Feeling stressed, anxious, or just plain stuck? What if the key to new levels of wellbeing was literally at your fingertips? Discover the ancient wisdom of meridians with our free printable 12 meridians chart. With this knowledge, along with a simple technique called Tapping, you can transform your health in ways you never thought possible.
Whether you’re curious about alternative healing, looking to enhance your EFT Tapping practice, or simply want to understand your body better, this downloadable meridian chart will help you use the power of your body’s energy system.
We've written a full, honest explainer on what EFT tapping actually is if you want the deeper dive.
Printable 12 Meridians Chart
Click below to download the printable PDF of this 12 meridian chart:
Understanding the 12 Meridians
In traditional Chinese medicine, meridians are believed to be the pathways through which life energy, or “qi”, flows throughout the body. There are 12 primary meridians, each associated with a specific organ system:
- Small Intestine Meridian
- Stomach Meridian
- Spleen Meridian
- Lung Meridian
- Heart Meridian
- Bladder Meridian
- Kidney Meridian
- Liver Meridian
- Large Intestine Meridian
- Pericardium Meridian
- Triple Warmer Meridian
- Gallbladder Meridian
These meridians exist in symmetrical pairs, with channels running along both sides of the body. By understanding these pathways, practitioners of acupuncture, acupressure, EFT Tapping, and other energy healing modalities can help balance the body’s energy, regulate the nervous system, and promote healing in mind and body.
Along each meridian are specific points known as acupressure or acupoints. These points are where practitioners can stimulate the meridians to promote healing.
Here’s a chart of the main acupressure points used in EFT Tapping:
Go here for a comprehensive guide to the meridian points used in EFT Tapping.
Free. The best place to start.
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Join the free summitPutting it into Practice with EFT Tapping
Understanding meridians and acupressure points can be beneficial in many ways, especially when applied through techniques like EFT Tapping.
EFT Tapping is a powerful stress-relief technique that combines ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology. By tapping on specific meridian endpoints with your fingertips while focusing on particular issues, you can help alleviate stress, anxiety, pain, and other emotional or physical discomforts.
Go here to learn the basics of EFT Tapping, and give it a tray with this Tapping for Stress Relief meditation script you can use right now.
To learn more about how to incorporate Tapping into your daily routine, check out The Tapping Solution App, where you’ll find hundreds of guided Tapping sessions on a wide range of topics, from pain relief to sleep support, emotional freedom, anxiety relief, and more.Download the app for free today to get started!
- Instantly reduce anxiety and stress
- Fall asleep faster and sleep better
- Boost productivity, stay motivated
- Relieve chronic or occasional pain
- Release anger, find peace
Until next time… Keep Tapping!
Nick Ortner
The 12 Meridians at a Glance
Here's the full map in one table: which organ system each meridian is tied to, its element and yin or yang type, its peak time on the 24-hour meridian clock, roughly where it runs on the body, and whether one of the 9 EFT tapping points sits on it.
| Meridian | Yin / Yang | Element | Peak time | Where it runs | Tapping point on it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lung | Yin | Metal | 3 to 5am | Chest to the thumb, along the inside of the arm | N/A |
| Large Intestine | Yang | Metal | 5 to 7am | Hand to the nose, along the outside of the arm and shoulder | N/A |
| Stomach | Yang | Earth | 7 to 9am | Face down through the chest and belly to the second toe | Under the eye |
| Spleen | Yin | Earth | 9 to 11am | Big toe up the inside of the leg to the chest | Under the arm |
| Heart | Yin | Fire | 11am to 1pm | Armpit down the inside of the arm to the little finger | N/A |
| Small Intestine | Yang | Fire | 1 to 3pm | Little finger up the arm, across the shoulder blade, to the ear | Karate chop (side of the hand) |
| Bladder | Yang | Water | 3 to 5pm | The longest meridian: head down the back in two lines to the little toe | Eyebrow |
| Kidney | Yin | Water | 5 to 7pm | Little toe up the inside of the leg to the collarbone | Collarbone |
| Pericardium | Yin | Fire | 7 to 9pm | Chest down the inside of the arm to the middle finger | N/A |
| Triple Warmer | Yang | Fire | 9 to 11pm | Ring finger up the back of the arm to the eyebrow | N/A |
| Gallbladder | Yang | Wood | 11pm to 1am | Zigzags across the side of the head, then down the outside of the leg | Side of the eye |
| Liver | Yin | Wood | 1 to 3am | Big toe up the inside of the leg, across the belly and ribs, to the forehead | N/A |
The under-nose, chin, and top-of-head tapping points sit on the governing and central vessels, two extra pathways in Chinese medicine that aren't counted among the 12 main meridians, which is why they don't have a row above.
