Beginners guide to Oriental Medicine Philosophy
If you are curious about the philosophy of oriental medicine, then this page is for you.
The human body-mind exists as one unit. It is alive, full of life-force and spirit, and not separate from nature. Nature involves a dynamic interplay between light, bright, warm, expanding forces and dark, cool, heavy and contracting forces. Have you ever been to a planetarium where they showed the cycles of birth and death of stars? All stars (bright, light, warm) eventually contract after supernova. The result of the contraction is a cold, heavy and contracted black hole. Eventually the black hole bursts out to create new stars. Neither extreme is meant to last, but rather be parts of the cycle.
I just described the basics of yin and yang.
Beyond yin and yang, there is a more complex and earthly theory of five phases. The five-phase theory is based the idea that there are five aspects of nature that mutually support each other. The five aspects are roughly correlated with theoretical ideas of internal organs and called "heart," "liver," "lung," "spleen" and "kidney." They are not the literal organs of western medicine. Each of the five oriental theory organs corresponds to a season of the year, an emotion, and something found in nature. For example the "heart" corresponds to summer, joy and fire. The "kidney" corresponds to winter, fear and water.
Sometimes you feel like you're never going to change from one feeling to another, physical or emotional. Sometimes it feels like a part of your body is stuck or you can't see another viewpoint. Have you ever felt that summer came to a standstill at some point? Or that winter dragged on too long? When you feel that way, we're not moving through the cycles according to Chinese medicine theory. Treatment with oriental medicine re-establishes your healthy movement of physical and emotional aspects.
When you feel less than your best, your yin and yang, and the five aspects are not in balance. Oriental medicine practitioners are trained to evaluate relative amounts of yin, yang and the five aspects. The treatment goal is to restore balance.
The treatment works in the following way. I choose several organs' channels and place needles on those channels to work together to stimulate the body to move towards greater balance. In this regard, Chinese herbs are used no differently than acupuncture and are always used in combination of between two and twenty individual herbs.
Every part of the body contains aspects of the whole: yin,yang, five phases/organs. Each part of the body has a specialized place within the whole. For example, the head is more yang than the feet because it is higher and the feet are lower when someone is standing. The goal is using the parts of the body to work together to affect balance.
Each individual treatment is part of a course of treatment that overall, slowly, gently, makes a difference for your health. The number of treatments you need varies with the severity and length of time you've had the imbalances. I generally recommend 6-10 treatments in order to make an impact in correcting of imbalances. My suggestion for you may be longer or shorter. During the course of 6-10 treatments, you will transition into getting used to how the treatments feel and then begin have a greater awareness of the impact of the effects.
The human body-mind exists as one unit. It is alive, full of life-force and spirit, and not separate from nature. Nature involves a dynamic interplay between light, bright, warm, expanding forces and dark, cool, heavy and contracting forces. Have you ever been to a planetarium where they showed the cycles of birth and death of stars? All stars (bright, light, warm) eventually contract after supernova. The result of the contraction is a cold, heavy and contracted black hole. Eventually the black hole bursts out to create new stars. Neither extreme is meant to last, but rather be parts of the cycle.
I just described the basics of yin and yang.
Beyond yin and yang, there is a more complex and earthly theory of five phases. The five-phase theory is based the idea that there are five aspects of nature that mutually support each other. The five aspects are roughly correlated with theoretical ideas of internal organs and called "heart," "liver," "lung," "spleen" and "kidney." They are not the literal organs of western medicine. Each of the five oriental theory organs corresponds to a season of the year, an emotion, and something found in nature. For example the "heart" corresponds to summer, joy and fire. The "kidney" corresponds to winter, fear and water.
Sometimes you feel like you're never going to change from one feeling to another, physical or emotional. Sometimes it feels like a part of your body is stuck or you can't see another viewpoint. Have you ever felt that summer came to a standstill at some point? Or that winter dragged on too long? When you feel that way, we're not moving through the cycles according to Chinese medicine theory. Treatment with oriental medicine re-establishes your healthy movement of physical and emotional aspects.
When you feel less than your best, your yin and yang, and the five aspects are not in balance. Oriental medicine practitioners are trained to evaluate relative amounts of yin, yang and the five aspects. The treatment goal is to restore balance.
The treatment works in the following way. I choose several organs' channels and place needles on those channels to work together to stimulate the body to move towards greater balance. In this regard, Chinese herbs are used no differently than acupuncture and are always used in combination of between two and twenty individual herbs.
Every part of the body contains aspects of the whole: yin,yang, five phases/organs. Each part of the body has a specialized place within the whole. For example, the head is more yang than the feet because it is higher and the feet are lower when someone is standing. The goal is using the parts of the body to work together to affect balance.
Each individual treatment is part of a course of treatment that overall, slowly, gently, makes a difference for your health. The number of treatments you need varies with the severity and length of time you've had the imbalances. I generally recommend 6-10 treatments in order to make an impact in correcting of imbalances. My suggestion for you may be longer or shorter. During the course of 6-10 treatments, you will transition into getting used to how the treatments feel and then begin have a greater awareness of the impact of the effects.
