Healing and Medicine ~ Eastern and Western Approaches

Eastern and western medicine have come together a bit more in recent years, the west is beginning to understand what the ancients have always known - that the body, emotions, mind, and spirit are all inseparable, in fact … the holistic approach is going to be fashionable!

Hooray!

Please excuse me if I sound frivolous, but it’s my experience that nobody can separate the physical from the emotional, so to me it seems obvious, I have tried it and it doesn't work!

Of course I haven't always known this, I had to experience it for myself.

When going through a divorce I kept telling myself that I was all right, so I didn’t have a ‘mental breakdown’ no, I had a physical one…yes this is possible. I had such sorrow that I lost two stones in a very short time.

If we ignore the needs of one part of ourselves another will protest, simple.

Physical abuse if ignored by the victim often results in a mental breakdown; my experience was in another way. In other words I kept my head but my body gave out. It was not ‘till I had only a few weeks to live that I listened to the specialist, this is how powerful the mind can be when we are determined to ignore all else.

If we look at the organs of the body as houses for different emotions a picture emerges. In Chinese medicine this is how it is viewed.

Family relationships are also used to illustrate the organs and positions on the Chinese medicine charts; I’ve added the partner organs to the list below to illustrate this.

Liver = Anger - “What a gall that person has!” - ‘Partner’ Gall Bladder

Heart = Hysteria - Dad worked himself up into a heart attack - ‘Partner' Small Intestines - a heart attack can be mistaken for indigestion.

Spleen = Worry - Ulcers commonly caused by over work - ‘Partner’ Stomach

Lungs = Sorrow - Pining away for a loved one is very common - ‘Partner’ Large Intestines, malfunction results in starvation when the organs cannot absorb the nutrients.

Kidneys = Fear - Children’s nightmares - peeing with fright - ‘Partner’ Bladder

So, what do you think? Is it possible to die of a ‘broken heart’?

Of course it is!

I was within a short time of doing just that, my body was telling me to change the situation so it could heal itself.

The worry, fear, and sorrow all stopped the digestion and so the tissues started to die.

What is the cure?

Look to our whole situation when you become physically unwell.

Look to our emotions when you feel lacking in energy. Are you draining the batteries?

Look to our mental attitude when you have allowed the whole world to revolve around your own needs first.

Look to our spiritual growth when you feel stuck in a rut. See what you have learned - Needing to progress?

God bless our ‘built in’ programme of rehabilitation!

Amen.