yin and yang

Mar

2016

Alchemy of Chinese Herbs

Photography Wendy Brown

Herbs and roots are life-nourishing.

They are sustenance as well as medicine,

and convey nature’s forces.

Through their connection to the natural world, herbs and roots of Chinese medicine imbue their resonance with these forces within us.

Regulated by the rhythms of Yin and Yang, influenced by the 5 elements (sun, soil, minerals, water, and other trees and plants), and through their ability to adapt to the climatic factors of heat and cold, wind, dryness and dampness, herbs renew our resilience.

Immortal Mágū collecting medicinal roots, fruits and plants

Chinese medicine has a long history of practices that propagate life; practices to nourish and prolong life through our mental-physical-spiritual oneness with nature. Such concepts and knowledge of creating rarified, spiritual states of being and longevity have passed through Taoist lineages, preserving the Three Treasures Jīng, Qì and Shen.

BURDOCK ROOT

The energetic nature of herbs and other organic substantive matter, in their particular parts, collected and prepared specifically to confer the essence of their elemental forces, guide and help to make whole.

Jan

2016

The Arts of Internal Cultivation

✍️Wᴇɴᴅʏ Bʀᴏᴡɴ, Lic. Ac.

MIRCOCOSMIC ORBIT

SIX HEALING SOUNDS

To understand the Tao, people of antiquity lived lives in accordance with the interplay of yin and yang. Eating and acting moderately, they refrained from dissipating strength through unseemly behavior, and thus, conserved Jing essence and lived out their years. This same timeless path unfolds today.

Six Healing Sounds

The Six Healing Sounds is an inner art that transforms subtle energy accumulated in and around the organs. Practicing the ‘Six healing sounds and Inner smile’ daily can dissipate static energy in the form of lingering heat around the organs that diminishes vitality and weighs on mental-emotional disposition. Transformed and liberated into vital Qi, the energy may further be circulated throughout the body, guided intentionally through other forms such as the microcosmic orbit.

Microcosmic Orbit

Microcosmic orbit is a Taoist inner-cultivation practice. Through breathing to circulate Qi, Qi passes through the points/energy centers linking the Ren [front-midline] and Du [back-midline] channels. On inhalation, yang waxes and yin wanes; on exhalation, yin waxes and yang wanes, and the heavenly circle flows.

Jun

2015

The Smell of Burning Moxa

For some, the smell of moxa burning elicits reactions of curiosity as well as misconception.

Jan

2015

Warming Needle Moxibustion

www.ElementalChanges.com WarmingNeedleMoxa JiaxingZhejiang

Jiāxīng, Zhejiang. Photo: Stringer [Reuters]

Promotes free-flow of QI and blood and warms meridians; treating painful joints caused by cold-damp, for numbness, paralysis, and sensation of cold. An excellent treatment, particularly in seasonal cold-damp and conditions of debility.

Oct

2014

Acupuncture & Moxibustion

THE INTEGRAL WHOLE IN THE RELATIONSHIP OF MAN WITH HEAVEN & EARTH, AND ACUPUNCTURE AS A TREATMENT FOR ALL DISEASE.

The human individual is an integrated aspect of the universe, with life’s happenings reflecting the interplay of Yin and Yang. These dynamics, displaying the shifting, greater movement of energy, are the root of prevention and treatment of disease by Chinese medicine.

Please Enjoy & Share

Aug

2014

Moxibustion Charts 灸法圖

Earliest illustrations of moxibustion treatment. By at least a century, moxibustion pre-dates the earliest bronze models from the Song dynasty used to understand locations of meridians and points in acupuncture. Therapeutic moxibustion, applying Artemisia cautery techniques, treats illnesses and strengthens the Qi of the body. It is a prevalent modality in Chinese medicine.

Six fragments now survive, although not consecutive:

Juan I, II, III, IV, V, VI, Jia Juan甲卷, Yi Juan乙卷, Bing Juan丙卷, Ding Juan丁卷, Wu Juan戊卷, Ji Juan己卷

From the remaining fragments of moxibustion illustration and text, 18 diagrams can be distinguished.

Aug

2014

Cholesterol from a TCM Perspective

Did you know that Yang-energy fight or flight hormones associated with stress rhythms can cause an elevation in cholesterol?

