How to use the five elements to eliminate overwhelming stress
You may have noticed that I haven’t been producing much content these past few days. It haunts me, really, because my greatest hope is that this blog will develop into a great community for the exploration of Chinese medicine. It is a labor of love and I’ve worked hard and hope that everyone has enjoyed the results so far.
But there’s more to my life than blogging. Shocking, I know. During the summer, when the external demands on my time were small, it was very easy to produce lots of high quality content. I believe that this is still quite possible - despite the rather heavy load of work school and the resumption of my various non-academic school duties (student government, etc) bring me. So, what’s the hold up?
No matter how well prepared you are for a change, it inevitably shakes you. In this particular case, the intense workload has begun to produce a condition of overwhelm that has made me quite numb. I know I’m not the only one - my fellow classmates have experienced something similar. So, instead of freaking out I’ve decided to take charge of the situation and find a solution to this crippling sensation. Here’s five things - one for each of the elemental phases - I’m doing to rectify my balance.
1. Fire - Laugh and have fun with the people you love
Fire has a lot to do with our ability to experience joy and ease, as well as our connections with other human beings. In overwhelming situations, we often let all of this perish. When I’m stressed, I find myself frowning more, getting angry with those close to me and neglecting my need to just relax and have a good time. It’s vital for me to remember that while the work I’m doing is very important, it’s even more important that I stay balanced and connected to my friends and family.
To this end: take your significant other out on a surprise date, watch a comedy (like Kung Fu Hustle!), invite your friends over for a potluck meal, dance to your favorite song in the living room, take your dog on the longest walk ever, laugh every time a new piece of work rolls in, call your mom and tell her that you love her.
2. Earth - Nourish your body
Possibly the most important thing you can do in a period of increased stress is to take care of your physical body. Particularly when a lot of your work is mental, you can quickly burn away any resistance to disease you may have had along with disordering your emotional states. DO NOT NEGLECT REGULAR MEALS OF A NOURISHING NATURE. For me, this is the first thing to go. I eat on the run, I stop paying attention to what I eat, sometimes I simply forget to eat altogether. So bad.
To this end: sit down right now and plan out a whole week’s worth of meals then go buy the ingredients, if you have extra time cook a bunch of meals ahead of time and freeze them, make extra certain to eat your meals at regular times and sitting down, splurge a little and buy your favorite foods so you’ll be more inclined to enjoy eating. Also - drink a lot of Pu-Erh.
3. Metal - Cut out unnecessary activity and get organized
Metal is all about cutting things away, paring down, getting ready for the time of difficulty in the Winter. It’s so easy to add things to your plate most of the time, and so difficult to clear them. Use the easy availability of Metal energy here in the autumn to take a calculating look at your list of “to-do’s.” If you can delegate something to someone else, do it. If you can drop something, drop it. If you can delay something until a later time, do that. When you have the list of “have to’s” get them organized. When are your deadlines? When will you have time to work on it? Prioritize! There are of course a hundred ways to deal with these big issues - I use Getting Things Done
4. Water - Cultivate, cultivate, cultivate
Right behind eating well, the second thing to go when I get overwhelmed is my self-cultivation. I think it is utterly vital to force yourself to take care of your spiritual health in stressful situations. I would even suggest doing this if it means losing sleep. I know, crazy. Deepening into the water element will allow you access stores of energy and inspiration you didn’t know you had. It will also help replenish your depleted stores and help you to remember why you’re doing all this crazy stuff in the first place.
To this end, I: throw the Yijing daily, spend half an hour or so in the morning drinking tea outside and contemplating, step up my meditation practice, do a little QiGong every day and focus on the subtle things around me like the calls of birds and the rustle of leaves. Do whatever works for you, but for the love of God, do it. I promise you it will help.
5. Wood - Get out in nature
This doesn’t necessarily relate to the Wood elemental phase on a metaphorical level, but it does on a more basic level. Even though it’s autumn where I am, the evidence of Wood energy is everywhere. In Oregon, things never stop growing. Refreshing myself with the boundless energy of nature helps remind me that while I may feel pretty depleted, there’s a whole world out there just conspiring to fill me full of hope, purpose and drive.
To this end: go for a walk at twilight or dawn, go for a hike in your nearest natural area, hang out by the river, play frisbee in the park, lie on the ground with your bare feet contacting the Earth and just….
breathe.
Got it?
