“Spring is the time of year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade.” Charles Dickens – Great Expectations When philosophies such as Daoism and Buddhism move from the East to the West they often get simplified and watered down so that we can understand them. Chinese medicine is no different. …
Release the Pressure…. This month I will be taking a break from the internal organ tour, to answer a couple of related questions that seem to keep cropping up. Firstly people often ask what it is that they can do themselves between treatments, to aid with the healing process. I often recommend lifestyle …
The Large Intestine You’ve just got to let it go…. For those of you paying attention, we have steadily worked our way through the major yin organs of the Chinese medical system, and we are now moving on to the yang organs. The yang organs are not given as much importance as they are usually …
Those of you who have been following my ramblings about Chinese medicine over the past year, may remember that the Heart is seen as the seat of our Spirit and consciousness. It is known as the Emperor as it governs the entire State that is our body. Well, the next organ we are going to …
One question always leads to another When discussing acupuncture, the question that I probably encounter most often is, ‘Can acupuncture treat [insert problem here]?’ This is usually swiftly followed by, ‘So what point do you use for that then?’ In general people are aware that acupuncture can treat bad backs, headaches and tennis elbows …
Fei – The Lungs Next up in our tour of the Chinese internal organ system comes the Lungs. This October issue is the ideal time to discuss the Lungs, as autumn is well upon us and all things in nature are energetically contracting and moving back inwards. The Lungs are connected to the metal …
“Everything you have been taught is wrong…” These words were the very first words my A’ level physics teacher said, as we began our first lesson at College. She continued, once she had grabbed our attention…. ”Well maybe not entirely wrong but certainly not entirely right either, and definitely not the whole picture”. It was …
So our tour of the Chinese internal organ system brings us neatly to the Kidneys. The Kidneys are part of the Water element and as such are associated with the cold, winter and all things damn right miserable! As always though, we are looking beyond just the physical organ of the kidney and into …
It was thought in Medieval European medicine that the spleen was a seat of ‘ill-humour and melancholy’. Therefore to vent ones’ spleen was to release anger and negativity that were building up in the body. This is not entirely different to the Chinese medical version of the Spleen, although the emotion usually associated with it …
Acupuncture: ‘So how does it work then?’ Well I could easily take up every page of this Oracle and I still wouldn’t have begun to answer this question properly, but in good Daoist tradition I shall give it a go. In short the answer is that it depends on who you ask. If …