“I’m sorry I am late!” Bob said to Alice as he joins her at the table in the Coffee Shop. Bob was delayed by a friend. The Holiday season always makes his friend very sad. It brings his grief close to the surface once again.
Alice tells Bob “I recently learned about dry crying from my Qigong teacher. “They told me that it helps people that are suffering from grief that won’t go away.”
Why do dry crying
We are taught at a very young age to not show our emotions; to stop crying. Men in particular are taught that it is a sign of weakness to cry. As we get older both men and women tend show less emotion.
As a result of this early training we tend to keep our grief bottled up within ourselves. We store the grief in our body and never let it escape. This stagnate qi accumulates in the lungs and large intestine and can lead to other problems with our body.
Dry Crying is a technique that helps manage grief and eliminate stored up emotions.
What is dry crying
This Qigong technique enables you to purge the grief that you have stored up in the body over time. It enables you to deliberately vent the stored up emotion.
The Fall seasons from September 21 to December 21. Weeping and crying is the emotion for the Fall season The organs and meridians for the Fall season is the lung and large intestine.
How to do Dry Crying
Setup the body
Stand with your feet about hip width apart. The outside of your feet and the outside of your hips are one above the other. Centre your weight on the Large triangle (big toe, little toe, heel) of your feet. As much as possible place your feet parallel to each other.
Slightly bend your knees, tuck your tail bone into your body as you gently pull in your navel.
Setup the meridians
Touch your thumb and index finger together on each hand. This creates a connection between the lung and large intestine meridians. The Lung meridian ends at the thumb and the Large Intestine meridian starts at the first finger. Joining the thumb and first finger completes the circuit between these two meridians, opens the upper respiratory tract and allows the lung Qi to circulate with the Qi of the Large Intestine.
Next, let your arms relax down at your sides and slightly behind the mid line of your legs by bringing your lower shoulder blades slightly towards each other. This produces a stretching of the upper chest which stimulates the beginning of the Lung meridian and opens the chest.
If there is discomfort in the lower back you can place your fist on your lower back for additional support. Focusing on lifting your ribs slightly will help to reduce the discomfort in your lower back as well.
Next you close up the Hui yin by pulling up this area of the body. The Hui yin is is the first point of the Conception Vessel (CV-1) It is located at the base of the spine equidistant between the anus and the genitals. It is in the same place as the root chakra. By pulling up the Hui yin point we ensure that the Qi is not leaving the body.
Now that we have the body setup the next step is to start dry crying.
Start dry crying
You start in a Turtle back position. Bring the arms forward with the back of the hands touching. Rounding your back and bring your shoulders and collar bones forward towards each other. Inhale here.
Next you move into a Dragon back position. Lift your ribs, bring the bottom of the shoulder blades towards each other. Bring the hands back behind the body with the palms facing upwards. Lifting the ribs as you lean backwards insures that the arching of the back is moved out of the lower back and into the thoracic region of the spine.
Now tilt your head backwards with the mouth open, relax the jaw and remove tension from the face. Allow the breath to flow freely from the mouth out of the lungs. Reach into the bottom of the lungs and down to the Hui yin point. The sound of the breath should be a gentle Haaaaaa sound with a descending pitch.
Haaaaaa is the Fire healing sound. The Fire element controls the Metal element. The Lungs and the emotion of grief are part of the Metal element. The descending pitch is sedating. This helps to remove the grief from the lungs.
Repeat this movement for 9 breaths. A turtle back as you inhale and a dragon back as you exhale.
Finish dry crying
When you are finished the 9 breaths, it is extremely important to touch the ground. This action prevents the uprooted toxins and emotions to cause Qi stagnation in the throat and the upper chest.
To purge this stagnate Qi, slowly lean forward, tilt the chin down, let the arms hang down, bend the knees and bring the hands to the ground. Imagine the pathogenic Qi flowing like water from the torso through the arms and deep into the centre of the earth. Exhale out of Pericardium 8 (PC-8), the centre of your palm. At the same time ground your first finger and thumb to the earth.
Repeat this sequence: 9 healing breathes followed by purging into the earth 2 – 3 times a couple times a day.
But I can’t reach the ground
Most people find it difficult to get their hands on the ground while they are standing. There are two techniques you can use to get around this problem.
- Lower your hips. Dry crying does not require you to keep your legs straight. Bend your knees and bring your hips closer to the earth. If this does not work for you try bring the earth closer to you.
- Raise the earth. Us some yoga blocks or a chair to bring the earth closer to your hands.
The key to the final movement of the Dry Crying technique is to press your hands to the earth and purge the stagnate Qi from the body. Either lower your hips or raise the earth so you can make that connection and complete the purging.
I start to cry
Some people will start to cry as the move through the dry crying movement especially with the healing sound of “Haaaaaa”. This is not unusual. It is a sign that the purging of the stagnate Qi has started.
I don’t have time for 2-3 repetitions
This technique can require a fair bit of time. Completing one repetition of 9 breaths plus purging now and fit the other repetitions in at different times through out the day is an excellent alternative.
Repeating the dry crying through out the day will improve the purging process as well.
Summary
Dry Crying is a Qigong technique that is used to remove stored up grief from the body. Removing stagnate qi from the body will improve your mental and physical health of your body.
Bob convinced his friend to see his Qigong teacher. They both learned the dry crying technique. It will take many days and weeks of repetition to completely remove the stagnate grief from his body.
Next Steps
If you or a friend are suffering from stored up grief connect with a qigong teacher and ask them to help purge this grief from your body.
Additional reading
The Dragon Back and Turtle Back movements are important parts of the Dry Crying technique along with the heart healing sound.
This video on the Sunrise Yoga Youtube channel demonstrates how to do the Dragon Back and Turtle Back movements. https://youtu.be/_klVzes6XIs
