Belly Button Rings and Qi
July 28th, 2009 | Health & Spirituality, Traditions, acupuncture, Ayurvedic, belly button, Chinese, chronic disease, digestion, energy, fertility, kum nye, medicine, MS, navel, piercing, qi, ring
I had a strange experience the other day. I was in the shower and suddenly got a weird metallic feeling in my belly button. It seemed to originate from my navel piercing and shot upward towards my breastbone. It felt like the sound of a fingernail on a chalkboard and sent shock waves through my cells.
I pierced my belly button the end of the summer in 1994. My friend and I had been working at a boy scout camp in Lake Arrowhead as cooks for the summer. These were some spoiled boy scouts if you ask me — they had a heated pool, we cooked them 3 meals a day 6 days a week, and on Friday they had BBQ ribs. Anyway, whatever, it was hard but fun work and we were so glad to be done for the summer that we rushed into the nearest tattoo parlor and got our belly button’s pierced. We had been warned to eat beforehand, but didn’t heed the advice so my friend passed out when she leaped from the chair right after her piercing. I took my time getting out of the chair after that and was fine – but it took a while for my belly button to heal. I was at a point where I was going to give up, when it suddenly healed up and has given me no trouble for 14 years. Part of the reason it was strange to suddenly get this nerve grating metal feeling from it.
To be honest, I had been getting weird visuals for a couple weeks of it being yanked viciously out of my belly button, which I hadn’t had before, so when I got out of the shower I decided it was time for a change and took the ring out and put it away.
Walking around the next couple days, I noticed my navel pushing out strong and firm. If I tried to pull it in it felt confined and trapped so I let it hang out as far as it wanted. As this went on I realized my belly felt as if a plug had been removed and my umbilical cord to the deep nourishing power of the Earth had been reattached and was being activated. It felt warm and connected, comfortable and powerful.
I have been having all kinds of digestion issues over the past 4 years from various attacks of micro-organisms — fungus in New Zealand and bacteria in Myanmar, I had been drinking kombucha for a year and was finally feeling as if I had cleaned out much of my backed up toxins. My energy levels have improved and I am feeling more in tune with my body and environment than I have perhaps ever felt before. I have also been doing regular Kum Nye exercises which are also said to help the flow of energy through the body. Perhaps all of this has culminated in the need to remove this bit of metal blockage from my navel.
Interestingly as I researched this connection with qi, the navel, digestion, nourishment and piercings I soon found that the navel is called the Conception Vessel Meridian (CV8) and is a very special point that is never pierced, even in acupuncture, it is thought that piercing it could cause a chronic energetic imbalance and could lead to MS. Traditional Chinese Medicine systems regard this point as vital to energy flow and fertility, and it has been suggested if you have a navel piercing and are having fertility issues to try removing the ring. In the Ayurvedic tradition it is called Nabhi Marma and is the vital center where all of Ayurveda’s seventy-two thousand nadis converge. It is connected with digestion, deep emotions and balanced energy flow.
An injury to the Nabhi Marma, the root of all siras, and situated between the amasaya (stomach) and the pakvasaya (intestines) ends with death within the day.
Encyclopedia of Professional Education Volume 7 by B.R. Sinha
I personally hold both Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine in high esteem. They have thousands of year to have worked out their systems and they take many more things into consideration than our limited Western medicine does. In my own experience I was fine with the belly button ring when I was young and very healthy and it had only been in my body for a few years, but with the health issues that were particularly focused in my digestive system it seems very reasonable that it was a good idea to remove my belly button ring.
Links and other Resources
A very interesting article about the possible relationship of belly button rings and Chronic conditions. www.healingtherapies.info
Another interesting article that discusses ear and nose piercings vs belly-button or nipple piercings in conjunction with Ayurvedic and Chinese Traditional Medicine and as therapy.www.dailycamera.com
Great to read your story! My naturopath told me about this area being important energetically in Chinese Medicine and suggested I take my belly button ring out. I was not keen on the idea however as it had been in for 13 years and had never given me any issues. I have had it out about a week now and I really am feeling noticeably better! I too had that weird metallic feeling but had never attributed it to my ring because it had never even been so much as infected. Am going to check out the other links you mentioned – thanks again for writing about this.
I’m debating on whether or not to remove my bellybutton ring. I’ve had it for over 10 years but for a few reasons I feel it would be best to remove it. How are your stomach issues since your removal of yours?
I think it is good to go with what you feel. I was getting this sort of strange shooting metallic sort of feeling coming out from the area. I still miss my bb ring, I had it for years too. I can’t say exactly how direct an influence the removal of the ring has had on my digestive issues because I have done so much other stuff as well since then, including some acupuncture sessions and going on the GAPS / SCD diet for the past 3 months.
I am not getting those strange feelings anymore though, and my energy levels have been steadily increasing.