Are you a big picture person? Are you a holistic thinker?
Look at the open hand and guess how many you see? If you are a big picture person or a holistic thinker you could see 9.
Confused? Please read on…
Awareness is important, not only in health but in life in general. There is what is seen and there is what is not seen. Tangible vs non-tangible. A holistic thinker seeks awareness in the inter-connectivity of their surroundings. Such awareness can lead to a deeper understanding and higher levels of balance and harmony.
If you recall past posts, I describe good health as being about good circulation, movement and flow. Fire (yang) and water (yin) are seemingly opposing forces, but when joined together in harmony they transform into steam and provide movement, flow or function. Natural health practices encourages and supports the coming together of these primal forces within our body.
The open hand appears to display 5 digits (1 thumb and 4 fingers) but there is more. There are 4 spaces between the fingers – 5 + 4 = 9. This is the natural and holistic thinking embodied in yin yang philosophy. A beautiful way of understanding and seeing the world around us.
Tai Chi, Chi Kung and the healing arts of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) are all influenced by this holistic thinking found in Yin Yang philosophy.
Understanding Yin Yang can help us journey through life in harmony and balance. Yin Yang is about balance. Two opposing forces coming together in harmony. All things in the universe contain Yin and Yang. One cannot be separated from the other. Yin and yang both depend on each other.
Understanding one side of a story gives us only a partial understanding. Many things in life require a deeper sense of awareness to bring a higher level of understanding to find truth.
When it comes to health, there is the seen and the unseen. Often times, people react to health issue when the signs and symptoms become visible and unbearable. Being aware of the unseen or perhaps slight imbalances in your health early on can put you on a better road to managing your health. This is about practicing early forms of prevention and self-care.
Waiting on conventional tests like stress tests, mammograms, blood test and so forth to diagnosis your health is often late in the healing process. This requires strong medicine to react to a more fully developed disease.
Increasing your awareness about the unseen and less obvious can give you early preventive tools and allow you to take control of your health naturally. This is about preventing instead of reacting – real, early-on prevention.
When you sit with an TCM practitioner / acupuncturist you can learn many preventive practices to safeguard your health. You can learn how to regulate your lifestyle based on yin yang principles. Mental-emotional health is an important area to focus on for health. You can discover how negative emotional energy patterns can be a major root-problem to many different health problems.
Depending on the skills of the practitioner you may be able to learn chi kung exercise or meditative techniques to manage stress and strengthen your body.
Diet is also a major area to consider. There are diets that are generally healthy but what’s right for you and your personal health issues.
TCM dietary practices also include aspects of food that are not conventionally understood for example; in TCM foods have a thermal nature. Foods are categorized as hot, warm, neutral, cool and cold.
If a person tends to feel warm, has a red hue to their complexion, feels anxious, doesn’t sleep well, has acid reflux and perhaps headaches – this could be diagnosed as a heat condition. Suggesting a diet that is cooling may be more corrective and supportive. Obviously, an individual health evaluation by an acupuncturist / TCM practitioner would be needed to determine whats best for you.
There is the obvious, what is seen and then the not so obvious, what is not seen. Looking at the picture again I ask you, “how many do you see now?”