How the 12 Meridians Connect to Tapping
EFT Tapping borrows its points from this same map. The 9 points you tap through in a round, shown in full on our tapping points chart, sit on a handful of these 12 meridians: the eyebrow point on the bladder meridian, the side of the eye on the gallbladder meridian, under the eye on the stomach meridian, the collarbone point on the kidney meridian, under the arm on the spleen meridian, and the karate chop point on the small intestine meridian.
I want to be clear about what this does and doesn't mean. The 12 meridians are a traditional Chinese medicine model, thousands of years old, and they're not something you can see on an X-ray. Tapping uses these points because that tradition mapped them out long before modern science existed, and the practice has simply carried the map forward. If you want to go deeper on one meridian specifically, we've written a full guide to the gallbladder meridian points, which sits right at the side-of-the-eye tapping point.
How to Use the Chart
- Download and print the PDF. Use the download button near the top of this page. It's free, no email required.
- Find the meridian tied to what you're feeling. Use the table above. Frustration and worry are often linked to the bladder meridian, anger to the gallbladder, anxiety to the stomach meridian, and so on.
- Check whether a tapping point sits on that meridian. Six of the 9 points do. If yours does, you can start your round there and work through the rest as usual.
- Tap a full round while naming what's there. Say what you're feeling as you go. If you want the exact words, our tapping phrases guide gives you ready-to-use lines for stress, pain, sleep, and more.
What Our Data Shows
Inside The Tapping Solution App, people rate how they feel from 0 to 10 before and after every session. We've now measured that across more than 18 million sessions.
The clearest outside look at what that adds up to is a peer-reviewed study of 270,461 App users (Church & Stapleton, 2020, JMIR mHealth and uHealth). It found anxiety dropped 44% and stress dropped 45%, on average, in a single session. That's what tapping does. It measures the outcome when people use the points that trace back to the meridians.
If you want to feel that for yourself, try a free tapping session in the app right now.
12 Meridians Chart: Your Questions, Answered
What are the 12 meridians?
They're the 12 main energy pathways mapped out in traditional Chinese medicine, each one linked to an organ system: lung, large intestine, stomach, spleen, heart, small intestine, bladder, kidney, pericardium, triple warmer, gallbladder, and liver. Acupuncture, acupressure, and EFT Tapping all draw on this same map. The chart above shows all 12 in one place.
What is the meridian clock?
It's the idea that each of the 12 meridians has a two-hour window in the 24-hour day when its energy is said to peak, starting with the lung meridian at 3 to 5am and cycling through all 12 in order. Practitioners use it to explain patterns, like why you might wake at the same time each night. It's a traditional framework, not a medical diagnosis tool.
Which tapping points are on which meridians?
A few of the 9 EFT points sit right on specific meridians: the eyebrow point is on the bladder meridian, the side of the eye is on the gallbladder meridian, under the eye is on the stomach meridian, the collarbone point is on the kidney meridian, under the arm is on the spleen meridian, and the karate chop point is on the small intestine meridian. The under-nose, chin, and top-of-head points connect to the governing and central vessels, which run through the meridian system but aren't counted among the 12.
Do you need to know the meridians to tap?
No. You can tap the 9 points in order without knowing a single meridian name and it works the same way. I like knowing the meridian map because it explains where the tradition behind these points comes from, but it's background, not a requirement.
Is there a free printable meridian chart?
Yes. The download link above gives you the full 12 meridians chart as a PDF, no email required. Print it, or keep it open on your phone next to the 9 tapping points chart.
Are meridians scientifically proven?
Meridians come from a traditional model of the body, not modern anatomy, so no. What we do measure is what happens when people tap. A peer-reviewed study of 270,461 App users found anxiety dropped 44% and stress dropped 45% in a single session (Church & Stapleton, 2020, JMIR mHealth and uHealth). That's the outcome, not proof of the meridian itself.
