Japanese Acupuncture Newsletter, Phoenix, Arizona
Volume 3, No. 5: Dec., 2011
Japanese Acupuncture (480) 246-0624
600 N. 4th Street, Unit 147, Phoenix, AZ 85004
Happy Holidays To Everyone
Oriental Medicine & On Human Conditions Chapter Three
Spleen: Worry, Harmony, and Illumination #5
The Spleen Element is in the center and its emotional component is worry. When worry goes down to the kidneys, it becomes fear. When it passes through the diaphragm and entered the lungs, it becomes sadness, and when it enters the heart, it turns to joy*1. The Spleen controls digestive issues, if its functions are weak, it does not help the liver and worry becomes depression and could become paranoia. Caroline Myss talks about the chakra system in which she says it is easy for the wisdom to get stuck in the throat chakra and therefore the heart desire does not communicate with the brain. How many times do we experience what we say through the mouth turns out to be exactly opposite of what heart desire tells us? When worry successfully passes through the diaphragm, meaning you know how to breathe right, like the yoga breathing technique, it enters the heart and turns to joy. When there is joy in the heart, emotions become wisdom; only then, the brain will follow the heart desire. We are grounded. We speak the truth (without lying to ourselves).
Our problems reside in not knowing who we really are. Our brain is constantly lying or denying and thoughts always betraying (remember from my past newsletters, all emotions are illusion and thoughts only give us the endless thoughts), and we suffer. How to rise above? Know the sentence after “I am…” I am “what?” Make a couple of sentences you feel right about yourself. For example: I am a good man. I am an honest man. I am the best teacher, etc. When you practice the simple exercise everyday and every moment, our subconscious has no other choices but to make you who you are. One important thing is that the sentence has to be in the present tense. Will and was would never work. You must address in the present tense (where do you think the Power of Now comes from?). Many of you know that this is exactly how hypnosis works. Presenting a false statement in the present tense and making it real. If you follow the logic, anything is possible: there is always hope.
As for Oriental Medicine, placing one’s Self back in the right place starts with a treatment of the digestive system. My style of acupuncture calls for reduction of pains in the abdomen first. Pain in the abdomen is a diagnostic tool many Japanese masters have followed*2. Persons with diabetes, GERD, IBS, Crohn’s Disease, celiac disease, and other digestive problems must be treated with the Spleen/Stomach meridians (of course, LI/SI meridians are good, too). However, as I wrote in the last newsletter, treating just the Spleen and the Kidney suffices in many occasions*3.
Remember, when worry takes over you, learn how to breathe, let go the emotion, pay more attention to the sky and trees, and surrender. Sometime (most of the time for me), it is better to let the Universe takes care of you. Attune to it, and you are just fine. When you start feeling like you are guided, you are on the right road.
Namaste.
*1: In Oriental Medicine, the Heart itself does not ever go dysfunctional (it is the peripheral such as the pericardium which becomes impaired), therefore, it is the only Element that has a positive emotional attribute. But keep in mind, if too much joy, it becomes delusional and manic.
*2: Popular among the Japanese practitioners are the abdominal and the pulse diagnoses.
*3: I yet to prove this point firmly by more of my own treatments.
© 2011 Dr. Y. Frank Aoi (NM State)/Japanese Acupuncture, LLC
