The Meridians - someone else Way of comprehension the Body
The meridians are other way of seeing at the body or other way of insight it. When working with our muscles we can talk about stretching them or strengthening them. We can use a similar terminology with respect to the meridians. We can stretch them or energize them.
The Meridians - someone else Way of comprehension the Body
In general when we stretch our muscles we stretch the meridians that lay along those muscles. When we progress or covenant muscles we energize the meridians that lay along those muscles. So stretching muscle tissue is the same as stretching meridians while activating muscle tissue is the same as energizing the meridians within that muscle.
If the terminology is almost the same what inherent advantage could insight the meridians give us?
Well, one thing about the meridians is that they run over many joints, in some cases from the top of the head to the bottoms of the feet. Stretching a meridian doesn't involve just one muscle but many and thus when stretching a meridian we can work at stretching the entire distance of the body or work at energizing the entire distance of the body. We can also stretch and progress combinations of meridians.
For example we could stretch the stomach meridian by stretching the front of the neck, ribcage, abs, hips, and ankle. We could energize it by strengthening along this entire line whether section by section or all at once. Since the small intestine meridian, which runs up the back of the arm and neck, connects to the stomach meridian, we can look for a way to stretch the stomach meridian and small intestine meridian at the same time (perhaps pulling the arm over the chest while doing a lunge.)
Another Means of Understanding
Understanding the meridians give us other way of seeing at the body and how we stretch and energize it. They give us other way of insight the body. We can use this insight of the meridians to work towards a balanced yoga practice. (We can do the same when focusing on muscles or joints.) We can custom with the intent of stretching all of the meridians and energizing them all so that the corollary is a balanced body. We could also learn all of the muscles of the body and do a yoga custom with the intent of stretching and strengthening them all and the corollary is a balanced yoga practice.
The meridians may be easier for some habitancy to see or visualize since they run in nice quarterly lines up and down the body. In addition they give other context for sequencing the way we stretch the body (and energize it.) They form a circuit and insight this circuit at even a basic level we can use that insight to guide the way we structure a class. This insight can also be used to focus the purpose of a class.
Even if we haven't got time to stretch or progress the whole body, or if we are focused on a single action, back bending perhaps, then the meridians offer an insight that allows us to focus on our area of interest while balancing the body at the same time by countering or balancing the affects of what we have focused on.
Meridians, Connective Tissue and Balance
Where are the meridians nothing else but located? More than likely in the connective tissue of our body. (Meridians Connect....) That includes the connective tissue within our muscles as well as the connective tissue that connects muscles to bone, bone to bone, organs to each other and to the structure that supports them.
Relaxing a muscle and lengthening it we stretch the connective tissue (and thus the meridians) that lay within that connective tissue. This tissue has some elasticity so that muscle tissue resumes its shape when released.
Activating muscle tissue we work on the connective tissue in a dissimilar way. We focus tension on the tendons, the connective tissue that connects muscle to bone. We can call this "energizing" the meridians that lay within that muscle tissue. This connective tissue is more than likely inelastic.
A balanced custom would contain working on the connective tissue within a muscle by stretching it and working on the connective tissue that binds muscle to bone by activating muscle.
Tension and Change
What do the meridians transmit? They send vigor or facts in the form of tension or changes in tension. It is nothing else but something that we can sense, tension in our body. It is also something that we can learn to control.
Meridians may also send some form of electricity or charge. This fee may be generated by contracting muscle tissue and then releasing it. It may also be generated by stretching or releasing connective tissue. This assumes that the connective tissue or portions of it are "piezo-electric," that it produces a convert in electric inherent when whether its shape is changed or the tension over it is changed. In whether case, the "charge" model may acount for the "buzzing" feeling that we get after stretching or strengthening connective tissue and muscle tissue.
Following the Flow
One of the ways in which we can use the meridians to guide the sequencing of stretches is to corollary the flow of the meridians. We can stretch our muscles while following or chasing the flow of the meridians and we can do the same while energizing them.
In general the meridians flow down the front of the arms and up the back of the arms and up the neck. From there they tour down the front sides and back of the neck, body and legs. They then tour up the inner legs, up the front of the torso from where they associate to the front of the arms.
One way of learning the flow of the meridians is to learn how the meridians physically relate. So now we'll look at the meridians that run up and down the arms and then we'll look at the meridians that run up and down the body and legs. Then we might have a best basis for learning to understand the flow of the meridians from one to the other throughout the entire body.
The Arm Meridians
There are three meridians which flow down the front of the arms and three that flow up the back of the arms and then up the neck. (You can click on the meridian diagrams for a blow up version.)
