04/30/2026
Why is martial arts so important to me as an acupuncturist?
This is a hard question to answer because the fact is there are so many reasons. Chinese medicine and martial arts radically changed the way I live and feel in my body. But I’ll try to be brief.
In another post I spoke briefly about the concept of Li 理, which refers to an inherent pattern that an object has, like the grain of a piece of wood or jade. As humans we also have Li 理. We are all organized around the same essential pattern as one another.
When I do Taiji, I work hard to align my whole structure and feel how everything connects. When I move, sometimes I move slowly, so I can attempt to synchronize all the parts of my body. Sometimes I move quickly, and I feel which parts are lagging behind. And sometimes I just stand there and try to feel what is happening in my body. I try new things and observe how it affects my physiology.
And while all of this puts me in touch with my own body and makes me better able to be present in my life and in my work, it also gives me some insights into how my body works, and how bodies work in general. It gives me insight into the Li 理, the pattern of being a human being.
Ming dynasty physician Li Shizhen said, “If we do not trace the path of the channels by turning our gaze inward and observing them internally, then we will have a difficult time even saying where they are.”
And ultimately, I’m confident that whatever small amount of understanding I have achieved so far about how human physiology is organized, I would not understand half as much if I didn’t have a physical practice to back it up.
