Maintaining Balance

​Another patient asked what she could do while she is away for a couple weeks to maintain the well being she feels after a treatment. I told her about the concept in Chinese medicine that the emotions are considered interior weather, we protect ourselves from exposure to exterior climatic weather but are likely to be caught up in weather inside, not recognizing the emotions as separate from us, again a cultural relic. The seven emotions are our interior weather patterns and we should shelter from them like we do external weather patterns. 

The emotions recognized as impacting our health are: anger, joy, pensiveness, worry, sadness (grief), fear and shock (fright). Each of these affects the Qi differently. Anger makes the Qi rise up, joy makes the Qi slow down, pensiveness and worry make the Qi stagnate, sadness consumes the Qi, fear causes Qi to descend and shock scatters Qi.

In meditation we can come to recognize how the body-mind feels when at our peak of well being and see how the different internal factors impact that. Then we can learn to adjust or shelter from the influence of emotions and maintain harmony. Just as the emotions can change the Qi so can our willed intention. Treat the body-mind with love and respect and it will respond in time.