The Earth element is given the color yellow in
Chinese 5 Element philosophy. Yellow is the color of direction
of the South in many Native American traditions, representing
that which is growing and flowering. In Chinese 5 Element, earth/late
summer/spleen time move us out of the summer South and into the
direction of Center, fully empowered with the knowledge and experience
of the fulfilled cycle of summer's long days of sun, fruits and
grains, and into the harvest time.
Late summer sets the stage for "getting the issues from the
tissues" too. During the time of spleen dominance, emotions
tip towards worry, dwelling on details, and sometimes focusing
too much on a particular topic. We might find ourselves involved
in excessive mental work that keeps us "too busy", even
if time permits, for self-care in the form of the physical joy
of exercise or being in nature.
Worrying is akin to getting caught up in a neurotic projection,
usually fear-based, about something over which we might assume
we have little control over. Be that true or not, it is possible
to stay closer to our center of emotional gravity and thus have
greater resources at our dispense if we sustain a daily practice
of one kind or another, be it sitting meditation, asana, Tai Chi,
Chi Kung, dance, or any one of the arts of inner abiding. It is
in this capacity, of turning us inward for strength and resource,
that the spleen condition of worry can lead us positively to develop
understanding of our deeply held beliefs, those which influence
our potential to thrive. Worry sprouts up as a kind of visceral
reaction to the unknown. However, those tinges of worry are also
the nuances of how we can learn to face reality free from fear
and become proactive in developing solutions. In the captivation
of worry, we might also come to know how we unconsciously overextend
ourselves, and learn how to be more effective by taking care of
one or two things at a time with our whole effort and best capacity.
There
is alot of deep processing happening, but like the harvest time
of deep summer it has an outer dimension in the form of community.
Community is the alembic where social and personal transformation,
learning and growth can occur. Community is discovered in friendships
and in alliances in our workplace, spiritual organizations, spontaneously
in the rhythms of life that we keep, in our families, or in peer
groups as artists or activists of one type or another. Communities
have been pushed to find solutions, to raise funds, to take risks
and determine our own fate while the collapse of our state budget,
ransacking of public education, demise of healthcare and threats
to our civil liberties resumed under the Bush Administration.
It is indeed a sort of cosmic irony, a Saturnian kick in the pants,
for from the glowing ashes many exciting first-time events have
hatched at last this year, such as the nomination of the first
African-American presidential candidate and the candidacy of the
first woman hopeful for president of our country; the legalization
of gay marriage in California; and the sprouting up of integral
health centers renewing the relationship between medical practitioners
from traditional and mind-body-emotional wellness models to answer
the need for accessible and biodynamic healthcare.
In this season of late summer, in the light of so much social
transformation, understanding takes root as the harvest time completes
itself. The earth has graciously fulfilled her care of living
beings by providing steadily and abundantly for the past several
months. Now is the time to genuflect on what has been learned
from the extroverted, producing time of summer.
The season of the spleen precedes autumn, during which the lung
area and the release and transformation of grief comes to fore.
Anticipation about what we might be approaching in our inner work
arrives as the body begins to downshift for the darker, cooler
seasons ahead. The habit of worry may be dominant especially if
we are not changing with the seasons in terms of acknowledging
the goad of shorter days and longer nights suddenly making their
appearance to help us interiorize. The levels of natural light
that a person receives each day has a big effect on the production
of hormones and neurotransmitters which regulate our mood, instincts,
diurnal (sleep) cycles and physical vitality.
How we nourish ourselves physically and emotionally comes to the
surface during the time of the earth Spleen governance, because
the spleen is involved in our food digestion and nutrient absorption.
The spleen helps in the formation of blood and energy by keeping
the reservoir of red blood cells and blood supply in the vessels.
Spleen vitality is connected with muscle function, mouth, and
lips, and also in the powers of thinking, studying, and memory.
Spleen imbalance reveals itself as fatigue, loss of appetite,
poor digestion, excess mucus, abdominal bloating, loose stools
or diarrhea. Sensitivity to bruising, excess menstrual blood flow,
tired muscles, and pale lips are symptoms of blood weakness that
can be alleviated by nourishing the spleen.
In
Chinese Medicine, the spleen ('pí') is the seat of one's
temperament and is thought to influence an individual's willpower.
Willpower gives one a course of action to transcend melancholy
and dampness, which is the environment of an overwhelmed spleen
and lack of a vital earth element.
To
treat the spleen chi one can do both seated and reclined spinal
twists and seated forward bends, and also poses which push up
on the abdomen such as hamsasana or mayurasana. These are postures
which move the blood supply to the internal organs and fan the
digestive fire or Agni, which is responsible for our ability to
digest and process not only the nutrients that we take in, but
also the emotional response to the things we "put in"
to ourselves--job responsibilities, relationships, external factors
such as exercise and time spent in nature as contrasted to overexposure
to artificial (man-made) environments such as being in front of
a computer, under electric lights, driving a car. All of these
events affect the immune system through the main cause of debilitating
stress to the nervous system.
Postures that treat the root chakra (Earth element in the body)
are also powerful during this time, to derive a greater groundedness,
and to help oneself to slow down, since by their nature these
postures require a careful and attentive entrance and are most
beneficial when held for longer periods of time.
Here are some examples of these postures, how-to, and links to
pictures provided by various online resources:
Other
helpful self-healing techniques:
To
resuscitate the Spleen chi, eat whole grains regularly, such as
quinoa, rice, or barley. Complement these with steamed vegetables
or include in soups.
Talk a walk outside everyday at lunch or after work, or make a
weekend habit of getting in a good, long hike. It is always good
to avoid rushing around, fomenting worry in yourself and others!
Pay attention to how you breathe, as often as possible throughout
your day.
If
worry overwhelms the mind and body, spend a few minutes laying
on the earth in alignment with its polarities with your head pointed
to the north and feet in the south. If possible, position your
bed this way.
When practicing
reclined asanas that permit it, put your hands just under your
ribs at your sides,and breath into your internal organs.
