I am now on the road and already in Europe. I’ll be teaching soon and look forward to seeing everyone, especially for the Wu Style Instructor Training, something I have not done for about 10 years.

If you can’t make the whole training I invite you to come for a week or a weekend event. It will be fun and we have a great group attending.

If you are a student of Energy Arts, qigong or tai chi, you probably already realize that one of the fundamental principles is these practices are based on moving energy through the meridian lines of the body. With qigong practices like Dragon and Tiger Medical Qigong you learn to actually feel the chi or energy move through your body.

Understanding where acupuncture points and meridian lines are is also very useful for Tai Chi. In fact, anything that deals with Chinese Medicine, including the internal martial arts, always has an energetic component. One of the primary components of the 16 neigong (internal energy work) is the secondary channels of the body, which include the acupuncture channels.

I recently ran into an elder in the acupressure field, Michael Reed Gach, while I was having a drink in a local coffee shop. He has been writing and sharing knowledge for over 30 years and is the author of the best-selling book Acupressure Potent Points and also has some great acupressure charts (one of which is on the wall in the Energy Arts Inc office).

I asked Michael to say a few words on the subject for this blog post:

Acupressure Potent Points have a high electrical conductivity at the surface of the skin, and thus conduct and channel healing energy most effectively. This is why the most potent healing energy work uses acupressure points.

The 12 Meridians of Traditional Chinese Medicine are the body’s healing energy pathways. Meridian massage therapy moves this life energy through the meridians to improve flow and balance. Acupressure and Acupuncture charts show where the meridian lines are on the body. The points are where vital energy gets blocked on the meridians, and where you can most effectively release the resulting tension, numbness, or pain. As healing energy flows through the meridians, it governs blood circulation and harmonizes all functions of the body. Studying the meridian pathways and Acupressure points for transmitting Qi healing energy is key to transformational energy work, including therapeutic touch and massage therapy.

I think it’s a great thing if any of my students simply know more about the acupuncture lines and have some familiarity with them. If you don’t, you can get away without it. But if you want to go for the upper end, it’s a very good idea to do so. When I was a qigong tui na practitioner I studied all this extensively.

Stay tuned for some more posts in the next few weeks – the next post will be on Tai Chi and the Emotions.

Everything furthers,

Bruce

P.S. To learn more about Michael and the beneficial uses of Acupressure, check out his site here.