On Monday, January 12, Newtown Senior Center hosted “Three Acupoints For Balance in the Winter,” a program led by Michael Sabbarese. Sabbarese began the program by discussing a few ideologies of Chinese medicine, including chi, yin, and yang. He went down a list of feng shui associations for yin and yang.

“There’s two energetic forces that make up the one chi energy: the yin aspect and the yang aspect. Yin and yang are dualities, they’re opposites,” Sabbarese said. “Yin is more in, yang is more out. So in the body, yin would be things that are further in, and yang would things that are further out. It’s simple.”

Sabbarese continued to explain that in Chinese medicine, yin is considered “feminine” and yang is considered “masculine.” Yin is also more “powerful” and “dominant,” as Sabbarese pointed out. He continued to point out the associations and differences between the two. Yin is cool or cold, floral, ornate, horizontal, and is associated with the moon. Yang is warm or hot, geometrical, plain, vertical, and is associated with the sun. The distinctions between the two are vast — everything can be associated with the yin or yang.

However, as Sabbarese told the audience, “You can’t have pure yin, and you can’t have pure yang. So, within yin, there’s always going to be a little yang, and within yang there’s always going to be a little yin … Balancing yin and yang is what it’s about in Chinese medicine … If they’re balanced, or pretty much so, that’s health. It’s like in Western medicine: homeostasis. That’s health.”

Sabbarese also went over the five elements in Chinese medicine as well. Each element is associated with a season, organs in the body, environmental factor, taste, and color. There is a list of 13 correspondences for each element.

Winter is the season of water, and it corresponds with the kidneys, bladder, and bones. The emotion associated with this season is fear; the sound is deep sighing or groaning; the sensory organ is the ear; the taste is salty; the colors are blue or black; the direction is north; and the time of day is 3-7 pm.

“Water is the most yin time of year,” Sabbarese said. He explained that on the winter solstice, “the energy became the most yin that it could possibly be. Now when yin gets to be contracting, contracting, contracting, to the most that it can be, it can’t go anymore, it has to start expanding. It can’t contract anymore. So, at its extremes … yin becomes yang.”

Sabbarese said that this is why he believes water to be the beginning, because that is when “yang starts.”

He then went over the different associations. He drew an ear on the white board and said that the ear “kind of looks like a kidney.” Sabbarese also explained that environmental factors are known as “pernicious evils that invade the body” in Chinese medicine. Winter is obviously the cold, which is when people are more susceptible to respiratory illnesses and other sicknesses.

As he continued, Sabbarese emphasized resting during this time, drawing a direct comparison to nature. He said that plants rest until spring and tree sap flows to the bottom of the tree, so humans should rest and conserve energy, too.

Channel Meridians, Harnessing Chi, And Acupoints

Kidneys are the “powerhouse of the body,” according to Chinese medicine. Kidneys also store “prenatal chi,” or “jing,” and this is inherited from the parents. When other organs are running low on energy, the kidneys can send “jing” for extra support.

Some ways to support the kidneys are to do some Thai Chi movements, including slowly, but intentionally, stomping flat feet to the ground. Further kidney support can come from rubbing or massaging the ears in a flattening motion.

People can also support the kidneys by touching or interacting with chi through the kidney and bladder channel meridians — water channels.

“There’s meridians in the body, the channels. They’re like blood vessels but they’re not blood vessels. They’re energy channels in the body, and this chi that we get that keeps us alive, this life force, travels all around the body through these channels,” Sabbarese said.

The kidney channel starts at the bottom of the feet, right between the balls of the foot. Then it travels up the inside of the leg, up the front of the body, and stops right near the collarbones. The bladder channel starts at the nose, goes up the front of the face and over the head, and then down the back of the body, ending at the edge of the pinky toe.

As Sabbarese pointed out, sometimes there are “clogs” in these energy channels. That is where acupressure comes in. Simply massaging acupressure points in the body can stimulate chi and alleviate clogs in the channel meridians. Sabbarese discussed three points specifically during his presentation.

The first is called “Kidney 1.” This point is in the center of the foot, between the two balls of the foot. Using a tennis ball or lacrosse ball to massage this area is highly effective.

The second point is “Bladder 23.” This point is on the lower back at the height of the waist on both sides of the spine. In Thai Chi, some instructors suggest lightly knocking the area to stimulate the chi here, but massaging the area will work, too. People who massage this acupoint should do so until it “glows.”

The third acupoint Sabbarese discussed is “Kidney 3.” This point is located on the inside of the ankles, between the thickest part and the Achilles tendon. Giving a circular massage or gentle pressure with warm thumbs can help stimulate chi.

Audra Mace, a Thai Chi instructor at Newtown Senior and Community Centers, also gave the audience some suggestions for harnessing chi. She first instructed the audience to imagine bathing themselves in healing water, breathing in and out. She then traced the channel meridians that Sabbarese discussed.

After a few traces of these channels, she then “[rode] the wave” of energy, moving her arms in a circular motion, imagining the ebb and flow of waves. All of these motions harness or stimulate chi throughout the body.

Following the brief demonstration, Sabberese mentioned he hopes to return for a presentation about spring, which is associated with wood, as well as the liver and gallbladder in the body.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.