and forth confuses the nervous system, causing it to relax.. loosens up everything. Then you rest for half the time you wiggled.
I recovered from smashup car accident with this. And find it so beneficial re my sitting all day at office job as well.
These may help you. Good luck
Hi Brian,
In my experience, headaches are common occurrence for me.
I also think that many people experience headaches too.You wrote:
[…it is a 24 hour headache for A WHOLE YEAR (AGAIN NEVER STOPPED) that drives me crazy.]
Your headache is far more intense than the ones I have had experienced.
Part of the reason for this, on the basis of your chi experience, the way you have described it, is that you may have not used a clear strategy in storing Qi and circulating qi.
This includes a principle to always store Qi in lower tan-tien after any qigong technique. If you moved Qi to someplace, at the end you have to return it to the lower tan-tien. You seemingly have not used any additional instrument such as massage to help you store Qi in lower tan-tien. These points are especially important when you begin working with Qi.
My headaches started when I began practicing qigong. Whatever qigong technique I did for about first 7 years has produced a headache. The top of the head felt warm or hot or tense, pressure in the head. It was very uncomfortable. No doubt that qigong techniques which I was practicing moved Qi to the head. Any qigong exercise which involved a bit of tension –there were several of these—ended up moving Qi to the head. Even qigong that was based on relaxation, frequently caused movement of Qi to the head.
Please keep in mind that many Qi meridians pass through the head. Stress, emotional states will move Qi to the head. Excessive study will do that too. The point is not to drop studying, but find a method to relieve headaches or even prevent them.
Very early on I was taught a head massage to diffuse the Qi in the head and move it down to lower tan-tien area. Some movements after this head massage can brush the qi down from head and chest area into the lower tan-tien. This helped me to release the qi from the head down to lower tan-tien. Even using the massage techniques have not wholly prevented headaches from occurring. Yet I knew that I can manage the headaches effectively, if I pay attention to the state of the head ( warm, hot, tensed, pressure in the head,…). All of these states for me were due to the excess qi in the head. After the head massage, chest massage or sometimes abdominal massage, discomfort was released.
More recently, I have learnt qigong techniques, that circulate Qi effectively down to earth ( from head down beyond the feet along central channel), rotate the qi between heaven and earth through my body, circulate the on 4 horizontal levels ( heart level, third eye level, top of the head level, lower tan-tien level). These brought about great ease, the head is comfortable and light most of the time.
Though, even now I finish my day with head massage just for protection. When I do massage my attention is on the head, and I realize that there is excess qi there!!! After massage I definitely feel better.
The exercises I have mentioned above are in Robert Peng’s book Qigong Master.
He presents an interesting description of how his teacher taught Robert for 13 years, since Robert was 7 years old, and Robert gives basic qigong exercises that are gradual.They begin with opening Qi channels in the palms. This is used to activate lower, middle and upper tan-tien, then he fills up the tan-tiens with Qi ( you should consider working only with lower tan-tien). This is done in parallel with exercises that circulate the Qi as I have described above.
Robert Peng’s motto is: feel the lower tan-tien as frequently as possible, nourish it with Qi as frequently as possible. For that, there is an exercise, he teaches: nourishing Qi.
Your first priority is learning massage: head, chest, leading the qi to lower tan-tien.
You need find somebody to teach you head massage.
This requires careful massage: top of head, ears (100 times circular), forehead with knuckles, sides of head with knuckles, eyebrows, eye sockets, corners of eyes, nose, tapping the gums, tapping the jaws, and more than that. It may take 15-30 min to complete. But you will learn to adapt to your time constraints and get a relief every time after you have done the massage.
I am practicing qigong for the past 30 years.
I have some of Bruce’s books without practicing what is in them.
A couple of months ago I began to take a more careful look into Bruce teachings, in part
looking for extra health benefits from internal martial arts.Here is where I found your message about headaches.
Let us know if you have any progress regarding headaches.
Alex
Dear Brian,
There is a Chinese tea called Tuo Cha or Puerh, and it is also known as ‘meditator’s tea’. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition headaches that arise from intensive energy practice or pushing too hard in meditation are a symptom of what is called ‘wind disease’ and refers to an energy imbalance that is localized and consolidated as various types of pain.
This tea is often recommended for practitioners engaged in prolonged meditation retreat that sometimes develop these types of disruptive headaches, and it works great for dispelling the acuteness of the pain.
Another thing that is often recommended is to spend time staring into the blue sky. To do so from a higher position with minimal peripheral objects, such as a bare mountain top, hillside, or building rooftop allows one to absorb into space so to speak, and this lightens the cluster of energy causing the pain.
Best wishes to you,
james
Brian,
I would highly recommend seeing a good acupuncturist as well as a good chinese herbalist. It could help tremendously. More than likely, you have depleted yin and have liver yang rising, being trapped in the head, but an acupuncturist can assess you to see if this is correct.
