The Importance Of The Season Of Spring In Traditional Chinese Medicine
Spring is the season of creativity, new growth, of birth, and of expansion. In the cycle of the five elements, this is the energy of wood. Spring is the season when we reclaim our creative self. Our spirit should express itself in the world in order to be healthy. Aspects of the spirit or soul in Oriental Medicine are ascribed to bodily centers. Each of the soul’s aspect or element feeds its unique energy to the body. We must bring our souls back into our bodies to heal and become whole again. Spring is when illnesses that originate from the loss of power become healed.
The energy of Wood is the energy of assertion and righteous anger. It is expressed through constant frustration and anger and when it’s out of balance that can lead to resignation and sadness. One of the wood organ system meridians is the Liver, which is most affected by these emotions. The animal soul or “Hun” resides in the liver. In Western Psychology, the “Hun” is similar to the term known as the anima which is our creative self that makes adjustments in the world. It is our self that grasps for what we need and encourages movement. In Chinese tradition, the Liver prefers order. Similar to the growing plant that pushes through the darkness of the soil, our spirit is designed to reach for what it needs. According to Chinese medicine, the Liver ‘combs’ the blood; it keeps the life force or Chi smoothly flowing in various directions. Without action our ideas and dreams become literally stuck in our bodies. We become that frustration in our bodies when we are anything less than the self we are truly meant to be since our spirits needs to express itself in the world.
An imbalanced Liver will manifest physical symptoms that tell you to pay attention to the calling of the soul to reorganize our lives. Typical PMS symptoms include: sadness, tears, irritation, frustration, breast tenderness and bloating. Fibromyalgia symptoms include: depression, fatigue, and muscle pain. Symptoms of allergy include stuffiness, sinus pain, and red itchy, tearing eyes, tearing, itchy, red eyes, which can occur due to an imbalanced Liver. Impotence and Migraines are also signs of Liver imbalance. All the choices you make not to display your creativity, acknowledge what you are really feeling, or act assertively can all lead to an overburdened Liver. When your Chi does not flow freely, it slows down in the Liver. Like friction, this stagnant energy, generates heat that rises in the body. Blood congeals and the tendons and muscles are not nourished causing restricted movement and pain.
Each element has a corresponding yin and yang meridian partner. While the yin energy channel or meridian processes the predominant emotion of that element, the yang meridian processes the mental attitude. The Gall Bladder is the Liver’s partner. Shoulder and neck tensions as well as headaches may develop from the Gall Bladder meridian. Tension in the Gall Bladder is combined with too much need to control. The energy of Wood that has become balanced confers the capacity to act assertively and to flow with the environment.
Nothing but an open neutral mind can unblock the free movement of Chi in the body. According to an ancient Taoist saying:
Blood precedes energy
Energy precedes mind
Mind precedes spirit
Spirit precedes the Tao
The concept of Chi, which is the bioelectrical energy flowing throughout the body underlies Oriental meridian therapy. Chi becomes emotion, thought, movement, digestion, etc. depending on what it moves through. Hurts, injuries, and feelings are all energy expressions flowing in a certain way. ‘E-motion’ is a word that actually means ‘to move out’. We often experience physical or emotional tension if we fail to express an emotion, which only blocks flow of our energy. Mind then becomes a series of crystallized patterns that reduces our awareness. This generates armoring or physical tension in our musculature. The Nei Ching says: there is blockage where there is pain. It is believed that the Tao can break through anything that gets in its way. Acupressure or Acupuncture in Spokane enables the Chi to circulate freely again, causing the energy to change because that is its nature. This is often felt as streaming of energy or tingling and can be accompanied by expressions of emotional and physical release such as tears and sighs. The root of the term emotion gives us a clue to how it can be understood. The “E” means “out” and thus E-motion actually means to move out. Essential to healing is the freeing up trapped attitudes and emotions. In Oriental medicine, there are no psychosomatic sicknesses because bodily processes and the emotions all have common energy channels.
When the Liver is overwhelmed with drugs and chemicals, all our emotions have their own biomolecules that can build up in the blood. With a toxic Liver, emotions tend to stay longer in the body. The Liver biochemically does hundreds of processes that detoxify poisons and maintain and clean the quality of blood. The job of the Liver is to eliminate excess neurotransmitters and hormones such as adrenalin and estrogen from the blood. It removes lactic acid and allows endorphins to keep circulating. Glycogen is stored in the Liver. This organ changes the glycogen back to glucose in order to supply a constant amount of energy to the brain. The Liver has many more functions and all are vital to a sense of steady well-being.
The Liver, on a physical level, can be healed with the plants of spring. Nutrients from the earth are extracted by the plants and the plants take in sunlight to synthesize chlorophyll. In plants, energy production is related chemically to energy production in the human body. Chlorophyll absorbs the energy of the sun that excites the electrons and the plant houses the energy as ATP and releases Oxygen. The body imbibes the chlorophyll from plants and substitutes the magnesium with iron in an intricate chemical process to produce hemoglobin in the blood. Hemoglobin transports oxygen in the blood, vital for generating energy on a cellular level. Magnesium is required in more than 300 enzyme reactions, these are some of the reasons the Liver does well on a green diet. Chi and blood benefit from green plants helping them to flow abundantly and constantly in the body.
Blockages often arise and like a young plant a person may develop around them. The body surprisingly releases more pain alleviating biochemicals to difficulties than to delightful experiences. Obstacles to goals often arise that pushes a person back on Tao or on the right path. This is the Taoist way of saying we create our own experiences. Jupiter is the planet associated with the Liver and the wood element. Through openness and faith, a person can grow and expand — Jupiter’s entry into a chart, in astrological terms, will provide the person with that energy. Saturn with its balance in the chart, represents the limitations, like rocks in the way of the new plant. Spring has the energy that usually sends us the message to “just do it”. Your body may be requesting for a change if you are experiencing any of the Liver symptoms listed above; therefore, listen.
The element of wood is a beautiful symbol for the natural desire to become what one truly is, to express oneself and, to make changes in the environment. It has an energy that’s the same as a blade of grass pushing upward to the earth reaching for the light. Wood contains all the other elements and organizes them as a plant develops from a seed and the spirit matures according to one’s individual Tao or the plan of his soul.