The Earth Element, Your Digestion, and Embodiment

The challenging part of all forms of healing is personal involvement.

Modern medicine usually asks you to change your lifestyle and habits the least. Traditional Chinese medicine assumes that you are only eating healthy and seasonal food, moving consciously (Qi Gong or Tai Chi) almost every day; sleeping, working, and exercising with the seasons – and usually focusing on practices and specifics to resolve any imbalances or ‘arguments’ between two or more of your organs.

This Spring (which starts on Feb 4^th in TCM), I will be offering a Five Part Series of Acupuncture, Qi Gong, and Sound Bath sessions with Mira Koerner-Safrata. Mira is an Acupuncturist, Yoga, and Qi Gong teacher.

In each session, we will begin with a check-in and selecting the kind of treatment you prefer (restoring, harmonizing, or calming). Then we will engage in a 20 – 30 min group Qi Gong practice that is specific to the Element or Phase of the week.

After a short pause, we will settle onto a Yoga mat (please bring a pillow and light blanket – Teddy bears are welcome). While the Acupuncture treatments are being applied, we will explore a guided meditation and some conscious Breathwork. Each week, the Acupuncture points used will shift to activate, harmonize, or calm a specific organ system.

Starting Thursday, Feb 8^th – at 6:30 pm, we will begin with the Element of Earth.

Earth, Land, and Soil

The Element of Soil is associated with your body tissues as flesh more than function, your Somatic Embodiment, your felt sense Intuition, your internal dialogue, and your ruminating mind, as well as the state of being found in quiescent meditation.

When the Inner Landscape of your Embodiment and Mind get stuck in a rut, like feeling butterflies in your stomach all day, your digestive system (your Spleen/Pancreas /Gut System) goes out of balance or gets exhausted.

There are countless specific examples of what can go wrong, but the path to Healing begins with reconnecting to your Embodied State and your internal dialogue.

In the Scientific Model, this is similar to restoring your Vagus nerve’s capacity to stay open to the flow of information (Qi, Neurotransmitters, Electricity).

Fun Fact! – Your Vagus Nerve is unique in your body, because it is the only nerve that has an 80% body up to brain function.

(…are You in?)

If you are on Facebook, HERE is a link to the event page. Please let us know if you are interested.

(The following is an excerpt from my soon to be published book)

Beginning Your Qi Gong Healing Journey)

The Five Pillars of Qi Gong

This is a teaching about some essential qualities of this easy, potent, and beautiful practice.

In the ancient texts of Traditional Chinese medicine and Daoist practice, it is said that Qì exists between Yīn and Yáng (Land and Sky) and is expressed through the Five Elements.

The concept and ‘substance’ of Qì can be understood in many ways.

The classic Five Elements are Wood, Fire, Earth, Water, and Metal. Each ‘element,’ or Phase of Transformation, makes up one-fifth of the Universe’s phenomena and activity. Each of which, is a very big subject.

For Human Beings, each Phase, or Quality of Aliveness, relates to certain internal organs, tissues, senses, functions, emotions, and other qualities of experience. One of my favorite ways to introduce people to both the Five Phases and to Qì Gōng is to put the theoretical aspects into practice – right away.

In the most practical and practicable ways, focusing on the many subtle qualities of Aliveness that you experience every day, as well as focusing on the most predictable and tangible interactions of your Qì Gōng practice, have always been the most effective and enjoyable.

Each of the following aspects of Qì Gōng practice can be seen as expressions and investigations into each of the Five Phases individually. They include:

 

Element/Organ	Qi Gong Experience
Wood/Liver	Alignment and Structure
Fire/Heart	Self-Expression and Expansion
Earth/Spleen	Embodied Sensation and Thought
Metal/Lungs	Breath, Receptivity, and Acceptance
Water/Kidneys	Stillness and Readiness

 

Earth/Soil ~ Embodied Sensation

The energy (Qì) of Earth, or Soil, does not have a dynamic Phase or a specific movement of energy. Soil is considered to be the medium through which the four dynamic energies interact and can be observed.

For example, you cannot see the Wind, but you can see the movement of the grass and leaves.

Without Soil, Wood has no place to root itself, and Water would sink into the center of the planet. Without shores, there would not be any lakes, rivers, or the entire ocean. In a way, Soil is a counterpoint, or a frame of reference, which allows the qualities and influences of the other elements to be perceivable. In your body, this is your Somatic experience – or all of the places you feel all of your feelings.

The attitude or mood of Soil is listening and reciprocity; the feeling of giving and receiving in balance. This often feels like being both your experience – and the space your experience moves through.

In your Qì Gōng practice, you will often notice how certain thoughts, worries, and memories come with consistent embodied sensations. We all know how nervousness can wake up the butterflies in your stomach. The opposite is also true. If you listen to, and work with your embodied experience, you can gradually remember how to choose where your attention goes, releasing any ‘thought-forms’ from your Somatic State of Being – your Soil Body.

A Qì Gōng principle that relates to Soil is Tīng Jìn – or Listening with your Whole Body and Being.

Stay tuned for conversation about the next Element, and some more details about the Acupuncture, Qi Gong, and Sound Bath sessions.

HERE is a link to the event page.