Spring as Growth

Greetings to All and Happy Spring!


Spring is a time of birth, change and rapid expansion. The Chinese medicine element or energetic phase for spring is Wood. Just as spring is the time for plants to quickly pierce the ground and for trees to flower, it also represents birth and the quick growth of children and infants. Therefore, the Wood element is concerned with movement, with motivation, and with the harmonious flow in our lives.

A healthy Wood element person is sure of oneself and can speak up for one’s needs, but also knows when to relax the urge for control and go with the flow. Many great visionaries such as Martin Luther King and Mahatma Ghandi have strong Wood elements. An example in nature is bamboo: the main stalk is very straight and firm but can also easily curve and bend with the wind.

The principal organs of the Wood element are the Liver and Gallbladder. The energy of the Liver ensures the smooth flow of Qi/Energy in the body and prevents such Liver Qi stagnation problems such as:

* spasms

* tight muscles

* painful menstruation

* continuous sneezing, itchy eyes from hay fever

* nervous tension, anger, frustration

* premenstrual symptoms

* constant hiccups, belching, or gas

* pounding headache

* feeling of restlessness with lethargy   How can we balance our Wood element if we experience any of the above symptoms or feel a lack of motivation or vision? Here are some suggestions:

* Increase intake of vegetables, particularly green vegetables. If your digestion is sensitive or you have a hard time digesting certain foods, eat more lightly cooked vegetables, rather than raw.

* Look at the green in nature whenever you have spent several hours reading or at a desk. Green helps children focus and relax. Rub your bare feet over green grass. Place plants inside your house (ie bamboo is very easy to maintain in water and moderate light).

* Include a moderate daily amount of sour foods such as lemons, seasonal berries, limes, pickles, berries, organic yogurt, apple cider vinegar, locally made sauerkraut

* Exercise, stretch, play. Movement keeps the Liver Qi from stagnating.

* Get enough sleep because the Liver Blood replenishes at night; insufficient Liver Blood leads to energetic stagnation. This is particular for women, since Liver blood is intimately connected to menstrual blood.

* On a psycho-emotional level, Wood energy is about unfulfilled desires, but rather than figuring out "what am I supposed to be doing with my life?!", in other words, big life questions, focus on a present moment frustration that arises.  For example, if you are not a morning person and you are easily stressed in the morning, take a moment next time you find yourself frustrated, just a few seconds, to ask yourself, "What is happening at this very moment that I am frustrated?  What is the unfulfilled desire at this very moment?"  See what arises.  You do this enough times, you will find that answers will come easily, and your Liver Qi will flow more freely, allowing for more awareness to tackle deeper issues.

Winter Solstice

As this is the longest night of the year, tune into how you would feel resting in a cocoon of darkness, the element of Water, in stillness, in Yin.
Here is an article providing details of the Water element in Chinese medicine.
http://www.5elements.com/docs/elements/water.html

Wish you a meaningful and peaceful holiday full of love and joy!

Late Valentine's Day, but always pertinent

Alex and I spent Valentine's Day playing for Rumfish y Vino, great restaurant in Placencia, Belize. We were accompanied by our friends Judith, Dobs, and Chris, and of course great food. From Poet David Whyte, here's a LOVE tribute:

We have the strange idea, unsupported by any evidence, that we are loved and admired only for our superb strength, our far-reaching powers, and our all-knowing competency. Yet in the real world, no matter how many relationships may have been initiated by strength and power, no marriage or friendship has ever been deepened by these qualities. After a short, erotic honeymoon, power and omnipotence expose their shadow underbellies and threaten real intimacy, which is based on mutual vulnerability. After the bows have been made to the brass god of power, we find in the privacy of relationship that same god suddenly immobile and inimitable to conversation. As brass gods ourselves, we wonder why we are no longer loved in the same way we were at our first appearance. Our partners have begun to find our infallibility boring and, after long months or years, to find us false, frightening, and imprisoning.

