Category Archives: Summer

HEAT

Confusion, Fire Element, Heart, Heat, Nausea, Summer, Temperature regulation, , , ,

Recently I planted out some flower seedlings in the front garden. I waited until 4pm when I thought it would be cool enough to work. But as I sweated away in oppressive heat for 45 minutes, I realised I’d been mistaken. Back in the house, I felt dizzy, head throbbing and slightly disoriented. It took time, cool drinks and splashing with cold water to come back to equilibrium. Such is the power of the climatic factor of heat. As our climate heats up, we need to be even more careful to protect ourselves from this pathogenic factor.

The Chinese character for this kind of summer heat is re. The three radicals comprising the character represent hand, ball and fire. It can combine with other characters to create meanings that are all resonances of the Fire Element:

Reqing enthusiastic, passionate

Renao: lively

Reai: to adore

Qinre: intimate, warm-hearted

The height of summer, which is where we in the southern hemisphere now find ourselves, is a season of extreme heat. The days are at their longest, giving the sun more hours to heat the atmosphere. This provides the final burst of sunlight to bring summer plants and crops to their fullness and maturity. It is a time for summer holidays when many people take their ease on beaches. ‘Sun worshippers’ are to be found packed onto strips of sand all along our coastlines. The great Aussie holiday at the beach is testament to many people’s love of the summer heat.

A particular craving for summer heat can be diagnostic of an imbalance in the Fire Element of a person. So too can a particular aversion to this climatic factor. Extremes of preference for any of the resonances of an Element can signal that the Element is wobbling and needs support. In this case, craving for or aversion to a hot climate can be a call for the Fire Element to be addressed.

Danger to health arises when the external pathogenic factor of heat enters the body, producing a rise in the body’s temperature, often mimicking symptoms of fever. There can be reddening in the face, hot skin, great thirst and profuse sweating which depletes the fluids of the body. Other symptoms can include a rapid pulse, dizziness, confusion, mental restlessness and fatigue. This is a yang condition which affects the upper body, especially the head, and diminishes yin.

Some are more prone to this exogenous pathogen than others. Older people are more prone as the fluids of an older body tend to be diminished. This is an expression of the Water Element failing to control the Fire Element across the ke or controlling cycle.

While this condition is more prevalent in summer, it is not confined to that season. It can occur whenever there is a heatwave, or even indoors in highly heated, poorly ventilated rooms.

The invasion of summer heat is similar to the condition of heatstroke or sunstroke in western medicine, and the treatment is the same:

Lie down in a cool, shaded place; slowly sip plenty of water (drinking too much too quickly can overwhelm the body); cool down with splashed water on the head, neck and wrists, or shower or bathe in cool water. If severe symptoms don’t ease within an hour, call the emergency number.

Chinese medicine also recognises that heat invasion penetrates to the organs. In particular, the heart, yin organ of the Five Element is most affected, which explains the mental confusion, disorientation and delirium that can result. (All mental disorders are considered disorders of the heart.) But the heat can invade other organs also. Heat can combine with damp which together transform to phlegm and may manifest as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, poor appetite, fatigue and tightness in the chest. Heat can also combine with wind. Wind-heat can affect the lungs and produce symptoms of the common cold: runny nose, sore throat, fever and joint pain

Ways to avoid the effects of the summer heat pathogen are to avoid the sun, seek shade, wear light, loose clothing and a hat, and drink plenty of water over time, sipping rather than gulping. Do not exercise in the heat. (I cringe when I see people jogging in the middle of a hot day.) Keep the house cool by closing blinds early in the day.

Acupressure Points can help rebalance

Large Intestine 11 is a classic point for clearing heat from the body. Located in a hollow at the end of the lateral elbow crease.

Heart Protector 6 is a calming and regulating point for the Fire Element. Located 2 cun above the inner wrist crease.

Triple Heater 5 regulates the body thermostat. Located 2 cun above the outer wrist crease.

Governor Vessel 14 treats excess yang, which is a characteristic of heat invasion. Located on the spine at the base of the neck, between vertebrae C7 and T1.

Other known points include Heart 7, 8; Heart Protector 3, 7, 8; Triple Heater 6;  Stomach 36, Spleen 6.

I’ll be back soon in the Late Summer for a look at the humid or damp climate. Enjoy the rest of the summer. Stay cool!

NOTE: I have been discussing summer heat as an external pathogen. Chinese medicine also recognises heat conditions that are internal and which are created primarily by inappropriate diet and emotional disturbances. TCM recognises a plethora of such heat and fire patterns that are beyond this discussion from the Five Element perspective, but which can be studied in Giovani Maciocia’s ‘The Foundations of Chinese Medicine”.

