As I was growing up as a child in Malaysia, my mother used to cook foods with the awareness of the climate. As Malaysia is just north of the equator, it experiences tropical climate all year long; daytime temperature highs often in the early 30s Celsius, nighttime lows of 24 degrees with over 80 percent humidity. My mother often cooked us drinks to cool us down and move dampness, like herbal sugarcane drink, mung and adzuki bean tea. We, the children of the family, also used to give mom leg massages, kneading the muscles of her legs in the evening. I recall one of my sisters, asking me as a child to walk on her back to stimulate the points too. Sometimes when we went outside to the park or playground, we would see an elderly person practicing Tai Ji Quan, moving very slowly. However, I did not get to experience acupuncture until I was in my 20s. Chinese Medicine is very ingrained in the culture in Asia, especially in areas where Chinese immigrants settled. It is not just a medicine for when you are sick but a way of living in balance with your environment. This is a medicine not just for the Chinese but for people all over the world, including animals.
 
In the old days, it was common that a Chinese Medical practitioner was supported financially by the community in return for her/his medical services, even when the people were healthy. It was her/his job to keep the community continually healthy by helping them to eat appropriately and regularly, reminding them to go to bed on time and to refrain from the over-consumption of alcohol as well as sex. If you read books and articles about Chinese Medicine, you will come across the "Five Pillars of Chinese Medicine." They are: 

1. Acupuncture and Moxibustion
2. Tui Na massage 
3. Chinese Herbal Medicine 
4. Chinese Nutrition and Dietetics
5. Tai Ji Quan and Qi Gong

 
The Chinese have an old saying, "When you are ill, get Acupuncture/Moxibustion, Tui Na and take Herbal Medicine. If you want to stay healthy, sleep enough and eat healthy. If you want to build strength practice Tai Ji Quan/Qi Gong." The 5 Pillars are not just methods of treatment but a foundation to becoming/staying connected to Life.
 
As a Chinese Medical practitioner, I am very thankful to have the 5 Pillars to support me in aiding my patients. I often have to determine which method/s is/are best, as some patients react more positively to certain methods. For instance, I have had patients requesting acupuncture for a certain health theme but have had strong reactions, such as fatigue for a few days, after treatment. This is often a sign of "over-stimulation" and requires me to tone down the treatment, either by using less stimulation or reduce the number of needles. Frequently, I have substituted needles with touch of the hand, with Tui Na massage. This method is often more suitable for "sensitive patients," as these individuals return to treatments describing how their symptoms have resolved and the feeling of being more energetic than prior to treatment. This is when I hear the reminder of my teachers that "less is more."   
 
I like to describe Chinese Medicine as a medicine for the individual; each person is unique and distinct through their constitution, environment and style of living that each requires different treatment strategies. It is not a "one-size-fit-all" medicine, as I like to say, unlike a lot of cheap, massed-produced clothes or products available today that don't really fit our needs. As such, no two individuals coming in with a headache will get the same treatment or Herbal Medicine or advice. The 5 Pillars provide me the foundation and stability, as pillars of a building do, but they also allow me, the practitioner, the flexibility to adapt to my patients' needs and individuality.
 
 
 
 
Image by NguyenDo on pixabay 
Image Hand Acupuncture by jorgeparedes1992 on pixabay
Image Hand Massage by andreas160578 on pixabay
Image Herbal Medicine by vivi14216 on pixabay
Image Food by Ruttikal Chularom on pixabay
Image Qi Gong by ICM

In quite a few countries of the world over the next few Sundays in June will be the celebration of Father's Day. Till now, this has not been a very well commemorated day in Switzerland, which by the way is on the first Sunday of June, except maybe by the electronic/digital gadget industry trying to get us to buy more of their products. Fathers get little acknowledgment in general; they often get the role of being the breadwinner of the family but little else in our society. It was not until September 2020 that it was officially recognized that Fathers may have 2 weeks of paid-paternal-leave after the birth of a child. It displays to us what our society used to think of Fathers; that they are simply only there for the financial stability of the child and nothing more. Hopefully, this new law will help long-held views to transform.
 
For me the roles of a Mother and a Father brings me to the concepts of the Yin-Yang, which is one of the central precepts of Chinese philosophy. One scholar of modern Chinese Medicine, Giovanni Maciocia summarizes the Yin-Yang relationship into 4 main aspects:


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1. The opposition of Yin and Yang, as displayed in night and day; night is Yin and day is Yang. "However, the opposition is relative, not absolute, in so far as nothing is totally Yin or totally Yang. Everything contains the seed of its opposite."
2. The interdependence of Yin and Yang, "one cannot exist without the other."
3. Mutual consumption of Yin and Yang, in which both Yin-Yang are "in a constant state of dynamic balance," "maintained by a continuous adjustment of the relative levels of Yin and Yang."
4. The inter-transformation of Yin and Yang, in which Yin-Yang "are not static, but they actually transform into each other: Yin can change into Yang and vice versa. This change does not happen at random, but only at a certain stage of development of something."  

 ​​(Maciocia, 1989, 5-6)

I find it also very appropriate that we are celebrating Father's Day in June, as we are heading to the highest point of the sun in the northern hemisphere around the 21st of June, the Summer Solstice. From a Yin-Yang perspective of the Earth, this is the Yang at its extreme, at its zenith; Yang within the Yang. That means from this point forth in the year, the sun will begin its descent which will culminate at its nadir around the 21st of December, Yin within Yin. Back to the extreme Yang, as we approach the Summer Solstice we can feel in ourselves the rising of our energy, the expansion and opening of the external parts of our being. If Yin is the female, deep, dark, nourishing principle, the Yang is the male, outward, bright, movement principle. These descriptions of Yang sound much like a role of a Father to me. The Yang aspect provides an individual the ability to be courageous and adventurous; to explore the world around her/himself with confidence. This means being able to try things out and find her/himself in the world.
 
"Children with a healthy maternal matrix will test their limits freely knowing that they can easily return to the mother should things get uncomfortable. Children with healthy father role models are encouraged and inspired to experience new things because they can see the confidence and enthusiasm in their father's eyes."  (Farrell, 2016: 94)
 
As Yin-Yang exists in all of us, it means the Father role can be coming from a female too, just as the Mother role model can come from a male. This is what the Yin-Yang shows us, we have both female/male, maternal/paternal aspects in us, in varying degrees. What most of us have experienced in our societies are extremes of the roles, where females manifest the maternal nourishing role in the home and were not allowed to display their outward, adventurous nature, and males only allowed their paternal providing-nature but not their gentle nourishing aspects. We are a product of our societal conditioning. What if both Mothers and Fathers can provide both nourishment, adventurousness and courage for new experiences? What if both parents are allowed to be present for their children as they are growing up? What if both parents are given equal respect for the things they do and provide for their children? It is time to change the conditioning, as it has not served us well. 
 
So many of us grow up seeing little or none of our Fathers, as they were out there working to provide for their family or were not given the space/time to be present with their children. As I read this last phrase from Yvonne Farrell referring to "father's eyes," it reminds me of Eric Clapton's song, "My Father's Eyes." It was only recently that I became aware of Mr. Clapton's story of not knowing his own father, like so many in the world. I am very touched by the song. For the Fathers of the world... 
 
 
 
 
    
Reference
Farrell Yvonne R. (2016): Psycho-Emotional Pain and the Eight Extraordinary Vessels. London: Singing Dragon.
 
Maciocia, Giovanni (1989): The Foundations of Chinese Medicine. London: Churchill Livingstone.
 


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Image baby-father's fingers by RitaE on pixabay
Image Tai Ji Symbol by clker-free-vector-images on pixabay