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
    • Ava Markwalder
    • 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
  • Blog
    • FRANÇAIS

Letting Go of Fake Plastic Trees

8/12/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture

​Since I moved to the West over 20 years ago, this time of year feels challenging to me. I often feel a sense of conflict in myself, between my inner world and the world outside me. It is not just the cold and the darkness that we experience in the Northern hemisphere in December that confronts me, but also the disparity of my trying to live in harmony with Nature here and still function in the bustling human society around me. 
 
When I was a kid growing up in Malaysia, my family celebrated Christmas. I was brought up Catholic; we went to church every Sunday and at Christmas, we went to midnight-mass to celebrate the birth of Jesus. At home, we put up our fake plastic Christmas tree and decorations, topped off with white-cotton-wool to mimic snowflakes as well as blinking lights to simulate snow-glistening. Just like in the Western movies, except there weren't gifts under the tree; partly because we couldn't afford gifts for a family of 8 but also it just wasn't part of our culture. I recall getting 1 gift at Christmas when I was about 7, a skipping rope with a counter, that went defective 2 months after that. My parents adopted the giving of the envelope with money, Hóng Bāo (Red Packet) for Christmas as well as in Chinese New Year, which I hear is very common in Malaysian Christmas gift-giving.
 
Why did we have a fake plastic coniferous-like tree in our living room in tropical Malaysia? First of all, very few conifer trees grow just above sea-level in the tropics. Hence, the fake plastic substitute. As Malaysia was a British colony till 1957, I imagine we adopted many of the eccentricities of the British as well as the influence of American movies, never really understanding the meaning of Christmas and things related to its celebration. The conifer was/is used for its evergreen quality, as a reminder that life would return after the dark, sunless days of winter in the Northern hemisphere. But in tropical Malaysia, most plants are almost always green due to the warm climate and daily sunlight all year round. It is kind of a redundant practice there. What's more, putting white cotton to imitate snow that never falls in the tropics is a little bizarre, because most people in Malaysia have never experienced snow unless they have travelled elsewhere for it. But I imagine that finding meaning in our lives wasn't and still isn't the goal of capitalism, which is what Christmas has become; another means to sell more stuff and create need where there is none. I am not saying that we can't celebrate Christmas in Malaysia, I think we could find other more meaningful representations that actually mean something to the local culture.
 
While the dark and cold, pushes me to go inward, the bright lights and sounds of Christmas, not to mention the fixation of the populace on gifts and consuming wrenches me outward. I know I risk being called a Scrooge with my "Bah humbug" attitude towards Christmas, but Christmas as I know it in the modern world lacks meaning; my aversion is to the capitalistic form of Christmas, not to that that is personal and meaningful to each. Most people feel disconnected and stressed at this time of year, and it's no wonder. We need to find meaning again to life and the beings around us. For me, I celebrate the Returning of the Light at the Winter Solstice, the turning of the tide from inward to outward. But before I can come outward, I have to go inward. Some students of mine asked me recently how we could go inward and when we still have to go to work and are compelled to produce outward. I use the analogy of listening to music; we can still listen to music but we can turn the volume down to 3 and not keep it at the maximum of 10. This way the music is still playing but the outward manifestation of the intensity is muted, leaving more space as well as energy to store and recover what was used in warmer times.
 
I have let go of fake plastic trees, we have a fir tree in a pot that we bring in and decorate with candles a few days before Christmas, for years now. The rest of the year, it is in our garden in a shady spot, growing in the environment where we live in. I try to make my own presents, like cookies and herbal wines, to gift family and friends; something from the heart, not from the store. We share meals together and time. This for me is what this time of year is about, having time and space to share with one another.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
Image Green Pine Tree Leave by Roman Kaiuk on pexels.com
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    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.

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    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
    Assumptions
    Autumn
    Awareness
    Baby
    Back
    Bacteria
    Balance
    Ballet
    Barefoot
    Being Thankful
    Belief
    Birth
    Blessing
    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
    Choice
    Christmas
    Circle
    Common Sense
    Competition
    Complementary
    Complementary Medicine
    Congee
    Connecting
    Conscious Living
    Consciousness
    Container
    Cooling Foods
    Core
    Courage
    Crocus
    C-tactile Afferent
    Daffodils
    Dan Tian
    Dao De Jing
    Daoism
    Death
    Destination
    Diagnosis
    Digestion
    Digestive
    Digital Media
    Dim Sum
    Ears
    Earth
    Earthing
    Eating
    Echinacea
    Empower
    Emptiness
    Epigenetics
    Essence
    Everyday
    Evolution
    Excellence Of Self
    Experience
    Eyes
    Fascia
    Fasting
    Father
    Fear
    Feet
    Fire
    Fish
    Flexibility
    Flower
    Food
    Food As Medicine
    Fruit
    Gardening
    Genetics
    Gong Fu
    Gong Fu Cha
    Gratefulness
    Gratitude
    Green Tea
    Greeting
    Grounding
    Growth
    Hands
    Handstand
    Hangover Cure
    Hay Fever
    Headstand
    Healing
    Heart
    Heaven
    Herbal Decoction
    Herbal Formula
    Herbal Infusion
    Herbal Medicine
    Heroes
    Honouring
    Human
    Humility
    ICM Garden
    ICM Garden Project
    Immune System
    Information
    Injury
    Insomnia
    INternal
    Inward Movement
    Jing
    Journey
    Joy
    Kidneys
    Labor
    Lao Zi
    Large Intestine
    Late Summer
    Leaf
    Less Is More
    Letting Go
    Life
    Life Love
    Listening
    Looking
    Lung
    Lungs
    Maple
    Martial Arts
    Massage
    Medicine
    Middle
    Migration
    Mindfulness
    Mother
    Mountains
    Movement
    Moxibustion
    Narcissus
    Natural Breath
    Nature
    Nei Gong
    News
    Normal
    Nourishment
    Nourish Yin
    Now
    Nuclear Power
    Nurture
    Oil
    Olympics
    One-Size-Fits-All
    Optical Illusion
    Pain
    Parenting
    Path
    Patience
    Pear
    Pentagram
    Peony
    Perception
    Perfect
    Permaculture
    Perspective
    Plant
    Plastics
    Post-Heaven
    Pre-Heaven
    Pulse
    Qi
    Qi Gong
    Recycling
    Resilience
    Respect
    Retreat
    Rhythm
    Ritual
    River
    Romanticism
    Roots
    Rose
    Routine
    Saffron
    Science
    Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis
    Seasons
    Seeds
    Sense Organs
    Senses
    Sharing
    Shen Nong
    Shonishin
    Simple
    Sleeping
    Snow
    Sound
    Space
    Space Time
    Spicy
    Spleen
    Sports
    Spring
    Stillness
    Stomach
    Stress
    Stretching
    Summer
    Summer-Heat
    Summer Solstice
    Support
    Survival
    Sweet
    Sword
    Tai Ji Quan
    Taiwan
    Taste
    Tea
    Teachers
    Temperature
    Third Ear
    Third Eye
    Time
    Toilet Paper
    Touch
    Touching
    Transformation
    Trees
    Tui Na Massage
    Valleys
    Vibration
    Virus
    Vision
    Walking
    Warming
    Water
    Watermelon
    Wei/Protective Qi
    Winning
    Winter
    Winter Solstice
    Wood
    Words
    Wordsworth
    Work
    Wu Ji
    Wu Long Tea
    Yang
    Yellow Emperor Classic
    Yin
    Yin Yang
    Yin-Yang
    Yoga
    Zen Buddhism

    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
    • Ava Markwalder
    • 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
  • Blog
    • FRANÇAIS