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
    • Nadine Ledergerber
    • Gabi Rahm
    • Frank Hediger
    • Noriko Matsumoto-Loosli
    • Olivier Schmidlin
    • Timo Goepfert
  • 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 Power of Words

21/1/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
My first experience of snow came as I was 21 and I had just arrived in Reno, in the US to start university. I had theoretically seen snow on a TV screen but never touched or felt it. The moment I saw snow for the first time, I picked it up from the side of the path. There are many words to describe what I felt but I recall most clearly the word "cold." Till that point in time I had lived all my life in the tropical climate of Malaysia; this means 365 days of over 30-degree Celsius as a high, low of 25 degrees and almost 100 percent humidity. I recall not so long later, while trying to adapt to the cold, dark winter. I was standing on the corner of a street waiting to cross over to go to class. I felt extremely cold. In between shivering I was saying to myself repeatedly, "It's cold." I questioned myself in that moment as to why I was doing this, and began saying to myself like a mantra, "I feel warm, I feel warm..." Suddenly, a warmth rolled up my spine and in that instant, I became aware of the power of words.
 
Words are sound and sound is vibration. Sound waves enter into our ear, vibrating the structures of our ear in order to produce a stimulus in the brain, which we then perceive as sound. Sound waves can travel through matter, fluid and air; they need a medium to travel through. In a vacuum, where there is no air, sound cannot be produced. Our bodies do not just perceive sound and vibration through our ears, we also feel it on our skin and our eyes help to distinguish sound details too. If you think about how vibration can travel through matter, fluid and air, you realize that our bodies are also made of matter, fluid and utilizes air. As such, vibrations affect us all the time, even if we are unconscious of it. 
 
Returning to the subject of words being vibrations, if you tried saying a word like "good" and placed your hands on your throat, you would feel the vibrations from your vocal cords, larynx, which are 2 bands of muscle tissue, directly on your hands. If you change the placement of your hands onto your cheeks or chest, you would still feel the vibrations. It may be less pronounced the further you move away from your larynx but if you think about it, 60 percent of our bodies is made up of water not to mention the other structures (matter) that our bodies are made of, so the sound waves would still be travelling through our bodies. When you take this into account, you may realize how words/ sound can play such an important role in your life.
 
One of my teachers, Elen Sentier, a Celtic Shaman describes what happens when we create a vowel with our voice:
 
"Vowels are sounds we make without obstructing the breath with our tongue, teeth or lips; the air comes out from our lungs without hindrance and is shaped only by our mouths. The vowels are about air, spirit, coming straight through you..." (Sentier, 2014: 4)
 
Before I read this description from Elen, I had never thought about what a vowel is except in terms of its grammatical function. She might be coming from the Celtic tradition but I see the connections to air and spirit with the Chinese idea of Qi. Not only Chinese and Celtic but also many other spiritual traditions of the world, use word, song, mantra, chanting as ways to invoke or be closer to the Divine.   
 
"Unlike the vowels, the consonants work by the air passing through or across some sort of barrier formed by the tongue, teeth and/or lips as well qs being shaped by the mouth. This is significant for breath-spirit...it means you get quite involved with the production of sound, beyond allowing the air to pass through your vocal cords. They are about how you form and inform the air as it passes through you...this is a big responsibility."  (Sentier, 2014: 4)
 
As with the description of vowels, Elen describes so potently what consonant are; it is about us humans working together with the Divine to create sound/ vibration. When we look at sound this way, we become aware of the importance of words. We apply our Qi with that of the Divine to create Words, which is sound/ vibration that also determines our reality. Elen is right, it is "a big responsibility." Words have power; they express how we feel, our wants, needs and what may be or may not be in our reality.
 
As I described at the start of this post of my own simple experience of snow, I was given a profound lesson of the influence of words on my own reality. Become aware of how words affect your every day and use your words consciously to create the reality you choose to experience in your life.  
 
 
Reference
Sentier, Elen (2014) : Shaman Pathways - Trees of the Goddess. Winchester, UK: Moon Books, John Hunt Publishing Ltd.
 
 
 
Image by Elaine
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

    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-pointed-star
    Abdomen
    Adapting
    Apple
    Autumn
    Awareness
    Baby
    Balance
    Barefoot
    Being Thankful
    Belief
    Body And Mind
    Bokashi
    Breath
    Breathing
    Buddhism
    Celtic Shamanism
    Centre
    Change
    Chinese Calligraphy
    Chinese Herbal Medicine
    Chinese Materia Medica
    Chinese Medicine
    Chinese New Year
    Circle
    Congee
    Connecting
    Crocus
    Dan Tian
    Dao De Jing
    Death
    Destination
    Dim Sum
    Ears
    Earth
    Earthing
    Echinacea
    Emptiness
    Epigenetics
    Essence
    Evolution
    Excellence Of Self
    Fascia
    Fasting
    Fear
    Fire
    Fish
    Flexibility
    Food
    Food As Medicine
    Gardening
    Genetics
    Gong Fu
    Gong Fu Cha
    Green Tea
    Greeting
    Grounding
    Growth
    Hay Fever
    Heart
    ICM Garden
    ICM Garden Project
    Immune System
    Jing
    Journey
    Kidneys
    Lao Zi
    Large Intestine
    Late Summer
    Leaf
    Life
    Lung
    Maple
    Natural Breath
    Nature
    Now
    Oil
    Path
    Pentagram
    Peony
    Permaculture
    Perspective
    Plant
    Plastics
    Post-Heaven
    Pre-Heaven
    Qi
    Qi Gong
    Recycling
    Retreat
    River
    Rose
    Saffron
    Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis
    Seasons
    Seeds
    Shen Nong
    Snow
    Sound
    Space
    Sports
    Spring
    Stretching
    Summer
    Sword
    Tai Ji Quan
    Taste
    Tea
    Teachers
    Temperature
    Time
    Toilet Paper
    Transformation
    Vibration
    Virus
    Walking
    Water
    Wei/Protective Qi
    Winter
    Wood
    Words
    Work
    Wu Ji
    Yang
    Yellow Emperor Classic
    Yin
    Yoga

    RSS Feed

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
    • 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
    • Nadine Ledergerber
    • Gabi Rahm
    • Frank Hediger
    • Noriko Matsumoto-Loosli
    • Olivier Schmidlin
    • Timo Goepfert
  • 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