I had Qi Gong practice last night and my instructor explained how to use the five elements. It was very interesting to learn how each organ system is associated with colors and elements and I think this will really help me out with my meditation. Here's a great page that explains the basics of the Five Elements.

Then this morning I had my acupuncture appointment. Some things had markedly improved from my treatment last week but I had some other things that needed adjusting and he totally knew what to do. I had swollen glands in my neck from my cold that were bothering me and now they feel clear and normal. From the moment he put in the first few needles I felt my body start shifting my energy around, it felt like I was going from disorganized to synchronized in a matter of minutes. Now I feel warm, smooth and even more happy. I have a faint headache just behind my eyes though, I bet something is still kinked up somewhere.

I'm doing both Qi Gong and acupuncture to try to regain health, rebalance after all of the health problems from last year and also to try to get my body to be stronger and less flimsy in general. Meditation is more sporadic but I do it with a friend of mine when we get it together. Improved health is going to take a lot of ongoing practice but I'm hopeful that I'll get balance someday.

Meditatations

Most of the alternative medical practitioners have recommended meditation to me and it is refererenced in a lot of information about infertility as well as for fibroids. Here are some links to info that I've found along the way.

MEDITATION

Anji - highly praised relaxation CDs
http://www.anjionline.com/

Guided Imagery
http://www.guidedimageryinc.com/guided.html

What is Guided Imagery?
http://www.healthjourneys.com/what_is_guided_imagery.asp

Learning Meditation - Meditation Room
http://www.learningmeditation.com/room.htm

Cultivating Positive Emotions to Optimize Health and Well-Being
http://journals.apa.org/prevention/volume3/pre0030001a.html


SELF HYPNOSIS

Hypnosis Downloads
http://www.hypnosisdownloads.com/
Low cost MP3 files you can use to do self-hypnosis. My friend recommended this site to me.


LABRINTH - Walking Meditation
A labrinth is a type of maze that you walk for medidation. I found that if I walked and thought about a particular thing, like my fibroid or my miscarriage, my mind would show me truths and I could release fear and accept hope. Here are a couple of links to learn more about them:

The Labrinths of Grace Cathedral
http://www.gracecathedral.org/labyrinth/

Worldwide Labrinth Locator
http://wwll.veriditas.labyrinthsociety.org/



QI GONG - Chinese Meditation/Movement
Qi Gong (pronounced chee gong) was my real favorite while I was on my health spa retreat, the thing I did every day except for the one day where the instructor had off. It was amazing and helped me feel open, relaxed, stronger, and peaceful. I had never done it before but I could completely feel the energy flowing through my body on the first time. It also helps you to open up and use the whole of your lungs in a way like I've never felt before -- most of us do only shallow breathing normally. What was even cooler was that I found out that the sequence we were doing was developed by a buddhist pristess named Kwan Yin and that she is also a goddess of fertility in Buddhism. The thing that was most amazing about it was that while doing these slow flowing, graceful movements my body was telling me to keep doing them and it would help with my fibroid -- this was days before I heard about what Kwan Yin was.

The Mission of Qigong
http://www.shengzhen.org/the_mission_of_qigong.htm

Kwan Yin
http://www.crystalinks.com/kwanyin.html

About Kwan Yin and images of statues
http://www.siamese-dream.com/page/siam1/CTGY/Kuan-Yin-Statues

I didn't feel like I was praying to another religion, I felt like I was tapping into the energy of the universe. It was amazing. There is a book on the shenzhen.org site, also available through Amazon that has all of the movements and descriptions of what they are for.


Dr Northrup's site has a bunch of different audio/video materials for sale that might be of interest as well:
http://www.drnorthrup.com/health_store-cr-video.php

The HealingFromFibroidsNaturally Yahoo Group also has lots of information about alternative treatments for uterine fibroids, you might look there as well:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/HealingForFibroidsNaturally