MARCH 2019 - FOCUS SMALL INTESTINE

Continuing with our year-long journey around the meridian system, we move from some wonderful sessions exploring the Heart into the Small Intestine. I've been looking into the area from the Western as well as the Eastern viewpoint and I've found, yet again, that the more you study the human body the less you find you know. Just when you thought you were getting your head round something a whole new level of complexity pops up... The surprising things to me are not that it sometimes functions poorly here and there, but that such a complicated phenomenon ever works at all, let alone reproduces itself from a couple of cells (and has the code to do that in all of its 35 trillion cells, except for red blood cells).

THE SMALL INTESTINE - SEPARATING THE PURE AND THE TURBID
In "The Web that has no Weaver," Kaptchuk describes the Small Intestine as ruling the separation of the "pure" from the "turbid". The "clear" is sent on to the Spleen, the "turbid" or "impure" is sent on to the Large Intestine or Kidneys and Bladder. One of the beauties of Chinese thinking is that it's open to interpretation. So we can take the Small Intestine's work to be dealing not just with food but with anything we might take in for our nourishment, I'm thinking especially of all the information and misinformation, and emotional barrage we're bombarded with day and night. I've seen patients myself who had digestive problems whose roots turned out to be a problem in digesting the emotional impact of an event, or someone else's behaviour. So no surprise that this organ is related to the Kidneys (often associated with fear) and Bladder (can be associated with feeling "pissed off").
COURSE OF THE SMALL INTESTINE MERIDIAN
The meridian itself runs from the end of the Heart Meridian on the little fingers, travels up the arm connecting with the Governing Vessel on the back then branches into two. An internal division connects with the Heart, diaphragm, Stomach and Small Intestine. An external division runs up the side of the neck to the eye and the ear, connecting with the Bladder Meridian at the inner corner of the eye.
Here's a link to Dr Emma Suttie's excellent site, there's loads of great information about TCM in general there. It opens onto a chart of the muscles connected with each of the meridians and the times of day when each is most active.

COMING SOON
Connections with Western understanding of the small intestine, with Barral's work (Visceral Manipulation), Reflexology and with CranioSacral Therapy.