Acupuncture & Flow

As a Chinese Medicine practitioner I often find myself speaking of flow.  We try to find words to explain as best as possible what we know to be true in our experience, and for me the way to healing ultimately is to be in flow.  But what exactly does that mean?

Chinese Medicine originated over 3,000 years ago and it's understanding is tied to the ancient Taoist tradition which is translated as 'The Way'.  The way in Taoism cannot be explained in words as it is based on life's ebbs and flows which can only be experienced.  But here I am going to give it a go for the sake of translating what I have learned and experienced in watching my patients on their healing journey.  

The way, also known as 'Wu Wei' is the golden path where everything is effortless and perfect.  Yes, there is perfection here on earth and it's called 'nature' - that is, the way it was designed before obstacles or abnormal intervention.  Nature is designed with everything in mind.  It has perfect timing, perfect temperature, perfect growth - in it's ideal state.  But when obstacles arise - pollution, harm, interference, a lack of living by nature's rules - then disharmony occurs.  Although by design it's perfect, nature is so delicately interwoven that all parts need to work in unison for it to play out it's ultimate destiny.  

Such is our body - which is a part of the whole.  We see inside ourselves what we can also witness without.  We no longer are in sync with the light of nature since creating our own artificial light - and then we ask why there is such a huge epidemic of insomnia in modern times.  Our man made signals are causing us imbalance that we don't even perceive to be happening - partly because we've become so accustom to being in a dazed state due to overstimulation.  Our minds can only take so much information and then in order to deal with this properly we need to tune some of it out.  So we get used to tuning life out and then wonder why time speeds up these days.  I used to think it was just age until I began speaking with kids who also feel that time is going so fast.  If you asked me when I was their age when all these devices didn't exist, I would have said that a year felt like forever.

This is not to sound pessimistic, but in order to achieve balance we need to take an honest look at what is happening and why.  

So when people get out of balance, they develop symptoms, and that is usually when my phone rings.  The question that I get most often is 'Does acupuncture treat (insert symptom / condition)' and my answer is almost always the same.  So long as the condition is not so far along that it needs immediate medical intervention, my job is to figure out how I can create a condition in my patient's body which is optimal for healing.  My ultimate goal, is to encourage the body's own natural flow.

That job is not always easy, and at times it takes a lot of tries (because every 'body' responds differently to the many tools we have in Chinese Medicine).  Eventually, practitioners can figure out a way to hone in on the patient's pattern and work through their imbalance in order to restore harmony.  And when that happens, we get to witness what many consider to be miracles.  

But you have the power to restore harmony in your own body.  You can begin to live a life that is more harmonious with nature.  Taking walks during the day, abstaining from using devices or watching TV late at night, eating fruits and vegetables that are in season, and meditation are just a few examples of ways that you can create flow in your own life.  Since we can't change the ways of our modern life, we can still change our own behaviors to create homeostasis in our health.  Adopting this practice is vital in order to create lasting health and well being.  You are certainly worth the effort!  

Photo by Igor Ovsyannykov on Unsplash

Our Body's Climate

One may observe that when the weather becomes excessively moist, dry, hot, windy, or cold that they suddenly feel their joints ache or a headache come on.  While one person may find their asthma gets worse in dry weather, another person's asthma disappears completely in response to dry weather.

The ancients in China may have been onto something when they concluded that our bodies are no less than an extension of nature.  And just like nature has climates and experiences of extremes, so do our bodies.

One of the best clues into figuring out a patient's climate is asking if they notice changes during extreme weather.  For instance, people who suffer from headaches may notice that their symptoms get worse when it rains.  Those individuals may get headaches because of too much damp accumulation in the body.  Other people may have the same exact symptoms, but note that they get headaches when the weather gets cold.  Those individuals might lack the heat needed to protect them from the cold and as a response get headaches as their body reacts to the low temperature.  Arthritis can flare up during a cold front, humid weather, or heat spells depending on the type of arthritis they have as classified in Chinese medical terms.  

So now that we've figured out what climate is causing the problem, how do we address it?  We can certainly address it with acupuncture because it will help get the body's energy and blood moving which will make anyone feel better.  But for a deeper way to address the body's climate, we'd have to turn to the Chinese medical pharmacy - herbs and formulas.  