Eric
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Tags: Blogging, erics-habits, habits, Home remedies, lifestyle-counseling, nutrition, overwhelm, stress, studentsRelated posts
Chinese medicine lifehacks - 3 simple tips to defeat insomnia
I’m experimenting with some new content types. I’d like to be comfortable with releasing some less weighty content. Plus, maybe you all are sort of sick of wading through those big ones? Let me know in the comments. Regardless, they’re not going away, so for you theory lovers - the somewhat wordy posts will continue. :D
In the Chinese medicine lifehack series of posts - I’ll try just writing quick things I’ve learned from Chinese medicine to help me with common problems. Today? Insomnia.
As I mentioned in my article about ways to ensure your insomnia continues, I sometimes suffer from a lack of sleep. In Chinese medicine, there are a lot of potential causes for insomnia. But all of them share one simple feature - they self perpetuate. Which is to say that insomnia begets insomnia. Simplistically speaking, the phrase “burning the midnight oil” has some truth to it - when you stay awake too late, you consume Qi and especially Blood, among other negative effects. This, in turn, will make it more difficult for you to sleep - both that night and following nights. It’s self-reinforcing. Because of this, it is of vital importance that you interrupt the cycle as soon as possible.
At this point, when I wake up at some ungodly hour or simply fail to fall asleep, I have three things I do to get back in dreamland quickly. Perhaps they will help you as well. I should also note that if you have serious insomnia, your best bet is to find a good Chinese medicine physician. But these steps should help you when you’re up and need to get back to sleep.
1. Make myself a cup of blood tonifying tea : Often, there is some deficiency of Blood at the root of insomnia. This is especially the case if the insomnia has to do with too much work or general life stress (not stress from deaths in the family or extreme situations). I must say that the below is not a proper formula, but it’s ok in a pinch. I have provided links to sources where available - if you use those links, I do get a small portion of the sale price, all of that money goes to get me through school so I appreciate it very much. Regardless, all of these herbs should be available from your local health food store or Chinese medicinary. Be sure to check for Angelica sinensis - there are North American variants available and I’m not sure
- 2 parts Astragalus (Huang Qi) preferably honey fried (Zhi Huang Qi) - no, it’s not vegan. I sometimes “honey fry” my own with agave nectar, you can fry it up with a little honey in a frying pan until the honey is well absorbed. I haven’t done any testing to see whether agave nectar is a sufficient substitution, but it’s something I plan on investigating. I use local, raw honey when I find it necessary for medicinal purposes.
- 1 part (Dang Gui, Tang Kui) - Available through Chinese Herbs Direct
- 1 part Longnan fruit (Long Yan Rou) - You may need to go to a Chinese herbal medicinary or a Chinese grocery store for these
I put all of these in a Bodum glass teapot (I love this thing)
When I’m having a lot of episodes of insomnia, I’ll drink this tea often. It definitely helps. When it gets really bad, I go and see one of my many excellent doctors.
2. Do deep breathing exercises
After I drink my tea, and even while I’m drinking, I do some simple visualization and deep breathing. I take very slow, intentful breaths either sitting or lying and with my feet contacting the floor. On the inhale, I do two visualizations. First, I imagine that the energy of my body is moving down, contacting my heart, kidneys, lower abdomen and finally down to my feet and out into the floor. Second, I imagine a gentle golden yellow ball of light in my lower abdomen that expands slightly during the breath. On the exhale, I imagine cool, clear energy rising from the ground through my feet and going up to my heart and brain - contacting my lower abdomen and kidneys on the way up. Be very careful to focus equally on inhale and exhale, perhaps even a little more on the exhale. Do this for at least 10 minutes. It may put you to sleep on its own.
3. Make contact with Kidney 1
If I’m still not tired enough to go to sleep at this point, I continue my focused breathing in an inclined position in bed. In this position, I find Kidney-1 (here is a location guide for Kidney 1) and press firmly. While I breath, I make sure to focus strongly here - particularly on the inhale. Kidney 1’s name is Yong Quan or Gushing/rushing spring. This cooling and grounding energy will help to pull the excess activity out of your Heart/head. It is also the wood point on this water channel and as such may nourish the wood Liver which is often deficient or stagnant in cases of insomnia. I sometimes have to hold this point for 90 seconds, sometimes for 5 minutes.
I hope this helps.
Eric
Tags: acupressure, chinese-herb, chinese-herbs, deep-breathing, habits, herbs, Home remedies, insomnia, meditationRelated posts
7 Life Changing Habits I have learned through Chinese Medicine study
I am a reasonably successful person on a number of fronts. I have a beautiful family that thrives on open and honest communication, shared fun and mutual support. I have many close friends with whom I can discuss nearly everything. I get excellent grades in school and feel I am beginning to get a grasp on some of the fundamental tenets of Chinese medicine. I am rewarded for this with the knowledge itself, of course, but also numerous scholarships and other honors. I have become integrally involved in my school through student government and, most recently, the NCNM Presidential Ambassadors Leadership Society. My life was not always this way, but that’s certainly a story for another time. Chinese medicine - especially my educational experience with it - has changed my life. For the better.