Traditional Chinese Yin-Yang theory is adaptable to classify all universal phenomena, including the modern dietary-lifestyle staples that play into most health conditions. Coffee, sugar, and alcohol, among the more ubiquitous, have an overwhelming and weakening effect on the interconnected systems of the body. In the polarity of Yin-Yang, these substances are seen to liberate a lot of Yang Qi, which is to say the active, warming, dynamic aspects of the functioning, material form. Stress hormones have a similar effect in liberating Yang Qi.

In Yin-Yang theory of TCM, to balance excessive Yang, the body functionally secretes Yin to compensate to bring balance to the Yang excess, which includes secretion of the inherently densely Yin substance of cholesterol. Due to factors of over-consumption of strongly Yang-natured substances, and possible familial predisposition, often this compensation of Yin in the form of cholesterol occurs to pathological levels. Much more than avoiding eggs (which can be refuted as irrelevant) to prevent or reduce cholesterol are the dietary factors of coffee, sugar, and alcohol that are far more debilitating. In Chinese medical theory balancing Yin and Yang is key to physical health and mental well being. Eliminating stress and the dietary factors that liberate an abundance of Yang Qi in the body is the first step to reducing elevated Yin-levels of cholesterol, and it is the final step in maintaining healthy blood cholesterol.

Apr

2014

Bipolar Disorder

Spiraling from Yang to Yin to Yang

In Chinese medicine, bipolar is a range of Mind-Body-Spirit disorder, Dian is a Yin manifestation, tending from deficiency, and manifesting as depression and withdrawal; While Kuang, or mania, belongs to Yang patterning, and manifests as full agitation.

Prolonged withdrawal [Dian] leads to phlegm depression transforming into fire, which results in mania; While prolonged mania [Kuang] leads to insufficiency of vital Qi, resulting in withdrawal. Dian and Kuang, in their extremes, are always inter-related; transformative aspects of Yin and Yang.

Oct

2012

Diabetes in Traditional Chinese Medical Treatment

Diabetes Mellitus originates from deficiency of Yin and manifests externally as a syndrome of excessive heat. As the disease progresses, deficiency of Yin produces dry-heat which in turn damages QI and Yin, exhausting both Yin and Yang in time. The incidence of diabetes is projected to double in the next 10 years worldwide; yet, in 752 A.D., the distinguished physician Wang Tao published the famous book Wai Tai Mi Yao, a comprehensive medical guide which implicated the pancreas as the organ involved in this pattern of disease. Herbal treatment in the initial stage countered with herbs that had a cold nature and that nourished Yin – the same diagnosis & treatment today. In China, diabetes is not as prevalent as elsewhere. The incidence rate of diabetes in China is reported to be 0.67%, compared with about 2.2% in the U.S. 90% of the U.S. cases are insulin-independent, due to genetic factors, diet and obesity.

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

• Diabetes develops initially over a period of about 3 years.

• Intermediate stage (with deficiency of QI and Yin) over a period of about 5 years.

• Late stage (with deficiency of QI, Yin and Yang) develops over a period of about 8 years, with blood circulatory disorders that progress throughout.

OUTCOMES

Along with Chinese herb therapy, Acupuncture can be used to treat such risk factors as obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, etc., the diabetic syndrome itself, and the secondary effects of diabetes. About 70-80% of those using acupuncture and appropriate formulations of Chinese herbs at the high Chinese-style dosages, achieve improvement, often better than the many western drugs; while 20-30% show only a marginal response. Blood sugar levels may not reach norms but can be reduced enough to ameliorate symptoms and decrease the secondary risks of long-term elevation of blood sugar.

Wellness Best Wishes to All

Feb

2012

Cholesterol: Chinese Medical Perspective

Much more than avoiding eggs to prevent or reduce cholesterol, are the dietary factors of coffee, sugar and alcohol that are far more debilitating. In Chinese medical theory, stress and yang dietary factors liberate an abundance of Yang QI in our bodies. In order to balance such Yang in excess, the body pathologically secretes Yin in an attempt to compensate, which includes the inherently Yin substance of cholesterol.

Plum and Bamboo under the Moon 月下梅竹
Shí Tāo 石濤 [1642-1707], Early Qing Dynasty.
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