Herbs are organized in categories of what they do to the body.  They cool, heat, moisten, dry, and resolve toxins.  They also move and tonify qi and blood.  Herbs are very powerful in harmonizing the body's climate.  They also need to be used with caution because creating balance is a very delicate process that needs much insight and perceptivity.  

So if a person show's a lot of signs of dampness, they are prescribed herbs and formulas that work to clear the dampness in the body.   

As the yin yang symbol so beautifully symbolizes, the goal of Chinese Medicine is to create a harmonious balance in the body's climate which is compatible with life and well being.  

Chinese Organs do what?!?

If you have ever had an acupuncture treatment you may have heard the following:  ‘Chinese liver moves your qi’ or ‘Chinese kidney affects your fear’.  Chinese liver who?  If you have grown up in any country outside of Asia, chances are that human organs mean something completely different to you.  You need not go to medical school to have a basic knowledge of the western medicine view of organ function.  These basic functions are sometimes taught as early as kindergarten which makes it that much more ingrained in our paradigm.  So what do Chinese organs do anyway?

Each organ in TCM has an element, color, emotion, season, and is paired with another organ.  The organs and their pairs are as follows:  Kidney - Urinary Bladder, Liver - Gallbladder, Heart - Small intestine, Spleen - Stomach, Lung - Large Intestine, Pericardium - Triple burner.

It all begins in the kidneys, where, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine or TCM all qi or energy originates.  The kidneys are where we store our pre and post heaven essence and qi.  In other words, all that we inherit from our parents is pre heaven, and all that we cultivate from diet and lifestyle is post heaven.  The kidneys’ element is water, their color is black, and fear their emotion.  The season for the kidneys is winter.  The kidneys are also very important organ for growth, development, and reproduction.

The Liver is in charge of the free flow of qi in the body.  In other words, the energy should run efficiently without any interruptions to ensure that all the organs function in a harmonious way so that the machine that is the human body works optimally.  When people feel stressed or overly emotional, the liver’s qi becomes stagnant and it’s normal flow is interrupted.  The liver’s element is wood, color is green, and anger its’ emotion.  The season for the liver is spring.  The liver also stores blood while resting so taking time out to rest ensures that the body gets a fresh and nourished flow of blood from the liver.

The Heart controls the blood vessels.  It needs a proper amount of blood to nourish it in order to perform its’ best.  The heart houses the mind, therefore a healthy functioning heart will support a healthy mind and emotional state, while an impaired heart can cause mental disturbance.  Fire is the heart’s element, red it’s color, and joy is it’s emotion.  The heart’s season is summer.  Although joy is something that in the west we cannot get enough of, TCM perceives too much joy as something that can injure the heart.

The Spleen is in charge of transportation and transformation in regards to the body’s digestive system.  It works closely with the stomach’s functions to break down food nutrients and nourish the body.  It also breaks down digestion so that the nutrients can be absorbed and nourish the blood.  While the kidneys are considered to be the root of pre heaven qi, the spleen is the root of post heaven qi both of which are stored in the kidneys.  The Spleen element is earth, it’s color is yellow, and emotion is pensiveness and overthinking.  The season for spleen is late summer, a time which is more damp and warm.  It is said that while a weak spleen can give rise to overthinking, overthinking can also give rise to a weak spleen.

The Pericardium is tied closely to the heart’s role describe above and it’s pair organ is not really an organ but a function.  The triple burner is a warming function that occurs from the upper to lower burner.  The areas and functions are as follows: the upper burner distributes fluids all over the body (lungs, heart, pericardium), the middle burner where digestion takes place (spleen, stomach, gallbladder), and the lower burner where the body separates the clean from the dirty (Liver, kidneys, intestines, bladder).

Given what has been described above, the organs take on a whole new meaning to what most of us have been taught here in the west.  It is interesting to note that in TCM, physical and emotional aspects of each organs are one and the same.  This is why many claim that when going to an acupuncturist to fix one symptom, they come out also resolving a few other seemingly unrelated symptoms.