Category Archives: Anxiety

When things get a bit hard

Large Intestine 7 ~ Wenliu ~ Warm Flow

There are plenty of things to get stressed about these days. Anxiety levels are up for many people. I recently saw an interview with a dentist who said that dental problems from teeth clenching have tripled in his practice since the start of the pandemic. I added myself to these statistics when I recently woke up with a cracked tooth from clenching in the night, the legacy of trying to run an interstate business in uncertain times.

How perfect, then, that the current autumnal season provides us with a teaching about letting go. The Metal Element invites us to let go, to surrender to the moment, to not hang on, and certainly not to clench one’s teeth. That’s easier said than done. Even with all my tools and practices of allowing things to arise moment by moment, I couldn’t stop myself holding on while asleep.

It’s interesting then, to note that the Large Intestine channel, yang organ of Metal, has a deep pathway that goes around the mouth and influences the teeth. Several Large Intestine points are used for pain in the teeth. One of these is the xi-cleft point, Large Intestine 7 – Wenliu – Warm Flow. I’ve been including this in my self-treatment following the dental work that followed the cracked crown. It’s been helpful in moderating the pain of the extraction and the super-tight jaw muscles that resulted from having my mouth jammed open for 75 minutes.

Other conditions treated along the Large Intestine pathway include pain and difficulty raising the shoulder and arm, painful throat, headaches, deviation of the face and mouth, swelling in the face, and tongue thrusting.

Classically, the point also treats frequent laughter, raving and seeing ghosts, by clearing heat from the channel. It also helps with abdominal pain and borborygmus, those incessant, noisy gurgling sounds that can embarrass you in public.

Xi-cleft points treat stagnation of the channel, but also stagnation of the emotion of the Element. We know that grief is the emotion of Metal and that this primarily affects the Lung. When grief stagnates, it can produce coldness, both physically and emotionally. Weniiu’s name of Warm Flow is a hint that the point can warm this inner coldness that affects the mind and spirit and which can result in despair and a feeling that there is no internal place of comfort.  This coldness can then become expressed outwardly in harsh, piercing, cutting responses to others, or in feelings such as disdain, revulsion and disgust which arise out of a posture of perfectionism projected on to others. When this coldness has hardened to such a degree, the warmth of the heart is missing. In such cases Warm Flow can be called upon to temper the Metal

Perfectionism that is projected onto others in a negative way is an egoic distortion of the truth that everything in True Nature is arising perfectly. The ego, believing that the way things are are not perfect, seeks to make corrections. This is the challenging lesson of autumnal Metal: to surrender to the arising of each moment even when things are really difficult; to let go of things we are hanging on to from the past; and to let go of ideas about how things should be in the future. In other words, to be fully in the present moment. The more we can follow this path, the more relaxed we can be in the now. And as a bonus, the psychologist’s and dentist’s bills will be lower.

Location of Large Intestine 7

With the elbow flexed and the radius bone (thumb side) of the arm uppermost, draw a line between LI 5 at the wrist and LI 11 at the elbow. Find the midpoint and move distally by 1 cun. The point lies in a small hollow on the radius bone.

Calm Perspetive

Rest and be Thankful, Argyll, Scotland

It’s been a strange summer in Australia. La Nina has given us more rain and lower temperatures than usual such that it seems summer has hardly started. So it might come as a surprise to hear that summer is drawing to a close. February 4th, midway between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox, will be the start of Autumn, so we are already in the Late Summer season. I should by rights be writing about Earth points. But I too have been caught unawares of the lateness of the season.

Last time we looked at the xi-cleft points of the “Outer Fire” functions of Triple Heater and Heart Protector. Now we turn our attention to the “Inner Fire”, the actual organs of the Fire Element, Small Intestine and Heart. Xi-cleft points are typically used for acute conditions, blood conditions and for emotional overwhelm. Yet as we shall see, the use of the points extends wider than that frame.

