CHINESE MEDICINE: THE INTERCONNECTED MIND AND BODY

By Deirdre Courtney

Positive Life Magazine Summer 2014

The modern field of Psychoneuroimmunology provides ample evidence that the body and mind are interconnected. The Chinese have said for thousands of years that our emotions impact the state of our physical health. In oriental philosophy, emotions are seen as energy passing through the meridians. When the energy is allowed to flow freely, we stay in balance. We often interrupt the flow of energy due to busy or unbalanced lifestyles but if we understand the wisdom of our bodies and our point of balance, we can correct the flow.

In Chinese Medicine there are five major yin organs and each is associated with an emotion; the liver – anger, the heart – joy, the spleen – worry, the kidney – fear, the lungs – sorrow or grief. Excess or suppression of any of these emotions can affect the related organ and as a circular process, if the organ is weak, it can also increase the related emotion.

It is so valuable to understand our own particular constitutional tendencies, when we do, we can choose the foods, activities, patterns of expression and even atmospheres that serve us best. Have a look at the different patterns below to gain an understanding of your own tendencies.

Liver qi energy: If you find yourself sighing frequently, feeling irritable and frustrated or prone to temper outbursts, it may be that energetically your liver energy has stagnated. One of the main causes for this is repressed emotion; holding in or onto too many feelings. Accompanying physical symptoms can include belching, burping, acid regurgitation, sour taste in the mouth. But there are some easy steps to take.

The liver needs movement, emotion needs expression, so get out and exercise, breathe deeply out in fresh air, express your feelings, try writing a journal or pound a pillow. Green is the healing colour for the liver, so walk in beautiful greenery and eat lots of green foods.

Spleen qi energy: If you find yourself constantly prone to worry, you may have a tendency to spleen imbalance. The spleen energy rules digestion and is negatively affected by worry. Too much worry can injure the spleen and a weakened spleen energy leaves us more prone to worry! Accompanying physical symptoms may include feeling really tired especially after eating, loose bowel movements, bloating or weight gain which is difficult to loose, especially around the middle.

If you think this applies to you make this a summer to support your spleen. Decide to deal with worries differently, adopt new coping mechanisms. Build your resistance to worry by doing what makes your heart sing. Certain foods weaken spleen energy, such as wheat, dairy and coffee, so reduce these. Also, eat smaller amounts more often and try not to eat late at night.

Kidney yin energy: Do you often feel that you are running on empty, using your reserve tank rather than energy that is easily available to you? Do you often ignore the red light on your dashboard that tells you you are doing too much? Does this sometimes leave you feeling overwhelmed and fearful? You might have other symptoms like flushed cheeks, sweating at night, feeling thirsty and lower back pain. It is often a sign of overwork. Give yourself more rest and relaxation. Have regular early nights, reduce your workload and find a good work life balance. Connect with water and earth by swimming and walking on the grass in your bare feet. Yoga and meditation also help to increase kidney energy. Foods that strengthen the kidney are pulses and mineral rich foods such as seaweeds.

Heart yin energy: If you are feeling anxious or panicky, if you are prone to sleep disturbance or are having vivid dreams, if you are feeling disconnected from friendships or past-times that you usually enjoy, you may have heart-yin deficiency. Other indicators of this may include your face is flushing easily, feeling worse after alcohol or spicy food, palpitations of if you’ve recently had emotional stress. It’s important to take time out to nourish this yin energy. You may need more rest or to retreat a little in order to renew. Increase activities that calm and nourish you. Be good to yourself. Surround yourself with colours and landscapes that nurture. Use deep breathing, yoga, visualisation or meditation. Avoid too much fire in the diet by reducing spicy foods, alcohol and sugar and increase cooling foods such as green vegetables and beetroot.

Our bodies often give us clues as to what we need to do to rebalance, make this a summer where you listen to your body’s inner wisdom!

Face Reading in Chinese Medicine

By Deirdre Courtney

Positive Life Magazine Autumn 2010

Did you know how much our faces reveal about us? One of the oldest manuscripts about Chinese Medicine ever found had on its first page “the facial map” The second page was a map of the facial meridians. This original map had 150 age positions on it meaning that a person could potentially live to be 150 years old!

