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Water: The Foundation of Life

21/12/2020

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Bild
Over the past few months, I have been fascinated by the geological and natural occurrences that we on Earth experience, such as earthquakes, volcano eruptions and tsunamis. I had little awareness of the Earth’s plates and their movements until I watched a few documentaries about them. I lived in the San Francisco area, which lies over a very active plate, so I had often heard of the San Andreas Fault. I even saw the Hollywood movie of that name but it still didn’t explain much of this whole idea of the tectonic plates and the Earth’s movements. As I become more informed, I realize what strong forces the Elements are and, how they shape and affect us. 
 
It is the time of the Water element currently; Winter has begun and we feel its effects. The first snows came a few weeks ago, it didn’t stay for us in Basel but we all saw and felt it. It affected everyone I met that day; whether they felt cold or didn’t sleep well or that they were just excited and invigorated by the snow. Snow is Water and Water element governs winter in Chinese Medicine. If there is someone who really understood the seasons is Antonio Vivaldi, the musical composer who lived from 1678-1741. He composed The Four Seasons (Le Quattro Stagioni) as music with sonnets. Listen to the music and read the sonnets, (turn on subtitles), you will feel Winter deep in your bones even if you are sitting in a warm place. 
 
Water has existed on our planet since 4.3 billion years, our planet Earth is 4.5 billion years old. I watched a documentary about the Origin of Life. It explains how the Earth was created and transformed to what we know of it today. To show how old the Earth is in relation to us, in the span of 24 hours, we would occupy the span of the last 4 seconds. 4 seconds! We, humans, are but 4 seconds in the history of the Earth! It sure puts things into perspective. Water comes early on this clock, somewhere at the start of the second hour. In fact, Water is key to the origin of life on Earth. It is a solvent that provides possibilities for molecules to interact with one another in multitudes of ways, thus, creating different lifeforms. 
 
The Earth surface is covered with 71 percent of Water. It is estimated that the human body is made up of 60 percent Water. This correlation between Earth and the human body is not a coincidence. It is Water in us and on Earth that creates, maintains and draws life. In Chinese Medicine, Water governs the organs of Kidneys and Urinary Bladder; they both deal with the transportation and organization of Water in the body. The Kidneys have a very special place in our medicine, it is the organ that holds life essence, interestingly it is the only internal organ that manifests itself as a pair. The external organ that also has the form like Kidneys and are a pair are the ears; they too belong to the Water element. Water's cardinal direction is the North, where the climate of cold originates, its color is black/dark blue and its taste is salty. It also manifests in bone, what remains of us when our flesh is long gone. Trust is the emotion of Water in balance and fear is the emotion of Water not in balance.
 
"Fear, which corresponds to the kidneys, is a perversion of the movement of Water. Water is a controlled attraction downward that solidly maintains the foundations of life. Fear is an unrestrained sinking, an uncontrolled descent." 
​(Larre, Rochat 1992: 173)
 
The energetic movement of Water is downward. As with Water, winter shows us and even demands of us a downward, rooting feeling, not an "uncontrolled sinking" but a conscious storing of the energy deep down and within ourselves. By demand and "uncontrolled sinking," I refer to those moments when we chose to continue working when our bodies told us to stop, then we ended up getting sick and having to spend the quiet, restful moments in bed, feeling like a truck ran over us. Conscious storing means, go to bed earlier, spend more time in quiet contemplation, read/listen to material that links you to your inner self and also into deeper connection with our fellow living beings. There is much out there to make us fear, but this is where we find within ourselves that deep water, full of powerful lifeforce that seeks to maintain life. 
 
 
Reference
Larre, Claude/ Rochat de la Vallée, Elisabeth (1992) : Rooted in Spirit. New York: Station Hill Press.
 
 
 
Image by Elias Sch. from Pixabay
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Why Do We Cook Our Food?

3/12/2020

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Picture
Many years ago, as I was reading books on Chinese Nutritional Therapy, which is a big part of Chinese Medicine, a "lightbulb" moment occurred. One book was about treating children's issues by Bob Flaws and how about 90 percent of the time children's ailments have to do with digestive/ nutritional issues. This by the way, in my experience with working with children over the years, is true. The author stated, and I may be paraphrasing it, that "cooking is the beginning of the digestive process." It sparked an awakening in my understanding of food and its transformation within our system. I had never thought about cooking as being food digestion before we ingest it inside us. 
 
