Gallbladder 34 (Yang Ling Quan or Yang Mound Spring) is hands down one of my favorite points, and I use it in almost every treatment in the clinic. Not only is this point located in an easy to needle and relatively pain free location, it is also in an area where qi seems to get easily congested. It is very rare that I find a patient who qi is rushing along unimpeded through GB34 and I have some theories about why this is the case.
First, let’s talk about pain and inflammation. As the influential point of the sinews and ligaments, GB34 is a ringer for treating these conditions all along this channel’s very long pathway that zigzags down the side of the body from head to toe. It is amazing at treating sciatica, marvelous for temporal headaches, and for jaw tension, neck / shoulder pain, and hip / knee pain…..it is great, grand, and glorious. I think you can see what I’m getting at here. As most patients come in with some complaint of body pain this is a VERY handy point.
Another thing I think leads to the gallbladder channel’s stickiness is its energetic job as the judge or the decision maker. In our fast paced world we are constantly bombarded with information we must sort through (hello, small intestine channel) and eventually make a decision about (yay gallbladder channel). I think culturally we all suffer from chronic decision fatigue and it’s showing up in our qi. Decision fatigue can lead to self doubt, anxiety, analysis paralysis, and hasty / poor decision making. Luckily, GB34 can be a great point to treat these issues as it is an earth point on a wood channel. Being grounded in earth and flexible in wood is a great place to make decisions from. Plus this point is just strong and really gets the qi flowing.
Sometimes when I am feeling really stressed out I get a strong sensation of tension in the GB34 area. When this happens I know it is time to do 2 things: One, move my gallbladder qi. I either do this by getting some acupuncture, or taking my knuckles and scrubbing the GB34 area with them. Sometimes I get a nice little qi waterfall running down my leg after this. Two, take a mindfulness break. Nature is my jam, so putting down whatever I am doing and taking some time to go for a walk or just stare at some nature (a tree blowing in the wind, moving clouds, rolling waves, etc.) can be a great reset. Doing something that requires little to no thought is a real no brainer in these situations (pun intended).
If you feel like your gallbladder qi could use a little scrub come on in and we will take good care of you. You can even practice some mindfulness while you are resting for a double whammy, I know the great decider will appreciate that too!