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In last weekâs article on the origins of Motherâs Day, I mentioned connecting with the earth as a means of feeling supported in a motherly way. This week Iâll explain more about that earth/mother connection.
The earth is a mother to all lifeforms who live upon her. She births them and sustains them. In animistic traditions, the plane above us â sometimes known as Father Sky â tends to have a rather ethereal influence on our lives. But Mother Earthâs role is decidedly tangible. She gives physical form to a soul and feeds her young from her own body.
In Five Element philosophy, the Earth Element governs nourishment and growth. The internal organs corresponding with Earth relate to food intake, digestion, and distribution of nutrients to all parts of us, like our inner mother. Earth also presides over our ability to give and receive nurturing, support, comfort, and understanding â to others and ourselves. Compared to Fire, Water, or Air, Earth is very slow to change, and such is the quality of a motherâs presence â like the solid ground beneath our feet, her support is constant, enduring, unconditional.
The Earth season is late summer â the time of harvest â and the Earth phase of any process is when we reap the fruits of our labors. It offers us an experience of abundance, of fullness, of having all our needs met. Itâs the role a mother serves for a baby. And a womanâs pregnant body â round and full in the belly and breasts â parallels this phase beautifully.
Just as the Earth has a powerful gravitational pull that keeps us rooted, our mother, too, has a certain gravity. We are drawn to her through a bond that began nine months before our emergence. We run to her as children for comfort and nurturing. And after leaving home to strike out on our own, we are drawn back to visit her and recharge this link. Like the earth, she provides us a sense of home. Throughout our lives, our mother is often the one around which all the children and grandchildren gather, for as the Earth, she is our center.
Speaking of the center, our navel marks our personal center of gravity, and itâs a permanent reminder of our oneness with our mother â the closest connection two humans can share. Itâs also a vestige of the most perfect nourishment we have ever had. As such, it is a very important point in acupuncture, Qigong, and other systems of traditional healing.
A woman once came to me for help with incessant vomiting and diarrhea. It was as if the Earth Element within her was in utter turmoil. She had tried a wide range of drugs, but nothing made a difference. She was emaciated and lethargic â at five feet eight inches, she weighed only seventy-eight pounds. Her cheeks were hollow and her eyes were sunken. The acupuncture and herbs I gave her barely helped. Eventually, I decided to try a somewhat obscure treatment: centering the umbilical pulse. Â
If you press the fingertips of one hand into your navel, youâll probably feel the pulsation of your abdominal aorta. And if you feel more closely, you may notice that the pulsation is strongest above or below, or to one side of the navel. The goal of this treatment is to use physical manipulation to move the pulse so that itâs most powerful right in the middle. I succeeded in moving her pulse, but to be totally honest, I had little belief that it would do anything.
So, I was astonished when she reported the next week that her digestion had improved dramatically. Over the coming months, her episodes of diarrhea and vomiting diminished almost to zero, and she began gaining weight. When I last saw her, she was strong and muscular and weighed 135 pounds. Such is the power of restoring our center â our Earth, our inner mother.
Each of the Five Elements is expressed as a virtue when we embody it in a healthy way. The virtue of Earth is integrity â meaning a quality of being whole, entire, and undiminished. When the earthen banks of a river have integrity, water rushes through them but they remain stable without eroding. When an earthen building has integrity, it can be battered by wind and rain for centuries without crumbling or washing away.
The initial shock to our sense of wholeness occurs through separation from our mother in the act of birth and the cutting of the umbilical cord. Our motherâs womb is our homeland, and we will never return to it. After the fundamental separation that occurs through birth, we are usually cared for and held closely, but gradually this connection becomes more distant. Can you remember the feeling of being always held, enveloped in your motherâs arms, cradled, protected, understood, comforted, and safe? Can you imagine how it would feel to let yourself be held again by someone big enough to carry you easily and take care of all your needs? Even though this separation is completely natural and, as children, we play a role in the distancing process, thereâs no guarantee that it will leave us feeling capable of recognizing and meeting our own needs, or able to ground and center ourselves.
