January 23rd 2012. Chinese New Year. The Year of The Dragon.
The Dragon symbolises passion, flare, excitement, unpredictability, exhilaration, intensity. A true Fire sign, it can blaze up at any moment and be extinguished the next. But perhaps this is an ominous sign given the "predicted" end of the world this year?
When I attended the British Acupuncture Council conference in 2009 there was a fascinating keynote lecture given by Michael McIntyre, a well-renowned acupuncturist from Chipping Norton.
The essence of the lecture focused on the change in health from common 'Cold' diseases centuries ago, to 'Warm' diseases prevalent in today's society. Mostly centred around a pattern of disharmony known as Yin Xu (or Yin deficiency).
Most people are aware of the black and white symbol of Yin and Yang, their original meanings being "sunny side of the hill" for Yang and "shady side of the hill" for Yin. Of course we all know these two opposites should be perfectly balanced but continuously changing. The change of day into night. The change of summer into winter. Activity followed by rest. Warmth and cold. Masculine and feminine. White and black.
What started as a seminar about individual health, eventually turned into a seminar about global issues.
Yin Xu in the individual is marked by low grade fever, night sweats, hot flushes, tiredness. All symptoms commonly seen around the time of menopause. A lot of these symptoms are caused by our lifestyles. Always on the go, rushing around from here to there, never stopping, work, work, work, grab a coffee, have a drink, must see so and so, got to go, kids to feed, mum to look after, things to see, things to read, things to buy, spend money, want this, want that, next new thing, onwards and upwards, go, go, go. Leading a Yang lifestyle.
But what about the world that we live in? For a least two centuries the world has been in a state of dramatic and continuous growth, since the birth of the industrial revolution, and has grown even more exponentially since the birth of the digital revolution. We live in, what many would agree is, a masculine world. Electricity. Automobiles. Population growth. Central heating. Mass farming. More mouths, more crops, more livestock. Plane travel. International communication. Computers. Nuclear power. Economic growth. More consumption. Keep on drilling. Drought. Anger. Conflict. War.
The world has been living in a constant state of Yang, by consuming the earth's most precious of Yin substances. Oil.
By it's very nature, oil is the epitome of Yin. Black, viscous, cold, buried deep within the earth, produced over thousands of years of 'rest'. And what has been the cause of consuming the earth's Yin substance? Global warming. The world has become Yin Xu.
So has our consumption of this commodity caused the acceleration of the world's Yin Xu? It's an interesting theory to ponder. And our we being directly affected by the world's Yin Xu? Is this why we as individuals are suffering with more Warm diseases nowadays? As a direct consequence of oil consumption? I can only guess at the truth, but it does make me wonder...
So, this is the Year of The Dragon. Unpredictable and fiery. True Yang. In the theory of Yin and Yang, it is said that one cannot exist without the other. If we continue to consume the planet's Yin and live in an internationally Yang society, what will that mean? In a world where the countries leaders are fighting for economic growth and expansion, how can this be sustained?
I write this blog, not to be all "doom and gloom", but to make you think about the bigger picture. Something, somewhere, at some point, has got to give. Perhaps instead of growth and expansion what we should be striving for is rest and reflection.
I don't have all the answers, just my own thoughts and actions. But what we definitely need to strive for is balancing a world that is very much out of balance.
2012. The Year of The Dragon. Passion, flare, excitement, unpredictability, exhilaration, intensity.
Will it burn bright? Or will it burn out?
Monday, 23 January 2012
Friday, 6 January 2012
Today I'm grateful for...
Christmas and New Year have never been a particularly remarkable time. The usual fare: Christmas food; quality time with friends and family; a bit too much wine; you know, the usual.
However this year was marked by two completely different events that have elicited the same response.
Firstly on New Year's Eve the house was broken into and the new television, blu-ray player and my laptop were stolen amongst a few other minor things. I wasn't at home at the time, but my mother had been a home.
After being told of the theft, I was first struck with the unpleasant discord of not only losing all my items, such as photographs from travels and all of my work documents from the last 6 years, but also the horrid feeling of having your privacy invaded. To have all your personal and private photographs and documents looked over by complete strangers, and not particularly nice ones at that, leaves a queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach.
But on New Year's Day I received an email from an old client, one I'd seen only once on Queen Mary 2, asking for help. A friend of hers is suffering from prostate cancer and is trying to do all that he can to battle the disease. Is there any advice that I can offer?
