How to Achieve Proper Fluid Movement in the Body for Health and Beauty: Part One

The body is full of fluids. We get a sense of how complex and extensive the major fluid circulation system is when we learn that it contains ten billion capillaries extending in all the body tissues. Over 70% of our body weight is from fluids. Only a small part of it, arterial and venous blood, is tightly channeled and activated by the heart, a relentless pump-like organ. Water and lymph are more ambient and less channeled. They are activated only indirectly by breathing and movement. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), there are five major and critical fluids. Each one depends on the energy corresponding to one of the five elements. Four of the fluids are clearly matter (red blood, blue blood, lymph and water), but the fluid of the Wood element is simply energy. You could say it is the energy of the energy. Without Wood energy nothing happens! That is why, in any series of treatments, in TCM esthetics, the Wood treatment is the first one we do. It ensures that the initiating energy is balanced before going on to the other four fluids.

The five fluids are:

For Wood: Energy

For Fire: Red (arterial) blood

For Earth: Lymph

For Metal: Blue (venous) blood

For Water: Water

The proper flow of fluids depends on the proper flow of energy. Proper fluid movement is of major importance both for health and esthetics.