Working with
Meridians through
Touch, Meditation,
and Qigong
With a working knowledge of the meridian functions, locations, and important points along each channel, you are now equipped with a treasure trove of information on how your body works and how it is organized. All the working parts of your body and their many and various ways of interacting with one another can keep you balanced, healthy, and vivacious for years to come. In this section we will begin the work of crafting this knowedge into a set of practical working exercises to help you on your way to greater balance, harmony, and ease.
Generally, all these parts of your being are extremely intelligent and do their job unerringly for years on end. But there are times when we all fall down, systems seem to fail, something goes wrong, and we find ourselves off track. Balance is elusive and vitality is scarce. That’s when we need some skillful intervention to support the body and its many functions. Particularly important is to be able to locate where the distress is most prominent and help to restore balance once more.
The knowledge of meridian functions, locations, and active points is valuable, but what is more important is to have ways of entering with consciousness to assess and treat your body’s energetic system when it is in need. With thirty years of working with the body using these tools and thousands of years of healing tradition behind me, I will guide you through powerful tools you can use to help yourself into better balance.
I’m going to explore with you a range of approaches, from meditation and movement to healing touch. These are time-honored tools that have effectively helped thousands, and I use them myself on a daily basis with great results that keep me fit and functional. There’s no magic bullet here, mind you, but these approaches are remarkably effective and can help you resolve many difficult situations when practiced with diligence.
As you work with these tools, I remind you that these methods are not a substitute for professional medical care. They are not meant to diagnose or treat serious conditions, and if you find that your body simply is not responding with noticeable improvement, you are encouraged to consult your physician.
In addition, I have several training programs across the United States. I have personally trained hundreds of students to a professional level and their support may be vital to you. Also, as director of education for the American Organization for Bodywork Therapies of Asia, I am in close contact with dozens of highly trained professionals in Asian Bodywork Therapy all over the world. You’ll find my contact information in the back of this book, and I’ll be happy to hear from you and support you in any way I can. You may wish to pursue training yourself and take the work within these pages deeper with expert in-person guidance.
For now, practice what is taught here and begin to learn for yourself the value and applications of Pathways of Qi’s knowledge and technique. When you are ready to go deeper and join a live training, you will know. Meanwhile, all the techniques recommended in this book are safe and effective for home use. As with any such approach, remember that words and pictures in a book can set you on the right path and begin the process, but ultimately an in-person training session will be the most effective way to embody the practice.
Remember, you are your own authority. You have lived in your body your entire life, an experience neither I nor any other teacher have. You will be the one who ultimately decides if any given technique or approach works for you and at what level of depth or intensity. If anything is beyond your capacity, don’t do it! If you don’t feel you are being pushed hard enough, increase the intensity slowly and carefully.
What follows are time-honored techniques that may at first seem simplistic or even boring. You will not find power gymnastics nor power yoga in these pages. The art of working with qi is an art of consciousness more than physical exercise. In fact, benefits are often derived more from doing less and paying attention more. In the end, these are more arts of being than arts of doing: the less you do, the more you actually achieve.
An important principle of practice is known as the 70/30 rule. Following this principle in your practice, you only ever use 70 percent of your energy in any given task and at the same time can keep 30 percent in reserve. The wisdom suggests that by keeping 30 percent in resereve, you will always have something left to give in the case of an emergency. It may seem to run counter to the usual Western admonition to give 110 percent; in many ways it does. But don’t in any way think it is inferior. With cultivation, your 70 percent may soon exceed another person’s 110 percent and you’ll still have 30 percent in reserve, just in case.
Take this admonition to heart and see if it can help you to hone your practice of awakening the flow of qi through your own meridian pathways. What this ultimatley can create for you is a state of ease and flow. Making certain to eliminate force, and connect with a flow greater than your own skill could ever manufacture on its own is the key.
If you should have any questions along the way, as revelations arise from your practice of the application of these methods, please check the resource section in the back of this book for details on how to contact me or other qualified trainers in the field. I’ll be happy to help you find the answers you are seeking and realize the ways these methods can support you on your way.