Energy and Water

This section discusses the energetic aspects of Yin Yoga and its Daoist heritage
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Bernie
Posts: 1254
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:25 am
Location: Vancouver

Energy and Water

Post by Bernie »

I recently received the following questions:
  • So my first question is about body fluids. I am slightly confused about how to try to define and inform students about what "technically" happens to the lymph, blood & water when we practice Yin Yoga (which may differ from person to person of course but I am looking for a kind of "map" here) In my experience based on my personal practice all the acupressure and release we do activate allow a lot of movement in the body and for fluids to get unclogged (as with the image of the water hose you told about in your book) but is there a way to describe that process a bit more precisely and how do these "movements" (that's the best word I have for now) are directed ? Lastly is it correct to associate/assimilate all these movements with some creation/production of energy ? I would love to have a bit more clarity about the subject.
  • My second question is about electricity, you mentioned during the teacher training that we do have a very low frequency current in our body, something like 4khz if I remember well, I was wondering how does current impact us in terms of range of motion, emotional balance ?
Re Fluids: All movement moves the body and thus moves our fluids. Stagnation of fluids happens when there is no movement, a condition which also occurs when we are dead. So, motion is the lotion of life. There are a couple of maps you can use to think about Yin Yoga’s effect on our fluid body.
  • 1) Gel to Sol transitions. Studies by a scientist name Gerald Pollack shows that our water is bound up in either a gelatinous (gel) state (the 4th phase of water: H3O2 instead of H2O) or a free flowing liquid state (sol for solution). By stressing our tissues, our fascia, we can temporarily change these states, which is healthy. Both states are important, but if we stay in only one state, we lose health. When the water is in a sol state, things can flow through it (antibodies can get to bad bacteria). When the body’s water is in gel state, it provides rigidity and support to the body. As Pollack points out in his Ted talk, there is a lot about water that we don’t understand.

    2) The sponge model: if you have a dirty old sponge and you want to clean it, you would place it in warm water and do yoga to it -- squeezing and releasing, twisting one way and then the other. We do the same to our tissues: they too can become dirty (toxic) and need to be soaked and squeezed: old toxic water is flushed out and new water flows in.

    3) When we stress tissues, we create pressure gradients which can affect the flow of macro-molecules into and out of the cells.

    4) We can structure layers of water and de-structure these layers, similar to the Gel to Sol transitions as well
To understand #3 and #4 more deeply, you would have to read Pollack’s book Cell, Gels and the Engines of Life.

Regarding energy and water flow - I am not sure what you are asking: nothing happens without an exchange of energy. We never create energy (that’s a law of physics: energy is never created nor destroyed but it changes from one form to another - from chemical energy to electrical energy to mechanical energy and heat.) In our yoga practice we don’t, technically, create energy but rather we enhance the flow of energy. We convert the stress of the pose into pressure gradients, piezoelectric flow, mechanotransductions, chemical reactions and many other energetic reactions. Pollack likes to say E=H2O! Water is a repository for energy.

Re electricity: you may be confusing my comments about electromagnetic fields and PEMF therapy. I mentioned that certain tissues have a specific frequency of response: when we subject bone to a 7 hertz pulsating magnetic field, the osteoblasts are stimulated to create new bone. Nerves are stimulated at 2 hz; ligaments at 10 hz; etc. We do have currents within the body (the heart, the brain and most tissues can create or respond to electrical currents) but each organ has its own frequency. I don’t think I ever said that the whole body has a 4000 hz frequency. We do have organs and glands that respond to different frequencies (read my article on this.)

I hope this helps to clarify a few things for you.
Cheers
Bernie
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