I wanted to share with you seven of the most important habits or practices I have learned in my time as a patient and student of Chinese medicine. Hopefully they will be useful for you as well. These habits help me to be a more effective student, a better parent and partner, a generally happier person and able to do more productive work with a better attitude. They are listed in no particular order.
- Frequent consumption of Ju Hua (chrysanthemum flower) + Gou Qi Zi (goji/wolf berry, lycium) + Dang Gui (angelica sinensis) tea: This is a slight variation of a tea that one of our professors repeatedly urged us to drink so that our “ears and eyes will be bright” and we can be great students. :) You should be able to pick up all of these herbs at your local Chinese formulary without a prescription. You can also find them at most well stocked natural foods stores and Chinese groceries. Look for organic sources if you can and make sure the herbs themselves seem vital - deep colors and not too dry. Put equal parts in a teapot or generously sized teaball. I use a glass teapot that’s actually meant for the brewing of french press coffee - that way I can make plenty and the herbs can sit in there for a while, really steeping. I drink this tea several times a week - in the winter term I drank it every day.
- Use of the Yijing for contemplation and guidance: I take my self-cultivation seriously. That being said, I know that many people are highly suspicious of divination like the Yijing and the Tarot. Personally, I have found it a highly effective way to break through mental muddiness. If I find myself feeling a bit lost or confused, I just sit down with the Yijing, focus on my question and just let the meditative process of throwing the oracle (I use sticks fashioned from bamboo skewers) do its work on me. I don’t need to make any fantastic claims of communing with the Spirits to tell you that it has been a life-changing way for me to work through seemingly intractable problems. I can recommend very highly the version of the Yijing written by the incredible Stephen Karcher. The link heads to his blog, you can also use the link below to order a copy through Amazon. I simply can’t praise it enough.
- Daily Qigong: I don’t always have the time, energy, or desire to do a full form - but every day I at least do some practice that is part of the lineage I am fortunate to have been brought into. Sometimes that’s a walking meditation, sometimes a practice of full body shaking with visualization, sometimes sitting meditation, sometimes repeated execution of some part of a form - generally I just let my body be my guide. You could do this with any physical practice you have been introduced to - my partner prefers Yoga, a close friend enjoys walking meditation in the Zen tradition. But it’s about consistent practice. It WILL transform you.
- Stimulation of “panacea” points: There are acupuncture points which are widely regarded as preventative for a wide variety of conditions. These points, when stimulated on a regular basis, boost the Qi and Blood of the entire body and help to keep the channels flowing freely. Because most of you probably don’t know how to use acupuncture needles safely, you can use acupressure to stimulate the points. Just use the location guides below if you don’t know where the points are, feel around in the area indicated until you find something pretty tender. Apply pressure - it should feel pretty tender as you do it - for 15-30 seconds at a time, repeat 9 times on each side. I do sometimes use needles, but more often use indirect moxibustion. The points that I use most often in this way follow:
- Stomach-36 (Zu San Li): The mother of all preventative points. Find Stomach-36 here.
- Large Intestine-4 (He Gu): Often used by the general public for headaches - but great for so much more. Find Large Intestine-4 here.
- Governing Vessel-20 (Bai Hui): Not normally considered a “panacea,” but great for students and other people who are trapped too often in their heads (that means you, bloggers). Find Governing Vessel-20 here.
- Demonstrate respect for myself and others: Learning Chinese medicine has made me a more compassionate and respectful human being. I think the study of medicine tends to make anyone more capable of feeling empathy for the suffering of other people - it certainly has had that effect on me. But the respect part I learned through my study of medical classics and Confucian literature. The more respect I show for my teachers and fellow students - even to the point of seeming a little quaint - the more abundance I experience flowing back to me.
- Study diligently and consistently: ( Edit: I have recently written a post about 8 Scholarship Winning Habits I Learned through Chinese medicine study that readers of this post may be interested in. ) School has always been very easy for me. I was bored stiff all through primary school and didn’t even bother going to high school. In college and my first graduate degree I began to step up to the plate, but often did only as much as I felt like doing at any moment - that was usually enough to keep me in the upper levels of the class. When I got to NCNM I suddenly had a reason to study - what I learned or failed to learn was going (IS going) to mean the difference between my being able to help someone or not. Add to that the deep work ethic embedded in the medical classics and demonstrated by my esteemed professors and you have a recipe for my conversion to dutiful student. I do my very best to study something Chinese medicine related every single day. During school I usually study 5-6 hours a day - not counting classes. I expect this to continue.