When Earth is out of balance in us, we may experience it as a feeling of neediness or hunger. We may have an erratic routine, erratic energy, or erratic digestion. We may feel insecure and become excessively clingy. We may feel a need to mother everyone â every injured worm in the garden, every guy whose mother never taught him to cook â and we may do so at the expense of nourishing ourselves. We may use consumption of all kinds (food, clothes, data, etc.) to ground ourselves. We may try to elicit sympathy from others, feeling a need to always tell our story, yet never being fully understood. Underlying all these feelings and behaviors is a belief that weâre not quite whole, and as it drives us to search for something outside ourselves to fix us, it greatly undermines our freedom.
But itâs not true. What you are is undiminishable. The hole you feel is an illusion created by a misunderstanding about what you are and how youâre nourished. Perhaps youâve closed your eyes to your resources and given away your power by buying into the idea that you need approval (maybe your biological motherâs, maybe your own) to be complete. Perhaps youâve hardened your spiritual âstomachâ or locked your spiritual âteethâ â refusing to accept nourishment and even creating something that looks like a hole in yourself. But thereâs really nothing missing.
Itâs fully possible to restore your integrity, to feel whole again. As I wrote last week, an important step is to recognize that your ability to access the qualities of Earth (wholeness, nourishment, groundedness, stability, sufficiency, belonging, being understood and at home, etc.) doesnât depend on anyone else. If that seems like a giant philosophical leap, you can begin by opening yourself to the idea that at least it doesnât depend on any single person. You can be supported in these ways by any good friend or family member, and by your own Higher Self. You can nurture yourself and get your own needs met. Observe a practice of gratitude. Notice all the ways in which you are held and provided for. Notice all the ways in which you have enough and are enough. And open yourself to receiving all thatâs coming to you. You are worth it.
Be well,
Peter
[post_title] => There Isnât Really a Hole Inside You: The Earth Element and Your Inner Mother
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This monthâs weâve been focusing on non-pharmaceutical approaches to pain relief. (If you missed the previous articles you can click to read part one and part two.) The Chinese Medicine concept thatâs been central to our discussions is that all forms of pain are caused by stagnation, and furthermore, that the mind and body are inseparable. So, many of the holistic approaches Iâve mentioned are beneficial for both psychological and physical pain. Letâs look at some more ways to promote movement in order to alleviate stagnation and pain.
- Exercise. Exercise can be a delicate subject when it comes to treatment of pain, since many conservative doctors still advocate immobility, especially with injuries. But immobility tends to exacerbate stagnation. And long term immobility due to pain can be a nail in oneâs coffin, since it often leads to weight gain, poor circulation, as well as loss of strength, balance, and flexibility. We must keep moving, even when weâre in pain. There are always ways to move that are non-damaging. If you canât come up with an exercise regimen that works for you, consider seeing a physical therapist.
In recent years, progressive trainers and doctors have even employed immediate controlled movement for injuries such as sprains, with athletes often making astoundingly rapid recoveries. Moving the traumatized area is vital for promoting movement of stagnant lymphatic fluid. Meanwhile, in the psychology community, there has been an impressive rise in the recognition of the value of exercise in psychological pain â such as anxiety and depression. Moving the body moves the mind, helping us to get out of an uncomfortable rut.
- Visualize. A great way to mobilize the mind is through the deliberate focus on a desired state rather than our usual tendency to focus on what we donât like and want to be different. If youâre in pain, thinking about the pain itself and how much it sucks only makes it worse. What we focus on naturally grows to dominate our experience.
There are all sorts of useful ways to visualize for pain. A good starting point is to imagine yourself happy and pain-free, doing something you love. Spend five minutes a day doing this with your eyes closed. Really try to build the feeling youâd expect to have in this state â relieved, grateful, ecstatic, triumphant. See it, touch it, taste it, rev it up. If nothing else, it will be a five minute break from the usual despair, but I believe itâs likely to do much more. You need to have a clear sense of your destination if you want to get somewhere, and this exercise will really help with your pain, whether itâs physical or psychological.