We have the same strange idea in work as we do in love: that we will engender love, loyalty and admiration in others by exhibiting a great sense of power and competency. We are surprised to find that we garner fear and respect but forgo the other, more intimate magic. Real, undying loyalty in work can never be legislated or coerced; it is based on a courageous vulnerability that invites others by our example to a frontier conversation whose outcome is yet in doubt.

We have an even stranger idea: that we will finally fall in love with ourselves only when we have become the totally efficient organized organism we have always wanted to be and left all of bumbling ineptness behind. Yet in exactly the way we come to find love and intimacy with others through vulnerability, we come to those same qualities in ourselves through living out the awkwardness of not knowing, of not being in charge.

We try to construct a life in which we will be perfect, in which we will eliminate awkwardness, pass by vulnerability, ignore ineptness, only to pass through the gate of our lives and find, strangely, that the gateway is vulnerability itself. The very place we are open to the world whether we like it or not.”

Happy Year of the Rabbit

THE YEAR OF THE RABBIT, 2011

02/03/2011 - 01/22/2012 (Metal)

According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of 2011 is the Year of the Golden Rabbit, which begins on February 3, 2011 and ends on January 22, 2012. The Rabbit is the fourth sign of the Chinese Zodiac, which consists of 12 animals signs. The Rabbit is a lucky sign. Rabbits are private individuals and a bit introverted. People born in the Year of the Rabbit are reasonably friendly individuals who enjoy the company of a group of good friends. They are good teachers, counselors and communicators, but also need their own space.

According to Chinese tradition, the Rabbit brings a year in which you can catch your breath and calm your nerves. It is a time for negotiation. Don't try to force issues, because if you do you will ultimately fail. To gain the greatest benefits from this time, focus on home, family, security, diplomacy, and your relationships with women and children. Make it a goal to create a safe, peaceful lifestyle, so you will be able to calmly deal with any problem that may arise.

Not many people know that the Rabbit is the symbol of the Moon, while the Peacock is the symbol of the Sun, and that together, these two animal signs signify the start of day and night, represent the Yin and Yang of life. It is said that anyone making supplications for wishes to be fulfilled are certain to get what they want... and in the Year of the Rabbit, the wish-granting aspect of the Sun and the Moon combined is multiplied. The Moon is YIN and this is the Yin of Heaven, signifying magic. Thus on each of the Full Moon nights of this year, go out into your garden to gaze into the Full Moon and visualize plenty of Moon dust and Moon glow flowing into you, filling your whole body with bright white light and granting you fearlessness, love and courage. This will not only strengthen your inner "Chi" energy, it will also bring wisdom into your life.

This written posting is kindly borrowed from www.stanssewingsupplies.com/catalogs/store.asp?pid=253080
by way of Vivian Menjivar's newsletter

The above papercut image is from: www.sinopaperart.com

Dr. Emoto's Prayer

Among other things, Dr. Emoto's research reveals that water physically responds to emotions. And since our bodies are mainly water, wouldn't our cells respond too? This prayer has circulated through emails about praying for the Gulf of Mexico: "I send the energy of love and gratitude to the water and all the living creatures in the Gulf of Mexico and its surroundings.
To the whales, dolphins, pelicans, fish, shellfish, plankton, coral, algae, and all living creatures . . . I am sorry.
Please forgive me.
Thank you.
I love you. "

Dr. Emoto's prayer: "I am sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you." has been used in healing family emotional wounds and in changing peoples lives.

I know for me forgiveness has played a major role in healing my internal anger and frustrations towards my father, who is a wonderful person, and I always knew this. I have realized that the expectations that may have been placed on me, I chose to react to and internalize, though as a teenager it didn't seem like a "choice" to be hurt, resentful, and not feel like I was good enough.

Forgiveness for others, forgiveness for ourselves, ask for forgiveness. Blessings these Holy Days.

Little Big Pearl

A sweet pearl from a Thich Nhat Hanh talk:
Please remember to smile.
We can call it "mouth yoga."

Intuitive Mind

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
---Albert Einstein

What does your intuitive mind say during these times?