Following Nature

HOW A BODY HEALS ITSELF

IN A STATE OF WELLNESS

When we look after ourselves, everything is provided automatically. The seasons, the time of day/what you are feeling and doing with your energy is automatically adjusted — and the dynamic flows of energy should be happening without your being aware.

PAIN/DISREPAIR

When there is too much load on the body, it starts to break down — giving us warning/ HELP!!! messages. Often we ignore these signals as they are either not loud (painful) enough to stop us, or we choose to just silence them with some form of pain killer — hence often ice is used. What to do instead – find a great healer to assist your body return to wellness – not patch you up and give you tablets to mask the warning signs.

(LINK TO NOT DONE YET- HOW ACUPUNCTURE CAN HELP YOU HEAL)

INFECTION / INFLAMMATION

If we understood the ways of the body we would know that inflammation is telling us that there is DAMAGE and to rest to allow the body to heal it – but we keep right on – as we are usually far too busy. We may well have an allergic system – and we keep right on filling it with what it is reacting to.  Infection also is responded to with inner heat – as to raise the temperature is to increase super efficiency in metabolism - heat is the body’s way of dealing with attackers (kill by fire), except that we artificially turn the fire OFF (not allowing fevers an high temps to do what the body needs – to heal itself naturally.

WHAT WE DO TO MAKE IT ALL SO MUCH WORSE

Besides using pain medication to essentially cover up the warning light, we also self medicate with cold to make it numb/ block out the sensations.  By responding by using ICE /cold drinks/cool fans – or any other form of external cooling, we slow our own healing down – and add another dimension of trauma within.

It may not be ice directly — cold can come in other ways - and our inner METABOLIC/ IMMUNE/CIRCULATORY/DIGESTIVE/HOLDING EVERYTHING IN PLACE energy (yang qi to an acupuncturist; maybe thyroid integrity to an enlightened Western medical practitioner) is expended unwisely.

PERHAPS WE COULD LOOK AT THE NATURE OF DISEASE . . .

Cause of disease – is it a bug – do we vaccinate – or do we just get stronger instead?

If we used a more natural/follow –the-body approach (as opposed to the orthodox medical one which does battle with everything – and often the body as a result)  we would not respond with fear when the latest attack is mooted – bird flu/swine flu – get your injections of hope here!!! (Why not strengthen your inner reserves instead??).

In Chinese medicine, we are seen to become ill/imbalanced when the dance between the inner and the outer worlds has broken down. We are designed to bend with conditions, so if we don’t have the resilience to do so — on any level — we become unwell.

LISTENING TO OLD MEDICINE – BASED ON OBSERVATION

The key contenders here (once the spirit is weakened, through unhappiness especially) are external climatic forces (either seasonal or microclimatic — as in what you are wearing or what you have exposed your body part to), and the inner climatic — emotions that are either unexpressed/unresolved/suppressed or are being wallowed in.

The free circulation/movement of all aspects of self – especially how we feel and what we are doing here on the planet and being at one with ourselves and our lives - needs to be present for wellness to continue.  How many people are truly at peace and happy???  When we are not – the immune system falters . . . after the gut does as we are too tense to work well.

This usually happens insidiously, so you do not notice very minute increments of cold and thus very small calibrations of the lessening of how much energy you have, and how unwell you feel. Without an understanding of how a well body works, it may all be ‘blamed’ on other things that are happening in your busy life, and without the framework to make sense of the cold invasion; it just happens and is called ‘bad luck’.

The catching of seasonal ‘colds’/being cold and miserable all increase in the colder weather – when one’s yang qi has to work harder to warm us up – and often the lack of self help is a major contributor to always being on the edge of catching something else.  This is especially pertinent to those who have small children who spend the day in close quarters with other small people – a perfect recipe for sharing all manner of diseases about.

‘Bugs’ may appear to ‘blow over’ when the weather warms up.

WORK WITH YOUR BODY- AVOID ALL BELOW . . .

What wastes your Inner Reserves/Yang Qi

• Have immoderate/irregular life style, especially exposure to cold (external or internal) through consumed fluids and foods, especially when very hungry or exhausted.
• Consuming damp-producing foods/fluids, (often cold/chilled/raw and /or sweet) which slow the Spleen Yang Qi’s ability to transform and to assimilate the raw materials eaten into pure essence.
• Allowing damp energy to form, either through living and being in damp conditions, or by immoderate eating choices as above, which in turn obstruct the clear digestive process.
• Becoming slothful and lethargic (consequence of damp setting in), creating sluggishness.
• Allowing any blockage to lodge on any level, distorting the orderly essence transformation and circulation processes. To live well, thoroughly enjoying life, we need strong yin.

What also wastes Yang Qi?

Cold, overuse, exhaustion, insufficient rest. Cold impedes all circulation, interfering with a well self-healing, self regulated body system. Cold that has entered from any source lodges in our tissues and remains, with our Yang Qi trying to neutralize it until we can provide the appropriate conditions for its permanent exit. The cold energy that is accumulated thus impairs the body’s normal functioning and creates pockets for dis-ease to fester over time.

(ALSO LINK TO WHAT YOU HAVE ON COLD FROM LAST EMAIL)

What next?

These cold ‘splinters’ can manifest as generalised or ‘arthritic’ aches and pains; menstrual cramping; masses of any description and a generally sluggish metabolism. 

(LINK TO THYROID PLEASE)

All through life, small doses of cold energy exposure (worse if tired or rundown when experienced) whether it be from drinking cold milk, to cool the heartburn, the breeze slept under, the cool showers to cope with the summer heat, all add up, to create a residue of cold, trapped energy that interferes with the body’s innate wisdom, giving rise to ‘problems’ that were unknowingly self-created.