- Stop Resisting. As I touched on in the first article of this series, resistance just begets more stagnation. As often as possible, try to catch yourself resisting your pain, fighting it with your body and mind. The pain is like a crimped hose, and the resistance is like clenching your fist around the crimped hose â it certainly doesnât make it better, and can often make it worse. When you catch yourself tightening up inside in response to the pain, the most efficient thing to do is just stop and relax. Breathe. Let it go. Then choose a new focus â like whatever task youâre engaged in, or helping someone, or making music, or learning, or playing a game. Donât let yourself feel bad that youâre not over it yet. Donât blame yourself for resisting again. Donât try to figure it out. Just let it go, then let it go again, then let it go again.
This isnât a technique that youâll just do once and your pain will disappear forever. Itâs a discipline that you commit yourself to. But as simple as it seems, this alone can be profoundly life changing. Resisting your pain is like arguing with reality; you canât win â you can only make it worse. Letting go of this fight isnât the same as giving up or asking for more pain. It actually frees up your energy and lets the pain run its course.
Even if youâre not in pain, I invite you this week to try to notice when youâre resisting your circumstances â the external happenings, or how you feel, or your own thoughts â and without doing any thinking about it, let go of the resistance. Tell me what happens.
Be well,
Dr. Peter Borten
[post_title] => Unlocking Pain, Part Three â Keep Moving
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[post_content] => One of the most common reasons a client comes in for a massage is because they are experiencing back pain. This can be due to a variety of reasons. Some common complaints are from clients who are constantly lifting and carrying small children, or who were overzealous in their workout at the gym, or who were in a car accident many years ago but are still experiencing pain. Massage is a great choice to ease back pain.
When you receive a massage, your brain will release natural pain killers and mood elevators. Your circulation increases, and fresh blood and lymph are carried throughout the body. Your muscle tension and stress levels will decrease. The combination of these actions results in a decrease in pain, and an increase in the ability to heal faster from injuries.
Studies have shown that compared to control groups not receiving massage, those receiving massage reported less severe pain, less reliance on pain medication, longer lasting pain-free stretches of time, and overall better daily functioning. The type of massage did not matter, but the consistency of treatments did matter. I would suggest for moderate back pain, commit to coming in for a massage every other week for a few months, and see how your pain level improves. It is far more enjoyable than other invasive methods of treating back pain.
This being said, massage is not a cure all. It does facilitate healing, and you can use it in conjunction with other methods of treatment, like regular exercise to strengthen your core and back, for best results.
-Colleen C (Lead LMT at The Dragontree Thurman)
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[post_content] => In last weekâs article on the origins of Motherâs Day, I mentioned connecting with the earth as a means of feeling supported in a motherly way. This week Iâll explain more about that earth/mother connection.
The earth is a mother to all lifeforms who live upon her. She births them and sustains them. In animistic traditions, the plane above us â sometimes known as Father Sky â tends to have a rather ethereal influence on our lives. But Mother Earthâs role is decidedly tangible. She gives physical form to a soul and feeds her young from her own body.
In Five Element philosophy, the Earth Element governs nourishment and growth. The internal organs corresponding with Earth relate to food intake, digestion, and distribution of nutrients to all parts of us, like our inner mother. Earth also presides over our ability to give and receive nurturing, support, comfort, and understanding â to others and ourselves. Compared to Fire, Water, or Air, Earth is very slow to change, and such is the quality of a motherâs presence â like the solid ground beneath our feet, her support is constant, enduring, unconditional.
The Earth season is late summer â the time of harvest â and the Earth phase of any process is when we reap the fruits of our labors. It offers us an experience of abundance, of fullness, of having all our needs met. Itâs the role a mother serves for a baby. And a womanâs pregnant body â round and full in the belly and breasts â parallels this phase beautifully.
Just as the Earth has a powerful gravitational pull that keeps us rooted, our mother, too, has a certain gravity. We are drawn to her through a bond that began nine months before our emergence. We run to her as children for comfort and nurturing. And after leaving home to strike out on our own, we are drawn back to visit her and recharge this link. Like the earth, she provides us a sense of home. Throughout our lives, our mother is often the one around which all the children and grandchildren gather, for as the Earth, she is our center.
Speaking of the center, our navel marks our personal center of gravity, and itâs a permanent reminder of our oneness with our mother â the closest connection two humans can share. Itâs also a vestige of the most perfect nourishment we have ever had. As such, it is a very important point in acupuncture, Qigong, and other systems of traditional healing.
