How do we create harmony amidst chaos?

Create Harmony amidst Chaos

Mother Nature has been especially ferocious as of late. Between the hurricanes in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, and Florida, and the Earthquakes in Mexico, coupled with the tension around North Korea,  it’s easy to understand why we have so many patients coming into the clinic feeling overwhelmed and incredulous.   We wanted to look at how do we create Harmony amidst Chaos?

chaos amidst harmonycreate harmony amidst chaos

Some of us have been watching The Viet Nam War on OPB.  When thinking back to those times, a similar overall feeling of fear and dread arises.   As in, “What is this World coming to?”   This is not a political statement, but an observation on the upheavals and shifts that seem to be occurring each morning we open our eyes.   Whether it’s our climate, our government, our office, our family, our neighborhood association, we all have thoughts on how we want to influence events, and feelings about the difference between how we want it to be- how it should be, and how it actually is. This creates stress and anxiety in our bodies.  This is something we all love to address at RiverWest Acupuncture.  Our treatments work to create harmony amidst chaos in your bodies.

Why and How it affects us

With all the unrest going on, let’s look first at why and how  it affects us.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, each organ is paired with an emotion.

  • Fear or Shock– paired with the Kidneys and Bladder.
  • Anger or Frustration—paired with the Liver and Gall Bladder
  • Anxiety or Joy – paired with Heart, Small Intestine, Pericardium, and Triple Warmer (a concept unique to Chinese Medicine that is the spaces and patterns between all of the organs and tissues, that represents the body as a united whole).
  • Worry or Overthinking- paired with the Spleen and Stomach.
  • Sadness or Grief—paired with the Lung and Large Intestine

None of these emotions are unhealthy in response to the extreme things going on around us. What is unhealthy is being caught up in emotion, being immobilized, without being able to process and move through it, to have it distract us from what we need to do to find wholeness in our lives. By feeling emotions instead of discounting or compartmentalizing them, we integrate ourselves with the world around us, so we can focus on our life’s work. And thus can find equanimity and harmony and be integrated with what is going on around us

Things we can do to help ourselves;

Meditate

There are more and more studies about the positive effects of meditation.   From our own experiences, it has helped each of us immensely to be less reactive.  Instead, we get to respond, feel, and let go of emotions.  If you don’t know “how” to meditate, Melissa Mattern teaches mediation at RiverWest Acupuncture every Monday from 1 pm– 2 pm.   We appreciate her so much and highly recommend her approach, as it’s easy, gentle, and fun.   We lay back in our zero-gravity chairs to meditate.   If that time doesn’t work, Melissa teaches at other places as well. Here is a link to her FB page so that you can check her out.

Exercise

Another option that is highly effective in blowing off steam is exercise. Stuck bodies foster stuck emotions. Get out and move, and your feelings will smoothly follow. Whether it’s walking, dancing, hiking, running or anything else active, choose something that makes you appreciate the strength and vitality within your body and all that it does for you.

Sleep

Getting enough sleep is simply a great idea for most things. Dreaming allows emotions to process subconsciously, sometimes even giving guidance and perspective. Sleeping enough allows our bodies to undergo repair. Sleep allows us to rest so we can have enough energy to do all that we do.

Eat

Nourishing ourselves with good, healthy foods is vital. Different folks have different nutritional requirements.

Spending time in Nature

Whether it’s spending time in our own backyard, going to the forest or our favorite source of water, visiting the Japanese Garden or the Lan Su Chinese Garden, or just really feeling the ground beneath our feet as we are walking, being in nature is healing. We are a part of nature, and taking just a moment, or planning significant time to devote, or any amount of time in between, allows us to feel the connection that is there whether or not we are aware. It brings this connection into focus.

Acupuncture

Of course, we’re going to remind you to come in for a treatment! Acupuncture makes us feel more at home in our body, by relieving pain or other sorts of distress. It allows us the time and space to process our thoughts and feelings in a healthy way, so we can be as great as we are meant to be. It helps make it a little easier to make choices that support our health, such as meditating, eating right, sleeping enough, exercising, and spending time in nature.

All of these help us to create harmony amidst whatever chaos we might have in our lives.


To submit an inquiry to one of our professionals, email us at contact@riverwestacupuncture.com.
Have a question about acupuncture or some of our other services? Send us your question and we’ll get back to you shortly with a reply!


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