Abdominal area, lower back and Belt Channel

Abdominal area, lower back and Belt Channel Abdominal area especially the belly is the center of feeling and emotions. It is this region where many of our emotions arise. Many of our emotions originate from the gut and flow in the direction available for them to express themselves clearly. Emotion once released becomes a life force in motion, and they don’t cause any harm unless blocked or stagnated by imbalance in the Mind-body connection. Emotions originate from the lower abdomen or in other words Belt Channel (Also known as ‘Dai Mai channel’ in acupuncture) and spread upward via the diaphragm into the Heart.

Each body part or organ can also be a place where the free flow of emotions can be blocked or stagnated. For example, if free flow energy of the liver is stagnated, healthy anger will be suppressed and convert into rage and mania along with hypertension, migraine, headache or may be neck pain. The abdominal area or belly also includes the lower back, which is a place most vulnerable to troubles. Tension in the abdomen and stress are the root cause of lower back pain, as the muscles in the belly and lower back together form a belt like band which is referred as Belt channel in acupuncture.  Now, let me explain you a bit about ‘Belt channel’ or ‘Dai Mai channel’ or ‘Girdle vessel’. The belt channel is one of the eight extra channels in acupuncture, and it is linked to psycho-emotional stress and trauma especially. In trauma the patient get stuck in his body as a result of childhood trauma, any kind of traumatic experience whether a death of a loved one, traumatic injury or shock. Most interesting thing about this channel is that it runs horizontally in the body just like we wear belt. All the other channels in acupuncture run vertically and whenever there is any psychological stress it runs vertically and sits at the horizontal bench of belt channel around your belly and lower back. Most people with lower back pain thinks that their back pain is a result of heavy lifting, some kind of injury or doing some kind of back straining activity, or may be due to sitting for long hours. All these might be triggers of back pain, but it seems to me that the back problems starts when muscles and emotions are chronically tightened by holding up feelings and stress making the weak and predisposing to back issues. 

                                    The question arises, why are so many people affected by tension and stress in this area of the body? In my opinion, the reason is that the belt channel is the link and psycho-somatic aspect of the upper of the upper body and lower body. Prenatal energy and postnatal energy meets here. From the upper body comes the demands of responsibility and life burdens and also psychological and physical stress. From below the body arises to withstand these burden and responsibilities by battling fear, self-control and feelings of sexuality. So, the belly and lower back area is stuck between the conflicts of two sides of the body. 

So. How do we loosen the belt and burdens from our body from the demands of our Mind. There is an easy way to open your belt or girdle channel, and you can do it by simply pressing two acupuncture points. The first point is TW.5 or SJ.5 or TH.5 (you can google it easily and find out)just above the wrist of both sides, and the other point is GB.41 on the foot of both sides. There may ways to work on these points, but you can simply do acupressure on them for 5 minutes, or you can massage them in circular motion with any oil you prefer. Only aim of acupuncture points is removed any kind of blockage, stagnation whether in the form of psycho-emotional or physiological.     

By, Dr Abid khan Acupuncturist