A woman once came to me for help with incessant vomiting and diarrhea. It was as if the Earth Element within her was in utter turmoil. She had tried a wide range of drugs, but nothing made a difference. She was emaciated and lethargic â at five feet eight inches, she weighed only seventy-eight pounds. Her cheeks were hollow and her eyes were sunken. The acupuncture and herbs I gave her barely helped. Eventually, I decided to try a somewhat obscure treatment: centering the umbilical pulse. Â
If you press the fingertips of one hand into your navel, youâll probably feel the pulsation of your abdominal aorta. And if you feel more closely, you may notice that the pulsation is strongest above or below, or to one side of the navel. The goal of this treatment is to use physical manipulation to move the pulse so that itâs most powerful right in the middle. I succeeded in moving her pulse, but to be totally honest, I had little belief that it would do anything.
So, I was astonished when she reported the next week that her digestion had improved dramatically. Over the coming months, her episodes of diarrhea and vomiting diminished almost to zero, and she began gaining weight. When I last saw her, she was strong and muscular and weighed 135 pounds. Such is the power of restoring our center â our Earth, our inner mother.
Each of the Five Elements is expressed as a virtue when we embody it in a healthy way. The virtue of Earth is integrity â meaning a quality of being whole, entire, and undiminished. When the earthen banks of a river have integrity, water rushes through them but they remain stable without eroding. When an earthen building has integrity, it can be battered by wind and rain for centuries without crumbling or washing away.
The initial shock to our sense of wholeness occurs through separation from our mother in the act of birth and the cutting of the umbilical cord. Our motherâs womb is our homeland, and we will never return to it. After the fundamental separation that occurs through birth, we are usually cared for and held closely, but gradually this connection becomes more distant. Can you remember the feeling of being always held, enveloped in your motherâs arms, cradled, protected, understood, comforted, and safe? Can you imagine how it would feel to let yourself be held again by someone big enough to carry you easily and take care of all your needs? Even though this separation is completely natural and, as children, we play a role in the distancing process, thereâs no guarantee that it will leave us feeling capable of recognizing and meeting our own needs, or able to ground and center ourselves.
When Earth is out of balance in us, we may experience it as a feeling of neediness or hunger. We may have an erratic routine, erratic energy, or erratic digestion. We may feel insecure and become excessively clingy. We may feel a need to mother everyone â every injured worm in the garden, every guy whose mother never taught him to cook â and we may do so at the expense of nourishing ourselves. We may use consumption of all kinds (food, clothes, data, etc.) to ground ourselves. We may try to elicit sympathy from others, feeling a need to always tell our story, yet never being fully understood. Underlying all these feelings and behaviors is a belief that weâre not quite whole, and as it drives us to search for something outside ourselves to fix us, it greatly undermines our freedom.
But itâs not true. What you are is undiminishable. The hole you feel is an illusion created by a misunderstanding about what you are and how youâre nourished. Perhaps youâve closed your eyes to your resources and given away your power by buying into the idea that you need approval (maybe your biological motherâs, maybe your own) to be complete. Perhaps youâve hardened your spiritual âstomachâ or locked your spiritual âteethâ â refusing to accept nourishment and even creating something that looks like a hole in yourself. But thereâs really nothing missing.
Itâs fully possible to restore your integrity, to feel whole again. As I wrote last week, an important step is to recognize that your ability to access the qualities of Earth (wholeness, nourishment, groundedness, stability, sufficiency, belonging, being understood and at home, etc.) doesnât depend on anyone else. If that seems like a giant philosophical leap, you can begin by opening yourself to the idea that at least it doesnât depend on any single person. You can be supported in these ways by any good friend or family member, and by your own Higher Self. You can nurture yourself and get your own needs met. Observe a practice of gratitude. Notice all the ways in which you are held and provided for. Notice all the ways in which you have enough and are enough. And open yourself to receiving all thatâs coming to you. You are worth it.
Be well,
Peter
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Cart
Thank you so much for this lesson!!
I’ve recently started experiencing dreadful migraines as a result of surgery and this is incredibly timely and helpful.
đ