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Last week I introduced the Chinese Clock – a principle from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) that states that each organ has a two hour period in the day when it has an abundance of energy and does its best work. I also explained that the roles of the organs in TCM include psychological and spiritual capacities as well as physiological ones. Besides helping us to understand how to best utilize each time period, this system can sometimes be diagnostic. For instance, if you always feel tired at a certain time of day, or always wake up in the night at a particular time, there may be an imbalance in the organ that presides over that time. Now, let's continue our discussion.
11:00 AM to 1:00 PM – Heart Time
In TCM, our heart is the core representative of the fire element in us. Fire’s qualities include lightness (meaning both luminous and weightless), warmth, expansiveness, animation, and inclusiveness – all virtues of a healthy heart. The heart is the portal through which consciousness enters our body. Naturally, the time of the heart is when that giant fireball we call the Sun is highest in the sky.
Among the community of our organs, the heart is referred to as the Emperor (or Empress), and it presides over the kingdom of You through its vast network of vessels. By the power of its love, it endeavors to spread warmth to every facet of your life, to have all parts of you feel included within its benevolent reign, to illuminate and enlighten the darkest folds of your mind. Beating out every moment for us, it aims to keep us always in the present.
The heart and its vessels work best when they’re open. Yet one of our most common reactions to uncomfortable experiences is to “close” the heart and its vascular network in an attempt to avoid feeling or accepting. Vascular disease – the hardening, blockage, and failure of the vessels (especially those that serve the heart muscle itself and the brain) – is the biggest cause of death in the U.S., and I have long wondered if there’s a connection between our psychological “closing” and this physical expression of closing.
During Heart Time, I invite you to do something good for your heart. You could engage in exercise that elevates your heart rate. This encourages the heart muscle and its vessels to remain strong and elastic and it helps facilitate a lightening of our mood. You could consciously extend love to someone or to a neglected part of yourself. You could practice choosing light-heartedness. You could practice staying in the present, repeatedly choosing not to depart into the past or future.
1:00 to 3:00 PM – Small Intestine Time
These twelve organs are grouped into six pairs. Sometimes the pairings are obvious (like the stomach and the pi which I described last week); other times not so much. The small intestine is the heart’s partner, and here’s how it works.
The digestive tract is like a tube of the outside world running from the mouth to the anus. Although it’s not a straight line, it makes the body something of a cylinder, and you can throw all manner of nourishment or garbage in there. The bulk of this tube is the small intestine, which is where most absorption takes place – not just absorption of food, but also of life experience.
In TCM, the small intestine has the task of “sorting the pure from the impure.” As it samples the heart’s kingdom firsthand, it must discern what is “pure” and worth incorporating into oneself versus what’s “impure” and worth letting go (sending along to the large intestine for elimination).
Besides being a good time to absorb your midday meal, Small Intestine Time is good for practicing discernment. What expressions of “purity” – of truth, love, and awareness – would you like to partake in to feed your heart? What expressions of “impurity” exist in your life that serve mainly to cloud your consciousness, or keep you engaged in conflict? What long-held grievances are impeding your heart’s work? (Let them go.)
3:00 to 5:00 PM – Bladder Time
To understand the bladder in TCM, we have to understand its partner, the kidneys. The kidneys are thought of primarily as a reservoir of energy – of our life’s potential, in fact. And the bladder (besides storing urine) presides over the utilization of this potential and its transmission into the world through our works. The TCM bladder also has some overlap with the functions of our nervous system and our primal drive for security and survival.
Fear is the factor that most disrupts the bladder’s work. In the presence of fear, we often default to our animal brain and the fight-flight-freeze mechanism. If we fight, we tend to throw all our reserves at the issue at hand (perhaps drinking coffee and working ourselves to the bone). If we freeze, it’s like there’s a hold on our bank account – rather than risk using up our life, we withdraw. If we flee, it’s like being in a relentless marathon to some idealized future.
Many people feel tired during this time of day because of the habitual engagement of these survival mechanisms. Instead of pushing through, be respectful of your limits. Slow down. Reflect on how much energy you spend versus what you do to replenish yourself. Be with the stillness – it’s not going to kill you; just the opposite – it stands to save your life.
