Too many thoughts! So many that through this fog you can not see any plans or priorities, much less a potential future. Familiar story? In Chinese medicine, it is generally accepted that there is an active point on the body, which is associated with clarity of thought. Where is it and how to turn it on?
As we know, Chinese medicine is based on the idea that our body runs on some kind of life-giving energy – qi. It circulates through the body with blood, and if all organs and systems are supplied with energy evenly, then a person is healthy and happy. If the energy is distributed incorrectly – somewhere there is too much, somewhere there is a shortage – then various complications can arise.
For example, if the qi energy rises and fills the head, then, according to Chinese doctors, a person suffers from constant internal monologues or dialogues. Anxious obsessive thoughts absorb attention, the head constantly “cooks” something that it cannot “digest”. The opposite situation: the energy hardly reaches the head, and then the person thinks sluggishly, cannot concentrate, catch the thought, begins to think about something and loses the thread.
Both the influx of energy and its outflow from the head in Chinese traditional medicine is the point of Yu Jen. It is located at the articulation of the first cervical vertebra with the skull. Finding this articulation is very simple: nod your head several times.
If we draw analogies with Western European medicine, then there will be surprising coincidences: anatomically, this area is connected with the outflow of blood from the head – the main veins pass through it. If the outflow is disturbed, then the inflow also suffers (the space for blood flow is reduced).
This means that cognitive functions first decrease – attention, concentration, memory quality – and then chronic headaches begin to develop. Western physiologists do not mention obsessive thoughts, leaving this area of responsibility to psychologists.
But Chinese doctors believe that psychology and the state of the body are indivisible – what happens inside a person at the level of tissues / organs, and what happens with emotions – is connected.
Yoo Jen reveal
In Taoist Chinese traditional medicine, there is a term “opening” an active point – this means that this zone should be free, relaxed, energized. Based on this, in order to get rid of obsessive thoughts and clarity of perception, it is necessary to “open” the Yu Jen point. How to do it?
To do this, Chinese doctors use various techniques of acupuncture and acupressure: they act on a point with needles, hot stones, and various massage techniques. And be sure to prescribe exercises for self-consolidation of the results. Moreover, in ancient Taoist medicine, the effect does not occur on the physical point itself (although from the outside it seems that the doctor is acting on it).
Finger medicine: an ambulance for negative emotions
Hotspots are seen as an entrance to a formless dimension. Sounds mysterious, right? What does it mean? In the Taoist tradition, it is believed that changes first occur at the level of the formless – consciousness, attention. A person changes his state (formless component), and over time this changes the state of his body (form).
That is, an acupuncturist through active points affects the human mind, eliminating burdens in this area: in this case, he treats obsessive thoughts with acupuncture. And thanks to this, the neck area is freed, the blood supply to the brain improves, the posture becomes proud, plastic and free.
Beautiful idea? You can believe in it, you can not believe it, but the fact remains: the quality and clarity of thinking – and the ability to get rid of disturbing thoughts – depend on how free the area of uXNUMXbuXNUMXbthe first cervical region.
Looking ahead
In addition, the Yu Jen point has another mystical function: according to the Taoist tradition, it is associated with our ability to project our future – to clearly see where and why we want to move along the time line. This is not clairvoyance in the truest sense of the word (when a person predicts the future, although it is argued that qigong practitioners can develop this skill as well) – this is a planning practice that is quite familiar to us.
You prioritize and, looking ahead to a hypothetical future, plan the steps that will lead you to the right results at the right time. A person whose Yu Jen area is closed – that is, the neck is tense, as if the head wants to hide in the shoulders – can hardly cope with such a task. The future seems hazy, uncertain and hard to control.
Whereas relaxation, “opening” this point allows you to train this function – the ability to see ahead, plan and move along the time line in accordance with the tasks set.
Yoo Jen Opening Exercise
To understand how the point opens and how the flow of energy is activated in it, you can do an exercise from the qigong course for the spine Sing Shen Juang. In this complex, the first two exercises are aimed specifically at opening Yu Jen. Consider one of them – it is called “Crane Neck”.
- Stand up straight, feet hip-width apart, palms covering the lower abdomen. The crown tends upward.
- Start rotating the head, while the neck seems to go forward, gently squeezing the Yu Jen space, and then back, opening it. It is as if you are stroking an invisible wall opposite you with your nose.
- When you have completed the rotation, lower your head down. Under the weight of the head, the space of Yu Jen opens up. Ask the body to remember this feeling of opening, relaxing the area.
- Start stretching upward from the base of the neck: first the seventh cervical vertebra, sixth, fifth, fourth … The neck gradually rises up, vertebra by vertebra. The task is to return to a vertical position so as to maintain the opening of Yu Jen.
When doing the exercise, ask yourself the question: “How can I make this movement even softer, more relaxed?” If for this you need to reduce the amplitude of rotation, reduce it without hesitation: the priority is relaxation, softening of all structures of the neck and, most importantly, the Yu Jen area.
You can do this exercise while sitting at your desk while you work to clear your head and take a fresh look at work tasks. The exercise will take no more than three minutes, and the effect will be amazing.