If you don’t have anyone in your area, I would recommend Chai Hu Jia Long Gu Mu Li Wan (Bupleurum and Dragon Bone Pills) which sedate rising liver yang quite well. I would take these in addition to magnesium glycinate supplementation. You can get the herbal pills I mentioned from dragonherbs.com, who I highly recommend.
I have successfully treated this before twice with the above recommendations, but it would be best to get under the care of someone who understands the phenomenon. Western MD’s unfortunately have no clue about this and will label you with something within their paradigm and treat it inappropriately.
All the best!
OH MY OH MY BRIAN I’ve finally found somebody else with the same thing as me!!!!!!! …a little different but same concept. I NEVER EVER EVER EVER thought I would find anyone, and in a way I’m so relieved that I’m not going insane either…. I have a lot to explain as it’s been almost two years…but I’d be so grateful if anyone knew anything that might help me to live a normal life again…
I think it’s a headache caused by malpractice with chi…. I really would love to talk to you about this more as I haven’t found anyone who has been able to help me. I’m in my fourth year of studying Veterinary Med in England and every day is such a struggle…I’m hoping someone out there may be able to help me.
I’ll explain….. I’ve had it for almost two years now, and my belief is it started when I started doing transcendental meditation. Basically I had no idea of the existence of chi or that it was in any way involved with meditation. I started Transcendental Med in a hope that it would help me with Uni work, improve my concentration, help my sleeping etc etc. I did it with a teacher at my Uni (who turns out pretty much taught me wrong). I was told to repeat my mantra effortlessly and calmly for 20 mins twice a day. I did this and in about the third day, whilst doing so I developed a reeeally strong headache on my LHS which felt exactly like my sinus. My teacher was no help and just told me to concentrate on the pain (looking back now…it was the stupidest suggestion…). I’ve read on the internet that the pain was probs caused by me pushing the meditation too hard….I just didn’t even know there was this ‘chi’ thing so I didn’t understand that I was doing that.. Anyway, I carried on. About two months later the same pain would appear when I was going to bed, a deep, sharp pain as if someone was sticking a nail into my cheek/sinus area between my nose and eye. This kept happening more and more until it wasn’t just at night – it was ANY time I was relaxing/not moving my face. Soon, it became NON STOP RELENTLESS pain boring deep into my face. It would move up into the top of my head and I’d get a massive whoosh and it’d go. It would move a lot but always start, and be strongest, in my left sinus area. But within seconds it’d be back.
After tonnes of doctors/hospitals/scans/horrible drugs with nasty side effects, I looked into Chinese Medicine and found a Qigong teacher. He said my chi was stuck in my pineal gland and a bit in my spine. After many sessions he unblocked it and tried to dissipate my chi, but whenever he’d push it down it would just come back up into my head, as if my body has got used to it being in my head and it rises up naturally. (I don’t know if this is right…but it seems whenever I relax…as I did when I did meditation….the pain comes SUPER hard…as if perhaps my body will naturally do what it did when I was meditating, when I relax…. I’m not sure I’m just guessing).
He helped a bit, but the pain is STILL HERE…. I just can’t get rid of it. He taught me ‘toe breathing’ and amazingly I’d do it and feel the chi whizz down and I’d be sooooooo happy without that thick, deep pain. But my mind soon noticed that feeling JUST before the whizz…and so it stopped happening…and I cant get my chi to move downwards now, as if my conscious awareness of it stops it from moving…. For about a month I was able to move it downward but now I can’t seem able. It might be because I’m too frustrated and get so upset when I even think about it.
Basically I just don’t know what to do…. I don’t know enough about it to understand…. If someone out there knows ANY way I could ease the pain/make it go away I’d be soooo so so so soooo grateful. I’m a 22 year old girl and I want to finish uni and become a vet but I’m so scared that this headache is gonna stop me… I’ve already had to take a year out and am retaking 3rd year now…. I just hope I can get this all sorted before 4th and 5th. This site is pretty much my last resort! Nobody believes me….except people who understand energy and Chinese medicine….
So sorry for the massive essay…tried to condense two years of drama into a lil message ha…
Thank you so much for anyone who reads this.
Elle
Thank you all! I love all these solutions… You are welcomed to reply more.
Hey I understand what your going through because I am going through it as well. The only difference when u practice chi building exercise you have to be aware and understand how to balance your chi through out your body. Think of your body as battery, if u have control of your bio electricity and is able to send your energy by conscience through out your system, your also have resistor that can filter out excessive energy as well. Remember your resistor can only filter so much where the energy that you are producing is so much in abundant that your nervous system can’t handle….I call it being too brainy… If the headache is that bad. Research some natural herbs that can regulate the chi in that area… And when u meditate focus on a different shes …like your naval( two inches below your belly button).
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