I don’t talk about it much, but the power of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the theory that comes with it, is pretty mind-blowing. Patients are always surprised when they express a certain emotion or newfound habit that appears to be confusing or unfounded, I have an answer that helps to explain it thanks to TCM.
Currently, I have a patient who has leukemia but has battled bouts of pneumonia for as long as she can remember. She also has had a grief-stricken life, sadly. What these two have in common doesn’t seem so obvious, except to the TCM practitioner.
In TCM Theory, there are 12 channels that travel up and down our bodies, corresponding to an organ, each paired to another, generating 6 pairs. Those 6 pairs each correspond to an element – two pairs share the element of fire and subsequent other associations – as there are only 5 elements: metal, fire, wood, earth, and water. These elements also correspond to various other seemingly unrelated things like seasons, emotions, flavors, and parts of the body.
It just so happens that the lungs are metal and their emotion is that of grief. Metal also corresponds to fall/autumn. Now do you see the connection?
We’re no longer in fall, so it would be most appropriate to chat about how TCM helps to explain certain associations with the winter.
The winter is associated with the kidneys, the element of water, and the emotion fear.
What does this mean?
Water is fluid, which is something we need to be during these times; we need to be flexible and adjustable to any situations that come our way. Fear is most prevalent during this time, making it easy to grasp hold; which means you have to work extra hard to overcome this.
What many people don’t realize is that fear can actually paralyze the parts of our brain that process logical reasoning. When we find ourselves in a state of fear, our stress is heightened which can actually depress our immune system function making us ripe for illness. If you are somebody who already has a difficulty managing stress, you might find the winter to be a challenging time for you and your health. Knowing this, hopefully it will encourage you to seek out ways to ameliorate or process the stress more conducive to wellness.
Part of managing stress effectively means having grace with yourself. You’re practicing fluidity and flexibility with others, so naturally you must do the same for you, no? So what you if you only got dinner on the table 5 times this week instead of 7, or maybe you got stuck in traffic on your way to work; oftentimes circumstances are out of our control, so stressing out about them won’t do much to change them anyways.
Another aspect to TCM emotions and their relationship to a particular season is that during these times, the universe is harnessing a particular energy. It is during these specific times that we are more sensitive to experiencing one emotion over the other; as is the case of winter, this would be fear. That being said, if you’re feeling a little extra blue, or defeated, or perhaps even “less than,” know that your proneness to these feelings at this time is to be expected. Try not to let it overcome you; socialize, spend time with people who make you feel good, engage in rewarding activities.
Knowing I have this knowledge to help patients gives me the chills. Being armed with so many different tools is rewarding and satisfying, because I know that I’m giving them a perspective they likely have never heard before.
I will make sure to follow-up with each season moving forward so this segment feels complete!