In Malaysia, possibly most of Asia and many other parts of the world, food is more than just eating to get energy. It is culture, identity, a socially-binding force, the joy of life...the list of descriptions goes on and on. People in Malaysia talk, cook, eat, breathe and live food. Food is boiled, steamed, braised, stir-fried in a wok, deep-fried, baked in clay...you name it, it gets done. I was exposed to this creativity in cooking early on in life and I too enjoy cooking, as well as eating. But I had never thought of cooking as digestion. What a revelation! But it makes sense! Take rice for instance, if you just took raw grains of rice into your mouth and chewed it, it would be hard and arduous, probably crack your teeth, before you could even swallow a few grains. Would it even taste good and could our digestive system even be able to break it down for energy?
 
The process of cooking is not just a hobby, it is an essential part of life as a human being in order to survive. It goes even further when you look at the theories that have been suggested over the past few years. One such hypothesis was proposed by biological anthropologist and primatologist Dr.Richard Wrangham. He suggests that the human brain evolved to its current size as we began cooking our food. As heating/ cooking what we ate, whether meat, grains or tubers, breaks-down starches, denatures protein and helps kill pathogen, the human body began having more energy to develop other body parts, such as the brain. Through this evolution came other changes in human development and social structure. Crazy to think that something so normal and under- appreciated as cooking could have such an impact on a whole life species and also the whole of the living world since our brain development led us to create a more complex style of living. I watched a documentary on the evolution of the digestive system. Part of Dr. Wrangham's research is featured at the end of the documentary.
 
One of the trends that we have at the moment is the Smoothie/ Juicing trend. I hear and read of many who swear by these methods of obtaining nutrients. As with many things in life, what fits some may not fit others. In Chinese Medicine, we have the view that some individuals tend to have heat in their system and others cold; these individuals who tend to heat may benefit from smoothie/ juice drinking, as most fruit and vegetables that have not been cooked have a cooling nature. From the Chinese medical nutrition perspective, this time of year requires us to eat warm food; one aspect is to have food in a certain temperature that our bodies do not have to expand more energy to warm the food further in order to digest and another aspect is that we receive warmth that will help our bodies stay at the ideal temperature of ca. 37 degrees Celsius. This is not to say that we do not eat any fresh vegetables and fruit, but that our food should be predominately warm and then supplemented by raw produce in winter. This will change as the season changes and the temperature warms up. If we look at the nature surrounding us right now in Switzerland, we will notice that there are little to no fruits growing on trees. They have all been harvested before the end of autumn. What fruit we have that are still fresh here, such as apples and pears, are harvested and stored in special conditions to last through winter. Tropical fruits or citrus fruits that we get from the supermarket are imported from places that are still having warm/ temperate climates currently. Therefore, it is best to eat these sparingly, like 1 to 2 fruits a day. Too many will cool our systems down too much and we will either feel cold often or be unable to digest the fruit well, leading to loose stools or diarrhoea.
 
One of the most beloved food for the Chinese is Congee, Bái Zhōu in Mandarin, Jūk in Cantonese or just simply rice porridge. It's rice cooked in a lot of water over a longer period of time. When I was ill as a child, this was the food my mother cooked for me, as I do for my children. But we cook a hardier version with meat in regular life in winter. It is easy to digest, yet very nutritious, providing enough fluids and nutrients. I have fasted on just water and plain Congee over a span of a week, and felt that I could actually perform everyday activities, including working, without feeling drained. It is simple, wholesome and easy to incorporate into your diet, even and especially if you are not used to cooking regularly but want to begin. Be creative, use the classical recipe as a base and then modify the ingredients to create your own personal Congee. Try it and start enjoying the warming nourishment!

Congee Recipe as pdf in English  

​
Image Chicken Congee by Maria & Elaine  
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    Elaine Yap

    I am a Chinese Medicine practitioner at ICM, mother of 2 sons, living on my third continent. I love to share with you my perspectives on healing, TCM, gardening, social change and life.

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Institut für Chinesische Medizin ICM GmbH

Falknerstrasse 4 | 4001 Basel
Tel. 061 272 88 89 | Fax 061 271 42 64
info@icm-basel.ch ​
  • Acupuncture
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