 

The face is said to be the blue print of who we are and who we are becoming, All our facial features and lines tell our story, what we have been through and when. It also tells us about our personalities, our strengths and our weaknesses.  When life events happen they mark our faces. Our face is our story. Coco Chanel once said “We get the faces we deserve”. Maybe she was alluding to oriental thinking which suggests that if we don’t look after ourselves physically and emotionally and eat the foods that are best suited to our constitutions, and spend time in the climate and environment that best suits us then this can be seen on our faces. In oriental thinking an inappropriate diet, too many toxins or drugs, too much stress and persistent negative emotions all affect our internal organs and if these organs are out of balance it can be seen in our faces. The good news is that when we pursue lifestyles that respect balance, when we nurture ourselves emotionally, physically and mentally, our faces, with all their stories, are beautiful.

When we express ourselves, lines develop on our faces.  When we laugh the wrinkles at the side of the eyes crinkle, when we are sad or disappointed then the corners of the mouth drop. These lines merely indicate the emotion we are experiencing but when these lines are there all the time they indicate that a particular emotion may be habitual, hence laughter lines or frown lines may become more permanent. Amazingly sometimes when we change habitual emotional responses or release long-held in emotions lines can just disappear or just leave a faint resonance!

Expressive people will naturally have more lines then repressed (non-expressive) people who will have more discoloration on the face then lines.

We can divide the face into 3 areas, top, middle and bottom. The top area is related to mental activity, the middle to practical, and the lower to our emotional and instinctual worlds.

The shape and markings on the forehead are said to be our “inheritance”, the talents, abilities, interests and desires that are innate to us. The middle area relates to our “fertility and creativity” and the lower area reveals the “overuse of our bodies”

If you run a line down the middle of the face you will see that each side of the face is slightly different. The right side is how you want to be perceived in the world and the left side is the private you, who you really are

The KIDNEY:

Toomuch hard work, juggling too many commitments, worry, lack of sleep, too much coffee all show in the kidney/liver area. This is the half moon-shape under the eye. If the area is puffy and blue, you are working too hard and depleting the adrenals. Similarly if the inner corner of the eye has a sunken dark blue tinge to it, then it is time to take stock and look at how to live in a less adrenal way. If your ears are redder than the skin on your face it is also a sign to seek balance.

The LIVER:

Ifyou look under the eyes and there is a dark brown or congested colour then this points to the liver being out of balance. The liver can become stressed and out of balance for several reasons, these include too much bottled up emotion, unexpressed frustration or anger, too many fatty foods (especially foods such as dairy, pork, fried foods) and alcohol. If the liver is very congested (fatty infiltration of the liver) there may be a deep vertical line between the eyebrows. If this is present the body’s fat metabolism and hormone system may not be working optimally. When there is little fat and alcohol in the diet and when we have a healthy and open expression of emotion then there is very little brown discoloration in the face (no liver spots) and we have fewer lines

The HEART:

This is seen in our eyes we call this the Shen (spirit). The Shen in Chinese Medicine is known as our spirit, it is the life force that shines from our eyes that shows we are truly alive. When our Shen is good, the eyes are moist and glisten. If when you look in the mirror the eyes that look back at you are dull rather than glistening then somewhere you have become disconnected from your heart and need to rediscover what really brings joy into your life

The STOMACH and intestines:

Thehealth of our digestive organs is seen in the lower part of the face, around the mouth and chin. If there are eruptions or spots or if the skin is blotchy around the chin this may indicate poor intestinal health such as an overgrowth of candida or too much sugar, yeast or dairy in the diet. If the lower lip is swollen or protruding the large intestine might be sluggish. If the top lip is cracked or red there is too much heat in the body, this may indicate too much alcohol, caffeine, spicy foods or excess acidity. If there is yellowish discoloration in this area then the digestive fires might be weak and a better diet with some digestive enzymes may be needed.  If there are deep transverse lines running along the middle of the forehead, this also indicates a need to boost our absorption of nutrients. These lines indicate spleen imbalance, one of the major causes of spleen imbalance is a tendency to worry. For a smooth forehead we need to let go of worry.

Sometimes we meet someone elderly and marvel at how youthful their faces appear and what a sparkle they have in their eyes. Invariably with further discussion we will find that that person has lived a life where they have come to know what foods and environments suit them the best and keep them in balance, a life where they have known what emotions they need to express to stay in balance and a life where they have followed their hearts message and hence preserved the Shen.

 

ORIENTAL MEDICINE AND THE EMOTIONS

By Deirdre Courtney

Poaitive Life Magazine, June 14, 2010

The Chinese have known for thousands of years that our emotions impact the state of our health. There is a lot we can gain from understanding this oriental viewpoint. In Chinese medicine, emotions are seen as energy passing through the meridians, and when allowed to flow freely and unconstrained, we stay in balance. If we block emotions, our organs can be affected. So whether we are angry with someone, grieving for a loss, or feeling overwhelmed, acknowledgement and expression of such feelings creates healthy organs and a positive energy flow.

