Written by Andres Vergara, Dipl. OM, L.Ac. and Michele Vergara, RH (AHG)
Depression and Acupuncture Treatment
Acupuncture is time-tested way to unblock and free the flow of qi. What is anger, sadness, frustration? These are but amalgamations of unhealthy qi that have accumulated into patterns and habitual ways of being that interfere with ease and a sense of fulfillment in life. How can acupuncture help? Acupuncture can help to reorganize the patterns and habits from the inside out. Essentially, it is like un-cluttering or spring-cleaning for you inner being.
One common side effect reported by those that receive acupuncture is feeling that the distance between emotion and reaction lengthens. On a practical level, this means that instead of being on automatic after a triggering event suddenly the option of choice appears. The option to be kind, thoughtful or choose a different course of action and thought pattern is suddenly possible where it wasn’t previously. For those mired and stuck and not seeing a way out of their way of thinking and being this can provide a profound sense of relief.
A river that is dammed will provide increasing resistance and will not be capable of nourishing the land on the other side of the dam in the same way. Acupuncture gently allows the river to flow as is most natural and appropriate so that emotional energy does not get stopped up and instead can nourish all parts of the body mind system.
As we approach the Chinese New Year on February 19th and the start of spring on the Chinese calendar, it is worth noting that anger is the emotion associated with the liver. Spring in the Chinese medicine system of correspondences commonly used in Chinese medicine. Road rage, short tempers, are signs that the liver qi is not being channeled to its fullest potential. This very same liver qi is what helps the plants penetrate the earth and rise from seeds to become there true potential. Likewise acupuncture can help simplify and channel the energy in your system so that it assists you in your life’s pursuits rather than detracting from them. For more information on ways you can use food, herbs, and qi gong to help regulate your liver qi, read our past blog post about how Spring impacts you physically, emotionally, and spiritually in Chinese medicine.
Some Tools To Help You Manage Your Qi Flow
Another tool that is very helpful for depression and for other emotional issues is the use of a qi gong exercise called the healing sounds. There is a corresponding sound meditation in qi gong for each of the five organ systems that represent our key physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual functions. These sounds are used to create a resonate vibration in the organ that serves to release stored energy and tension. There is a sixth sound for the triple warmer which represents the connective tissue that integrates the functioning of five organ systems. These sounds can help you release emotions and energy that have been stored in your organs either recently or from a long time ago, consuming useful energy, that can be then freed for other functions.
We offer two resources to allow you to explore some of these basic qi gong meditations. One, available as a CD or MP3 downloads, is called Qi Gong for Radiant Health. This CD introduces you to an aspect of your body’s basic operating system, the five organ systems, and how to manage it for improved health. We guide you through nine individual meditations that combine several Taoist meditative exercises to deeply cleanse and rejuvenate you. You learn the 6 healing sounds that stimulate the five key organ systems in Chinese medicine – the lungs, the kidneys, the liver, the heart, and the spleen, a 6th sound for the triple warmer, as well as a 7th combination of sounds which can be also used for improved physical, mental, and emotional health. There are also two meditations that incorporate the inner smile, a meditation that is used to increase self love and acceptance.
The second resource is a set of meditations, available as a CD or MP3 downloads called Qi Gong for Emotional Health which builds on the practices introduced in Qi Gong For Radiant Health. There are six meditation tracks on this CD designed to teach you a step by step method for transforming unhelpful emotions into a digestable and nourishing energy that will benefit your health and longevity. We guide you through six meditation tracks, the progression of which is designed to lead you through the various steps of the process and teach you to fuse and to absorb emotions into useable qi. The foundation for these methods is cultivating your innate virtues – compassion and kindness, unconditional love, deep trust, integrity and strength, and wisdom and stillness. These virtues can then be used to transform and integrate imbalanced emotions, using either a more gentle approach to neutralize them or a more active approach to dissolve them. With practice and experience, these meditations can be used in real time to internally resolve charged emotions and see yourself and others more clearly. The meditations on this CD are best used once you have a good basic awareness of the 5 organs (lungs, kidneys, liver, heart, spleen) highlighted in Qi Gong For Radiant Health.
