Namaskar - Oct 09
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Synergy<br />
How Yoga & Traditional Chinese<br />
Medicine address Emotions<br />
Peggy Chiu<br />
Six years ago was the first time I experienced my emotions on<br />
the mat. Would people think I was weird because I couldn’t<br />
stop tearing? Was something wrong with me? And why did I<br />
do something so embarrassing in a yoga class and not when I was<br />
alone? I did not understand how the feeling of peace could turn<br />
into something so intense in just seconds. Although I could not<br />
articulate my feelings at all at that moment, I realized that<br />
something significant had happened.<br />
I spent the next few minutes trying to hold back on my tears and<br />
eventually gave up fighting just allowed tears to flow down my<br />
cheeks. Earlier in class, I had set an intention allowing my practice<br />
take me to a place where I could forgive a close friend, which I had<br />
waited years to do. During Child’s Pose, with my head bowed and<br />
attention focused inward, I could sense the emotions had been<br />
stuck with me whenever I thought about this person. In<br />
hindsight, I knew the blockage and guilt I had put myself through<br />
was gradually covering and hardening my heart. As I morphed<br />
from poses to poses, I began to visualize sending mental apologies<br />
to this person as if she was standing right in front of me, listening<br />
to change ourselves into a better<br />
person, we need to meet ourselves<br />
where we are<br />
with full attention. Picturing<br />
her full acknowledgement and<br />
positive response towards my<br />
apology had allowed me to<br />
forgive myself in return.<br />
My physical body at this point<br />
became lighter and the release<br />
of these pinned up emotions<br />
had somehow made my<br />
breathing easier even when I<br />
had my diaphragm anatomically<br />
twisted to one side in<br />
Trikonasana (triangle pose).<br />
Everything was fine until it<br />
came time to relax into Savasana<br />
just before the end of class. I<br />
THE SMALLEST THINGS ARE ENOUGH<br />
had no idea I had an emotional<br />
TO MAKE US HAPPY WHEN WE’RE<br />
cleansing experience until much<br />
YOUNG<br />
later. When I practice yoga since<br />
this experience, I’d pay more<br />
attention to how I felt and what I thought as my body held<br />
different shapes.<br />
We often hear that yoga helps promote our body-mind connection<br />
or awareness but what does it mean and how does it work? The<br />
mind-body connection is a delicate invisible communication system<br />
that sits inside our body. There is no separation between body,<br />
mind and soul. In other words, what happens to the mind is likely<br />
to show up in the body and the soul, and vice versa.<br />
According to the tradition of energy studies that originated<br />
thousands of years ago in China, emotions are expressions of our<br />
life energy called qi (prana in India or ki in Japan or Korea). This<br />
energy flows through 12 primary meridians in a similar way as artery<br />
carries blood. Each of which is associated with a major organ<br />
system: lung, small intestine, large intestine, kidney, bladder,<br />
stomach, spleen, liver, heart, pericardium heart, triple warmer and<br />
gall bladder. Each of these meridians governs a particular set of<br />
physical, emotional and mental characteristics. When problems<br />
exist within the organ, certain emotions may arise, and vice versa.<br />
When someone is sick or weak in the lungs, the emotions of<br />
sadness or depression may occur. Overheating or congestion of the<br />
liver can cause anger or moodiness. When the heart overheats, it can<br />
cause impatience, hate, and cruelty to rise. Weakness in the heart can<br />
result in a lack of warmth and vitality.<br />
Whatever our psychological propensity, a balanced yoga practice is an<br />
excellent tool to bring awareness to our emotional states. While the<br />
actual mechanism is still unknown, yoga asanas are designed to<br />
affect the physical body and even more on the subtle body.<br />
From a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective, each<br />
meridian is associated with two or three groups of major muscles<br />
in our body. Elongating and stretching muscles tend to open up<br />
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