Tag Archives: Heart

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

Summer Solstice

For our northern hemisphere readers, here’s a link to the previous Winter Solstice article to make you feel hemispherically synched.

Today is the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere, the middle of summer and the point at which the year expands to its limit. It’s as if the Earth has taken a long, deep breath in and can expand no more. After today, the yin half of the year begins, and the long slow exhalation propels us towards the winter solstice in 6 months time.

Correspondingly expansive movements of the body include spreading the arms wide and opening the heart centre to give of ourselves and to receive the world. The Heart is the primary organ of the Fire Element whose summer season this is. The Heart, Emperor of our personal kingdom, beats ceaselessly for our whole life, maintaining the steady drumbeat of our personal world.

Another expansive movement is to raise the arms up and out. You often see this movement at festivals and sporting events where whole stadia of people signal their excitement by raising their arms to the heavens and shouting with joy. Showing their armpits to the world with abandon.

UTMOST SOURCE

Speaking of armpits, I want to spend some time here introducing an important acupoint which lies deep in the armpit, an area rarely exposed but kept protected by our arms at the sides. In the modern world most of us don’t raise our arms up high very often unless it’s in the shower or to reach for something on a high shelf. We rarely climb trees or hang from branches as did our primate ancestors. This point is rather secret and somewhat intimate.

The point is Jiquan Heart 1, known variously as Summit Spring, Utmost Spring and Supreme Spring. But I like Worsley’s translation of Utmost Source, because it echoes the nature of the Heart and its resident spirit the shen. Shen is our connection to utmost heaven, the heavenly light that resides within the heart of each one of us.

The Heart Qi arises from the organ of the Heart, passes through the Lung, and emerges in the armpit at Jiquan like a spring bubbling out of the ground. The Qi then travels along the inside of the arm, heading for the little finger as the Heart channel is mapped out through its 9 points.

When the Heart and its channel are open and balanced, there is connection to our True Nature which doesn’t have to do anything. The Heart’s calling is not to do but to be. In the metaphor of the Emperor, his task is simply to sit on the throne and hold the space from a place of stillness. This is a great teaching for us to emulate in our often turbulent times. Holding space, holding stillness, holding presence. Just being.

Back to the armpits, Heart 1 is a common place for Qi to become blocked. In the Wei Qi cycle of the 12 meridians, the previous point is Dabao, Spleen 21 Great Enveloping. Where a channel of one Element moves into a channel of another Element, there is a greater tendency for Qi to become blocked. These are known as Entry-Exit blocks (though the pedant in me would argue for Exit-Entry blocks). Here, where the Earth energy of Spleen moves to the Fire energy of Heart, we find the most common of the Entry-Exit blocks. These blocks are usually diagnosed on the pulse. In this case an excess Spleen pulse and a deficient Heart pulse would indicate a block. But physical and psycho-emotional symptoms can also point to the possibility of a block.

At the physical level, possible indications of this block include pain or constriction in the lateral ribcage or in the armpit, difficulty raising the shoulder, palpitations and shortness of breath. Surgery or injury to the area can also be a cause. Constriction in the flow of lymph to the lymph nodes in the armpit is another. Recently I’ve had a cluster of cases of severe lymphoedema in the legs, and I’ve found that in most of these cases there was a Spleen-Heart block.

At the psycho-emotional level, this block may stem from difficulty in allowing the nourishment of the Earth Element into the Heart. There may be sadness, anxiety, mental restlessness or disconnection from the joy of life.  It may indicate challenges with intimacy or betrayal that have closed the emotional heart. Eating disorders which stem from deep dissatisfaction with one’s life might also be indicators of this block.

If you suspect there is a block in the Qi flow at Heart 1, hold the point with sustained moderate pressure for a few minutes until you feel the subtle Qi flow and that the point is open. Also hold Spleen 21 in the side of the ribcage until you feel the open flow of the subtle energy there. Treat both sides

In Qi Gong practice and in some meditation practices, practitioners are advised to stand or sit with enough space in the armpit to ‘hold an egg’. This allows free flow of Qi through the armpit and along the Heart meridian of the arm. We can take note of this and avoid long periods of holding the arms tightly to the sides.

Jiquan is a spirit point that connects our consciousness to the universal consciousness; it aligns our personal heart with the heart of the universe; and it promotes emotional warmth and connection to others through the Heart. In this season of celebration and family gatherings, it’s good to keep our hearts open.