The Thymus Thump
(Approximate time 20 sec)
Dr. Anthony Sharkey
Chinese medicine views the body as having a sort of electrical circuitry – there is an energetic supply to each of the major organs in the body. These circuits are called ‘meridians’ – e.g. there is a heart meridian, a lung meridian, a stomach meridian etc – there are 14 of them all together.
From a Chinese point of view, disease of any part of the body arises when the electric supply to the organs isn’t flowing or is restricted in some way. Whatever the reason for the disruption in supply, the treatment is always the same – get the energy flowing again. A Chinese doctor uses mostly herbs and acupuncture to do this.
Dr. John Diamond (a psychiatrist who was in the forefront of
developing kinesiology in a psychiatric setting) discovered that
thumping the Thymus gland over the chest bone had the immediate effect of increasing the body’s vital energy to all the organs while at the same time improving the muscle tone and strength of the whole body.
Somehow thumping the Thymus reset and rebalanced the body’s acupuncture system in a general way.
Your Thymus gland is situated immediately behind the upper third of
your chest bone.
The Thymus regulates your acupressure system (think of it like a fuse box), it produces ‘Killer T’ (T stands for Thymus) white blood cells – these play an important part in protecting you against disease.
The Thymus gets negatively impacted and easily become shut down through any kind of physical or emotional stress. Bad news, ongoing absorption in negative emotion states all disrupt its function. This is why you are asked to sit down if someone has bad news for you.
Doing the Thymus Thump
Set your self up by taking three deep deliberate deep breaths.
Vigorously thump or tap the upper third of your chest 3 times while at the same time
• put a smile on your face
• Say ‘Ha’, ‘Ha’ ‘Ha’
• Hold the image of a divine being, place or experience in
Mind
You can repeat it as many times as you like.
Why put a smile on your face?
‘Your life can totally change with just one smile’ – Chinese Fortune Cookie
The physiology (muscle tone, breathing, posture etc) of your body is intimately connected with what sort of emotional state you are in at any moment. Certain physiologies increase the likelihood of negative states.
Consider this - try getting angry with a smile on your face – it’s almost
Impossible. Why is this?
The physiology of a smile on your face keeps you in a positive emotional range.
Anger has a specific physiology associated with it. In order to get into an angry state of being you have to change the way you are ‘holding’ your face. This physiology of anger doesn’t include smiling.
Putting a smile on your face is something you can do, to increase the chances of getting into a positive emotion. It doesn’t have to be a ‘genuine’ smile.
You do not have to have a ‘genuine’ smile. You do not need a ‘reason’ to smile. You can smile simply because you exist.
Are you happy? Tell your face about it.
Do you want to smile more? Think of it as an opportunity to practice smiling.
Why say ‘Ha, Ha, Ha’?
This sounds like a laugh, which is always healing. If your brain hears you laughing it presumes you are. Here you are using the principle that your brain doesn’t know the difference between what you vividly imagine and what is actually happening.
There is a saying ‘One day you will look back on this and laugh’ I say ‘why not laugh now.’
Laughter is known to have definite healing effects – Norman Cousins wrote a book called ‘Anatomy of an Illness’ where he describes how after a diagnosis of a very serious illness he locked himself in an hotel room and watched uplifting humorous movies while restricting his visitors only to those people who made him feel good. He cured himself and wrote the book.
Laughter yoga classes are now a commonplace. It is a little strange to sit around with a group of people and just laugh. But anybody I’ve talked to who has done it say they feel great afterwards. Interestingly Laughter Yoga classes start with people faking a laugh, somehow this starts a momentum and eventually people are genuinely laughing. Like smiling you don’t need a reason to laugh. You can laugh because you exist.
More subtly, embedded in the word ‘Ha’ is the sound ‘A’.
‘A’ has been known since ancient times to have healing properties. Think Amen or Allah or Alleluia – these words were not chosen randomly, they were chosen for their distinct spiritual and healing vibrations.
Why hold a divine being or someone you love in mind?
Holding such a being in mind is known innately to bring
strength and courage. People in traumatic and difficult situations instinctively bring God, The Buddha or Jesus to mind. In other words they pray.
Bringing someone you love to mind simply brings the energy of love into your system. Love is an aspect of Divinity and it too keeps you strong.
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