Cultivating Ourselves with the Seasons:

Our True Biorhythm as Seen Through The 5 Elements of Nature

By Dustin Siena, L.Ac.

 

                                As the sun rises in the east, and illuminates our world, we are reminded it is time to begin another glorious day. As our pupils come into contact with the bright light from above, they constrict, and our bodies begin a complex series of biochemical, hormonal, and primal reactions that catapult us out of our sleepy slumber. Activity shall begin, and upon waking, we enter into a world of work, chores, errands, responsibilities, and things that we associate with the “day.”

 

                   Our intuitive reaction to day and night, is an illustration of our connection to the polarity of yin and yang. While the dichotomy of yin and yang may sound quite simplistic, there are so many combinations of yin and yang, that the “I Ching” contains 64 hexagrams, which are configurations of combinations of yin and yang. Two opposing energies. Yin nourishes and provides substance and support for yang. Yang protects, transforms, warms, moves, and inspires. Yin descends, consolidates, while Yang ascends and expands. They are relative to each other in their function. And even though day is yang in nature, and yin is more night, within a twenty-four period, there are actually four different combinations of yin & yang, that define each six hour period during the day. And while there are four seasons during the year, they are also four different combinations of yin and yang that define each season.

 

                   If we can have a sense of how the seasons differ in their nature, we can have a deeper understanding of ourselves, and the behavior, feelings, challenges, desires, and fears that we may face during a given season.

 

                   In Chinese Medicine, the season will dictate the individuals pulse. The pulse, being an encyclopedia of information about a person’s life, can reveal information not only in terms of internal organs hypofunction or hyperfunction, but rather, a detailed energetic configuration of the interplay of yin and yang energy, within a person mind and soul. This pulse will have a model from which to follow, based on the season. Therefore, the season must be regarded as one of the primary etiological factors in diagnosing any sort of imbalance in an individual. 

 

                   One cannot separate the individual from the season in which they dwell. While Western Medicine providers may view the season as a medically irrelevant backdrop to the patient they are treating, in Chinese Medicine, the season alone provides the Chinese Doctor with a cornucopia of energetic clues which can help facilitate and unlock both a diagnosis and a treatment for the patient.

 

By Dustin Siena, L.Ac.

Copyright Dustin Siena 2009

 

 

Here's a quick & easy 5-Element Chart for your Reference:     

 

Five Elements	Wood	Fire	Earth	Metal	Water
Environment	Wind	Heat	Damp	Dry	Cold
Seasons	Spring	Summer	Late Summer	Autumn	Winter
Zang	Liver	Heart	Spleen	Lung	Kidney
Fu	Gallbladder	Small Intestine	Stomach	Large Intestine	Bladder
Directions	East	South	Middle	West	North
Tastes	Sour	Bitter	Sweet	Pungent	Salty
Sense Organs	Eye	Tongue	Mouth	Nose	Ear
Tissues	Tendons/Sinews	Vessel	Muscle	Skin and Hair	Bone
*Emotions	Anger / Assertiveness	Mania / Joy	Worry /  Meditation	Grief / Order & Structure	Fear / Will
Sounds	Shouting	Laughing	Singing	Crying	Groaning
Smell	Rancid	Burned	Sweetish	Rank	Putrid

 

 

* In the emotion section, the 1^st emotion represents an imbalance in that element, while the 2^nd may represent the pure manifestation of radiant health of that element. (Example:  Wood: Anger is considered pathological, while assertiveness is a virtue.)

 

**The 2^nd emotion listed in each section are not from any traditional sources, rather, I have extrapolated the healthy emotions that I believe may be associated with each element.