Fear and panic is once again setting in for many people, as the mainstream media bombards us with scary Covid-19 daily case number totals and health officials reintroduce lockdown measures, many of which seem completely arbitrary. As we saw in…
Anxiety, depression, suicide, drug use, domestic abuse, violence – with all of the lockdown measures put into place with the Covid-19 pandemic, it has had a devastating effect not just on our economy but also on our physical, mental, and emotional health and well-being.
Spring is here now in full swing, with Nature coming alive after her winter sleep. Tree buds and blossoms on display, green seedlings poking their way up out of the garden soil, birds and other animals scurrying around tending to their nests – springtime is a period of vigorous growth and activity.
As summer holidays come to an end, most people probably aren’t looking forward to returning back to office drudgery and their regular work routine. Besides the typical mental and emotional stresses that our work environments can create, Traditional Oriental Medicine has recognized for thousands of years that our day to day work activities can also have an effect on our physical health as well.
As the trees begin to blossom and spring is just around the corner, it’s a good opportunity to take some time to look after our health for the year ahead.
In one of the oldest writings of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the acupuncture textbook Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine) states that:
With the relaxing days of summer drawing to a close, most of us probably find our lives busier than ever. Back to school. Back to work. Back to our everyday routines.
It can be easy to get caught up in the stress and busyness of life and forget about looking after our own health. However, in the 2,000 year old acupuncture textbook the Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine), the Emperor’s court doctor gave some simple and practical advice in maintaining a healthy lifestyle:
As was previously seen in Part 1, Eastern medicine has long observed that our emotional states can have a significant impact on our health.
However, which comes first? Is it an imbalance in the body that produces negative emotions, or is it the emotions having an effect on the body?
“So what caused the health problem?” This is a common question asked by patients in my acupuncture clinic.
For Western minds, we’re used to explaining and understanding things in a direct linear cause-and-effect manner. However, Eastern medicine has observed that natural phenomena in the real world, including our own health, is not always simple or black and white; many factors can contribute and interact with each other to create imbalance and disease pathology in our lives.