These meridians each run in three almost parallel lines. We can refer to these three lines on both the front and back of the arms as the outer, inner and middle lines.
The three meridians which run down the front of the arms are the lung, heart and pericardium.
The three meridians which run up the back of the arms are the large intestine, small intestine and triple heater.
The lung connects to the large intestine meridian. They run along the outer line of the front and back of the arm. The heart connects to the small intestine meridian. They both run along the inner line of the front and back of the arms.
The pericardium connects to the triple heater meridian. These run up the center line of the front and back of each arm.
Metal
The lung and large intestine meridian are both linked with the metal element hence the color white.
The lung meridian flows down outer line of the front of the arm. It connects to the large intestine meridian at the index finger.
The large intestine meridian runs from there up the outer line of the back of the arm and up the neck to the jaw bone. It cross the lower part of the cheek and passes under the nose to the other side of the face. This parallels the large intestine itself which crosses from one side of the body to the other.
Fire
The heart and small intestine meridians are both linked with fire hence the color red. The Heart meridian runs down the inside line of the front of the arm to the itsybitsy finger. From there it connects to the small intestine which runs up the inner line of the back of the arm. It runs over the shoulder blade, up the neck, angles over the cheek to the outer angle of the eye and from there back to a point in front of the ear hole.
Note that since all the meridians that run up the back of the arm also run up the neck, we can couple neck stretches with back of the arm stretches to stretch this meridian more efficiently. (We could also do back of the wrist stretches at the same time.)
Non-elemental
Neither the pericardium nor the triple heater are linked with any element hence the color black.
The pericardium flows down the front of the arm along the middle line (between the lung and the heart meridians) while the triple heater flows up the middle line of the back of the arm. From there it moves up the neck behind the ear, and circles nearby the ear to a point just in front of the ear hole.
Stretching the Arm Meridians
Stretching the front of the arm, shoulder and wrists opens the heart, lung and pericardium. Stretching the back of the arms and the neck opens the large and small intestine and triple heater.
Body and Leg Meridians
The meridians that run up the back of the arm associate to the meridians that run down the body and legs.
The large intestine meridian connects to the stomach meridian which runs down the front of the body and legs. The heart meridian connects to the bladder meridian which runs down the back of the body and legs. The triple heater meridian connects to the gall bladder meridian which runs down the side of the body and legs.
Earth
The large intestine meridian crosses from one side of the face to the other. It connects to the stomach meridian. The stomach meridian runs down the neck, down the front of the body and down the front of the legs to the second toe.
It connects to the spleen meridian which runs up the front line of the inner thigh and up the front of the body outside the line of the stomach meridian.
Both of these meridians are linked with the earth element which is linked with the color yellow.
Water
The small intestine meridian runs up the neck, over the face to the outer angle of the eye (and then to a point in front of the ear.) It is in the region of the eye that it connects to the bladder meridian. The bladder meridian runs from the inner eye up over the head and down the back of the body and legs and along the outside of each foot. It connects to the Kidney Meridian there.
The Kidney meridian runs up the back line of the inner thigh, up the front of the body close to the center line to the shoulders.
The bladder and kidney meridian are both linked with water.
Wood
The triple heater meridian runs up the neck and behind the ear and the drops down infront of the ear. From there it connects to the gall bladder meridian.
The gall bladder meridian zigzags along the side of the head before dropping down in front of the shoulder and passing down the side of the body and legs to the feet.
At the feet it connects to the liver meridian which runs up the middle line of the inner thigh and up the front of the body to the shoulders.
Both of these meridians are linked with the element of wood hence the green color.
The Flow of the Meridians
The usual beginning point for describing flow of the meridians is to start with the lung meridian (white, outer edge along the front of the arms.) The lung meridian connects the large intestine (White, along the outer edge back of the arms.)
The large intestine connects to the stomach (down the front of the body) which then connects at the feet to the spleen (up the front edge of the inner thigh.)
The spleen connects to the heart which like the lung meridian also lays along the front of the arm but along the inside edge. It connects to the small intestine meridian which runs up the inside edge of the back of the arms.
The small intestine connects at the eyes to the bladder meridian (down the back of the body.) It connects at the feet to the kidney meridian (up the back line of the inner thigh and the front of the body.)
The kidney connects at the shoulders to the pericardium (the mid-line of the front of the arm) which connects at the hands to the triple heater (the mid-line of the back of the arm.)
The triple heater connects to the gall bladder near the ear. (It runs down the side of the body.) The gall bladder connects to the liver at the feet. (The liver meridian runs up the mid-line of inner thighs and the side of the body.) The liver meridian connects back to the lung meridian. We are then back where we started.
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