In Chinese medicine, there are five major Yin organs: the liver, heart, spleen, lungs and kidney. Each organ is associated with an emotion: the liver – anger; the heart – joy; the spleen – worry; the kidney – fear; the lungs – sorrow or grief. Excess of any of these emotions can affect the related organ. Suppression of any of these emotions can also affect the organ. It is a circular process in that, if the organ is weak, it can increase the related emotion. Too much repressed emotion can stagnate the liver energy; too much worry can affect the spleen; stress, overwork or living in fear of something can affect the kidney; hurt or loss of a relationship can affect the heart; a bereavement can affect the lungs.

Often we may appear well, in terms of having no overt pathology, but we may be energetically or emotionally out of balance. Have a look at the different patterns below and see if you can relate to any of them. The good news is that we can take steps to change these patterns and feel strong emotionally.

Liver qi stagnation: if you find yourself sighing frequently, feeling irritable and frustrated or feeling prone to temper outbursts, it may be that energetically your liver energy has stagnated. One of the main causes for this is repressed emotion: holding in or onto too many feelings. Accompanying physical symptoms can include belching, burping, acid regurgitation or a sour taste in the mouth. If this picture sounds familiar and you want to move that stagnant liver qi, there are some easy steps to take. The liver needs movement, emotion needs expression, so get out and exercise, breathe deeply out in fresh air, express your feelings, try writing a journal or pounding a pillow. Green is the healing colour for the liver, so walk in beautiful greenery and eat lots of green foods.

Spleen qi deficiency: Do you sometimes find yourself excessively ruminant, prone to worry or find you are getting deep frown lines or bags under your eyes? If so, you may be prone to imbalance in the spleen organ. The spleen energy rules digestion and is negatively affected by worry. Too much worry injures the spleen, and a weakened spleen energy leaves us more prone to worry. Accompanying physical symptoms may include feeling really tired (especially after eating), loose bowel movements, and bloating or weight gain which is difficult to loose (especially around the middle).
If you think this applies to you, make this a summer to support your spleen. Decide to deal with worries differently; adopt new coping mechanisms; relegate your worries to one of three categories: alter what is worrying you, accept what is worrying you or avoid (only where possible) each worry. Build your resistance to worry by doing what makes your heart sing. Certain foods weaken spleen energy (wheat, dairy, coffee), so reduce these and eat smaller amounts more often, and try not to eat late at night.

Kidney yin deficiency. Do you often feel that you are running on empty, using your reserve tank rather than energy that is easily available to you? Do you often ignore the red light on your dashboard that tells you you are doing too much? Does this sometimes leave you feeling overwhelmed and fearful? You might have other symptoms like flushed cheeks, sweating at night, feeling thirsty, lower back pain, lots of transverse lines on the forehead, or find your willpower diminished.
This all points to kidney yin deficiency. It is often a sign of overwork and indicates a need for more rest and relaxation to strengthen the kidney energy. Have regular early nights, reduce your workload, look at a good work/life balance chart (there are lots online). Connect with water and earth by swimming, and walking on the grass in your bare feet. Yoga and meditation all help to increase kidney energy. Foods that strengthen the kidney are black mushrooms, pulses and mineral rich foods such as seaweeds.

Heart yin deficiency: If you are feeling anxious or panicky, if you are prone to sleep disturbance or are having vivid dreams, if you are feeling disconnected from friendships or pastimes that you usually enjoy, you may have heart yin deficiency. If your face is flushing easily and you feel worse after alcohol or spicy food, if you are getting palpitations, then you may have heart yin deficiency. This imbalance is often seen with practitioners or carers who are constantly giving and using up their yin energy. It can also happen after a period of emotional stress or hurt. It is important to take time out to nourish this yin energy. Similar to kidney yin deficiency, you may need more rest, you may need to retreat a little in order to renew. Increase activities that calm and nourish you, be good to yourself and surround yourself with colours and landscapes that nurture. Use deep breathing, yoga, visualisation or meditation. Avoid too much fire in the diet by reducing spicy foods, alcohol and sugar. Increase cooling foods such as green vegetables and beetroot.

Our bodies often give us clues as to what we need to do to rebalance, make this a season where you listen to your body’s inner wisdom and enjoy a wonderful summer!