Chinese Medicine and Turkey Hunting

I’m in my kitchen, mimicking turkey calls. It’s almost time to buy a tag for the spring turkey hunt. There is a half moon shaped piece of latex and sports tape on the roof of my mouth, held in place by the tip of my tongue. I’m moving air across it, shaping my mouth into various incarnations of oval, searching for the right sound. I realize that if I breathe from my diaphragm the quality of the sound is greatly improved. Suddenly this is all very familiar. “Place the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth, breath deeply from your diaphragm”. It’s the same as the morning qigong meditation I forgot to do this morning.

There is a couple hunters in Carolina sitting on a log in my youtube viewer, explaining how everything in nature happens in rhythms. “If you want to call turkeys, you have to find a natural cadence.”

It is notable that many of the qigong forms which have survived over thousands of years are based on emulating the patterns and movements of wild animals. Many hunters will tell you that they emulate these patterns naturally on a hunt, finding that they fit in better and gain a 6th sense for finding animals.

Qigong in essence, is a way of learning to emulate natural systems and animals. Watch an elk bugle or a turkey yelp, you’ll notice they breath deep from their chest and abdomen, the same way qigong teaches you to breath. Beginning a simple qigong breathing practice will improve your game calls and put you into that natural state that makes you a better hunter. You’ll also find that some of your daily stress falls away. Humans are the only animal on the planet that has learned to breath against our nature, let’s rejoin the club.

Be safe out there, leave no trace, and show some gratitude for the animals that feed you.

For more articles on breathing or the other tools of Chinese Medicine, visit my website at jeffreyturreacupuncture.com