Mark Barwell: Blog

 

Resolving Anger - a Yin imbalance
Emotions are a warning for us to pay attention to something, in much the same way that pain is a response of the nervous system to an outside stimulus that may have damaged us. So their primary function is to alert our being to a particular state. The emotion most closely associated with Yin energies is that of Anger. As we have already discovered, the root chakra is associated with the colour red and is the most Yin of the energy centres in the body. The associations with anger are many: people talk about a "red mist descending" when angry and even the phrase "seeing red" is synonymous with this emotion. But how do we address this response in order to bring about a renewed state of balance?

The previous post examined two common systems of energy: chakras and tantiens. The diagrams highlight the location of each of these "nexus points" and the point of balance for both systems is the heart. So a simple way of balancing out an imbalance of the root chakra or lower tantien would be to focus on the upper chakras or upper tantien. A phrase common to many forms of oriental medicine states "where attention goes, Qi follows" so by bringing our attention to the places of power above the heart, we allow more Yang energy to flow. The actions and methods associated with these areas can also help us to overcome the imbalance. The two upper chakras (third eye and crown) are associated with thinking, clarity of vision, perception, intuition and spiritual connection. So our anger can be addressed by thinking, reasoning, meditating or asking for spiritual guidance (in the form of prayer, for example).

The Japanese style of Reiki that I teach includes a set of phrases collectively known as the Gokai or Precepts. A different version of these can be found in Western styles and usually referred to as the Principles. Each phrase is attributed to a particular quality of energy and meditating on each one can offer enlightening resolution or a more valuable perspective. The phrase associated with the lower tantien and Yin energy is:

"Do not bear Anger, for Anger is illusion".

This obviously has many layers to it and you may wish to examine one or all of them. For example, what does it mean to "bear anger" as opposed to just being angry? Why is Anger seen as illusion? What does the word "illusion" mean? Every time you meditate on this phrase, you may come up with a different answer. Whatever happens, it will always be relevant to the situation you find yourself in. They key to meditative learning is to be able to see the lesson and apply it to your own life in order to address the balance effectively.

As an example, I was always getting angry with my sister. She always seemed to know what buttons to press and what things to say in order to upset me. Admittedly I did this too and this is often the case with people that are close - knowing how to uplift each other as well as how to attack effectively. So I meditated on the phrase above and realised that I was getting angry because she wasn't listening to me when we were having a discussion. Not only would she cut me off mid-sentence but she also didn't seem to grasp the truth of what I was saying. This led me into how I felt about this, which was that she was not respecting my viewpoint enough to honour my right to voice my opinion. This all lead into a very interesting exploration of self-worth and the desire to "be heard". So you can see that although the response to our heated discussion was anger, the reasons for it were a lot deeper and completely not what I thought they were!

When meditation has a purpose, it may take practice to maintain the most useful balance between conscious awareness and intuitive flow. If the whole time is spend in a rational examination, there is no room for inspiration and if the session is allowed to free-form without purpose, it may be difficult to recognise and benefit from the lessons it may hold. A part of my healing work involves the technique known as shamanic journeying. I will be writing a more in-depth post about this tool in future but the key aspect that is worth mentioning here is the establishment of an intent. For example, if I need to journey to find out information on behalf of a client, I will clearly state this intent at the start of the journey. I then allow the journey to unfold and if I feel that it is becoming too irrelevant, I will remind myself of the intent and this usually brings things back on track. Meditation is much the same - if you notice that you are invoking intuitive ideas but have no knowledge of how they is relevant, or even if you seem to be stuck with no guidance at all coming to you, simply state the intent again (in this case, the phrase about anger).

Any of your being's responses can be so intense as to prevent the possibility of rational examination. If you hurt yourself severely, the pain may be so great that you cannot think about anything else. Equally, a situation may make you so angry that you cannot apply the techniques described above. In these cases, allow the situation to pass and when you are able to react in a more balanced way, then begin the meditation. With practice, you may find that such a conscious attempt at resolution and balancing becomes more natural and eventually you will be able to recognise your emotional response while experiencing it and be more capable of applying the balancing energies, thus resolving the situation more quickly and effectively.