5:00 to 7:00 PM – Kidney Time
The kidneys and bladder are the two organs of the water element. As I said, the kidneys represent the storage of our life’s potential (jing), like the water in a deep well. Life ends when the well is dry. When treated in a healthy way, we only draw up enough water to feed the seeds we have planted in the world (and we’re conscious about the seeds we plant). By this, I mean we don’t take on obligations thoughtlessly, we don’t give away our energy unconsciously, we “go with the flow,” and let life unfold at its own pace. Meanwhile, the replenishing things we do – getting good sleep, eating good food, loving interactions – act like rain that falls into the well to restore it.
When fear comes in, like a cold wind, it can alter our relationship to this well. Sometimes it makes the surface of the water choppy. When we look at our reflection, we see a distorted picture and we act from this distorted sense of reality. The choppy surface also makes it impossible to peer down into the darkness and get an accurate sense of our potential. Maybe we’re in mortal danger and we should start bringing it up by the bucketful to try to overwhelm the odds! Other times, fear freezes the well entirely, making it inaccessible to us. Fear has thus diminished many a life.
What’s the counter to fear’s cold irrationality? The warmth and radiance of the heart. This is the balance of fire and water within us. The heart’s love melts our fear and its light of consciousness illuminates the truth that fear has obscured. The heart’s ability to pull us back to the present gives us a chance to regard our fear in a rational way. It’s not realistic to wish for fear to go away forever, but it’s entirely possible to feel it without being controlled by it.
During Kidney Time, consider replenishing your well with a small, nourishing meal. Ask yourself how you can get things done with less investment of personal energy. Reflect on the fears that may be running you from “below the radar,” and use the light of your consciousness to see them clearly – to see how insubstantial they are. Look into the well of your potential and ask yourself how you can more effectively bring this gift into the world. Meanwhile, for your anatomical kidneys, protect against dehydration. A good general guideline is to divide the number of pounds you weigh in half and aim to consume this many ounces of water over the course of each day (e.g., 150 pounds body weight means 75 ounces of water).
Thanks for reading. Once again, I chose not to give you everything at once so that you’ll have time to consider these concepts at a pace that better supports your ability to integrate them. Check back next week for more.
Be well,
Dr. Peter Borten
P.S. Again, in case you missed last week’s article, you can read it here.
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It’s safe to assume everyone’s heard of the coronavirus at this point and may even have some feelings around it. I read and posted a beneficial article I found on NPR and would love to share a few main points here as well.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is telling Americans they should prepare for the possibility of a Coronavirus outbreak. Prepare... not panic...
Here are some common-sense things you and your family can do to prepare.
1) Stock up on particular products such as daily medications (if you take them), any non-perishable foods that may carry you through for a couple of weeks, as well as your go-to sick foods such as soup and broth as well as crackers. Stocking up is essential because if you do get sick, you want to be able to ride it out from home. I love the idea of making extra bone broth and homemade soup to freeze!
Remember 80% of cases have been mild.
2) Stock up on household cleaning supplies. Products like Bleach wipes or alcohol kills it. Even soap and water will do the trick! If you have someone sick at home or in your community, plan on cleaning surfaces that get touched frequently several times a day. Cleaning products significantly reduce the amount of virus that is on a hard surface.
3) Communicate with your work about your ability to telecommute from home if Corona starts spreading locally.
4) Make a plan for your kids and older relatives. Consider what you would do if your family's daycare center or school close because of an outbreak. Do you have a backup plan? It would be wise to reach out to friends, relatives, neighbors now that may be able to help in this kind of situation.
5) Start creating healthy habits now to support you and your family’s health. Wash your hands when you come home, use hand sanitizer as needed, cough into your elbow, and promptly dispose of old tissues. Remember to wash your hands long enough! A proper hand washing is at least 20 seconds.
We are all connected. When there is a collective stress response, it's common to feel it in your nervous system as heightened stress or anxiety.
I created the Dragontree Anxiety Relief for support during stressful and anxious times.
The Anxiety-Relief formula contains a variety of western and Chinese herbs. Three herbs, of many, are Bai He, which clears the heart and calms the spirit. Chai Hu, which harmonizes the interior and exterior and resolves depression. Also, Dan Shen, which relieves pain, clears the heart and eliminates vexation.
Get Anxiety-Relief
I also highly recommend reading the “A Guide: How to Prepare Your Home for Coronavirus” article by NPR for more in-depth info! Share it with your friends and family so they can prepare adequately as well.
Allowing ourselves to be at peace in adversity provides that best opportunity to be present to real solutions. Internal peace is always an option, no matter what turbulence we face.
