Spit on It! by Edna M Brandt, LAc ~ (Feb 2020)

Spit on It!

By Edna M Brandt, LAc

One of the more surprising things I learned from my tai chi teacher Patrick Watson was to spit on my injuries (such as sprains or strains), pain, or bruises. He taught us that as soon as we woke up and before swallowing, to put our morning saliva on our fingers and rub it into the area of the pain or bruise. If you use the tai chi knee massage, you can add your spit to both of your palms as you circle your knees.

Patrick said that while your saliva was healing at any time, there was special qi in morning saliva. He told us a story about Professor Cheng slipping on ice and getting a large bruise on his leg; the large discoloration cleared easily after rubbing his morning spit on it.

Mothers have been spitting on their children’s ills for millennia. In many Daoist traditions, the cultivation of saliva is of paramount importance. Today, western medicine agrees that saliva has extraordinary powers of healing, and that the first morning spit is unique. (See https://slate.com/technology/2015/11/spit-heals-wounds-white-blood-cells-in-saliva-mucus.html).

Try it! The next time you have an ache or pain, attend to it with your spit as soon as you wake up, before you swallow.