ICM  Institute for Chinese Medicine, acupuncture basel, chinese medicine basel,tui na Basel, tcm basel
D E F  
  • Acupuncture
    • Acupuncture
  • TCM
    • History
    • Methods of Treatment
    • Diagnostics
  • Treatment Modalities
    • Acupuncture
    • Auricular Acupuncture
    • Electroacupuncture
    • Chinese Herbal Medicine
    • Tui Na /An Mo Massage
    • Moxibustion
    • Cupping
    • Physical therapy
    • Qi Gong
    • Tai Ji Quan
    • Gua Sha
    • Chinese Nutritional Therapy
    • Wai Qi Liao Fa
  • Team
    • Elaine Yap
    • Isabelle Müller-Duss
    • Gabi Rahm
    • Frank Hediger
    • Noriko Matsumoto-Loosli
    • Olivier Schmidlin
    • Edmundo Belloni
  • ICM Treatment Information
    • Treatment Rooms
    • Treatment at ICM
    • Treatment Costs
    • Treatment Procedure
    • Documents
    • FAQ
  • Health Insurance Coverage
    • Health Insurance Coverage
    • FAQ
  • Contact
  • DEUTSCH
  • FRANÇAIS
  • Blog

The 5 Pillars of Chinese Medicine

30/6/2021

0 Comments

 
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
0 Comments

Spring: Time to Get Stretching

27/2/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
I was outside these past few days enjoying the warmth of the sunlight and the scent of spring. There is still a chill in the air but you can feel the earth is warming up and the plants are twisting their way out of the earth to reach the sunlight. It is the return of life and the energetic motion of rising upward. 
 
In Chinese Medicine, it is the time of the Wood element with the color green and the climate of wind; hence, be mindful of the cool wind when you go outside to get sunlight. The organs that are associated with Wood are the Liver and Gallbladder. They govern the sense organ of sight, the eyes, and the tissues are the sinews. Interestingly, the emotion related to this time of year is anger/ frustration and the sound of shouting. I say "interestingly" because one would imagine after a long, cold winter, it feels like a relief to have sunlight and warmth. Which it is, if we are allowed to grow outward. But if you imagine yourself as a plant breaking through stone to come out to the light but being restricted when you have all that powerful energy in you, you would become frustrated and at some point, angry. It is a time of movement. All that storing of qi inward in winter needs to start to move outward. As the Yellow Emperor Inner Classic or Huang Di Nei Jing, Su Wen Chapter 2 states:
 
"The three months of spring,
they denote effusion and spreading.
In heaven and earth everything comes to life;
the myriad beings prosper.
Go to rest late at night and rise early.
Move through the courtyard with long strides."
 
It is the time of the year to move our bodies and minds. This is why many of us feel like beginning new projects or starting to exercise. It is not just us humans but the energy of the season that inspires us to movement. The reference to "move through the courtyard with long strides" arouses in me the feeling of stretching.
 
I like stretching. I began formal dance training at the age of 5 and continue movement training even till the present. I feel blessed when I can move and stretch. It is like breathing for me, existential and essential for life. When the Chinese say "sinews," they refer to tendons, ligaments and fasciae. This is fascinating as I realized that being flexible has more to do with our connective tissue, which are made up of collagenous, elastic and reticular fibers, than to do with our muscles or bones. More and more scientific research into the body is revealing that we do not know everything about the body. For the longest time anatomists thought that they discovered all there is to know about human anatomy. Then not so long ago, they realized that fasciae are not just "junk" tissues around organs and muscle, but a deep network of tissues that connect the whole body. Currently, more connective tissues are being discovered and they are realizing that stretching is a very important component to having a healthy body. In The Science of Stretch, Dr. Helene Langevin describes her research with stretching connective tissue with acupuncture and how deep the effects of this stretch are on a person. 
 
For me, stretching goes even deeper than connective tissue; stretching my physical body brings me deeper into my mental, emotional and spiritual being. This is why I like practicing Tai Ji Quan, Qi Gong and Yoga. These practices incorporate breath, movement and stretching of my body, as well as the awareness of Qi. I have learned to focus and discipline my body-mind, being aware of sensations in my being as well as the environment that envelops me. I have learned to distinguish between a beneficial, stretching sensation and the sensation of ripping, piercing pain when I have overstretched; in other words, I have come to know the healthy boundaries of my body. This does not stop at the physical body, it extends to my awareness of the other aspects of my being, be it emotional, mental or energetic.
 
If you are sitting in your chair right now reading this blogpost, begin by opening your chest to the sky and lifting your arms above you. Feel how good that feels. It is now the time to move, turn off your digital device and get stretching!  
 
  
 
 
Reference
Unschuld Paul U. (2003): Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen - Nature, Knowledge, Imagery in an Ancient Chinese Medical Test. London: University of California Press, Ltd.
 
