Namaskar - Oct 09

Synergy
How Yoga & Traditional Chinese
Medicine address Emotions
Peggy Chiu
Six years ago was the first time I experienced my emotions on
the mat. Would people think I was weird because I couldn’t
stop tearing? Was something wrong with me? And why did I
do something so embarrassing in a yoga class and not when I was
alone? I did not understand how the feeling of peace could turn
into something so intense in just seconds. Although I could not
articulate my feelings at all at that moment, I realized that
something significant had happened.
I spent the next few minutes trying to hold back on my tears and
eventually gave up fighting just allowed tears to flow down my
cheeks. Earlier in class, I had set an intention allowing my practice
take me to a place where I could forgive a close friend, which I had
waited years to do. During Child’s Pose, with my head bowed and
attention focused inward, I could sense the emotions had been
stuck with me whenever I thought about this person. In
hindsight, I knew the blockage and guilt I had put myself through
was gradually covering and hardening my heart. As I morphed
from poses to poses, I began to visualize sending mental apologies
to this person as if she was standing right in front of me, listening
to change ourselves into a better
person, we need to meet ourselves
where we are
with full attention. Picturing
her full acknowledgement and
positive response towards my
apology had allowed me to
forgive myself in return.
My physical body at this point
became lighter and the release
of these pinned up emotions
had somehow made my
breathing easier even when I
had my diaphragm anatomically
twisted to one side in
Trikonasana (triangle pose).
Everything was fine until it
came time to relax into Savasana
just before the end of class. I
THE SMALLEST THINGS ARE ENOUGH
had no idea I had an emotional
TO MAKE US HAPPY WHEN WE’RE
cleansing experience until much
YOUNG
later. When I practice yoga since
this experience, I’d pay more
attention to how I felt and what I thought as my body held
different shapes.
We often hear that yoga helps promote our body-mind connection
or awareness but what does it mean and how does it work? The
mind-body connection is a delicate invisible communication system
that sits inside our body. There is no separation between body,
mind and soul. In other words, what happens to the mind is likely
to show up in the body and the soul, and vice versa.
According to the tradition of energy studies that originated
thousands of years ago in China, emotions are expressions of our
life energy called qi (prana in India or ki in Japan or Korea). This
energy flows through 12 primary meridians in a similar way as artery
carries blood. Each of which is associated with a major organ
system: lung, small intestine, large intestine, kidney, bladder,
stomach, spleen, liver, heart, pericardium heart, triple warmer and
gall bladder. Each of these meridians governs a particular set of
physical, emotional and mental characteristics. When problems
exist within the organ, certain emotions may arise, and vice versa.
When someone is sick or weak in the lungs, the emotions of
sadness or depression may occur. Overheating or congestion of the
liver can cause anger or moodiness. When the heart overheats, it can
cause impatience, hate, and cruelty to rise. Weakness in the heart can
result in a lack of warmth and vitality.
Whatever our psychological propensity, a balanced yoga practice is an
excellent tool to bring awareness to our emotional states. While the
actual mechanism is still unknown, yoga asanas are designed to
affect the physical body and even more on the subtle body.
From a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective, each
meridian is associated with two or three groups of major muscles
in our body. Elongating and stretching muscles tend to open up
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