Modern day society is a demanding place to live in with a lot of overwhelming things to choose from.
To protect ourselves against stress, nature has provided us with a build in stress defender; an energy pathway that runs through the body and transports the flow of energy. This particular transport system goes by the name of Triple Warmer. It jumps to attention when danger threatens to invade our lives.
Triple warmer stems from the days we were living as hunter and gatherers and needed an adrenaline boost when a sabertooth tiger was threatening to attack us or when we needed some extra energy power to go on a mammoth hunt.
Between then, 10.000 years ago and present day life, Triple Warmer basically still functions the same. The thing is though, the sabertooth tiger has become extinct and we get our mammoth in the supermarkets these days. Triple Warmer however is still there, waiting to fight off foreign invaders and dangers. It regards a lot of what is taking place in our lives these days as reason to be on guard, such as:
- artificial sweeteners, preservatives; colorings in our foods;
- overcrowded public transport
- mail from the tax office
- toxic relationships
- financial challenges
- constant exposure to pollution (both visible as invisible, such as electromagnetic radiation from wireless systems/cellphones/computers
- breaking news of natural disasters. terrorist attacks; even when they happen way beyond your doorstep
Next to that; the big difference between our hunter and gatherer days and our present day and age is that in the old days the
mammoth at some point would have been hunted down and be roasting on an open fire. The sabertooth would have gone back to its den. Triple warmer, at some point, would have switched itself off and would have taken a break.
Our modern day lives however provide very little of such downtime. Today’s hunter and gatherers are constantly pressured to achieve things; meet the costs of living, watch breaking news from all over the world. Without us even noticing it, our bodies are on the alert 24/7. As a result the Triple Warmer meridian is constantly drawing energy from the general supply of the body; as such depleting the other energy pathways of other bodily functions. Worst case scenario, this can lead to burn out.
The good news is that once you become aware of this process you can take conscious steps to de-stress. Grounding exercises, yoga, tai chi, qi gong, nature walks; tv-less nights; conscious cooking; mindful living, they all help you to unwind and signal TW to relax and be cool.
Ingrid Schippers, 06-02-2018
Click on the card to learn more about its background
The spoken version of this blog, features as end note on ‘Dutchbuzz’, the radio hour for Internationals every Tuesday from 10 to 11 pm on ‘Den Haag FM and can be found in the Programme Archive of the Dutchbuzz podcasts, dated February 06, 2018.
More on the meridians and their pathways can be found in the blog of June 18, 2017: meridians and their affirmations.
