Awhile back, a teacher of mine told me that he was describing acupuncture, acupressure, and their impact on the body in the following way. The body, according to Doctor Tan, is like a switch board. The acupoints are the switches found on the body. When pushing a switch, one triggers a response. And in the case of the body, this response will always aim toward a balance to restore wellness and health. We hear about Qi all the time. Yet many of us only have a very vague idea of what Qi is. The Asian medical community describes it as energy that travels throughout the body to bring nutrients and other necessary material to the different parts of the body. But this does not speak to many of us.
Taking Dr Tan’s analogy a little further, we may consider that the switches, which are generally linked to electrical wires send an electrical impulse to a target. For instance, we may choose to flick a switch that will activate a bell. The electrical impulse will travel from the switch to the bell and make it ring. Similarly, an acupoint will be triggered (pushed on or punctured, whatever the case may be), and an electrical impulse, the Qi, will travel along the wires, the meridians, to reach its target, an organ or other area of the body.
These “wires”, the meridians, have been mapped, and are known to travel all over the body, from top to bottom, from side to side, from outside to inside, and vice-versa. But what does this have to do with disease, imbalance, and loss of general well-being? We know that a blockage in a blood vessel will require medical attention because not only will it cause pain, but it will also cause damage to the body part not being properly irrigated. Similarly, a blockage of Qi, will cause pain and other damage to the body. Like a blood vessel, a meridian will need to be unblocked, and the flow of Qi restored in order to regain health and general well-being.
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