today ❤️🔥 your sovereign heart
a sweet summer solstice to you, beauties
Abalone Medicine Field Notes | June 20, 2024
It is the summer solstice! The peak of Yang, the full flowering of sunlight, which after today will slowly ripen towards late summer abundance (earth phase), and then autumn harvest (metal). In Chinese medicine, mid-summer is the season of the heart. The emotion of the heart is elation or joy, and the element is fire, radiating life from our heart center, like our own personal sun.
Most modern Westerners would say without a second thought that the brain is the command center, the VIP organ that controls everything. Yet in Chinese medicine, the heart is the supreme “emperor,” hidden in the depths of the palace of the body. The heart, like a good leader, inspires all the other organs of our being. In Chinese medicine, each organ has its own spirit. The heart’s “shen” is the ultimate spirit, where all other spirits originate and return.
It is the heart that radiates at the center of our qi field, or the electromagnetic field around our bodies, as modern science now knows. The heart commands the blood’s vital flow and rhythm, it is the emotional center that emanates love, and it is the seat of our soul & conscious mind- the “shen”. This sovereign mind is not our calculating intellect - it is our awareness and knowledge drawn from the true nature of existence.
The shen is the brightness of our eyes, the spark of life itself. When the shen is low, a person looks flat, unanimated, dull. When our shen is strong, our eyes are bright and dynamic, our voice is clear, our cheeks are rosy, and our energy is magnetic.
Summer is fire, and today, solstice day, we are flooded with the pure yang of solar light. Its opposite, the full-dark yin of winter kidneys, sinks its water down deep underground and roots this ascending heart fire. Just as there is always a bit of yin in yang, there is always bit of water in fire - without root, or fuel, fire sublimates quickly.
A healthy heart fire is meant to flower into fruit, bring ideas to manifestation, spiraling our living blood through our limbs to inspire free and natural movement and expression. Healthy heart fire is not pathological or destructive- but if it blazes out of control we get high blood pressure, insomnia, anxiety, manic behavior… a wildfire after a drought… if it is deficient, we are lackluster and withdrawn, unable to make our dreams happen. Healthy heart blood is rich, abundant, free flowing, like a dynamic river full within its banks. Healthy shen is clear and bright.
A healthy heart manifests a joyful life in harmony with natural law.
Midsummer is the perfect time to get right with our hearts. How do we tend this precious heart fire, our creative emanation, to manifest our dreams and goals?
First, sounds simple, but breathe. A swim or a hike (or however you like to get moving) will inspire deep, rhythmic breathing, and the heart’s spiraling rivers (vessels) will be effused with life down to the smallest tributaries. Yoga and qi gong also steep the body in breath, qi, and thus, blood. (Come to my yoga class on Thursdays from 10-11am in the green outside Abalone and get some of this ;) Qi and blood are two sides of the same coin - like the way light can be understood as a particle (yin, blood) or a wave (yang, Qi). The yin physicality of the blood rides the qi wave of energy. One cannot flow without the other.
Relaxing stuck tension in the body and feeling our feelings are two ways more to keep the qi and blood flowing. And if we don’t get enough rest, all will grind to a halt no matter what we do.
For the heart to flower, we also need hydration and nourishment. Without plentiful water, the blood is scant and will not flow richly enough to allow full-body nourishment. Red fruits and stews made of organic, humanely raised meat with dark leafy greens ensure the blood is abundant and strong. Blood can also be blocked from physical trauma - like an old or new injury - which is why it is so important *not* to ice (hot/cold hydrotherapy, arnica salve & herbal patches are all better alternatives!) and to gently move an injured area when the time is right, as you heal - to keep it flowing.
When our heart blood is nourished and flowing well, we are naturally calmer and wiser in navigating our lives.
Summer solstice is the peak flowering of the year. We can harness and ride the qi of this moment in the solar cycle, for creative expression of all imaginable kinds.
To nourish our heart, we also must nourish the shen, the spirit of the heart. Which brings us back to our navigation system. Beyond the Chinese anatomy with heart as mind, many other ancient & earth-based traditions understand that humans are meant to be guided by the heart, with the thinking mind it its rightful place as well-tamed subordinate who is there to execute the logistics. In fact, in Chinese Medicine the brain is not even a major player - it is just a “curious organ”, an offshoot of the kidneys. It is the heart’s mind, not the calculating intellect, who should be steering the ship. This is a fundamental shift in how we modern Western folks go about solving problems and orienting to our lives.
Summer solstice is the perfect time to flip the script and start feeling our way towards our truth with our hearts as our true north. Imagine the societal implications!
An incredibly powerful - and empowering - way to navigate thus, to sense our truth and discover what is out of balance, is to feel inwardly and perceive our body’s symptoms and sensations directly without the chatter of mental interpretation or analysis. Then, we can divine the message in this information. By “listening” from the heart we bypass the need to measure ourselves externally through laboratory experiments, micro-analyses, disease names and mental calisthenics. Turning inward to sense how we feel, or how a remedy works for us, or what we need, can be enough to open the door to wise self-guidance. It amazes me how much my patients already know about what they need. A nuanced and holistic system like Chinese medicine can then connect the dots and understand the emerging pattern in the body’s messages. Different patterns (like blood deficiency vs heart fire) require different herbs, foods, and healing practices to move the whole person towards holistic balance and full flowering of life force.
This practice of “inner tracking” is what we cultivate together in my Embody Chinese Medicine Circles. I will be launching my next series, three months this time! to hone this body-centered navigation system, starting in September - stay tuned, and reach out if you’re interested. The transformation I’ve witnessed in the lives of everyone in our current group has been unbelievably inspirational.
Until then, time unplugged outdoors in nature; divination; meditation, dancing, yoga, qi gong, massage, physical exercise, somatic therapy, prayer, good sex, acupuncture, sauna, sweat lodges, healing practices, rituals… anything to be consciously happily in our bodies… can all help us attune to the wisdom of our hearts, allow feelings to flow, and cultivate a disposition of love and peace.
It takes courage to let go of the shore of the thinking brain and trust the waters of our Empress Shen, but the benefits are endless. It is the perfect season to follow your own sovereign heart.
a version of the above article was published first in the Point Reyes Light, summer 2023
this Saturday!! *free* class :::
Natural Bathing Practices for Self-Healing & Wellness
Sat June 22, 10 - 11am PT, Virtual/Zoom
Ahhh, bath medicine. One of my very favorite remedies in the whole wide world. Humans across the globe and throughout time have always used bathing practices to cultivate health, embodiment, relaxation, social relationships and spiritual connection.
In this class, I’ll share how to use bathing practices intelligently to suit your unique individual ecology, drawing from the principles of Chinese medicine, yoga and my own experience. I will share how to use hydrotherapy intelligently to promote immune health, circulation and happiness. I’ll talk about cultivating different Qi through immersion in various wild waters; salt baths; hot springs; soaking, sweating and plunging according to your constitution; dry brushing, and why you might *not* want to shower every day! Come play in the water with me and find out what type of bath-healing is best for you.