April Special
Start your Spring cleanse with a geranium and salt foot soak. Then retreat into a private massge room for a one hour
detoxifying aromaterhapy massage. Finish with a purifying facial including a mud mask. $195
2010 Men Special
In 2010, let's treat our men! Book a $100 in spa services for the special man or men in your life and receive a $50 gift certificate to use when you book services of $100 of more for yourself. Call for details.
The Big Picture, Part Three
Dr. Peter Borten, LAc, DAOM
In the first newsletter in this series, I discussed why I believe the ability to broaden our perspective – to see the "big picture" – is important. Not only is it one of the most valuable qualities for a healthcare practitioner to cultivate, it also makes all the difference in how we view and manage our own challenges.
In parts two and three, (YOU CAN READ ALL THE PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS HERE) I discussed some of the many environmental factors that impact our mental, emotional, and physical health. These include things like air pollution (both outdoor and indoor), plastics, mold, weather, ambient electromagnetic radiation and cell phone radiation.
This month we’ll explore how humans are connected to nature and some of the ways we respond to the seasons. The seasons tend to affect all living things similarly, so whenever we’re trying to understand the prevailing dynamic in our lives, it’s worth considering what’s going on outside. Chinese medicine ascribes certain characteristics to each season – an emotion, a direction of movement, a sound, and other qualities. It emphasizes that Nature must be included in any holistic assessment of the factors that influence our lives, and it teaches that tuning in to the natural world can be a valuable tool for achieving peace and balance.
The seasonal correspondences originated through careful observations of nature made by early Daoists. These observations began at a time when humans saw their lives as entirely integrated with nature. Yes, once upon a time, we belonged to the world. Our experiences always had a context in nature. We were tuned in to the order around us.
Nowadays, it easy to have an indoor life, almost completely disconnected from the outside world. When we’re cut off from nature, we lose touch with something vital: a common wisdom, a connection that deeply informs who and what we are. Author Richard Louv has come up with a name for this modern condition – Nature-Deficit Disorder – and in his book, Last Child in the Woods, he makes the case that kids (and everyone) need regular contact with nature in order to be healthy. When we lose touch with nature, we become "out of sync" with cues that once regulated our routines and kept us in a harmonious balance with our surroundings.
At the time of this writing - spring - there is a distinct upward trajectory in the world around us. New growth is beginning. Shoots are pushing their way out of cold ground. In the same way, it’s natural for people to feel drawn to start new projects in spring. Sometimes, like young sprouts, we feel pushy, edgy, or restless, as if the energy that was pent up in the winter can’t be restrained anymore. Our libidos can be expected to rise a bit in spring, too, as this is the beginning of the fertility season.
Spring is associated with the liver and gallbladder, and it’s common to notice them getting cranky. We may experience symptoms such as bloating, indigestion, slightly elevated liver enzymes, or headaches. To tune ourselves to the environment, we can cleanse these organs by avoiding greasy foods, being moderate with alcohol consumption, and eating plenty of green vegetables – especially ones that are somewhat bitter. We can spend time outdoors feeling the sense of rebirth, hope, fresh plans, and directive growth that permeate our surroundings. It’s also a good time to cultivate perspective and flexibility.
In summer, the Fire element dominates, and its main representative is the big fireball we call Sun. More fire means more activity, more heat, more joy, and more communion. As long as the sun doesn’t scorch everything, we see intense plant growth this time of year. Our yards may turn into jungles. Long days mean we naturally feel able to do more and be more active.
In the same way that a campfire or a fire in the fireplace is a natural gathering point, fire’s strong presence in summer encourages us to be more social and connect with others. Fire also fuels passion. We see this in the communing of so many bees with flowers and we hear it in the wild chorus of bird songs in the air. It’s therefore usual for our libidos to stay elevated through summer. More atmospheric fire means more metabolic energy for most people. Thus, in summer, it’s easier to lose weight and easier to digest a wide variety of foods, including raw seasonal produce. The emotion of summer is joy, so it makes sense that many people experience a nice lift in mood this time of year.
Summer is the closest we get to the sun and it’s the peak of openness and activity. Our departure from this peak is autumn. In the fall, we lose hours of daylight, trees lose their leaves, our children leave home and return to school, and the sun retreats to a lower arc in the sky. With so much apparent loss, it’s natural for people to feel a sense of grief in fall. At the same time, when we let so much go, we are often left with a certain clean, crisp feeling. The world is reduced to its essentials, and this guides humans to do the same. We start to pare back our activity level, our attention naturally turns inward, and we feel more contemplative. We may find ourselves re-experiencing other losses we’ve sustained. We can stay in sync with the environment by practicing a willingness to let go. If we view the departure from summer not as a loss, but merely a process of refinement, we can move through this period gracefully. After all, what is of greatest value during any of life’s "peaks" is the experience itself, and this can never be lost.
Fall’s descent brings us to the depths of winter, when days are darkest and activity is at a minimum. It is the season of rest, dormancy, and taking inventory. In winter, it is natural to feel less energy and a desire to sleep more. The sun is at its most distant, and our digestive fire dwindles a bit, so it’s a good time to eat mostly warm, cooked foods. It’s also natural to gain a little weight. These tendencies are paralleled by most of the wildlife around us (particularly in places that actually have "wintery" weather) – many animals hibernate and put on an extra layer of insulation. One of the main reasons to store up reserves and reduce our activity in winter is that there is a lack of available resources. For the animals out there, and until recently, for humans too, winter is the season when survival becomes a top priority. If you look out at a winter landscape, though beautiful, it may also seem bleak, as signs of life are hard to find and resources for survival are scant. This stillness is sometimes how we imagine death to be: quiet, cold, empty. So it’s understandable that winter’s emotion is fear, which we experience anytime we feel our survival is threatened, or even when we simply encounter real stillness. It’s part of what spurs so many of us to run relentlessly through life. We can harmonize ourselves with the energy of winter by reducing our ambitions, welcoming stillness, and accepting this season as an essential period for rest and quiet.
The Earth element governs the transition periods between seasons. Transitions call us to stay connected to what is stable, like earth itself, in order to remain centered and healthy through the change. Earth is all about cycles, always spinning from day to night and perpetually revolving around the sun. Yet within these cycles of change, earth is eminently predictable. Aside from occasional earthquakes and landslides, the earth is, by and large, very slow to change, especially in comparison to water, fire, or air. Earth is almost always exactly where we expect it to be – right under our feet, right under all our buildings and roads and everything else, predictably supporting us all. It teaches us that well establishing rhythms give our lives stability and make change easy. The transitions between seasons are when my office fills up with patients. If we’re not in balance, it’s a real struggle for the body to adapt to the change, and we may catch a cold, feel achy and tired, have digestive upset, or sleep poorly. The more grounded we are (with roughly the same sleeping, waking, and eating times each day), the less likely we are to be thrown off kilter when life throws us a curve ball.
I hope these brief sketches of the seasons have helped broaden your perspective of the myriad influences on the human condition. Next month we’ll spend more time on the mental and emotional planes, exploring how we influence others and ourselves. In the meantime, I encourage you to spend some time outdoors, as a willing student to Mother Nature.
With love,
Peter and Everyone at The Dragontree