Receiving this email, immediately took me back to the time I was diagnosed with testicular cancer (my second diagnosis of cancer, the first being a fibrosarcoma on my right arm) and the treatment that followed. The consultant oncologist presented me with two treatment options after surgery. Chemo or no chemo. The advice he had to offer went along the lines of "if you have the chemotherapy, you reduce the chance of the cancer returning to 2%. If you don't, there's a 50% chance of it returning, and if it does return it'll most likely be stomach or lung cancer". Despite never really knowing my father, I knew he had died of lung cancer when I was 18.
To most people, it would've been a no-brainer, but I chose the option that to this day has seen me well. No chemotherapy, along with a huge change in diet and lifestyle and the use of alternative therapies.
The advise I offered to my client and her friend was that of not just good nutrition, but super-good nutrition. Upping the intake of vegetables and fruit from 5-a-day to more like 15-a-day. Buying organic only. Juicing the veg and fruit and taking it with wheatgrass, barleygrass or spirulina. Exercising. And taking apricot kernels (which contain the cancer cell fighter vitamin B17) as advocated by cancer journalist expert Phillip Day, author of: Cancer- Why We're Still Dying to Know the Truth.
Over the next few days, the effects of the robbery had started to settle (after all, there IS nothing that can be done) and I was left with a profound feeling of gratitude.
It's generally when big things in life occur, you start to ponder on the bigger picture. Stuff, is just that. It's stuff. And it's generally meaningless. Sure the missing photographs are a real shame, the missing work documents an annoyance, but thank goodness I still have my health. 8 years and counting, if you were wondering. And thank goodness my mother didn't wake up during the robbery, I hate to think what could have happened if she'd attempted to intercept. Thank goodness the dog DIDN'T make a sound. And thank goodness I still have my friends and my family.
If you take only one thing from this blog, don't make it sympathy, make it gratitude.
Be grateful for the gift of life, and live it to the fullest. You've only got one shot at it.
However this year was marked by two completely different events that have elicited the same response.
Firstly on New Year's Eve the house was broken into and the new television, blu-ray player and my laptop were stolen amongst a few other minor things. I wasn't at home at the time, but my mother had been a home.
After being told of the theft, I was first struck with the unpleasant discord of not only losing all my items, such as photographs from travels and all of my work documents from the last 6 years, but also the horrid feeling of having your privacy invaded. To have all your personal and private photographs and documents looked over by complete strangers, and not particularly nice ones at that, leaves a queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach.
But on New Year's Day I received an email from an old client, one I'd seen only once on Queen Mary 2, asking for help. A friend of hers is suffering from prostate cancer and is trying to do all that he can to battle the disease. Is there any advice that I can offer?
Receiving this email, immediately took me back to the time I was diagnosed with testicular cancer (my second diagnosis of cancer, the first being a fibrosarcoma on my right arm) and the treatment that followed. The consultant oncologist presented me with two treatment options after surgery. Chemo or no chemo. The advice he had to offer went along the lines of "if you have the chemotherapy, you reduce the chance of the cancer returning to 2%. If you don't, there's a 50% chance of it returning, and if it does return it'll most likely be stomach or lung cancer". Despite never really knowing my father, I knew he had died of lung cancer when I was 18.
To most people, it would've been a no-brainer, but I chose the option that to this day has seen me well. No chemotherapy, along with a huge change in diet and lifestyle and the use of alternative therapies.
The advise I offered to my client and her friend was that of not just good nutrition, but super-good nutrition. Upping the intake of vegetables and fruit from 5-a-day to more like 15-a-day. Buying organic only. Juicing the veg and fruit and taking it with wheatgrass, barleygrass or spirulina. Exercising. And taking apricot kernels (which contain the cancer cell fighter vitamin B17) as advocated by cancer journalist expert Phillip Day, author of: Cancer- Why We're Still Dying to Know the Truth.
Over the next few days, the effects of the robbery had started to settle (after all, there IS nothing that can be done) and I was left with a profound feeling of gratitude.
It's generally when big things in life occur, you start to ponder on the bigger picture. Stuff, is just that. It's stuff. And it's generally meaningless. Sure the missing photographs are a real shame, the missing work documents an annoyance, but thank goodness I still have my health. 8 years and counting, if you were wondering. And thank goodness my mother didn't wake up during the robbery, I hate to think what could have happened if she'd attempted to intercept. Thank goodness the dog DIDN'T make a sound. And thank goodness I still have my friends and my family.
If you take only one thing from this blog, don't make it sympathy, make it gratitude.
Be grateful for the gift of life, and live it to the fullest. You've only got one shot at it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)