Summer Solstice

Anxiety, Arm pain, Breathing difficulty, Depression, Entry exit points, Fire Element, Heart, Psycho-emotional, Relationship, Spirit, Summer, , , , ,

For our northern hemisphere readers, here’s a link to the previous Winter Solstice article to make you feel hemispherically synched.

Today is the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere, the middle of summer and the point at which the year expands to its limit. It’s as if the Earth has taken a long, deep breath in and can expand no more. After today, the yin half of the year begins, and the long slow exhalation propels us towards the winter solstice in 6 months time.

Correspondingly expansive movements of the body include spreading the arms wide and opening the heart centre to give of ourselves and to receive the world. The Heart is the primary organ of the Fire Element whose summer season this is. The Heart, Emperor of our personal kingdom, beats ceaselessly for our whole life, maintaining the steady drumbeat of our personal world.

Another expansive movement is to raise the arms up and out. You often see this movement at festivals and sporting events where whole stadia of people signal their excitement by raising their arms to the heavens and shouting with joy. Showing their armpits to the world with abandon.

UTMOST SOURCE

Speaking of armpits, I want to spend some time here introducing an important acupoint which lies deep in the armpit, an area rarely exposed but kept protected by our arms at the sides. In the modern world most of us don’t raise our arms up high very often unless it’s in the shower or to reach for something on a high shelf. We rarely climb trees or hang from branches as did our primate ancestors. This point is rather secret and somewhat intimate.

The point is Jiquan Heart 1, known variously as Summit Spring, Utmost Spring and Supreme Spring. But I like Worsley’s translation of Utmost Source, because it echoes the nature of the Heart and its resident spirit the shen. Shen is our connection to utmost heaven, the heavenly light that resides within the heart of each one of us.

The Heart Qi arises from the organ of the Heart, passes through the Lung, and emerges in the armpit at Jiquan like a spring bubbling out of the ground. The Qi then travels along the inside of the arm, heading for the little finger as the Heart channel is mapped out through its 9 points.

When the Heart and its channel are open and balanced, there is connection to our True Nature which doesn’t have to do anything. The Heart’s calling is not to do but to be. In the metaphor of the Emperor, his task is simply to sit on the throne and hold the space from a place of stillness. This is a great teaching for us to emulate in our often turbulent times. Holding space, holding stillness, holding presence. Just being.

Back to the armpits, Heart 1 is a common place for Qi to become blocked. In the Wei Qi cycle of the 12 meridians, the previous point is Dabao, Spleen 21 Great Enveloping. Where a channel of one Element moves into a channel of another Element, there is a greater tendency for Qi to become blocked. These are known as Entry-Exit blocks (though the pedant in me would argue for Exit-Entry blocks). Here, where the Earth energy of Spleen moves to the Fire energy of Heart, we find the most common of the Entry-Exit blocks. These blocks are usually diagnosed on the pulse. In this case an excess Spleen pulse and a deficient Heart pulse would indicate a block. But physical and psycho-emotional symptoms can also point to the possibility of a block.

At the physical level, possible indications of this block include pain or constriction in the lateral ribcage or in the armpit, difficulty raising the shoulder, palpitations and shortness of breath. Surgery or injury to the area can also be a cause. Constriction in the flow of lymph to the lymph nodes in the armpit is another. Recently I’ve had a cluster of cases of severe lymphoedema in the legs, and I’ve found that in most of these cases there was a Spleen-Heart block.

At the psycho-emotional level, this block may stem from difficulty in allowing the nourishment of the Earth Element into the Heart. There may be sadness, anxiety, mental restlessness or disconnection from the joy of life.  It may indicate challenges with intimacy or betrayal that have closed the emotional heart. Eating disorders which stem from deep dissatisfaction with one’s life might also be indicators of this block.

If you suspect there is a block in the Qi flow at Heart 1, hold the point with sustained moderate pressure for a few minutes until you feel the subtle Qi flow and that the point is open. Also hold Spleen 21 in the side of the ribcage until you feel the open flow of the subtle energy there. Treat both sides

In Qi Gong practice and in some meditation practices, practitioners are advised to stand or sit with enough space in the armpit to ‘hold an egg’. This allows free flow of Qi through the armpit and along the Heart meridian of the arm. We can take note of this and avoid long periods of holding the arms tightly to the sides.

Jiquan is a spirit point that connects our consciousness to the universal consciousness; it aligns our personal heart with the heart of the universe; and it promotes emotional warmth and connection to others through the Heart. In this season of celebration and family gatherings, it’s good to keep our hearts open.