Traditional Chinese medicine philosophies base their entire practice on the successful balance of the body’s energy flow, nervous system impulses, and skeletal alignment. The Chinese believe our bodies have a characteristic flow of energies, one type passive and the other aggressive, and it only through the successful balance of the two, that we have health.
There is compelling evidence to support many of the Chinese theories on the body’s energy forces and balancing our flow of energy through the entire body, although Western medicine has so far, not subscribed to this theory.
According to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) the entire system must be in balance for attainment of true wellness and health. Our physical, mental, and spiritual existence must be aligned and working as a whole. To better understand this principle, we need to take a closer look at some of the ancient healing techniques and philosophies. Perhaps then we can develop a better understanding of how our body works with itself to heal.
In Chinese medical tradition, the body’s vital energy flow occurs along pathways known as meridians. These meridians connect over 2,000 acupoints along the body. There are 12 main meridians, and 8 secondary meridians. Although traditional western medicine does not completely understand how acupuncture and related meridian therapies work, the proof that it does work has been shown in several studies conducted by western medical facilities.
The essence of complementary therapies is the belief in the body’s own healing properties. Quite often, we can have small problems in one area of our body, and not even realize it until the effect is felt in a much larger way, somewhere else.
If you take the basic premise from each form of healing, and apply it to the knowledge that we have about the interaction of the mind, body, and spirit, you can see that these ancient healing philosophies are very accurate in their belief about treatment and how the body works. They were able to discern this hundreds of years before science could actually provide the proof.
The amazing thing is that with all of this knowledge, and all the opportunity for self-help and healing that we have available, we still have individuals who suffer simply because they aren’t willing to put forth the effort to learn and participate. We simply need to take advantage of the yin and yang of our opportunity.
Tags: acupoints, yin, ki, Meridians, yang, chiRelated posts: