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As we all try to negotiate the hussle of modern life, I know personally there has always been a little voice in my heart asking why, what is beneath and around all this striving and playing the game? I can’t help feeling that what we are searching for is ourselves and a spiritual path that makes sense to our deepest cells of intuition.
In direct opposition to our modern culture where we look outward for validation and guidance and we care for our appearance in order to be accepted, in Taoism the exact opposite is true. We look inside ourselves and we strive for a greater understanding of ourselves in order to understand the world and our place in it; the outer world is only known in relation to our inner point of view.
Self cultivation is the basis for knowing the Tao… Acupuncture, and the healing it enables, is a perfect place to begin this journey. It is only by being in harmony with ourselves that our body can heal itself, which this is the basis of acupuncture. The needles connect to our spirit opening up pathways to access our own well of understanding, knowing and healing. When we truly connected to our spirit we are truly connected to the Tao…
]]>We are often swayed by the physical embodiment of healthy; thin, big muscles, glossy hair, clear skin and these can, of course, be evidence of being physically healthy but I am not convinced that these in themselves denote all round health.
In Chinese Medicine health is described as being “embodied to the degree that we accurately perceive life, and illness is embodied to the degree that our interpretations deviate from reality.” (Lonny Jarrett). This means that our health is directly related to our ability to see what is really going on in our life, enabling us to respond accordingly, rather than react based on our perception, which is always tainted by our life experiences, beliefs and attitudes.
When we are living in accordance with the Dao it is said we are therefore able to live spontaneously, by which, I don’t mean impulsively and according to our desires, but rather in a fashion that is not rigid and governed by our subconscious.
By living in accordance with the Dao we live correctly in each season; resting in winter, being more active and sleeping less in the summer, eating cooked seasonal vegetables in the autumn and raw cooler foods in the summer. In doing this we don’t follow one dietary rule all year round regardless of the season but instead, adapt to our surroundings. In the same way, emotionally, when living spontaneously, we respond to life rather than reacting to it; the latter being driven by our subconscious and rarely positive or productive for that very reason.
These examples illustrate two interpretations of the Chinese understanding of health and I can’t help thinking that is it is a fascinating concept to look at and keep in mind when we are trying to evaluate our health and when we are looking for solutions. Health is not simply going to the gym every day and eating salads all year round regardless of how we feel and what season it is. It is far more subtle and dynamic; rather than prescriptive, it is personal and demands conscious thought and action.
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I found it a challenge to disapear from the hussle and bustle of online life, and it challenged my ‘fomo’ hugely. It challenged me to focus on what mattered for my personal growth and building up my sense of self worth without the affirmation of ‘likes’ and comments that can lift you on social media. I feared being left behind while I saw so many other mothers continuing life online posting pics of their happy families, while keeping their toe in the ‘working’ world, however, I knew I needed silence and peace in order to grow and learn from this time.
18 months on and I am so happy now to be back seeing my patients and starting to treat children having finished my Paediatrics Acupuncture. What better time to come back to life than at the beginning of spring!?
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The best example is with food; we see food/calories, recognize them as essential for our survival, send this signal to our brain, eat and then we notice that we feel good. This can basically be summed up as; trigger, behavior, reward. When we were out in the wild fighting for survival this loop was great and essential, however, now it has slightly backfired. The circuit has been hijacked by emotions; we see food, and we know that eating that food makes us feel good as well as being key for survival. So the trigger has changed from survival to emotional dependence; we feel bad, stressed, sad, uncomfortable, irritated, we eat food high in sugar and fat and salt and we feel good again. Repeat. Each time we do this pathways are set down in our brain and we develop habits.
How do we break free of this cycle, which is seemingly all consuming and impossible to break? How many times have you tried so hard to avoid the ‘bad’ food only to give in in a moment of weakness, which was usually preceded by stress or tiredness? This is primarily thanks to the frontal part of our brain, called the Prefrontal Cortex and is the youngest part of our brains in terms of evolution. This is the part of the brain that ‘understands’ that we shouldn’t do these self-defeating behaviours such as overeating and smoking, however, it is also the first part of the brain to switch off in moments of high stress! Meaning we have none of that cognitive control we have in hindsight after we have polished off the packet of biscuits in a moment of severe stress or in those calm moments we are outlining our new good intentions.
How do we override this? Simple. We get curious. This seemingly simple action is absolutely key in breaking habits and it is also a central part of mindfulness meditation. When we meditate we are taught to simply become aware of our breath and when our attention wanders bring it back to our breath. There are also exercises taught in the 8 week mindfulness meditation course that teach us to become curious about our bodies – checking in to our bodies to see how they are feeling, not in order to analyze these feelings but simply to observe them and get curious about them.
It is in exactly this same way we can hijack the brain when faced with a craving; we get curious. Ask yourself, how do I feel right now physically; maybe tight in the chest, constrained in the stomach, tight in the shoulders pounding in the head, tight in the jaw… What ever you feel go deeper, become more curious ask yourself where else you are feeling something similar, ask yourself if it goes when you feel it. Just watch and feel with intrigue.
When you have done this you will be stunned that the craving, now, instead of this overwhelming feeling that has to be banished, has been paired down into a series of physical sensations. Your curiosity has just managed to disenchant you to the previous craving, and once this has happened you can joyfully let go of the craving and get on with being amazing!
While this might sound too simply and not very ‘scientific’ it is in fact completely the opposite. At the back of the brain we have something called the Posterior Cingulate Cortex which itself is not activated by cravings however, when we get caught up in the craving and the drama and shame of the craving it lights up and takes us for a ride creating more and more craving and more drama. In contrast when we become curious and look at the craving and mindfully feel its physical presence in our bodies and then let it go this area of the brain is switched off therefore eliminating the craving’s development.
Meditation is such a key in our overall health and thankfully science, with the help of MRI scans and other investigatory procedures, is proving that is really does help heal our mind which in turn has a direct cumulative effect on our overall happiness and ability to be non attached.
For more information and an introduction to meditation check out these apps and websites:
www.deconstructingyourself.com
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Genius! Somerset Maugham was clearly well versed in the power of resistance as well as the no. 1 tool to overcoming it; hard work, discipline and beginning, regardless of how you feel that particular morning.
I believe that resistance is fueled by fear; fear of beginning, fear of creating, fear of being criticized, fear of putting yourself and your art out there in the world…the list goes on. It has taken me so so long to learn that this fear never disappears; however much ‘work’ I do on myself, it will be sitting at the end of my bed every morning waiting to do battle. With time however, I do believe you become more accustomed to its presence and I now accept that I will feel it before doing pretty much anything that involves putting myself out there.
This subject is really close to my heart as I have lived in fear for most of my life; fear of looking like an idiot mainly and fear of getting it wrong. Admitting this is hard, especially as someone who used to chuck herself of mountains in a previous incarnation as a professional skier! My fears at the time were completely different and in many ways far easier to handle.
I was fearful of avalanches, of hurting myself (again), of dying, yet none of these fears were enough to stop me putting my skis on and getting out there day after day.
How is it then that the fear involved in writing and creating is so overwhelming it stops me from sitting in front of my computer and lures me into a myriad of procrastination? I have become a complete sucker to resistance! How is writing a few articles and putting myself out there more scary than facing a designated ‘death zone’ and ‘no fall zone’ in freeride competitions?!
I have recently finished “The War of Art” by Stephen Pressfield and was inspired to kick the resistance at exactly 8.30am every morning by just starting and seeing where that takes me. So here goes!
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However, as we all know, today living mostly in cities, leading work driven lives with numerous responsibilities and pressures from all sides; friends, family, work, this is nearly impossible. We don’t have a culture of changing our lives in order to live more appropriately within the demands of a season – in the Winter our jobs still start and finish at the same time as the rest of the year and we might cut our social life down a little but in the main we tend to live a consistently busy life and all this can strain our kidneys leading to tiredness, thinning hair and nails, lack of drive and motivation and even mild depression
Apart from these obvious drains on our Kidneys we have another new robber of kidney energy; social media and smart phones. While this obsession might seem quite innocent on the surface it is draining our kidneys with every adrenaline hit a post or a like, email, text, whats app message etc gives us. Not only does this act as a constant drain on our Kidney energy in the form of overstimulation it also denies us any moments of peace to stare out the window and daydream accessing our deep innate wisdom that resides in our Kidneys. We need that to nourish our spirit and have ideas and dreams that we can covert to reality in the Spring!
With this in mind here are a few tips as we near the end of the winter to boost your kidneys so you have enough energy to jump into Spring and start giving birth to all those projects you have been dreaming of during the winter!
Tips:
There are many things that are good for the Kindneys health which you can read here, but a simply way to boost them is by drinking Black Sesame Tea:
1. Boil the sesame seeds and dates in some water for 30 minutes
2. Add some homemade almond milk and continue to boil
3. Optional you can strain the liquid removing the sesame seeds and dates or you can whizz them all up together to make a thicker, frothy drink
4. Add honey to taste if the dates aren’t sweet enough for you
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If any of these scenarios sound familiar, then try acupuncture! With our increasingly stressful and demanding 21st Century life sleep disorders are becoming more and more common. A wide range of issues can disrupt sleep patterns, but when sleep becomes an issue it is usually hard to break out of it and get back to a healthy sleep pattern alone.
Acupuncture works to calm our whole system down while nourishing our energy, which, in turn helps us to sleep. If you have ever had acupuncture you will know what I am talking about – patients regularly leave my treatment room feeling as if they have been on a mini holiday! Not only do I see the evidence on a regular basis in my clinic, there are many studies that show that acupuncture does indeed help with sleep issues.
Along with acupuncture treatment there are various other ways that you can help yourself such as:
If you are interested in booking in a consultation to see how I can help with your sleep patterns then please contact me and I look forward to hearing from you!
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These new guidelines are not without wisdom; sugar and processed food is killing us – literally – however, I would like to look at how we approach this new way of looking at diet. Why do we eat? We eat in order to nourish ourselves, and if you want to take it a step further, to change our vibration making us happier, more vibrant, more deeply in touch with the passing seasons and all the wisdom they hold and as an act of love for ourselves.
The emotional body and mind we bring to the table is just as important as the physical body we bring to the table and what’s actually on the table (within reason!). If we constantly look at food in terms of being ‘good’ and ‘bad’ that creates huge amount of stress within us – in Chinese Medicine how you eat; in a hurry, while anxious, in a state of stress etc, is an actual ‘cause of disease’.
Its worth pausing on that last sentence – how we eat can be a cause of disease…
Its huge… When we are deciding what to eat we have to make sure that the decision process in itself isn’t negating the amazing healing potential of the food we are eating as stress within causes our whole digestion process to shut down.
Make sure your choices really do come from a place of wanting to nourish and love yourself, be calm when you eat – and if you do decide to pick up that ‘treat’ enjoy every mouthful of it and feel it nourishing you – emotionally or/and physically.
Be calm and breath… then shine and spread the gooood vibes by just being you!
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