Meridians – Energy Channels for Health & Vitality

Okay, let’s start with the basics.

By now you know that Chi is your life force or the energy that sustains you and everything in the universe. It travels through your body along invisible energy channels called meridians.

These meridians act like your circulatory system, but instead of circulating blood throughout the body, they circulate Chi. Since they carry your Chi, which is responsible for your well-being, they are a useful means of detecting imbalances in the organs and body before chronic problems develop.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) it is believed that when the body’s meridians are blocked and Chi is unable to flow freely, becoming disturbed, stagnant, imbalanced or depleted, dis-ease and illness begin to take form. Since all parts of the body are interconnected, if one of the meridians is blocked, the entire body system is affected.

There are 12 major meridians each corresponding to a particular organ (kidneys, liver, spleen, heart, lungs, pericardium, bladder, gall bladder, stomach, small and large intestines, and the triple burner) and each one having have a particular characteristic that affects your body on a physiological and emotional level. So when there is an imbalance or blockage in one of the meridians, the symptoms you experience will depend on which meridian is affected.

To complicate things further, the 12 meridians are paired up. That means that there are 6 pairs of meridians, with one of the meridians having Yin energy and the other Yang energy. In addition, each pair belongs to one of five elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. These 5 elements are related to the different seasons of the year, colours and emotions. The table below will hopefully clarify these relationships.

By knowing and understanding each of the 12 major meridians means that you can learn how to balance them when blockages occur.

To demonstrate how the Meridian table (download from http://www.chiyolife.com.au) can help you determine if an imbalance exists and how to address it, let’s use the Wood element. The wood phrase occurs in spring, which is a time in nature for new beginnings. You may also find yourself thinking and planning of new activities during this time. Wood is also associated with the emotion anger – if you find yourself feeling more irate than usual for no particular reason, or suffering from vision headaches (pounding behind the eyes), it could mean that your liver meridian is unbalanced. To rectify this, you could surround yourself with the colour green, spend more time in nature or increase your intake of sour foods such as lemon.

Balancing and freeing your Chi is the ultimate goal in restoring overall health and well-being. Understanding how imbalances in each meridian can manifest, gives you the ability to address these imbalances and reduce the chance of dis-ease.