Balancing Through Self-Acupressure

Wouldn’t it be great to have ways to handle the changes of everyday life?  The great news is you have it right now, in your hands.

TCM uses the “Five Element” theory to describe different forces that interact in the person. These five elements are Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal. And each of these elements is associated with organ meridians. There are two cycles in the Five Element theory: the “shen” cycle in which one element feeds another, and the “ko” cycle in which one element controls another. It is these two cycles that help maintain balance in the individual. For example, the Wood element that is associated with the liver meridian feeds the Fire element associated with the circulation meridian. There is a correlation in Western medicine in that the liver “feeds” the blood by maintaining the quality of the blood for circulation.
A significant difference between TCM and Western medicine is the descriptions of illnesses. Because TCM describes illnesses in terms of energy (qi), a fever may be a symptom of “congealed blood”, a slight stomachache a symptom of “deficient spleen yang.” In headache would be described several different ways. For example, a headache accompanied by heaviness could be “turbid mucous”, a one-sided splitting headache could be “liver fire blazing upward”, and a slight headache could be “deficient spleen qi.” Each symptom picture would require different treatment. In any case, the treatment would attempt to bring balance to the individual through stimulating the body to find its own balance.

QI: The Life Force

We all have an innate force that constantly moves us toward our best possible health under any situation. This force works through constant growth and elimination, birth and death, of our cells, emotions, thoughts, beliefs, relationships, and creations. Pure health is pure balance; neither yin nor yang; both yin and yang; the hub around which the dual forces of nature revolve.
The life force is known throughout the world by different names: qi, ki, prana, mana, and even “the force” in Star Wars. We are familiar with qi and its movement. It is felt as a chill going up the spine at the sound of a symphony, or the warm feeling starting in the heart and spreading throughout the body when feeling the love of another.

We can feel qi change with emotions. Imagine how your body changes when you feel different emotions like anger, joy, sympathy, grief, and fear. In almost everyone there is a measurable physiological change with emotion. And in many cases different emotions are felt in different places in the body.
As our qi becomes more balanced, we still have ups and downs but extremes are narrower and transitions less abrupt.

There are channels in our body that carry qi. These channels can become blocked, restricted, overactive, underactive, or even run in reverse. We can connect these channels simply by holding fingers, toes, or points along these channels (meridians), and thereby allow the body’s energy to find its own balance.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine qi can be deficient, so deficient that it is called collapsed. Or it can be stagnant, or run in reverse called rebellious.

There are several classifications of qi. Organ Qi refers to the function of the organ. Heart qi is characterized by the qi that moves blood. Meridian Qi refers to the channels or pathways in which the qi flows. It is analogous to an electrical circuit board. Protective Qi is travels between the skin and the muscles and conditions the surface. Protective qi is the aura of a person. Ancestral Qi is the force that moves the heartbeat and breathing. Ancestral Qi rules the basic life support systems of the body.

Many healing artists believe that the energy flow of the body is sufficient and balanced, it is impossible to get sick. This is the foundation of Chinese and other Asian medicines, Middle Eastern bodywork, yoga, and other healing arts worldwide. David Palmer, the founder of Chiropractic Medicine believed that if the spine was aligned and properly acted as the body’s switchboard, one could not become ill.

In Chinese medicine there are twelve organ meridians and two extra meridians. There are also four extraordinary channels, sometimes referred to as strange flows that intersect the organ meridians and act as reservoirs, which can drain excess or supply depletions to the other meridians.

To increase health, qi can be balanced, moved, and increased. The focus of this website is to balance your existing qi.

Techniques to Balance Qi
1. By far the simplest way to balance qi is to – - – SMILE !!!
Smiling makes anger funny, sadness contentment, frustration creativity, overwhelmed carefree…It opens all the meridians for communication and therefore balance.
Have you ever seen an infant smile? Sometimes an infant starts a smile in the face smile and it turns into a whole body smile complete with stretching, contracting and wild arm and leg movements.
Try this simple exercise: Think of something joyful, a joke or anything to make you smile. Where do you feel it? Stretch it out, all over your body, turning your body into one big smile.

2. Breathing
Breathing out eliminates, breathing in revitalizes. Breathing is a lower abdomen function. It is a function not of the rigid ribcage expanding, but of the abdomen moving in and out in response to a diaphragm moving up and down. Again, the abdominal breathing of babies is a great model for us.
To breathe, feel the shoulders drop, feel your inhalation push down low, feeling it in the groin. Place your hands below your belly button, breath into your hands, feel them move out. Feel the revitalization. Feel the inner massage.

Breathe out eliminating, letting go. Let go of the air and other thoughts and feelings you want to clean out. Like a breeze. Feel the elimination.