- for the next few weeks, i am going to begin to introduce some basic concepts of acupressure and give you a series of yoga postures that help to balance certain meridians (energy lines mapped out in traditional chinese medicine) in the body. these are taking from a workbook I created for a workshop that i teach on self acupressure. if you have a regular yoga practice, you may recognize the names of the poses listed as good ones for each meridian pair. if not, you can just try to one ‘featured’ posture for each grouping. for more information about what meridians are and for symptoms that may indicate imbalance in specific meridians, see below.
- postures for the lung/large intestine and stomach/spleen meridians.
Lung Meridian: 3:00AM – 5:00AM // Large Intestine Meridian: 5:00AM – 7:00AM
there are twelve main meridians in the body mapped out in traditional chinese medicine. they are basically the route that energy moves in the body. sometimes this energy (known as ‘qi’ or ‘chi’) gets blocked, causing symptoms of imbalance within us. there are specific points along these lines that can be pressed (in acupressure) or needled (in acupuncture) to help release this blockage and gets things flowing again, akin to pouring draino down a clogged pipe. the lines can also be stretched, though yoga postures, to help stimulate movement and clear blockages.
there are 12 meridians in all, each corresponding to an organ in the body. it is said that is takes 24 hours for the qi to make it through the entire body. it always follows the same path, every day, showing up in specific meridians at specific times of the day. so – it can be especially beneficial, but certainly not necessary for effecting change, to do acupressure or yoga during the times that the qi is moving thru the meridian that you have identified as blocked.
each meridian is paired up with another one, and the two work together. below i’m listing some possible emotional and physical manifestations that have been traditionally linked to the lung/large intestine and the stomach/spleen pairing. in the next two weeks, i will add the last 4 pairs. remember that these are huge concepts with an enormous amount of scholarship available. this is simply a basic introduction. also, there are some things listed, breathing practices and points, on the illustrated sheets that i’m not explaining further here. i’m hoping to get to this later… so if there’s something your really want to know about now, feel free to comment or message me with that – or any other questions.
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