Be well,
Dr. Peter Borten
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After so many newsletters about pretty deep topics, I thought I’d get really superficial this week and talk about skin. Winter’s dryness and cold plus extra clothing, obsessive handwashing, and indoor heating form a combination that can be very hard on our skin. My whole life, I’ve had skin that dislikes winter. Even if your skin doesn’t get flaky or irritated, taking good care of your skin at this time of year may still help it retain its youthful elasticity and luster. Here are eleven self-care recommendations:
Drink plenty of water. Divide the number of pounds you weigh in half – that’s the number of ounces of watacer to drink evenly over the course of the day (ideally at room temperature).
Eat moistening foods. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, certain foods are considered to build vital fluids in the body which are disseminated to the skin and affect skin moisture. Some of these foods include: sesame seeds (especially the black kind), dark leafy greens, berries, pears, oranges, watermelon, string beans, tomatoes, flax seed, hemp seed, tomatoes, plums, mung beans and sprouts, cucumber, water chestnuts, eggs, fish, nuts, seed and nut oils.
Get a humidifier. In our house in Colorado, the usual tabletop humidifiers make very little difference in the moisture of the air, but I’ve heard good things about “whole house humidifiers” and I plan to get one for our home soon. They hook up to your water line (so you don’t need to refill them) and moisten the air that moves through your heating system. The units cost a couple hundred dollars and installation is a few hundred more (or you could do it yourself if you’re handy).
Put oil on your skin. Lotions are emulsions of oil and water, and while they’re moisturizing, they aim to be well absorbed and to feel light and residue-free. As such, lighter lotions may not cut it if you have very dry skin, or they may need to be applied many times a day. If your skin suffers during the winter, you may need something that functions more as a barrier – that impedes water loss through the skin and protects against the elements – such as: pure oil (coconut, jojoba, grape seed, sesame (untoasted), etc.); a thicker lotion that contains more oil or heavier oils (like castor, rosehip seed, or tamanu oil); or a semi-solid lotion with even heavier, waxy ingredients (shea butter, cocoa butter, or beeswax). However, the richest of these (shea butter and wax) are probably too heavy for the face and could clog your pores.
Exfoliate gently before moisturizing and apply moisturizer to still-damp skin. As long as your skin isn’t irritated, gently removing the top layer of dead cells will make it easier for moisturizers to penetrate. I like a coarse cloth, raw silk gloves, or a natural plant bristle brush for exfoliating the whole body. After bathing, you have a window of a few minutes during which moisturizers will work best. Personally, I enjoy the combination of dry skin brushing followed by a shower and then a brisk self-massage with oil (a practice called abhyanga in Ayurveda).
Use less soap. Soap dries out your skin and is usually unnecessary.
If your hands get chapped, dry them thoroughly after washing. Letting your skin air dry slowly usually results in drier skin. This is especially important for people with eczema.
Avoid colors, synthetic fragrances, and other chemicals in your detergents and body care products. Dry winter skin is often extra sensitive to chemicals – and absorbs them more effectively.
Wash in cooler water. If your skin becomes more sensitive in the winter, and especially if you have a rash, hot water will often make it worse. Bathe in the coolest water you can tolerate.
Use sunscreen. I don’t buy into the idea that we should wear sunscreen constantly, but judicious use has some benefits. Sun exposure feels good, activates immune cells, and stimulates vitamin D production in our skin, which is beneficial to our health in numerous ways. But the UV portion of sunlight causes damage to our tissues through a process called oxidation. (It’s the same process that causes oils to go rancid, vitamins to spoil, and meat to turn grey.)
We all know sunburns are bad, but even without burning, extended exposure to UV light tends to cause yellowing, dryness, and wrinkling of our skin. It damages fibers called elastin, which, as you might guess from the name, gives our skin its elasticity. Over the years, this makes our skin saggy and more prone to tearing. UV light also blesses us with age spots or “liver spots.” And finally, it’s a major risk factor in skin cancers, especially the non-melanoma kinds. So, if you like youthful skin, sunscreen is a good idea – especially in the middle of the day – and it’s easy to forget to use it in the winter. Winter sun isn’t usually direct enough to stimulate vitamin D synthesis, but it’s still strong enough to cause skin damage (especially in sunny places).
