When things get a bit hard

Anxiety, Arm pain, Digestion, Grief, Jaw, Letting Go, LI 7, Pain Relief, Shoulder pain, Teeth, Throat, , , , , , ,

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.

Webs of Autumn

Arm pain, Asthma, Breathing difficulty, Grief, LU 6, Metal Element, Spirit, xi-cleft points, , , , , ,

This morning as I backed the car out of the garage, I noticed that a spider had built a web over the reversing camera. It made for a beautiful start to the journey. Truth is, spiders have built webs all over my car, and my shed, and my house. Spiders are more active in autumn. Their compound eyes detect the changing light as the angle of the sun drops lower. This is a signal to them to begin preparing for winter, eating more and mating.  I too respond to this low-slanting autumnal light which I call “cathedral light”. The light, beaming in long shafts and highlighting dust and pollens in the air, is reminiscent of light descending from high windows in churches and cathedrals. It turns my thoughts to things of spirit.

Going back to spiders, the amazing fineness and delicacy of their webs reflect the refinement and precision that are qualities of Metal, the Element of the season of autumn. When I think of the tissue of Lung, the yin organ of Metal, the image of a web comes to mind. The lung tissues are so fine and finely layered, that there are about 2,400 kilometres of airways in our two lungs and up to 500 million alveoli or air sacs. Fine webs indeed!

The lungs are the only yin organs that are open to the exterior, via the nose and mouth. Their delicate tissues are susceptible to invasion from the outside, whether it be from dust, pollen and pollutive particulates, or bacteria and viruses which enter the body via the lungs.

This brings me to an acupoint that is useful for protecting the lungs, and which is especially powerful in this Metal season of Autumn.

Lung 6 – Kongzui – Maximum Opening is another of the xi-cleft points that we’ve been studying over the past year. These points are known for treating acute conditions and pain along the channel, relieving stagnation in the organ, and treating conditions of the Blood.

Stagnation of the Lung can include phlegm, so this point is very useful for treating coughs and colds where phlegm accumulates in the lungs. It also addresses asthma, wheezing, chest pain, swelling or pain in the throat, and loss of voice.

The pathway of the Lung channel begins on the outside of the upper chest, rises to the clavicle, makes its way down the arm lateral to the biceps muscle, across the elbow, along the radial side of the inner forearm, through the pad of the thumb and ends at the radial side of the thumbnail. Pain in any of these areas, especially if it is of recent onset, can be treated with Lung 6. This includes things like pain the upper arm and difficulty raising the arm above the head, pain in the elbow, difficulty flexing and extending the fingers, and pain the thumb.

If we consider the psycho-emotional aspects of Lung, stagnation in the emotion of grief can be addressed by this point. This might arise from an inability to move on in one’s life after the loss of a significant person. Or it might be from a holding on to possessions by hoarding; holding on to grudges or resentments; or holding on to ideas and structures that are no longer working. In fact, when we are holding on to anything that is not in our best interests, Kongzui can serve us in letting go.

Breathing is an automatic function that draws air into the body and lets it out again. Oxygen in, carbon dioxide out. A smooth allowing. Letting come and letting go. If we can align our mind with this simple regularity; if we can be right there in the moment of each breath, nothing more than letting in and letting out, then we can live fully in the present which is the true reality of the web of Being.

Location of Lung 6

On the inner arm towards the thumb (radial) side, 7 cun above the wrist and 5 cun below the elbow. Find a point half-way between Lung 9 on the wrist and Lung 5 on the elbow. Go 1 cun above (proximal) from here to find Lung 6 in a noticeable depression.

Readers may have noticed that I’ve gone from Fire to Metal and skipped the Earth. Well spotted! I will address the Earth xi-cleft points later, in the transition between autumn and winter. ~ John