The Damp Kindling
the heavy (damp) type
The fire is willing — the wood is wet.
Flames shift with seasons and life — re-read yours when the weather turns.
Heavy limbs, a foggy head, bloating that settles in after meals, everything a little worse in damp weather. The tradition calls this dampness — the body's fluids pooling where they should flow, smothering the digestive fire like wet wood on a willing flame. Warmth dries the kindling: warm the middle, strengthen the fire, open the drain.
Sounds like you?
- Bloating with heavy limbs and foggy head?
- Better with warmth, worse with cold/raw food?
- Sleepy after meals?
Your Three Lines
Your points · your rhythm · your don’ts. Print this; it’s yours.
Zhongwan · REN12
Conception Vessel (Rèn Mài)
Find it: Halfway between navel and bottom tip of breastbone — 4 finger-widths above the navel, midline.
Dose: 1 unit
Shenque · REN8
Conception Vessel (Rèn Mài)
Find it: The navel; base rests flat ACROSS it, never anything inside it.
Dose: 1 unit
Zusanli · ST36
Stomach channel
Find it: 4 finger-widths below the kneecap, 1 thumb-width toward the outer shin, in the muscle beside the bone; flex the foot and the muscle rises.
Dose: 1 unit per leg
Yinlingquan · SP9
Spleen channel
Find it: Slide a thumb up the inner shinbone edge until it stops in the hollow below the knee's inner knob.
Dose: 1 unit per leg
Your rhythm: 30–60 min after the main meal, 2–3×/week; warm water after.
Your don’ts: The navel point (REN8) rests flat across the navel — never anything inside it. Go easy on cold and raw food while you practice. Pregnant? No moxa at all for now.
Why these points, together
Warm the middle, open the drain. Zhongwan (REN12) on the Conception Vessel “warms and moves spleen yang and supplements the centre” (Zhen Jiu Zi Sheng Jing); Shenque (REN8), the navel, is the strongest warming point in the tradition for a cold, damp gut; Zusanli (ST36) rebuilds the digestive fire; and Yinlingquan (SP9) on the Spleen channel is the point that drains the dampness itself. Fire and drainage together — that's how wet wood finally catches.
Before any session — skip moxa today if 2 or more are yes:
- Do you currently have a fever or feel feverish?
- Do you crave cold drinks and feel hot most of the day?
- Do you get night sweats or wake feeling hot?
- Is the painful area red, hot, or swollen to the touch?
And always: pregnant means no moxa at all for now.
What the tradition says
The tradition would read this as dampness on a weak digestive fire — the body's fluids pooling where they should flow, like wet wood laid on a willing flame. Dampness is excessive yin; warmth creates the environment where it cannot settle. The classical strategy has three moves: warm the middle, strengthen the fire, open the drain.
Timing matters more for this flame than any other: the session belongs after the main meal, when the digestive fire needs the support. Go easy on cold and raw food while you practice — iced drinks are rain on the kindling. The heaviness lifts the way fog does: not all at once, and then you notice it's gone.
Point selections and channel logic here follow classical moxibustion literature — chiefly Illustrated Chinese Moxibustion: Techniques and Methods (Singing Dragon) — with the safety spine informed by Xu, Deng & Shen (2014), Safety of Moxibustion: A Systematic Review of Case Reports.
Your first 7 warm nights, guided
The reading is free — the practice is the product. The Flow Temple kit + 7-day guided course walks you through your points, on your body, five minutes a night.
The 7-Day Flow Reset →TCM concepts are presented as a traditional wellness framework, not as biomedical fact. If symptoms are new, severe, or persistent, see a doctor.