If you’re right-handed, you probably wear a watch on your left wrist. You might consider switching, however, when you consider the impact that your watch’s battery can have on the health of your heart meridian and, ultimately, on your heart.
What is the Heart Meridian?
The heart is one of the 14 major organs and systems in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Each of these organs has a corresponding meridian, a line of energy flow through the body that becomes strong or weak in tandem with that body part. In healing a weakened organ, the energy of the related meridian is used both to diagnose the health of the body and as a means to begin to strengthen it.
The meridian system has been used and translated into dozens of different energy healing techniques (including energy psychology, Energy Medicine, Touch for Health, Brain Gym, and accupuncture) because the approach is so effective.
How Does a Watch Battery Affect the Meridian?
The meridians are subtle energy structures and can be very sensitive to the objects and materials that surround our bodies. Magnets and other metals, in particular, are known to affect the energy of the meridians.
Wearing any piece of jewelry for long can bring on fatigue or have the opposite effect and make the wearer over-energized. Some people are so sensitive that they have to remove earrings or other jewelry after only a few minutes, because the metal charges with their energy and begins to affect the way they feel. Glasses with metal frames can have tiny holes drilled at the end of the “arms” to discharge energy, but that can’t be done to most decorative jewelry or to watches.
Anything that crosses over a meridian is likely to affect it. 6 of the 14 meridians have paths that run down the arms and fingers, so bracelets, rings, and watches all have the potential to affect these lines of energy. Watches are especially a hazard because of their batteries and the mechanical motion, both of which have the potential to disrupt the normal flow of meridian energy.
Why is the Heart Meridian, in Particular, at Risk?
Because the heart has its own rhythm and our very life depends on it not being disrupted, most healing approaches that use meridians are very cautious of anything that may affect the heart meridian.
A watch’s mechanical motion is mildly disruptive, but watch batteries, with their intense electromagnetic charges, can be very hazardous to the steady flow of energy in a meridian - especially for people whose hearts are weak or who know they are at risk for a heart attack or other circulatory problems.
The heart meridian occurs on both sides of the body, so it runs down both arms and hands. The heart meridian on the left side, however, is the more significant because of the position of the heart in the left side of the chest cavity.
Solutions to the watch-battery energy dilemma
- You may have heard of people whose bodies make watches stop. They can put on a watch and within seconds, minutes or days, the watch stops running. People like this have one of the solutions spelled out for them: Don’t wear a watch. It’s easy to rely on wall clocks or a cell phone timer instead.
- Alternately, there are some watches available that need to be wound or that wind themselves based on movement. These watches are a safe alternative for most people that won’t disrupt the heart.
- If you absolutely must wear a battery-operated watch, wear it on your right wrist.
Related articles: What are Meridians? and Sedating the Triple Warmer Meridian
Victoria Anisman-Reiner - Victoria Anisman-Reiner is a freelance writer with extensive experience in holistic health care and animal training.
Join the Conversation