Ever since I first encountered Chinese Medicine, back in the way dark ages of the early ’80s, it has been an amazing road map to the world around me.
I found it fascinating that this system could help me with my PMS and menstrual issues that western doctors hadn’t even bothered to investigate at that point. (This was before we started hearing about PMS.) In addition to getting rid of my symptoms, I began to understand what CAUSED my conditions. I began to glimpse the awareness that I could actually change the underlying condition; that I had a voice in my own health and healing.
Through the years of learning more about body/mind healing, the map Chinese Medicine has provided helps me to weather the storms of life. It gives me the tools to help patients heal and to provide them with the power to change their own conditions.
For example: while we are close to summer, technically we are still in the season of spring. In the 5 Element theory of Chinese Medicine, spring is considered the Wood element and corresponds with the Liver and Gall Bladder organ/meridians. The energy of spring pushes outward and upward, just as plants do at this time of year. This force is the power which enables us to overcome obstacles and move into new life.
When the Wood element is healthy and balanced we can be creative when faced with obstacles, just as plants grow around rocks and through pavement cracks. However, most of us have experiences in our past that created restrictions in our life energy. We were told we were too exuberant, too aggressive, too energetic, too something, and so we began curtailing our Wood energy. Consequently, when faced with obstacles, instead of being creative, we keep trying the same responses to the situation, which have us battering ourselves against the obstacle. Sometimes that works in life, but many times it leads to irritability and frustration, and later to anger and rage.
When we start to see our irritability and frustration as a warning signal that we are going down an old pattern and stop the behavior, we have the opportunity to try a different way. This isn’t always easy. I encountered the issue today when I called about an order I placed last week that still has not been fulfilled. I could feel the frustration rising as I left a message (why can’t one ever reach a human being??? I groused). Great, no results and irritability lingering on. Writing this blog reminded me: there are always a lot of ways to grow, the difference we as humans have from plants, is that we have choice about HOW we grow. Today my question is: how can I get out of my old pattern of irritability and possibly see the situation in a different light so I can follow-up on the order with different energy? After all, I’m the one living with the irritation inside me, and wouldn’t be be easier not to have it?
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