QI Esencial – Oriental and Bioenergetic Therapies in Loja Ecuador

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Part 1 : Introduction – Acupuncture – Cupping

There are things in life that neither have a beginning nor an end. Trying to find some straight line is a waste of time and energy. This is what I felt when facing that blank page on which I was going to relate to our readers what we encountered at QI Esencial. I did not know where to start.

The word HOLISTIC came to my mind because soon after entering into this beautifully decorated space in the center of Loja, it becomes obvious that in this center, people look at health as a complete mind-body-spirituality thing. They don’t just provide “treatments”. It is about healing in the deep sense of the word.

WHEN  I opened    the QI Esencial front door on this busy street of Loja (10 de Agosto), there was that beautiful smell, the colors, the light, the background music, the Chinese paintings on the wall,  the bamboo on the ceiling.

Clearly one feels entering another dimension, a dimension of peace and tranquility.

THEN   there is the incredibly charismatic  personality of the health center owner: Leonardo (Leonardo Miguel Luzuriaga Leon is his full name).

How do we begin describing him?

Gentle, soft-spoken, intelligent, calm and energetic at the same time, definitely passionate, experienced and wise, multi-faceted, extremely skinny are just a few words that come to my mind. Leonardo studied oriental medicine in Brazil with a Korean maestro.

WHILE UNDERTAKING    an acupuncture or cupping session, listening to Leonardo is a rich part of the experience. He will share with you his extensive knowledge of all things oriental, will enlighten and possibly amuse you with some Chinese parable, will tell you if you like about one of his favorite subject “the multi-orgasmic man”, about how people’s mental state deeply affect their physical health and how to let things in your life flow to achieve a better state of happiness.

What he won’t do is tell you what to do or give you a pill to cure the ailment that brings you there or even try to sell you some expensive supplement. His favorite phrase is to say: “simply take from what I say what you feel is right for you“, no less and no more. As a patient you can then feel that he genuinely does not care whether you believe it all or not, whether you are going to do what he recommends or some part of it or not much at all. This way you can relax, be yourself, take what you want, leave the rest and feel absolutely no guilt. Quite different from a typical visit to the doctor I must admit.

This total lack of pressure, this openness is something that makes you want to stay and come back. Not that you will necessarily need to go back either and that is OK by him. He confided that his main “problem” (if this could be called a problem) is that the treatments are so effective that often people don’t come back. He said that his Korean master used to treat 80 patients per day and then to “relax” he used to go to his other job which involved carrying 50kg sacs of coffee on his shoulders. He was a martial art penta champion which Leonardo said in Korea is something extremely serious and demanding. “It is quite complex. The training starts from a very early age. It is like being a basketball champion in the US or a soccer champion in Brazil”

Acupuncture

Obviously when referring to oriental medicine, the name acupuncture comes to mind first. This is one of Leonardo’s specialties. He has learned it not from some academic place but through years of living with his Korean master in Brazil.

I watched the session he gave to my wife Martha. He looked very concentrated, always observing the patient with deep attention.

Never hesitated with a needle. Some time they can hurt. This happens when the flow of energy is interrupted or disturbed in some part of the body. The purpose of acupuncture is to help restore the normal flow of energy along the meridians (well that is my no doubt oversimplified explanation of it).

There was one needle in particular that really bothered her in her left foot. No worries, after a little while, Leonardo took it off when the pain was too strong. One has to take time and allow the body to react. Things cannot always be achieved in one session.

In the following session she was more relaxed and instead of pain the needles were giving her tickles.

Qigong (Chi kung)

Qigong (also spelled Ch’i Kung) is a powerful system of healing and energy medicine from China. It is the art and science of using breathing techniques, gentle movement, and meditation to cleanse, strengthen, and circulate the life energy (qi).

During the acupuncture session when the patient is peaceful an relaxed Leonardo moved around quietly and performs qigong movements to help circulate the energy in the  body.

I hadn’t heard the term Chi Kung before but I had attended some Tai Chi clases in New Zealand and it was very relaxing. Here is what they say on this infomative web site www.qigonghealing.com/qigong/whatis.html

“Taiji Quan is a style of Qigong. It is graceful, relaxed, slow, and fluid, like a slow- motion dance. Unlike some Qigong methods that exercise specific systems or parts of the body– nervous system, endocrine system, heart, kidneys– Taiji Quan is a whole body, whole mind exercise. It treats health systemically, restoring the body to its original “program”, uncorrupted by stress, pollution, and disease. The Qigong Research & Practice Center offers training in all aspects and levels of Taiji Quan.”

The true cause of disease – Somatizing

The key to really curing any disease is to understand the true cause of it. This is where the so-called “conventional” medicine fails miserably. This medicine only treats symptoms and more often than not is not even interested in the true causes of any disease. There is no time for that.

I asked Leonardo what he believed was in most cases the true cause of his patients’ health problems. He said that in most cases people somatize their mental problems. These can be from the plain vanilla every day variety of stress and anxiety for example all the way to some deep disorder that may stem from a past traumatic event or even from childhood. Somatizing means that when the mind has no way to “express” what it feels, it passes the dis-ease to the body. Then one gets an infection, some back pain, gastritis, migraines, you name it.

Addressing this situation with some pill of course does not really solve anything. Even addressing the problem with natural therapies is not the answer. A nice baño de cajon or a massage or a liver detox are certainly good things but when the root cause of a person’s disease is located in the unconscious or subconscious, these forms of natural medicine are also just treating  the symptoms rather than the cause albeit in a less dangerous and toxic way.

Cupping therapy

is another type of therapy that Leonardo provides at QI Esencial.

Cupping therapy is an ancient form of alternative medicine in which a therapist puts special cups on your skin for a few minutes to create suction. People get it for many purposes, including to help with pain, inflammation, blood flow, relaxation and well-being, and as a type of deep-tissue massage.

Relatively unknown to most people living in the West until recently, cupping therapy is an alternative therapeutic method that has been popular in China since around 1000 B.C. Some records show that variations of cupping practices might actually be much older — possibly dating as far back as 3000 B.C.

An excellent summary of what cupping is about can be found in this article HERE

At the end of the day

We found that we left the center on that first day of acupuncture and cupping having made a new friend in Leonardo and looking forward to our next session which we will relate in one or more future article(s).

One thing that struck me is how relaxed my better half looked at the end of her session. I invited her and Leonardo to a photo session and they obliged.

Conclusion

QI Esencial in Loja Ecuador is a very special place indeed where you will feel good, relaxed and well attended. They provide holistic treatments which means that they work on the entire body including the mind and not just on the specific illness that brings you there.

Contacts

Address: 10 de Agosto entre Juan José Peña y 24 de Mayo en el Edificio Plaza Murano

Tel: 07 – 2574907

Web site: www.qiesencial.com

QI Esencial – Oriental and Bioenergetic Therapies in Loja Ecuador

Tags: acupuncture, oriental medicine, cupping therapy, chi kung, qigong, bio magnetism, essential oils, aromatherapy, massages, spa, cosmetology.

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