Yi Qi Li, is a specific practice that relieves anxiety, depression and auto-immune symptoms...
Anxiety, depression, and auto-immune issues are rising, especially as the days get darker and the holidays closer. The constant overstimulation of social media and technology is exhausting and creates an anxious mindset. Adding on the amount of sitting we're doing, behind screens, creates stagnant energy, anxiety, and depression. If you’re reading this, you know that yoga and meditation are often prescribed practices to help calm the mind and bring us back to our center. And while this is true, too often while practicing our minds are all over the place.
Sitting in meditation we are often battling the distractions of the mind. While holding yoga poses too often we are desperately wondering when the teacher will move us out of the pose, or what we’re going to have for lunch...this is the classic monkey mind we suffer from.
After practicing yoga for over 20 years, learning to anchor my mind has amplified my entire practice. To have a pattern for the mind to guide the energy through the meridians while meditating, or in yoga poses, builds the muscle of focused concentration. Focused concentration is the sixth limb of the eightfold path of yoga, called Dharana, which leads to meditation, the seventh limb, known as Dhyana. Studies have shown that our concentration span has depleted significantly, due to fast-paced technology. So now more than ever we need to find ways to focus the mind in simple patterns so it can be calm and clear.
In the Meridian flow practice, we are combining yoga with an ancient Qigong technique referred to as Yi Qi Li, which guides our energy with our consciousness. Both yoga and Chinese medicine agree that where the mind goes the energy flows.
While we are in yoga poses we can focus the mind to guide the energy up and down the meridians, which are the energy pathways of the organs. In traditional Chinese medicine, each season's energy corresponds to a pair of organs' energy frequency. In the autumn we focus on the energy of the lungs and the large intestine that run through the arms.
And not only are we focusing the mind but we are actually moving the energy with the mind and breathing in the proper directions to create a smooth flow of energy without blockages or stagnation. There are different ways to migrate the energy. Acupuncture stimulates the Qi (energy) flow with needles and cupping, and similarly, acupressure stimulates the energy points by rubbing them for several minutes. Yi Qi Li is the most subtle yet profound way to move our energy with our mind and breath. This gives us agency to be a part of our own healing, which we are ultimately responsible for.
This energy is like the electricity that feeds the organs. Creating an efficient flow of energy through the meridians directly affects the anatomical function of the organs. Think of our organs like a light bulb. When the electricity is weak, the light will flicker, and is very hard to work with. If the energy is excessive it will burn out. So an even flow of energy is what’s required for the organs to run optimally.
The energy of the organs corresponds to emotions, as emotions are energy. All energy has frequency and vibration. When you walk into a room you can feel if someone is angry, as you sense the vibration. Likewise, when you are around someone who is calm and centered, you pick up on that frequency as it’s so nice to be around. Our energy fields have a ripple effect that emanates beyond our physical being and affects others around us. So if we are parents, teachers, nurses, doctors, working in the service industry, etc…our energy field is affecting those closest to us.
What a relief it is to add Yi Qi Li into our practice so we’re not struggling in yoga poses, but strengthening our muscle of focused concentration which actually guides the energy in the correct patterns. These energetic patterns can reverse or become blocked from trauma or high stress. Using the mind to direct it back to the optimal flow is deepening our practice, so staying in poses isn’t so torturous, it’s actually calming and energizing!
Our energetic layer is the most subtle but has a deep effect on our emotional and physical bodies. Yoga poses can be a form of acupressure which puts pressure on the meridians. Plus, guiding the energy with Yi Qi LI, can help relieve our emotional and physical issues. Energy that gets stuck, or stagnant results in difficult emotions, fatigue, and pain. Tending to the energetic flow is addresses the root cause of most of our issues.
Each season's energy feeds the next season's energy and the organs that correspond to it. The lungs energetically feed the kidneys. The kidneys are running the strongest in the winter and correspond to the water element. Courageous lung chi in the autumn creates ample kidney chi for the winter which provides us with strong willpower and endurance. As we age the kidney's energy depletes and we can be subject to fear and insecurity.
Autumn is the time to build strong lung energy. The lungs take in energy from the outside world and store it in the kidneys. Now is the time to build chi for ample courage, willpower, and endurance through the holidays and the darker and colder days ahead.
Breathing up and down the meridians creates a Zen-like mind which relieves anxiety and depression and has been shown to relieve symptoms from autoimmune issues. Many of my students who suffer from auto-immune disease report how this practice helps them more than anything else they tried.
Come join us in the master's path or 300-hour teacher training to learn how to add meridian breathing into your practice and amplify your chi.✨
We address these emotions and energy patterns in:
the Meridian Flow class Monday 6:15
the Meridian Yin and Qigong at noon on Tuesdays
Meridian Basics on Thursdays at 11:15.
If you, or anyone you know, could use relief from anxiety, depression or auto-immune issues please join us, you'll feel so much better.
From my heart light to yours~
Namaste,
Maggie