Small Intestine 6 ~Yanglao ~ Support the Aged

The name of this point is intriguing. The left-hand character yang is composed of a sheep seen from behind together with spoons of boiled rice. The overall sense is one of gentle nurturing. Meanwhile the right-hand character lao depicts a 70 year-old man whose hair and beard have turned white. Yanglao can therefore be variously interpreted as Support the Old, Nourishing the Aged, or even Debra Katz’s elegant rendering, “The Nourishment and Cultivation of the Elders”. As a whitebeard approaching 70 myself, I find some affinity with these characters.

The organ of the small intestine is indeed devoted to the extraction of nourishment from food. However, the significance of the name lies in the fact that Small intestine 6 treats a range of conditions that tend to be experienced by the elderly: lower back pain, stiff and painful wrists, shoulder pain, joint pain, poor eyesight, deafness, toxicity, confusion and digestive problems. Many of these conditions lie along the pathway of the Small Intestine channel which travels from the little finger, up the side of the arm to the back of the shoulder, through the neck and finishes at the ear.

Yanglao therefore treats pain along the channel, especially in the shoulder and arm, pain so severe is feels as if there is fracture or dislocation.  It also treats lumbar pain with difficulty sitting and getting up, and foot pain with difficulty flexing and extending the foot. The channel connects with the outer and inner edges of the eye, so is known for eye problems, especially blurring and dimness of vision. It is believed to strengthen the constitution and help long standing conditions.

The yang xi-cleft points are known to work at the emotional level. The emotion of the Fire Element is joy, so in cases where there is a lack of joy, an absence of joi de vivre, Yanglao is good for raising the spirit. It is particularly called for when cynicism, sarcasm and bitterness from past experiences have replaced joy.

A psychological function of the Small Intestine is sorting. Just as the organ itself sorts the components of our food, absorbing that which is nourishing and passing out that which is not, our mind also sorts out the good from the bad experiences of life. When we are weighed down by the negative and have difficulty seeing the positive, Support the Aged can benefit us, no matter how old we are.

Heart 6 ~ Yinxi ~ Yin Cleft

We now reach the fourth of the Fire xi-cleft points. I’ve left this point until last because the Heart is the most delicate, most precious of all the organ-channels and must be approached with care and sensitivity. The ancient classic, the Ling Shu, (chapter 71) tells us that the Heart is the shelter of seminal essence and spirit and any appearance of injury there causes the spirit to depart. Injury therefore appears in the Heart Protector and it is that which must be treated. Some practitioners take this teaching to heart and do not use points of the Heart channel at all. I do treat Heart points, but I do so with the care and sensitivity they require.

Because xi-cleft points treat acute conditions, Heart 6 can be used to address heart pain, stabbing pain in the heart region, chest fullness, palpitations, racing heart from fright, epilepsy and loss of voice. Blood diseases are typically treated using the yin xi-cleft points. However for Blood conditions of the Heart, it is the Heart Protector that is better treated for reasons discussed above. It does however treat night sweats, dry mouth, insomnia and anxiety.

When a person has depleted their inner resources and there is a feeling of “running on empty”, Heart 6 is called for. The original meaning of the word yin was “the shady side of a mountain”. Yinxi can provide a cool and shady respite from the agitated mind, a calm space in which to rest, restore and find a new sense of perspective.

Location of Small Intestine 6

With the hand resting palm downwards, place a finger on the styloid process of the ulna, the large bump on the back of the wrist towards the little finger side. Now bring the hand so the palm is resting on the chest. Your finger will now be in a hollow on the radial (towards the thumb) side of the styloid process. This is Small Intestine 6.

Location of Heart 6

Find Heart 7 on the inner wrist crease, between two tendons and about a quarter of the way across the wrist from the ulnar (little finger) side. Heart 6 is half a cun (about the thickness of the little finger) proximal to (above) Heart 7.

Location of Small Intestine 6
Location of Heart 7