Meridians are the flows of energy within the body. Stand still, your knees relaxed, your legs open, your eyes closed. Notice whatever flows you feel within your body. Notice that whatever flow you feel it keeps moving through your body. Breathe in and feel how your breath affects and accompanies that movement. Breathe out and notice how, as you drop into your center below your navel, all that movement settles down. Each time you breathe out drop a little deeper into the center, all the way down to that point at the bottom, the perineum, where if you stay at the bottom of the breath everything becomes still. That point is where all the flows originate. It is the first point of the two central meridians that flow up the inside of the front of the body and up the inside of the back. The next time you breath in accompany the flows inside up the front and inside up the back at the same time. And the next time you breathe in feel how these flows fill your whole body like a lake, a lake that all the other meridians flow out of.
Zen Shiatsu creator Masunaga says that the flow in those meridians is our life force divided into the separate functions that are needed to create and maintain our lives, and that where each pair of meridians flows through the body is related to its function. The three longest meridians are the yang meridians that start around the eyes and flow down to our feet on the earth. Their yin partners flow back up the inside of our legs to the area around the heart.
The meridians of the front are Stomach and Spleen. Starting just underneath the eyes, follow the Stomach meridian's flow down the front, down through the nipples, all the way down the front, down the front of the legs and the feet. And then follow its partner Spleen meridian's yin flow back up the inside of the legs towards the heart. This pair has to do with going out in front of ourselves and getting the food we need to nurture our body. It's element is the earth that provides us our food. We need to plan, to think ahead, to get the food to our table, but if we are always out in front of ourselves, worrying about the future, the flow through these meridians can be disrupted.
The food we get from the earth is the source of our body's strength, our power. How we use that power is related to the meridian pair of the side: Gall Bladder and Liver. Starting just to the sides of the eyes, follow the Gall Bladder meridian's flow around the sides of the skull, neck, shoulders, and on down the sides, through the hips, and down the sides of the legs and its yin partner's flow back up the inside. This pair has to do with the decisions we make in using our power, going to this side or that. Turn from side to side. And when our power is blocked and someone else is making the decisions, anger can appear. One place where anger can block this pair's flow is under the shoulder blade. Notice how if there is a wish to strike out that is the place where it might be held back. Loosen your shoulders. Feel that flow continue down the sides.
When we have gotten the food our body needs from the earth, and used the power it gave us, then there is the return to the earth, the giving back, the leaving behind. Focus now on the meridians of the Back: Bladder and Kidney whose function is elimination. Start to just the inside of the eyes and follow our longest meridian's flow up over the top of the head and all the way down the back. Do you feel anyplace where that flow seems blocked? Traditionally chronic imbalances in the other meridians show up in their related area in the back. What we don't let go of we carry on our backs. The period of life associated with this pair is the final one, dying, the final letting go. The area in the back where this pair's own blockage traditionally shows up is the lower back. The emotion is fear. The color is black. The element is water. Follow that flow up over the head and down the back, a sheet of water, washing everything in its way away.
Now we are going to get down on the earth and stretch these meridians. Masunaga says that stretching brings their flows closer to the surface and is even older way than acupuncture to restore and balance them.
To stretch the stomach meridian, lay on your back keeping your feet on the floor with your knees bent and raise your hips up from the earth. Without straining hold that stretch of the front as long as is comfortable. Feel that flow up over and down the front, as rounded as the earth you are lifting up from.
To stretch the meridians of the side, lower your hips and sit up with your legs straightened and spread as wide as is comfortable. Lift both arms up high. Hold. To stretch the meridians that have to do with decisions, decide what side you are going to stretch toward. Without turning toward that side, lean over towards it feeling the stretch and flow all the way down the side you are leaning away from. Hold as long as is comfortable. Straighten back up for a moment and lean over to stretch to the other side. Straighten up and lower your arms still feeling the flow down your sides and back up the insides of your legs.
Keeping your legs straight, draw them close together. Raise your arms and, keeping your back straight, lean forward to stretch the meridian of the back, the Bladder Meridian. Hold, gradually increasing the lean forward with each outbreath, as long as it remains comfortable. Put no force into trying to reach your feet. Hold. Feel the flow down the back and the back of the legs.
Sit up and reposition your legs in whatever way is most comfortable. Sit. Feel the flows you have released with your stretches still continuing. Notice how as you breathe in your breath accompanies them out through your body, and as you breath out, the deeper you drop into the void at the bottom of the breath the more they empty into it with you. That is the place where they all began, your base, and having that base supported throughout the session to come, the more that is released in the stretches, the more that will empty into that base, the place, the emptiness where everything is grounded. Drop deeper and deeper into that emptiness.
©2007 Harold Dull