Point of the Month – Heart 5 – Acupuncture to Calm the Mind
According to Chinese Medicine - there is no separation between heart and mind.
According to Chinese Medicine, the organs have functions beyond their physiology. One of the functions of the heart is to store the mind and spirit. Unlike in Western culture where the mind and heart are viewed and talked about as separate (“my mind is telling me one thing, but my heart another,”) according to Chinese understanding - culturally, philosophically, and medically - there is no separation between the heart and the mind, rather, the mind lives inside the heart. And “the state of the heart will affect the mental activities including the emotional state” and visa versa.
In order to ensure a healthy heart, one must take care of the emotions. One of the oldest written texts of Chinese medicine says that excessive thinking and worry will weaken the heart’s ability to carry out all of its functions. Do you ever notice if you are anxious or sad, you may feel a tightness in the chest? Or if you’re angry your blood pressure increases? Or if you are so excited and elated with joy, your heart beats faster? Here is the mind-body connection.
When there is disturbance of the heart, this can manifest as scattered feelings of anxiety, agitation, restlessness, sadness, poor memory, palpitations, and most often as insomnia. “If the heart is weak, the mind has no residence and it will ‘float’ at night causing inability to fall asleep, disturbed sleep, or excessive dreaming.” Conversely, “if the heart is strong, a person will fall asleep easily and sleep will be sound.” These manifestations don’t necessarily mean you have pending heart disease, but all these symptoms point to disharmony in the functions of the heart and left long standing can weaken the whole system. According to this same ancient Chinese medical text, “the heart disdains being scattered.”
An acupuncturist always looks for underlying root causes, what has led to these sensations in the chest—what is it that is weakening the heart, or what is in excess that is over-exciting the heart?
The acupoint Heart 5, named “Tong Li,” translates to ‘penetrating the interior.’ It is located on the underside of the arm, about a finger width from the wrist crease, just inside the tendon that runs along the pinky finger side. This point calms the mind and also regulates heart rhythm. It is considered one of the most vital acupuncture points and has many indications for its use including palpitations (especially due to fright), pain, agitation or burning sensation of the heart, fullness and distention of the chest, sadness, irritability, even sudden loss of the voice, stiffness of the tongue, involuntary urination (this points to the intricate connections to multiple organs) and more.
We live in times of a lot of stimulation, and this affects our organs sometimes without us knowing. Give your heart some love with acupuncture and/or Chinese herbs to help maintain your naturally healthy state.
Sources:
The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine translation by Maoshing Ni, Ph.D
The Foundations of Chinese Medicine by Giovanni Maciocia
A Manual of Acupuncture by Peter Deadman