I don’t like chemical sunscreens, so I steer my patients to mineral-based ones – zinc oxide and titanium oxide. Zinc is the best option: it’s an excellent skin soother and barrier, and it works better than any other sunscreen chemical approved for use in the U.S. It’s the main ingredient in many diaper rash ointments and was responsible for that classic white stripe on lifeguards’ noses years ago.
Nowadays, most mineral sunscreens aren’t quite as opaque – some are completely transparent – probably because manufacturers have gotten better at creating smaller particles of zinc and titanium. However, this presents a big unknown – are these tiny “nanoparticles” entering our cells and doing something bad? In response to initial concerns, some companies now sell “non-nano” mineral sunscreens, but according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) even the mineral particles in these products would technically be considered “nano” sized.
Yet, EWG still believes they are our best option. A mixture of particle sizes, some nano and some larger, seems to offer the best sun protection, and the evidence so far indicates that they don’t penetrate into the skin far enough to encounter living cells. However, if you were to inhale a bunch of mineral sunscreen in powder or spray form, that wouldn’t be good for your lungs.
See a good skin care specialist. Believe it or not, I was co-owner of a spa for a couple years before I got my first facial. If I was going to take the time to get a spa treatment, I’d always opt for a massage. But one year, on my birthday, Briana scheduled a facial for me, and it was just lovely. Having someone steam and massage oils into your face is deeply relaxing. And I had to admit, my skin was glowing afterwards. I highly recommend it.
I hope these recommendations help you get through the winter with moister, healthier, happier skin.
Be well,
Dr. Peter Borten
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Last week I introduced the Chinese Clock – a principle from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) that states that each organ has a two hour period in the day when it has an abundance of energy and does its best work. I also explained that the roles of the organs in TCM include psychological and spiritual capacities as well as physiological ones. Besides helping us to understand how to best utilize each time period, this system can sometimes be diagnostic. For instance, if you always feel tired at a certain time of day, or always wake up in the night at a particular time, there may be an imbalance in the organ that presides over that time. Now, let's continue our discussion.
11:00 AM to 1:00 PM – Heart Time
In TCM, our heart is the core representative of the fire element in us. Fire’s qualities include lightness (meaning both luminous and weightless), warmth, expansiveness, animation, and inclusiveness – all virtues of a healthy heart. The heart is the portal through which consciousness enters our body. Naturally, the time of the heart is when that giant fireball we call the Sun is highest in the sky.
Among the community of our organs, the heart is referred to as the Emperor (or Empress), and it presides over the kingdom of You through its vast network of vessels. By the power of its love, it endeavors to spread warmth to every facet of your life, to have all parts of you feel included within its benevolent reign, to illuminate and enlighten the darkest folds of your mind. Beating out every moment for us, it aims to keep us always in the present.
The heart and its vessels work best when they’re open. Yet one of our most common reactions to uncomfortable experiences is to “close” the heart and its vascular network in an attempt to avoid feeling or accepting. Vascular disease – the hardening, blockage, and failure of the vessels (especially those that serve the heart muscle itself and the brain) – is the biggest cause of death in the U.S., and I have long wondered if there’s a connection between our psychological “closing” and this physical expression of closing.
During Heart Time, I invite you to do something good for your heart. You could engage in exercise that elevates your heart rate. This encourages the heart muscle and its vessels to remain strong and elastic and it helps facilitate a lightening of our mood. You could consciously extend love to someone or to a neglected part of yourself. You could practice choosing light-heartedness. You could practice staying in the present, repeatedly choosing not to depart into the past or future.
1:00 to 3:00 PM – Small Intestine Time
These twelve organs are grouped into six pairs. Sometimes the pairings are obvious (like the stomach and the pi which I described last week); other times not so much. The small intestine is the heart’s partner, and here’s how it works.
The digestive tract is like a tube of the outside world running from the mouth to the anus. Although it’s not a straight line, it makes the body something of a cylinder, and you can throw all manner of nourishment or garbage in there. The bulk of this tube is the small intestine, which is where most absorption takes place – not just absorption of food, but also of life experience.
In TCM, the small intestine has the task of “sorting the pure from the impure.” As it samples the heart’s kingdom firsthand, it must discern what is “pure” and worth incorporating into oneself versus what’s “impure” and worth letting go (sending along to the large intestine for elimination).