These are just some of the techniques that can be used to resolve anger. The Celestine Prophecy (a spiritual-themed novel by James Redfield) describes behavioural patterns known as "control dramas". Recognising each one and applying the counter-techniques can be useful. I will be writing more about this in future but for now, why not search the internet and find out about them for yourself? If you are a Reiki practitioner (or any system and level) and live in the Southend-on-Sea area, I organise monthly Japanese-style Reiki share sessions that explore such concepts as well as providing the opportunity to share Reiki with others. Details can usually be found on my website here: http://markbarwell.co.uk/workshops_reikishares.asp

If you wish to learn more techniques to address such imbalances within the context of a Japanese style of Reiki, I offer classes in all 3 levels of understanding. The first level examines the Gokai while the second and third also provide extra tools such as symbols and mantras to explore different types of energies and invoke them within your being. The classes themselves include "initiations" - experiences that generate such energies within you so that you can recognise them and recreate them as necessary. To find out more, get in touch via my website http://www.markbarwell.co.uk or email me at mark@markbarwell.co.uk
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Yin and Yang within the body

  So how do these energies manifest within the body? As you can imagine, Yin energies tend to be represented lower down the body whereas Yang energies are higher up. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, meridians (energy lines that run throughout the body) that are associated with Yang organs start at the top and run downwards while Yin ones start towards the ground and work their way up.

For instance, Bladder is a Yang organ and Kidney is the Yin organ that it is paired with. Even considering their physiology, we can see that Bladder is a more open space (Yang) than the Kidney, which is more dense and solid (Yin). Bladder (figure 1) starts between the eyebrows and runs over the head and down to the little toe. Kidney starts at a point on the sole of the foot and runs upwards

Kidney_bladder

Yin and Yang can also be attributed to the energy centres within the body. Let us consider the two main schools of thought:


Tantien (Dantian, Dan Chen, etc)

In Oriental medicine, these "nexus points" are known as tantien (pronounced "dan-chen") or hara points. All three lie along the central axis of the body that runs down the middle from head to feet.

The lower tantien is also referred to as the Hara (it literally translates as abdomen, or belly) although all three tantiens are sometimes confusingly called hara points too! This tantien is at a point roughly 3 finger widths below the navel. This is said to be the centre of your being, where Original Energy is stored, and is the symbolic energy centre for Earth Ki, or Yin energy.

The middle tantien is level with the heart, is the emotional centre of your being, and the space where we connect and balance the energies of Yin and Yang (more on this in a later blog post).

The upper tantien is in the middle of the head at the rough location of the pineal gland (take a line backwards through the forehead and another line sideways just before the top of the ears. Where they interesect is the upper tantien). This is the symbolic energy centre for Heaven Ki, or Yang energy.

Tantiens

Chakras

As can be seen from the diagram below, the lower three chakras deal primarily with issues concerning the self and therefore equate to Yin energies (the root being more Yin than the sacral, which is more Yin than the solar plexus). The upper 3 chakras deal mainly with issues concerning external forces and how we relates to the world around us, therefore Yang energies (crown the most Yang and throat the least). In this way, the chakras equate to the tantiens as seen above although with more differentiation between the groups.

Chakras
 


How do we deal with an imbalance of energies within the body? This is a big question and one that has many answers. The next blog post will return to the topic of Yin energies as we explore how to examine and resolve such imbalances within the context of the Japanese style of Reiki that I teach.

To learn or experience Reiki for yourself, visit http://markbarwell.co.uk/reiki.asp and to find out more about the Reiki Shares, visit http://markbarwell.co.uk/workshops_reikishares.asp

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Qualities of Yin
The polarity of energies known as "Yin" ("In" in Japan) are traditionally said to represent the "shady side of a hill" and some common qualities include:
dark
internal
feminine
stillness
cold
Earth
receptive
heavy
solid
night
pale

One of the things that I love about the Japanese style of Reiki shares is that it aims to discuss such qualities and then translate them into experience. So I set off with my 5-year-old nephew, both armed with cameras, to take some pictures that we felt were evocative of Yin energy. If you have any photos that represent Yin for you, email them to me at mark@markbarwell.co.uk and I will feature them in a future post.

My two personal favourites are the one of the exposed pipe in the hole in the road (given that it takes great activity and strength to create such a deep space - Yang creates Yin) and the one of the rabbit holes in Sutton Road Cemetery (there is life amongst the dead - even in a state of greatest Yin there exists some Yang).

With regard to the photos in this post, the ones in widescreen format (1920x1080) were taken by me and the others (1024x768) were taken by my nephew with the exception of the two pictures of granite (both polished and in raw form), which are courtesy of Lily Home and Gardens Online, suppliers of quality home and garden memorials.

(download)

Filed under: learn reiki practice reiki reiki reiki course reiki courses reiki essex reiki healing reiki healing essex reiki healing southend reiki share reiki share essex reiki share southend reiki southend usui reiki yin yin energy
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