Jun 30, 20194 min read

The Building Blocks

As I come to the end of my first year, I am reflecting on what this year has been.

I started in September with ZERO knowledge on Chinese Medicine and I finish this year with a deep understanding of the building blocks.

No single post could cover the entirety of these past 10 months. This has been full time study, which is part tutor led but also many hours of my own learning.

That's the fantastic thing about Chinese Medicine. It draws you in. You want to learn more. I have become obsessed with it.

And the wonderful thing is, that there is an awesome community who are so smart, inspirational, motivational and caring who help you embed that knowledge further.

I am going to use this post to collate, in once place, some of the work I have done this year. As I said, it cannot be covered in one post; so this post will cover the first three building blocks:

YIN / YANG

THREE TREASURES

VITAL SUBSTANCES

YIN / YANG

This is the fundamental basis of Chinese Medicine. The balance between Yin and Yang is what makes the human healthy.

This was the very beginning of my learning. I remember I had to give a presentation on Week 3 of my learning on Yin and Yang. We had to talk about a daily aspect of our lives that represented Yin and Yang. I chose to do it on my dogs. And boy did I get it wrong - in hindsight!

But as my learning has developed I learnt to understand how Yin and Yang can be disrupted, and when this occurs we can get Yin and Yang Deficiency or Excess.

Yin is cold, rest, night time, it descends, it's wet.⁣⁣

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So if Yin is deficient (or relatively to Yang) then we might say the air conditioning is broken. ⁣⁣

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Yang is heat, activity, day time, it rises, it's dry. ⁣⁣

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If Yang is deficient (or relative to Yin) it's like leaving the cold water tap running in your garden. Water just accumulates.

THREE TREASURES

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SHEN ~ your Shen is your Mind. Your consciousness. It's health is affected by our Qi (Energy) and Jing (Constitution) but the Heart and Mind are also affected by our emotions. ⁣ ⁣

In Chinese Medicine each Yin organ is correlated with a Shen or Soul.⠀

SHEN {MIND} ~ resides in the Heart. It is our mental activity (including emotions), our consciousness, memory, thinking and sleep. ⠀
HUN {ETHEREAL SOUL} ~ resides in the Liver. It enters the body shortly after birth and after death it survives the body. The Hun influences are capacity to plan our life. Giving us a sense of direction. Maciocia also says "it gives the Mind the necessary other dimension of life: that is, dreams, vision, aims, projects, inspiration, creativity and ideas". ⠀
PO {CORPOREAL SOUL} ~ resides in the Lung. It is the soul which allows us to feel physical sensations. When the body dies, it dies with it. ⠀
ZHI {WILLPOWER} ~ resides in the Kidneys. It is the mental drive that gives us determination and single-mindedness in the pursuit of our goals. ⠀
YI {INTELLECT} ~ resides in the Spleen. It is our capacity for applied thinking, studying, concentration and memorising.⠀⠀

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QI ~ makes up everything. Shen and Jing are but a continuation of your Qi. As I've said before I call Qi energy, but there are many other interpretations.⁣⁣⁣ I have previously written a post about Qi, which you can find here.

There is also a post I wrote about the Seven Qing and their influence on Qi.

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JING ~ is made up from your pre-heaven Qi (the Qi received at the time of your conception) and post-heaven Qi (through food and air). It resides in the marrow and Kidneys and it is our constitutional health and development.⁣

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There are two categories of Jing:⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ PRE HEAVEN JING is what we are given from our parents at conception.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ It determines our constitution, strength and vitality. It is what makes us unique.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Hence premature hair loss, greying, poor eye sight, low semen count are all a weakness of Pre Heaven Jing.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ POST HEAVEN JING is drawn from the food, drink and air similarly to Qi.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ The functions of Jing are:⁣⁣

⁣⁣ 1. Control 7/8 cycle in women and men respectively ⁣⁣2. Basis for growth and development 3. Basis for Kidney Qi⁣⁣ ⁣⁣4. Basis for marrow (spine and brain)⁣⁣ ⁣⁣5. Basis for constitutional strength ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Jing (which resides in the Kidneys but also throughout the body and especially the 8 Extraordinary Vessels) cannot be replenished, in the same way we can Qi. Throughout our life our Jing will deplete.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Whilst it cannot be replenished we can work on not deteriorating it too rapidly and this is through balancing our life. ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ So...⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ 📷 MORE BALANCE BETWEEN WORK AND REST⁣⁣ ⁣ 📷 BALANCED DIET⁣⁣ ⁣ 🧘QI GONG⁣⁣ ⁣ 📷 NOT TOO MUCH SEX⁣!⁣ ⁣⁣

VITAL SUBSTANCES

There are five vital substances ~ 3 of which are the Three Treasures. The remaining two are:

BLOOD

BODY FLUIDS

BLOOD

I really enjoyed writing about Blood. The more I learn about Chinese Medicine, the more I want to discover about health. I am just learning about the menstrual cycle, despite being 38 years of age!