LINK ALSO TO THYROID – AT THE BEGINNING OF THAT SECTION

What happens when Yang qi (YOUR INNER OOMPH!) is wasted?

Common life experiences, especially tiredness, weakness and degenerative and ‘ageing’ conditions can collapse the body’s ability to hold tissues and blood (and babies) in place (causing later prolapses, and internal hernias). For women especially:

    Cause her holding energy to fail (creating stress or serious urinary and faecal incontinence, or/and uterine over bleeding, both after the birth, and throughout the remainder of her menstrual life during periods and subsequent deliveries).

For everyone:

•     Create energy blockages which lead to loss of sexual feeling/desire/ability to orgasm.
•     Accelerate the ageing process, especially as digestion is flawed.
•     Everything is harder as it is slower and less efficient.

When we become relatively depleted in Yang Qi (LOOKS LIKE /FEELS/IS UNDERACTIVE THYROID

•     We feel the cold easily.
•     We ‘catch’ everything that is going around.
•     We can’t digest/assimilate food well.
•     We have fluid accumulations.
•     We can’t get motivated, lose oomph.

We become colder. It is as though our furnace has forgotten how to do the job. We have less energy, as more is used up trying to keep warm.

We are less nourished. We are less able to keep well nourished, as our ‘oven’ temperature is set too low. The kitchen oven can only cook at a useful temperature also. We reach for warm and often sweet things to try to warm up. Our digestive system creates damp, phlegm even, we become addicted to that which we are allergic to, we start having hypoglycaemic attacks, and we need to keep topping ourselves up, or we get very irritable and we ‘lose the plot’.

Common food and experiences may start to overload our bodies as we are less able to screen out that which may be potentially dangerous.

We dry out. We no longer circulate fluids as we could. Everything slows up. Constipation and general fluid build up everywhere starts happening, as our entire system slows down. Some call this aging — it could also just be self neglect and exhaustion.

We lose interest in anything that needs energy expended, and sexuality is often the first thing to go as it is not needed for our immediate survival.

The body starts hurting and feeling stiff. The circulation starts slowing; everything feels less nimble and more arthritic/elderly.

We start getting more flabby, flesh falls down and we put on weight very easily.

Does this sound like aging? It is actually losing yang and is recoverable as long as the life habits are radically altered. HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT WHEN YOU THINK A DIFFERENT DIET WILL ‘FIX’ IT? You actually need to work WITH not against your body.

LINK TO HELPING YOURSELF TO HEALTH AND VITALITY PLEASE

When yang is diminished, life gets more tricky and harder to be involved in anything other than survival — as it all just takes too much out of you.

Many may have a very real sub-clinical (not picked up in medical tests) thyroid (metabolism) condition of under activity. This shows up in myriad ways. I strongly suggest you order a great book — Thyroid Power — by Richard and Karalee Shames. This will spell out just why it may be quite futile going to a GP or even an endocrinologist for testing and assistance — and why you need to overturn what you are doing in your life, as this is what has lead you to where you are not working at optimum.

The thyroid slowly going under par can be seen in the general lessening of who we are — often put down to ‘aging’. Moods/depression, energy and allergy slumps, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and may show up as digestive, circulatory, immunological and reproductive problems. Most of these are warning systems we just ignore.

Below is a state of being that many visit in dribs and drabs all their lives – and are considered well enough to not warrant assistance – in fact may be told it is normal  . .

(Sounds like a hypoactive thyroid. Although if you have blood tests saying you are ‘within normal limits’ — you are like most people — unwell but not sick enough to medicate — supposedly rendering you ‘OK’).

Becoming yang depleted is a vicious cycle, as we need to be able to maintain ourselves in the face of change — temperature, food requirements. When we can’t, the digestive processes also suffer, and then there is less quality substances (blood etc) to keep us working well. We ‘age’ faster/eventually wear out/ become YIN DEPLETED. Along the way life gets harder and you just assume it is supposed to be this way.

Whilst it may appear obvious, it is important to ensure that we do not eat ice/ice cream/drink favourite fluids out of the fridge, as this is heaping more cold into the system. Changing habits has to happen — these are often the very things that have lead you to needing treatment in the first place.

DUNCAN TO LEARN MORE PLEASE CLICK HERE TO BUY THE COLD - HOW IT PREVENTS HEALING  (and what you can do to get rid of the inner cold) eBook (LINK)

PLEASE PUT ALSO IN Vaccination section and also wherever else you think appropriate.

A small note about young children

Failure to thrive / always ill

When children are really young and not strong, it is far more sensible to find a Chinese herbalist and acupuncturist and work with them to strengthen what should be vital and vigorous than inject the youngster with chemicals supposedly to enhance its immune system. When the entire body is struggling, finding a system of medicine that assists the body to wellness rather than one that weakened the body is often of far more use than running a fear based, hopeful model..  The tonics and other medicines and techniques available in the acupuncture framework include changing diet and lifestyle — all of which assist the body to repair itself.

We could at least stop giving them cold or cool fluids and foods; as this weakens the gut and thus the entire body – much like continually opening the oven door when cooking something changes the temperature of the oven within.  Banning anything with a sweet taste (esp fruit at the expense of protein and veggies as snacks), assists the entire digestive system.

This then means mucous production, continual illness and ‘catching things’ and general debility are all correctable through changing diet and lifestyle. IF you wish to know more, please go to ‘Cold – How it Prevents Healing’.

(LINK)