It’s a clear summer day and you’re sitting on a sandy beach. Far out at sea, something catches your eye—a ripple on the surface. Racing along the ocean floor, it gathers energy, reaching its peak height before crashing magnificently onto the shore. It’s a single wave, one of countless more, part of an endless cycle that repeats itself millions of times on every beach in the world.
A wave is just one of nature’s many cycles, a rise and fall of energy that is shared by every form of life on the planet. Trees lose their leaves and grow new ones; crops grow, mature and lie fallow; animals hibernate and awaken in spring. Humans, too, are part of this continuous cycle of nature, with personal waves of energy, or qi, that rise, crest and crash.
This lyrical image of undulating energy contains one of the fundamental principles of Chinese medicine. When a Chinese practitioner treats any imbalance, including extra weight, it begins with this ancient concept of qi.
Think of qi as the electricity flowing through your house. Although you can’t see it, it’s always there. Lights turn on, the oven cooks, the garage door opens. The same is true for the qi in your body. Your heart pumps, your lungs take in oxygen, your stomach digests, and your brain makes decisions. And qi makes this all possible.
Thousands of years ago, Chinese physicians discovered that qi runs along fourteen channels, or meridians, throughout the body. You might imagine them as superhighways of energy: seven energy channels streaming along the front of your body, and seven along the back.
Like an interstate highway that stretches from city to city, each meridian is coupled or connected to one of the five major power centers. For example, one meridian connects to your heart, while other highways lead from the liver, gall bladder, kidneys and so on. Where do all these highways end up? After passing through your internal organs they surface on the outside of your body, where they are accessible as acupuncture and acupressure points.
Traditional Chinese medicine looks at weight gain as it would any health issue—whether physical or mental, the root causes of your symptoms are nothing more than imbalances in these power centers and meridians.
Gaining a few extra pounds often has little to do with the amounts you consume, and more to do with an internal brew of stagnant metabolism, retained fluids and unprocessed emotions—in short, a traffic jam along your energy highways that’s as stuck as rush hour on the 405.
Whereas conventional weight loss programs treat weight gain as a generalized condition, the Chinese practitioner approaches a weight imbalance in a distinctly personal way. In short, your weight issues are not the same as your boss’, your best friend’s, or even your mom’s. These extra pounds are simply an indicator that your unique energy network needs a tune-up.
This is why many of the extreme diets and weight loss regimens often don’t work. You may temporarily shed a few pounds but the long-term effects can also be detrimental to the intricate ebb and flow of your personal energy system.
To succeed, weight loss requires treatment that addresses both the emotional and physical root of the digestion issue. The main goals of acupuncture are to manipulate, activate and move the flow of qi through your meridians by needling points, or “gateways,” along the energy channels. A Chinese physician uses a variety of treatments to clear these blockages, such as acupuncture or a personalized formula of herbs.
Calm, relaxed qi flowing at an even pace is your body’s ideal state. Sluggish qi leads to sluggish decision-making and poor diet choices, which can have lasting effects on your health. The quality of the food you eat, the stability of your emotional health, and the cleanliness of the air you breathe are all vital to keeping these meridians open and free.
So instead of looking at extra weight as an unwelcome hitchhiker, consider it a message. Your body is letting you know you are carrying other imbalances that need to be reset.
Follow nature’s rhythms, eat well, exercise and stay centered, and your qi will remain vibrant and strong. Life’s ups and downs become easier to deal with and everything seems brighter. Your inner peace becomes your outer peace, and there’s no better way to achieve total health.
—Esther Ting and Marianne Jas
Adapted from Total Health the Chinese Way, Da Capo Press, 2009
Photo courtesy Chris17nz
