Terre Pruitt's Blog

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Posts Tagged ‘sinew meridians’

Jing Well Points Of The Hands

Posted by terrepruitt on May 7, 2018

The Yin Yoga Teacher Training I am taking has been one weekend a month since February. This month we are going to meet two times. This will be our final month. When we were first introduced to Jing Well Points the introduction was made with the points on both the hands and feet. We went on to learn about the sinew meridians associated with the legs and how they began at the jing well points on the feet. I posted about the Jing Well Points of the Feet first. Then I posted about the Leg Meridians in two separate post as there are Yin Leg Meridians and Yang Leg Meridians. First off, to make sure we are all on the same page, some believe there is Qi or energy moving through the body. The Qi moves through the body via channels or meridians. These meridians have starting points called Jing Well Points. There are many meridians in the body but our teacher training is focusing on the Sinew Meridians. They are less exact and the most superficial. They are the easiest to target by Yin Yoga. My posts about all of this so far has just been a way for me to somewhat sort out all the information I am getting. And to share it with you. These post are brief in the information as there is SO much. This post is about the jing well points in the hand.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia online, San Jose Virtual classes, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, Nia Technique, Yin Yoga, stretch classes, online exercise, Zoom classes, virtual yoga, City of San Jose online exercise, live classes via Zoom, Nia White Belt training via ZoomI have to give thanks to my husband who was my hand model. In the training we receive handouts of information, but when posting on my blog I like to post original creations. I don’t like to use other peoples stuff, I have, but I don’t like to so it is rare. So this is my creation, thanks to my hand model.

There are six jing well points on the hand . . . just like the feet. And just like the feet, they are bilateral. So the left AND right thumb have the lung jing well point and so on. The jing well point for the small intestine is at the nail bed on the lateral side of the pinky. At the base of the nail bed of the pinky on the medial side is the heart jing well point. The lateral side of the ring finger at the nail bed is the jing well point of the Triple Heater. The tip of the middle finger is where the jing will point of the pericardium is. The medial side of the index finger at the nail bed is where the jing well point of the large intestine is. And the lungs’s jing well point is at the nail bed of the thumb.

Also, just like the leg sinew meridians there are Yin Arm Sinews and Yang Arm Sinews.

The jing well points can be activated by touch and pressure or movement. So as in my comment on my post about jing well points in the feet, the jing well points in the hands can be affected by acupressure or reflexology.

Most Yin Yoga poses focus on the leg meridians, there are ways to incorporate the arm meridians into the poses. There are a few arm poses, but most of them incorporate the legs meridians too.

Next we will learn the path of the arm meridians. Exciting, yes?

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Jing Well Points Of The Feet

Posted by terrepruitt on April 9, 2018

I am taking a Yin Yoga Teacher Training and learning all kinds of interesting things – well, I find them interesting. But first, as a reminder:  Yin Yoga generates Qi flow through the body, in particular the areas of the lower spine, hips, and pelvis. If you are inclined to believe in Qi then Yin Yoga is a way to get it flowing and help to release latency from the meridians. Yin Yoga also helps develop and maintain health of connective tissues. In addition Yin Yoga helps cultivate stillness in the body and mind to help prepare for meditation. I am not so attached to the meditation prep as I am to just the fact that Yin Yoga allows and even requires the body to be still and I think that the society in which most of us live we need to have moments of stillness. Our minds are always so full and busy it they need a rest. One way to help quite the mind is to still the body. Qi flows along meridians. Meridians have starting points or Jing Well Points. Jing Well points are where the energy arises.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitJing Well Points of the Sinew Meridians in the foot are for the spleen, liver, stomach, gall bladder, bladder, and kidney.  The spleen meridian starts at the nail bed of the median side of the big toe. The liver sinew meridian starts at the nail bed of the lateral side of the big toe. The stomach meridian starts on the lateral side of the second toe. The gall bladder meridian is on the lateral side of the fourth toe. And the pinky toe is where the jing well point is for the bladder meridian. We are calling these meridians the leg meridians because they run up the legs to points in the body. There is also the kidney jing well point which at the level of underneath the ball of the foot and over between the second toe and the third toe. Pressure on that spot will stimulate the kidney.

The Sinew Meridians circulate along the periphery of the body. They are superficial and follow the lines of the major muscle groups. The primary meridians are deeper. As I mentioned in my first post about Yin Yoga, the Sinew Meridians are more of an area and can be targeted with Yin Yoga. The Sinew Meridians do not connect to the internal organs and originate externally at the jing well points.

The spleen, liver, and kidney meridians are Yin meridians and run on the median side of the legs.  The stomach, gall bladder, and kidney meridians are Yang meridians and run on the back or outside of the legs.

While I am only showing one foot and stated that these are the meridians in the foot, it applies to both feet.

What about you?  Do you find any of this interesting?

Posted in Yin Yoga, Yoga/PiYo/Pilates | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Yin Yoga

Posted by terrepruitt on April 4, 2018

Have you ever heard of Yin Yoga? It is one of those “new” yogas that is out there. New, as in it has not been around for hundreds of years. It surfaced in the West in the late 1970’s, as taught by Paulie Zink and became more commonly known under the teachings of Paul Grilley and Sarah Powers. Each having their own style and take on it. Yin Yoga focuses more on the joints and connective tissues as opposed to the more widely known “yang” yoga that focuses on the muscles. Yin Yoga is very slow, in addition each pose can be held from 3 to 20 minutes. As with any type of physical activity when first starting it is recommended to start slow, or in the case of Yin – LESS. So someone first starting out, someone new to the practice, might hold a pose for 1 to 3 minutes and build up to the longer holds. Yin is very interesting, to me, at least, because it not only focuses on the joints and connective tissue, but it also focuses on the meridians or energy channels in the body. So while you are stretching your fascia, tendons, ligaments, and opening the joints, you are also unblocking the meridians and allowing Qi to flow more freely.

I have heard of Qi and the meridians before and, honestly, I am not sure I am a firm believer in all that is involved with meridians and the movement of Qi. But I will say that there is definitely a difference when I do the Yin asana. So . . . I am interested in learning about it.

What we are learning in the Yin Yoga Teacher Training I am taking is about the twelve principal sinew meridians. Meridians are used in acupuncture and acupressure and there are hundreds that travel and weave throughout the body, but the twelve sinew meridians are the ones that are affected the most in the Yin asana or poses. They are the ones that are more easily identified as they can be considered more of “in an area”. Most Yin asana have to do with the lower body and the meridians of the legs.

As I was sitting in the first two lectures about all this information, I was pretty confused (and it wasn’t the first time I had heard some of it). By the second set of lectures I was overwhelmed. But today I went over my notes and a lot of it made sense. And a lot of it sounded familiar, as if I might be remembering some of the information. What I am saying is there is a lot of information so this is just barely touching the surface. It is just a little post that is an introduction to Yin Yoga and its relation to the meridians/energy channels in the body.

Yin Yoga poses affect the different meridians. The time one stays in a Yin pose allows for the body to stretch and the meridians to open or become unblocked and allow the Qi to flow.  Chinese Medicine relates the blockage of Qi to a whole list of symptoms that are related to illness.

Have you heard of Yin Yoga?  What do you think about Qi and the meridians? 

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