Loving our Breasts
– the wings of our Heart
Here is my gift to you for the New Year - thoughts and a video on how to love yourself more!
How many women, and indeed men, truly love their breasts and touch them with love and tenderness as an important part of their body? How much is breast massage included as part of a massage or shiatsu session and are exercises for our breasts included in our exercise routines? The answer sadly is, there is not so much love or connection. I would like to change this and would like to share with you my perspective on how we can become more loving and supportive of our breasts.
Some of this is through connecting with our Heart along with the Penetrating Vessel of Chinese medicine. I like to see them as wings protecting our heart. I have made a video of the exercises.
Our culture’s attitude to breasts
Our culture has a strange attitude to breasts. Female breasts have become highly eroticised, ubiquitously shown in porn, yet bare breasts, especially the nipples, are often censored on social media. Although it is a legal right in most countries for women to breastfeed their baby in public, many women experience disapproval and feel uncomfortable, even though, at this Christmas time of year, we see many images of the nursing Madonna.
Many women are unhappy with the size and shape of their breasts, and have either breast reduction or breast enlargement surgery. A lot of women only connect with their breasts to look for lumps as a potential sign of breast cancer, although most breast lumps are not cancerous. Breast cancer rates are rising worldwide, and it is the world’s most prevalent cancer even affecting men (around 0.5 to 1% of them). This rise is probably due to the usual culprits, such as smoking, obesity, alcohol and toxins in the environment, along with low levels of long term breastfeeding. Breastfeeding gives some protection against breast cancer, more depending on how many children you feed and long for. Men can’t breastfeed naturally because their body is not designed for that, although in certain situations (diseases affecting their hormonal system or liver) they may produce some breast milk.
My view of our breasts
I like to see our breasts as like the wings protecting our heart. They help protect our heart when they are closed in, but when they open up, we can open our heart out to others both to give and receive. I developed this image, through my work with the Extraordinary Vessels of Chinese medicine. First I loved the image of the Linking Vessels being our outer wings (YT video) which help us open up to space and fly like a bird. Then I realised that the branches of the Penetrating Vessel which flow through our breasts are like the inner wings of our heart.
Ideas to connect with your breasts
Exercises
I have posted a video of some exercises on YouTube.
YouTube Link
These movements help you connect with them more, as well as opening your heart to help with good flow in this part of our body. These can be good for anyone to explore, whatever age or indeed sex you are.
Feel what your breasts mean to you. How much do your breasts feel like wings protecting your heart? How much do you want to open up to others? How much do you love your breasts?
The key aspects of these movements are to connect our Heart with the other 3 core organs of our Extraordinary Vessels. These are our Brain, which of course links with our nervous system, hormones and spinal structures but also with space. Our Kidneys, connect with our physical kidneys (which are higher) as well as our lower back, our past and ancestors. Our reproductive/sexual organs are our Palaces and the source of our creativity.
I like to make a figure of 8 movement around the breasts and gently massage them both towards and away from the nipples. You can also connect with the Penetrating Vessel branches, which start at the Kidney line in the chest (2 thumb-widths from the midline) fanning out into our arm pit. You can work towards the armpit whose centre is the first point of the Heart (HT1) or move from HT1 back to the Kidney points and then connect to the centre line of the Conception Vessel. You can feel these inner wings, but also then feel the outer wings of the Linking Vessels and open even more into space. I like to also include some pumping of the arms, because this frees up the Heart area, but also supports the movement of the lymphatic system. Our lymphatic system is vital to support good health of the breasts.
I’d love to hear how you get on with these exercises and also any thoughts you might have regarding your breasts or how breasts are seen in our cultures.
