| 05 March 2010
China’s practitioners of traditional medicine mapped out the energy pathways flowing through our organs, a network still known as the meridian system. Certain points along pathways are known as acupuncture points. The Chinese call the subtle energy flowing through the network Qi (Ch’i). According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), there are 12 true meridian circuits that govern the organs. TCM states that for two hours in each 24 hour period, one meridian gets a chance to dominate the body physically and – even more interestingly – dominate the emotional body. This cycle is sometimes called the energy body clock and using it may help to explain why certain symptoms and feelings manifest, or get worse, at different times of day or night.
This Chinese Body Clock system is an ancient observation of the two hourly peak activity intervals of internal organs. This theory therefore suggests minimum activity of internal organs is twelve hours away from the peak activity, and and one tip is to eat meals furthest away from peak liver activity (1-3pm) so to allow the liver to more completely perform its several hundred functions.
Following is basic information about each meridian: the times they dominate the body/mind, the organ or organs they are linked to and also the primary and secondary emotions associated with them:
- lung (3 AM - 5 AM) - grief, sadness
- large intestine (5 AM - 7 AM) - stuck, defensiveness
- stomach (7 AM - 9 AM) - disgust, despair
- spleen (9 AM - 11 AM) - associated with the pancreas - low self -esteem
- heart (11 AM - 1 PM) - frightfully overjoyed, lack of joy, frightfully sad
- small intestine (1 PM - 3 PM) - vulnerable, feelings of abandonment
- bladder (3 PM - 5 PM) - associated with skin - irritated, timidity
- kidney (5 PM - 7 PM) - fear, terror
- circulation / sex (7 PM - 9 PM) - associated with the brain, including the pituitary and hypothalamus, and the reproductive organs - unresponsive, Inability to express emotions, depleted.
- triple warmer (9 PM - 11 PM) - associated with the thyroid and adrenals it is what controls your metabolism, energy transfer and temperature regulation - confusion, paranoia.
- gallbladder (11 PM - 1 AM) - resentment
- liver (1 AM - 3 AM) - anger, frustration, rage