 
 
Image by kevin burt on Pixabay
0 Comments

    Elaine Yap

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

    Archives

    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019

    Categories

    All
    5 Elements
    5 Pillars Of Chinese Medicine
    5-pointed-star
    Abdomen
    Acupuncture
    Acupuncture Channels
    Acupuncture Points
    Adapting
    Addiction
    Adventure
    Ancestors
    An Mo Massage
    Apple
    Ask
    Asking
    Autumn
    Awareness
    Baby
    Back
    Bacteria
    Balance
    Barefoot
    Being Thankful
    Belief
    Birth
    Body And Mind
    Bokashi
    Bonding
    Breath
    Breathing
    Buddhism
    Bulbs
    Camellia Sinensis
    Celtic Shamanism
    Centre
    Change
    Children
    China
    Chinese Calligraphy
    Chinese Dietetics
    Chinese Herbal Medicine
    Chinese Materia Medica
    Chinese Medicine
    Chinese New Year
    Chinese Nutrition
    Circle
    Common Sense
    Congee
    Connecting
    Conscious Living
    Cooling Foods
    Courage
    Crocus
    C-tactile Afferent
    Daffodils
    Dan Tian
    Dao De Jing
    Death
    Destination
    Diagnosis
    Digestion
    Digestive
    Digital Media
    Dim Sum
    Ears
    Earth
    Earthing
    Echinacea
    Emptiness
    Epigenetics
    Essence
    Evolution
    Excellence Of Self
    Eyes
    Fascia
    Fasting
    Father
    Fear
    Feet
    Fire
    Fish
    Flexibility
    Flower
    Food
    Food As Medicine
    Fruit
    Gardening
    Genetics
    Gong Fu
    Gong Fu Cha
    Gratitude
    Green Tea
    Greeting
    Grounding
    Growth
    Hands
    Handstand
    Hangover Cure
    Hay Fever
    Headstand
    Healing
    Heart
    ICM Garden
    ICM Garden Project
    Immune System
    Information
    Jing
    Journey
    Kidneys
    Labor
    Lao Zi
    Large Intestine
    Late Summer
    Leaf
    Less Is More
    Life
    Life Love
    Listening
    Looking
    Lung
    Lungs
    Maple
    Massage
    Medicine
    Middle
    Migration
    Mindfulness
    Mother
    Mountains
    Movement
    Moxibustion
    Narcissus
    Natural Breath
    Nature
    News
    Nourish Yin
    Now
    Nuclear Power
    Nurture
    Oil
    One-Size-Fits-All
    Optical Illusion
    Pain
    Parenting
    Path
    Pear
    Pentagram
    Peony
    Perception
    Permaculture
    Perspective
    Plant
    Plastics
    Post-Heaven
    Pre-Heaven
    Pulse
    Qi
    Qi Gong
    Recycling
    Resilience
    Respect
    Retreat
    Ritual
    River
    Romanticism
    Rose
    Saffron
    Science
    Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis
    Seasons
    Seeds
    Sense Organs
    Senses
    Shen Nong
    Shonishin
    Snow
    Sound
    Space
    Spleen
    Sports
    Spring
    Stomach
    Stretching
    Summer
    Summer-Heat
    Summer Solstice
    Sweet
    Sword
    Tai Ji Quan
    Taiwan
    Taste
    Tea
    Teachers
    Temperature
    Third Ear
    Third Eye
    Time
    Toilet Paper
    Touch
    Touching
    Transformation
    Tui Na Massage
    Valleys
    Vibration
    Virus
    Vision
    Walking
    Water
    Watermelon
    Wei/Protective Qi
    Winter
    Wood
    Words
    Wordsworth
    Work
    Wu Ji
    Wu Long Tea
    Yang
    Yellow Emperor Classic
    Yin
    Yin Yang
    Yin-Yang
    Yoga

    RSS Feed

Institut für Chinesische Medizin ICM GmbH

temporary Adress from 7th February 2022: Steinenvorstadt 79, 4051 Basel

| Falknerstrasse 4 | 4001 Basel | Tel. 061 272 88 89 | Fax 061 271 42 64 | 
info@icm-basel.ch ​
  • Acupuncture
    • Acupuncture
  • TCM
    • History
    • Methods of Treatment
    • Diagnostics
  • Treatment Modalities
    • Acupuncture
    • Auricular Acupuncture
    • Electroacupuncture
    • Chinese Herbal Medicine
    • Tui Na /An Mo Massage
    • Moxibustion
    • Cupping
    • Physical therapy
    • Qi Gong
    • Tai Ji Quan
    • Gua Sha
    • Chinese Nutritional Therapy
    • Wai Qi Liao Fa
  • Team
    • Elaine Yap
    • Isabelle Müller-Duss
    • Gabi Rahm
    • Frank Hediger
    • Noriko Matsumoto-Loosli
    • Olivier Schmidlin
    • Edmundo Belloni
  • ICM Treatment Information
    • Treatment Rooms
    • Treatment at ICM
    • Treatment Costs
    • Treatment Procedure
    • Documents
    • FAQ
  • Health Insurance Coverage
    • Health Insurance Coverage
    • FAQ
  • Contact
  • DEUTSCH
  • FRANÇAIS
  • Blog