Category Archives: Planning

Staying Flexible

Anger, Detoxification, Flexibilty, Planning, Wood Element, xi-cleft points, , , ,

Liver 6 ~ Zhongdu ~ Central Capital

Boy, what a spring it’s been in southern Australia: powerful forces blowing through, upending the calm serenity, unexpected gusts shaking things loose. I’m not just referring to the weather here, though it has been very windy and stormy of late; I’m also talking about the uprising, often jerky energies of the Wood Element that create a surging force, putting pressure upon any of our Wood issues that are unresolved.

I mentioned last time my unexpected gall bladder protestations. In response I’ve begun taking some supplements that cleanse and support the liver and gall bladder, only to find that my dreams have been unusually frequent and vivid. Sleep sometimes feels like a long-running Netflix drama series. This is because the liver houses the hun, spirit of Wood, which organises our dreams at night. Flushing the liver can affect the dream life.

Anger has also been prominent for many people this spring as the rising tide of Wood energy lets us know how balanced is this Wood emotion within us. I’ve had many clients comment on their frustration levels recently. And I’ve noticed that these emotions are spilling over into angry public protests over the Covid lockdowns.

Which brings us to an acupoint that can address some of these issues, the xi-cleft point of the Liver channel: Liver 6, Zhongdu, Central Capital. Its name refers to its location in the centre of the shin bone, to the cleft or hollow in which it is located, and perhaps because the xi-cleft point is where Qi accumulates as does the population of a capital city.

As a xi-cleft point, it is very good for clearing stagnation along the whole length of the Liver channel, starting at the big toe, travelling up the inside of the leg, around the groin, into the abdomen and through the diaphragm before finishing below the breast. It is particularly known for treating acute conditions of the genital area, urinary pain, uterine pain, and lower abdominal pain. It can also address numbness in the hands and feet and emaciation of the legs.

An overarching function of the point is that it spreads and smooths Liver Qi. One of the main functions of the Liver official is to promote smooth flow of blood and Qi throughout the body. Central Capital is a significant point to support this function. One of the ways that stagnant Liver Qi can present is in constant sighing, brought on by tightness in the diaphragm which prevents Liver Qi from ascending. Another point we’ve looked at in the past, Liver 14 in the chest , can be paired with Liver 6 to address this condition.

Zhongdu can also treat stagnation at the psycho-emotional level which might present outwardly as frustration, irritability, anger and judgement of others; or internally as collapse, hopelessness, despair, and judgement and criticism of oneself. For some, there is a flipping back and forth between the two responses. In both scenarios, the Liver Qi is not moving smoothly up the body as it needs to.

One of the major issues that the Wood Element presents us is about how we manage the limits and boundaries we encounter. How we deal with the inevitable roadblocks we meet in life will tell us much about the health of our Wood. When you meet an obstacle to your forward movement, how do you tend to respond? A healthy Wood will be flexible and adapt to changing circumstances. If plan A isn’t working, we look around, make wise assessments, change the plan, and move forward. If you collapse at hurdles or try to crash through them, consider alternatives and work around the barriers. Working with Liver points will support your adaptability and flexibility, and Central Capital can be central to this support.

Location of Liver 6

The point lies 7 cun above the prominence of the inner ankle bone. As there are 15 cun from the knee crease to the ankle on the inside of the lower leg, the point is slightly less than halfway up. It lies on the back border of the tibia bone in a hollow between the tibia and the gastrocnemius muscle.

It makes for a nice pairing with Gall Bladder 36 which we looked at last time. GB 36 is at the same level as Liver 6 but on the outside of the leg.

Let Me Sleep On It

Anger, Decision Making, Detoxification, Gift, Planning, Psycho-emotional, Wood Element, , , ,

When I was a lad, my mother used to tell me that an hour’s sleep before midnight is worth two hours sleep after midnight. No doubt she was trying to curb my teenage tendency to stay up late. Of course I didn’t believe it at the time.

Now I see that this notion echoes the Chinese medicine prescription of going to bed by 11 pm. This is so that we are resting during the time that the high tide of Qi is moving through the Gall Bladder meridian (11 pm to 1 am) and the Liver meridian (1 am to 3 am). It is said that the these organs and channels of the Wood Element like to be horizontal during this time of peak Qi.

Another concept that relates to these meridians is the idea of “sleeping on it”, meaning “I won’t make a decision right now but I’ll sleep on the question or problem and decide tomorrow”. This is excellent advice, for it is the Gall Bladder official that is in charge of decision making. By allowing the passage of time for the high tide of Qi to pass through this functionary of decision making, the answer or solution usually looks clearer the following morning.

A particularly thorny problem or decision may take more than one sleep, but don’t put the decision off too long. Procrastination is the other side of rashness, and both states can be pointing to an imbalance in the Wood Element. A balanced Wood provides us with the capacity for wise judgement followed by considered, appropriate action.

The season of spring, when the high tide of the year’s energy is passing through the Wood phase, can provide us with more than usually significant challenges in the areas of planning, decision making and taking action. If this describes you at the moment, then consider it a call to support your Wood. Go early to bed, eat green and sour foods, take herbs and supplements to gently cleanse the organs of liver and gall bladder. Avoid alcohol and rich, fatty food. Look at the emotion of anger (over-expressed or suppressed) and how that may be injuring these organs. Most of all, Wood likes to move, so get plenty of exercise.

At the level of spirit, the spirit of Wood is the hun, the ethereal soul. During the daytime the hun resides in the eyes, helping us to see how we can best act in alignment with our soul’s direction. But at night the hun descends to the Liver where it organises dreams that are beneficial to our soul. Sleeping soundly during Liver time (1 am to 3 am) is essential to that purpose, while sleep disturbances during that time are pointing to issues that relate to Liver.

All this talk of Liver reminds me of another saying, this time a Russian proverb: “The morning is wiser than the evening.” While I suspect this advice may have something to do with the nocturnal consumption of vodka, it is nevertheless another reminder of the clarity that can arise from just “sleeping on it”.