When you follow the teachings of the Tao, you live more observantly. You pay closer attention to the little things inside your universe, such as how deeply you are breathing. You also pay closer attention to things throughout nature - blossoms and ant colonies and the wonders of the night sky. By doing so you stay conscious that all of life is indeed miraculous and you begin to relate to it from a place of purity and wonder.
When you live according to the principles of Chinese medicine, you become more internally aware so you can more clearly see ways in which you might be stuck in unhealthy patterns of behavior. This recognition lets you shift the patterns into new, healthier ones that are in sync with your higher awareness.
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Understanding Your Energy Sources
Anything that gets in the way of experiencing life in all its Divine aspects is considered by Chinese medicine practitioners to be an imbalance - and in many ways our society has become quite imbalanced. Instead of being attentive to the eternal, endless abundance that is within us, we are conditioned to pay attention to our aches and pains, to the news media, to negativity, to all the stressful actions that demand our immediate attention. This conditioning causes the mind to gradually close to the positive and the creative and forget the wonders of our universe. This has led to limited creative opportunity in schools and dwindling support for the arts. And being disconnected from the creative stream just leads back to further imbalance.
This post will give you tools to explore and identify whether any of the five expressions of energy are out of balance in your body. The following posts focus on unblocking those energies, finding balance, and resuming living in a harmonious state.
Energy imbalances upset the mind-body-spirit complex and create stress, hormonal imbalances, fatigue, unhappiness, infertility, and internal discord, all of which cause "dis-ease:' But practitioners of Eastern philosophy don't believe in fighting disease - disease is not considered an enemy. Instead, disease is overcome by raising energy vibrations to a level at which the disease can no longer manifest and falls away on its own.
This process begins by paying attention to symptoms of disharmony. Every little discomfort in your body, every disturbing thought, every so-called negative emotion is a knock at the door of your awareness that says, "Pay attention," which you must do. Unheeded warnings can become stronger and stronger. A bit of tension in the neck can lead to headaches, to an eventual stroke, even death. Getting Pregnant Is Hard
In Western medicine, pathology is the study of disease tissue. However, in its original Greek, pathology means the study of suffering - not being at ease with what is. Suffering, disease, and pathology are caused by resisting what is. When disease is perceived as an enemy, as something to resist and fight, it gains strength from the resistance. For example, taking an aspirin for a headache without discovering the headache's source enables its return because we didn't learn its cause; we simply addressed its symptom. When we view an imbalance through the lens of compassion and love, however, rather than as an enemy, we learn from its presence in our lives, accept its massage, and allow the dis-ease process to dissolve.
Western medicine has a complex array of ammunition with which to treat disease. I feel lucky to have access to it when one of my children has a raging case of strep throat, But Western medicine doesn't keep us healthy - its focus is on treating disease rather than supporting wellness. In ancient China, doctors were paid only if their patients stayed well. Today, the "health" community is rewarded only when people become sick or diseased.
Eastern medicine works within the framework of what is to encourage the restoration of health. It meets us where we are, so that we can express the full potential of what we can become.
Uncovering Your Patterns of Living
According to the Tao, there are seven stages of life that take us from conception to death: primal essence, or pure potential; becoming; distinct being; having a sense of self; expressing oneself; living through acquired conditioning; and following ingrained patterns. Within each stage is an opportunity to move forward by paying attention to our body's messages and overcoming those things that are holding us back from reaching our highest destiny.
The following evaluation tools will help you look deep within yourself to uncover your patterns of living and learn how they differ from patterns in sync with your true nature. They will uncover the darkness within you so that you can begin to live from the light of your spirit.
The Yin-Yang Questionnaires
The following questionnaires will assess your balance of female and male qualities. As mentioned in the previous post, traditional Chinese medicine and the Taoists view all in terms of two opposing forces known as yin (-) and yang (+). Just as electricity requires opposing forces to flow, life requires opposing forces to create energy.
The yin and yang within us can become imbalanced. For example, if too much of our yang, or active side, is flowing too strongly, we can burn out - from our careers, our activities, our families - by not taking time for rest. On the other hand, if our yin, or more gentle side, is flowing too strongly, we may disengage from everything and do nothing but rest. Getting Pregnant Is Hard
As you can see, the two polarities have extremely different characteristics, but yang is not better than yin and yin is not better than yang. Both are necessary; what is important is that they remain in a state of harmony.
Yang - Strong, Giving Tendencies
- Are prevalent in the upper part of the body - back, right exterior parts of the body
- Are prevalent in the stomach, intestines, gall bladder, urinary bladder, male sexual organs - that fill and empty.
- Cause us to be active, get things done
- Are light, active, vibrant
- Are external, superficial, focused on the outside and doing
- Are dominated by the sympathetic nervous system
- Are positive, moving forward
- Are dry, arid, used up
- Are hot, hectic, restless, frenetic
- Are loud
- Are busy, engaged
- Are vigorous, lively, energetic
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Yin - Gentle, Receiving Tendencies
- Are prevalent in the inner part of the body - front, fleshy parts, left, inside of the body
- Are prevalent in the lungs, spleen, liver, heart, kidney, uterus, and ovaries - that hold specific functions
- Cause us to be passive, allow life to happen
- Are dark, shaded, hidden from view
- Are interior, deep, focused on going within
- Are dominated by the parasympathetic nervous system
- Are negative, allowing you to stay in the same place
- Are wet, moist, fertile
- Are cool and calm
- Are silent
- Are still
- Are receptive