- Be in awe of the complexity of the universe: Although I have a tendency to get maybe a little too Confucian with all my respect this and study that, I have also learned from the Daoist roots of this medicine. I have learned to often stand back from the sometimes meticulous detail involved in learning Chinese medicine and just laugh out loud at the absurd and overwhelming complexity of human beings and the universe they live in. I find myself bowing my head humbly in awe of this place and time and always keep in mind that as much as I learn, there will always be much more to learn.
Implementing these habits was a pretty organic process - but some parts (diligent study, daily Qigong) have taken some… uh… gentle encouragement on the part of my Will. I credit the nearly religious adherence to these habits with my success in school and life in general.
Eric Grey
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7 ways to ensure you never sleep well again, or, Chinese medicine and insomnia
Sitting here up after tossing and turning for an hour, I find that I have a fair degree of clarity concerning a topic on many people’s minds - sleep. Or, more properly, the lack of it. Insomnia, anyone? Insomnia and other sleep disorders are a growing problem, particularly in Western nations. Because insomnia makes me rather negative - I’ll point out seven things that people do wrong to keep themselves awake and indicate what Chinese medicine has to say about them.
1. Work too late: Trust me on this one, it’s my specialty. Work, especially knowledge work, burns blood. Blood is necessary to house the Shen. This will be a repetitive theme in this post. You may not understand what Blood or Shen are - I will surely blog about them sometime in the near future. To keep it simple, let’s say that Blood is the heavier, more Yin sister to Qi. It’s a nourishing fluid in your body and the concept is closely associated with what Western medicine talks about when they talk about blood. Shen is, roughly, the Spirit. But it’s a nuanced concept - it includes Western ideas about Mind, consciousness, soul and purpose. The “big fish” with sleeping is that your Shen, which is awake when you are and interacting with the world, needs to nestle into something cool and protecting while you’re asleep. That’s where Blood comes in. If your blood is damaged by overwork or is otherwise compromised, you won’t sleep well - if at all.
Solution: Set a bed time and promise yourself to stop any work at least an hour before that time. Your work can wait.
2. Eat too late: In this situation, it is as if you’ve got construction going on next to your bedroom. Your Shen is trying to get some rest after a long day of work but the Stomach (adjacent to the Heart) is busy grinding away, doing its work, making a racket and generally making it impossible for anyone to settle down.
Solution: Eat earlier. If you must eat late, eat a simple nourishing meal and eat until you’re only about 3/4 full.
3. Think too much/worry: A leading cause of sleeping problems. This activity can be harmful whether you do it during the day, right before you go to sleep, or as you try to fall asleep. Aside from burning up your blood (see #1) you’re also agitating your Heart and impacting the movement of Heart Qi. This poor movement can result in stagnation Heat or a number of other scenarios that have one end result: difficulty sleeping.
Solution: This is going to require a general lifestyle change - moving away from thinking/worrying so much in general. But in an acute situation, knowing that you need to change your lifestyle isn’t going to help. Instead, sit up in bed - relax your muscles - and breathe deeply into your belly. Let your belly expand completely as you fill your lungs with air, but try not to strain too much. Then let it relax. Do this while focusing on a space maybe 3-5 inches into your abdomen, below your bellybutton an inch or two. Do a cycle of ten breaths then let yourself breathe normally for ten breaths and repeat. Think as little as possible while you do this. This almost always puts me to sleep if I let it.
4. Sleep in uncomfortable situations, especially in the heat: If you are uncomfortable, you can’t sleep. What about your sleeping situation isn’t working for you? Maybe you need a new pillow? A firmer or softer mattress? Windows open or closed? Some white noise? Darker curtains? This isn’t so much a Chinese medicine issue, but it is common sense. You could do some evaluation of your space using Feng Shui principles, but as I don’t know much about it - I’ll stick with the common sense approach.
Solution: Lie quietly in your sleeping space and try to figure out what is distracting you from what you need - calm, uninterrupted shut-eye. Mentally resolve to fix the situation as soon as possible and use one of the techniques listed here to get you to sleep for now. Sometimes just figuring out what’s bothering you is enough to render it impotent.
Tags: Home remedies, insomnia, TheoryRelated posts
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