Traditional Chinese Medicine and Yoga
For well over 3000 years, the Chinese have practiced Yoga. They gained a lot of knowledge from India, and they used the information to enhance their own native practices of Tai Qi, Qi Gong, and Taoist Yoga. Each of these types of exercise has spiritual discipline and meditation techniques and are designed to increase longevity and open the meridian system, thereby preventing disease and treating the body as a whole. The key is to achieve balance, which means being flexible, diverse, moderate and in harmony with the rhythms and needs of the body.
When working with the musculoskeletal (somatic) system, the primary focus of optimal health is to encourage a release of the musculoskeletal patterns. These patterns are often accompanied by internal (visceral) and emotional (mental) symptoms.
Acupuncture is one method of Oriental Medicine that is used to treat specific disharmonies and diseases by encouraging Qi through the meridians. There are a few methods of doing so: tonifying a deficiency, dispersing an excess, or unblocking stagnation in the organs and meridians in order to create balance. Yoga is an exercise form that can help prevent disease or disharmony from occurring in the first place by massaging the body and keeping the meridians open and the Qi flowing. There are many specific Yoga postures that invigorate certain meridians. The complementary nature of Yoga along with other forms of alternative health care, such as acupuncture, shares the common goal of releasing stagnant energy and clearing energy blockages in the meridian systems.
For example, the kidney meridian is the root of yin and yang and our reproductive essence. The motion of bending over backwards works to energize and stimulate the yang by generating heat and energy. When we enter the Yoga motion of bending backwards, we are energizing our body as we open up and stretch the yang energy.
Conversely, when we bend forwards we are energizing the Yin aspects, which are more cooling and have a calming nature. If you feel sluggish or cold, doing backbends will supply you with energy by stimulating the kidneys. And if you have difficulty sleeping, too much energy, or feel anxious, bending forward is more suitable as it has a soothing and calming effect.
Chinese herbal medicine can also add benefits, which are quite substantial. Herbs can help tonify, disperse and release stagnant Qi. Together with Yoga, acupuncture and herbs, one can easily work towards finding balance in the body and mind.
Areas of the body that are tender to touch or tight and ropey are two distinguishing signs of acupoints calling for help. When practicing Yoga, the poses that are the hardest to perform or require an increase in strength and endurance are most likely the areas that show disharmony in the body’s meridians. Tight neck and shoulders accompany headaches and so stretching those areas can release stagnation and allow Qi and blood to flow to the muscles.
Weak abdominal muscles are often accompanied by poor digestion. Practicing Yoga helps to strengthen the abdominal muscles and encourage peristalsis and aid digestion.
Yoga also brings peace of mind as well as centeredness to our mind, all while invigorating the body. When the mind is calm the Qi flows smoothly, and when the Qi flows smoothly the mind is calm. This is why we practice Yoga.
“Curing is what doctors hope to do - eliminate disease and allow recovery. Healing is what patients must do for themselves… Healing is a deeply inner process of becoming whole again.” Dr. Michael Lerner from “Choices in Healing”.
- Judy Mazurin B.Sc. D.TCM
