The Five Elements in TCM and Yin Yoga: Water

The fourth on this series at the 5 factors in TCM looks at the element related to iciness – Water – and explores how, like Water, we might give up to the route of least resistance.

As winter envelops us in its embrace, the essence of the Water element in conventional chinese language medicine (TCM) permeates our surroundings, providing an opportunity for introspection and alignment with nature’s rhythms.

The nights started out to extend within the center of Autumn’s metal detail season with the darkest night time being the primary day of winter on December twenty first. on the grounds that then, a touch bit greater light has crept into our cold, dark, regularly moist iciness days. Water detail season is here until the Spring Equinox on March 19th. however what does this imply for us and our yoga exercise?

“winter offers the silence you need to concentrate; it is going grey so that you can see your very own colors.” ~ Terri Guillemets

iciness is the season of yin. Yin is represented by traits together with dark, cold, heavy, contraction, withdrawal, slowness and stillness. it’s miles herbal for us to need to withdraw for the duration of the iciness months as those are the yin qualities most familiar within us at the moment. Yin yoga is a ideal yoga practice for winter because it no longer only suits our yin-like power (that is extra abundant proper now) but actually encourages us to provide in to it.

Yielding to the path of least resistance is any other yin satisfactory – it’s far the downward exceptional of the wintry weather water element. Water is the detail with downward seeking strength as a result of water in search of the direction of least resistance to the maximum downward point. i really like to mention the electricity of the water element is down, down, down. Water wants to find earth, which means water likes to be even more yin! making use of the downward qualities of water in our yin yoga exercise can honestly assist us melt and deepen into our yin postures with extra ease.

Apana Vayu, the downward nice of the exhaled breath, can be utilized for each earth element and water detail practices along with restorative and yin. Apana Vayu enables us to root and floor into our pelvic ground, legs and toes. operating with the downward fine of breath allows us to music into any imbalances we can be experiencing in our first chakra, Muladhara. whilst imbalanced in this chakra we might also experience feelings of worry, mistrust, insecurity and instability. The emotion of the water detail in conventional chinese language medicine is fear, and to understand, process and allow go of of fear we can rely upon the filtration and elimination organs of our kidneys and urinary bladder.

Our kidneys filtrate our blood to help rid the body of impurities. 25% of each cardiac output (blood driven out of the warmth in the course of every heartbeat) will head to the kidneys for filtration. about 99% of the filtered blood with be despatched again via the body and return to the heart and lungs. The undesirable filtered waste will then be sent to the urinary bladder as urine for removal. utilising 5-detail idea we can study those two winter water detail organs as processors and eliminators of fear.

even as some aspects of fear are healthy and vital for our survival – navigating busy city streets or mountain hikes with cliffs and steep edges – different fears won’t be essential as we develop and evolve and satisfy our cause right here on the planet (our dharma). Our sympathetic fearful system, the fight, flight or freeze portion, enables us to be energetic and alert in a international complete of actual and viable dangers. If our fear is senseless, though, crippling and keeping us back in life, there are approaches we will filter it out, allow it exit and down. Exhales are pretty beneficial in this, as is working with the kidney and urinary bladder meridians in yoga.

Our Urinary Bladder Meridian (UB) has the most acupuncture/acupressure factors of all the meridians. starting with UB1 at the internal eye, the 67 points tour up and over the top, down the returned, persevering with the entire period of our superficial returned fascial line to give up at the pinky toe. considered one of my favorite statistics about the UB line is that there’s an abundance of help inside the top, center and lower back with 4 lines (two on every side of the backbone). there is an remarkable quantity of assist inside the back frame to help us knock out worry, welcome in braveness and propel us onward and forward.

The Kidney Meridian (KD) starts at the sole of the foot and shares the internal leg deep frontal line of fascia with each the spleen and liver meridians. there is only one acupuncture/acupressure point at the lowest of the foot and that is KD1, called bubbling Spring. In my instructions i love to speak approximately how we exhale our fears down and out thru the Urinary Bladder Meridian. Then with our inhalations, we can experience our braveness bubble up and rise along the 27 factors of the Kidney Meridian.

The kidneys in TCM have each yin and yang features. The water fantastic of the kidneys is the descending fine. however, on the grounds that our kidneys maintain the necessary essence (Jing) for all our lifestyles approaches, there is also a awesome expansive, growing, yang, fireplace excellent to the kidneys. we can music into that lifting power at the only of our foot (KD1) while we practice Pada Bandha, our foot lock, in yang postures consisting of Mountain Pose, Warrior two and 5-Pointed star.

In Yin Yoga we are able to song into the aid of our back body Urinary Bladder line with postures together with Saddle Pose and Melting coronary heart Pose.

For the Kidney Meridian we can song into the 27 kidney factors from the only of the foot, up the internal leg line to belly, ending simply under the collarbones with Deer Pose (image proper) and half Frog Pose.

For the ultimate month of winter, before the wood electricity of Spring calls upon us to lift and grow and create, let us lean into the yin traits of water and wintry weather. In our yin and restorative yoga practices let us dive even deeper than we’ve got ever dived before, with our exhales, paying attention to and listening to the soft, quiet voice of our inner truth. If worry have been no longer an option who could we be, what could we do, and what would we create? as soon as we hear, then we can recognise and subsequently act.

winter gives a sacred space for us to dive deep into the essence of the Water element, tapping into its understanding and go with the flow each on and off the yoga mat. through integrating TCM principles into our practice, we can harness the transformative strength of winter to nourish our bodies, minds, and spirits, emerging more potent, more grounded, and ready to embrace the energy of spring.

Trusting something triggers or affects us deeply are important lessons to analyze, and this Yin yoga magnificence can offer a safe environment in which to practice this. It’s a area wherein you can feel and grow to be privy to what triggers you on a bodily, emotional or intellectual degree while being in a pose. and then to be able to allow go of what no longer serves you – be it thoughts, behaviour or vintage patterns – to really shine!