Besides being a good time to absorb your midday meal, Small Intestine Time is good for practicing discernment. What expressions of “purity” – of truth, love, and awareness – would you like to partake in to feed your heart? What expressions of “impurity” exist in your life that serve mainly to cloud your consciousness, or keep you engaged in conflict? What long-held grievances are impeding your heart’s work? (Let them go.)
3:00 to 5:00 PM – Bladder Time
To understand the bladder in TCM, we have to understand its partner, the kidneys. The kidneys are thought of primarily as a reservoir of energy – of our life’s potential, in fact. And the bladder (besides storing urine) presides over the utilization of this potential and its transmission into the world through our works. The TCM bladder also has some overlap with the functions of our nervous system and our primal drive for security and survival.
Fear is the factor that most disrupts the bladder’s work. In the presence of fear, we often default to our animal brain and the fight-flight-freeze mechanism. If we fight, we tend to throw all our reserves at the issue at hand (perhaps drinking coffee and working ourselves to the bone). If we freeze, it’s like there’s a hold on our bank account – rather than risk using up our life, we withdraw. If we flee, it’s like being in a relentless marathon to some idealized future.
Many people feel tired during this time of day because of the habitual engagement of these survival mechanisms. Instead of pushing through, be respectful of your limits. Slow down. Reflect on how much energy you spend versus what you do to replenish yourself. Be with the stillness – it’s not going to kill you; just the opposite – it stands to save your life.
5:00 to 7:00 PM – Kidney Time
The kidneys and bladder are the two organs of the water element. As I said, the kidneys represent the storage of our life’s potential (jing), like the water in a deep well. Life ends when the well is dry. When treated in a healthy way, we only draw up enough water to feed the seeds we have planted in the world (and we’re conscious about the seeds we plant). By this, I mean we don’t take on obligations thoughtlessly, we don’t give away our energy unconsciously, we “go with the flow,” and let life unfold at its own pace. Meanwhile, the replenishing things we do – getting good sleep, eating good food, loving interactions – act like rain that falls into the well to restore it.
When fear comes in, like a cold wind, it can alter our relationship to this well. Sometimes it makes the surface of the water choppy. When we look at our reflection, we see a distorted picture and we act from this distorted sense of reality. The choppy surface also makes it impossible to peer down into the darkness and get an accurate sense of our potential. Maybe we’re in mortal danger and we should start bringing it up by the bucketful to try to overwhelm the odds! Other times, fear freezes the well entirely, making it inaccessible to us. Fear has thus diminished many a life.
What’s the counter to fear’s cold irrationality? The warmth and radiance of the heart. This is the balance of fire and water within us. The heart’s love melts our fear and its light of consciousness illuminates the truth that fear has obscured. The heart’s ability to pull us back to the present gives us a chance to regard our fear in a rational way. It’s not realistic to wish for fear to go away forever, but it’s entirely possible to feel it without being controlled by it.
During Kidney Time, consider replenishing your well with a small, nourishing meal. Ask yourself how you can get things done with less investment of personal energy. Reflect on the fears that may be running you from “below the radar,” and use the light of your consciousness to see them clearly – to see how insubstantial they are. Look into the well of your potential and ask yourself how you can more effectively bring this gift into the world. Meanwhile, for your anatomical kidneys, protect against dehydration. A good general guideline is to divide the number of pounds you weigh in half and aim to consume this many ounces of water over the course of each day (e.g., 150 pounds body weight means 75 ounces of water).
Thanks for reading. Once again, I chose not to give you everything at once so that you’ll have time to consider these concepts at a pace that better supports your ability to integrate them. Check back next week for more.
Be well,
Dr. Peter Borten
P.S. Again, in case you missed last week’s article, you can read it here.
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Beautiful, Thanks so much! 🙏
You’re welcome, Sarah
After reaching my 50’s and downsizing my “things” I truly get what’s important. My relationships with people. Sharing love, making memories and emotional bonds. Its not what I have done, my accomplishments or successes, its what I have given of myself that matters most ❤Thank you for this video to remind me to remember what’s important as I transition into fall.
Yes! You’re welcome.
That was a beautiful and inspiring lesson. A great way to look forward into the upcoming season. I’m very grateful . Thank you,
Elizabeth
You’re welcome. Elizabeth
Thanks for this. Always wondering how to tie up the air/metal discrepancy between world views. This is really helpful.
Of course, my friend. I am glad it was helpful.
I needed this today. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Molly
You’re welcome, Molly