Embrace the Summer with a Healthy Heart: A Journey through Qi Gong, Food Medicine, and Acupressure
Embrace the Summer with a Healthy Heart: A Journey through Qi Gong, Food Medicine, and Acupressure
In TCM, each organ is associated with a specific season, and high summer is the season of the Heart. This time of year is bursting with vibrant energy – flowers blooming, bees buzzing, and the world alive with activity. Let’s explore how we can harness this energy to nurture our hearts.
The Heart in Traditional Chinese Medicine
In TCM, the Heart reaches its peak activity from 11 AM to 1 PM, the busiest and most active time of the day. The Heart’s flavour is bitter, its sense organ is the tongue, and its emotion is joy. Right now, take a moment to focus on the centre of your chest, think of someone you love, and feel this area soften and glow.
Humming and singing, using the tongue, can quickly connect you to the joy of the heart, while negative speech can harden it. How we use our tongue significantly impacts our emotional and physical health. Use your tongue wisely, bless your food, give thanks for things throughout your day and let joyful energy flow through your heart.
Learn to use Mantra in my previous blog
The Element of Fire
Each organ in TCM is also associated with an element.
The Heart belongs to fire, an element with many faces – from the wild, destructive forest fire to the comforting glow of a hearth or the serene flame of a candle. All types of fire share the power of transformation, and this is the energy we want to cultivate in our hearts – a gentle, transformative flame.
Fire symbolizes constant movement and transformation, embodying yang energy.
While unchecked fire can be destructive, within boundaries, it illuminates, warms, and brings clarity.
Fire is the element of the organ. Our hearts are like an internal flame, often called the “emperor of the body,” with all other organs in service to it.
The Heart is where our consciousness, or “Shen,” resides, connecting us to the divine, whatever that might be for us, a sleeping baby, singing prayers together in community or taking a walk on the beach. To enjoy life (In-Joy) life is to be connected to the divine and nourishes Heart Health.
The Universal Symbolism of Flame
The flame is a powerful symbol across many cultures and religions, representing transformation, enlightenment, and the divine. In Christianity, the Holy Spirit is depicted as a flame, symbolising divine presence and inspiration. In Hinduism, the sacred fire “Agni” represents purification and the connection between the earthly and the divine.
In Buddhism, the flame is a metaphor for spiritual awakening and the illumination of wisdom. The ancient Greeks revered the hearth goddess Hestia, whose eternal flame represented home and family unity.
Across these diverse traditions, the flame signifies the profound interplay between destruction and creation, a source of warmth, guidance, and spiritual insight. (read more in a previous blog)
Nurturing Your Heart
To ensure our heart burns brightly without raging out of control, we must provide a safe container for it – a home.
In TCM, the blood is the Heart’s home. Keeping our blood vibrant and healthy is key.
Foods for a Healthy Heart
The taste for the Heart is bitter. Bitter greens like chicory, watercress, dandelion leaves, and rocket nourish the Heart and help the Liver detoxify the blood.
Red foods are also fantastic for the Heart, containing antioxidants like anthocyanins and bioactive polyphenols that ensure smooth blood flow, reduce stress, and lower blood pressure.
Incorporate red peppers, beetroot, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, Chinese red dates, goji berries, watermelon, rosehips, and pomegranates into your diet.
Pomegranates, with their bittersweet flavor and abundant seeds, are perfect for heart health. Try sprinkling pomegranate seeds on a salad with bitter greens and crumbled feta for a delicious, heart-healthy meal.
For more recipes, check out my cookbooks at joannefaulkner.ie/cook-books.
Qi Gong for the Heart
Qi Gong, a moving meditation, helps us gain perspective on our emotions and the world around us. It’s a fantastic tool for maintaining a balanced and peaceful Heart. (scroll down for the free class)
Let’s try a simple Qi Gong move together.
You can do this sitting or standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent. Place your hands on your heart/Middle Dan tien and take a deep breath in.
As you inhale, slowly extend your arms out to the sides, palms facing up, as if opening your heart to the world. Exhale, bringing your hands back to cover your heart/middle Dan tien.
Repeat this exercise nine times and feel calmness in your heart and perspective with your problems.
Finally, bring the energy and your hands down to the lower Dantien, just below and behind the belly button. This movement symbolises opening up and receiving energy while staying grounded and centred.
Balancing Your Shen
Remember, your emotions can either fan your inner flame into an inferno or cause it to dwindle. Keeping your “Shen” balanced means not letting external factors control our joy or sadness. By nurturing our Heart, we can drop our emotional armour and connect more deeply with ourselves and others.
Remember, your emotions can either fan your inner flame into an inferno or cause it to dwindle.
Keeping your “Shen” balanced means not letting external factors control our joy or sadness.
By nurturing our Heart, we can drop our emotional armour and connect more deeply with ourselves and others.
Sun Simiao, a great Chinese medicine practitioner, said
“In your heart, there is love; don’t love too deeply. In your heart, there is hate; don’t hate too deeply, because too much of any of these will attack the Shen.”
Our spirit is a unique treasure that must be protected like a flame, not allowed to burn out or blaze uncontrollably.
Moderation and Inner Balance
Before and after my morning meditation (at which you are welcome to join me, simply sign up for the free class below, I dedicate my practice by reciting, “May I be free from passion, aggression, and prejudice.”
While we understand avoiding aggression and prejudice, passion must also be moderated. Too much passion, even for a noble cause, can lead to imbalance. Don’t let your passion and heart fire overwhelm you; maintain touch with softness, humour, and compassion.
Conclusion
To wrap up, remember to nourish your Heart with bitter greens and vibrant red foods. Practise gentle, heart-opening Qi Gong moves to keep your “Shen”/Spirit noursihed and balanced. Approach your emotions with perspective and moderation, allowing your inner flame to glow steadily and warmly.
Stay connected with your heart, and let it shine with joy and compassion.
For more tips, recipes, and Qi Gong practices, sign up for a free Qi Gong class below. August will focus on Healthy Heart Practices with Qi Gong, Acupressure and Food Medicine.
Until next time, keep your heart open and your spirit bright!
Self-administered acupressure or Chinese Medicine is not a substitute for visits to qualified healthcare practitioners.
Knowing how to treat yourself and your loved ones with complimentary therapies like acupressure can be greatly beneficial and convenient. However, for serious and chronic conditions, you’ll want to visit an Shiatsu therapist / Acupuncturist or other qualified healthcare practitioner who can develop a treatment plan based on your unique medical history and combination of symptoms.
The information provided should not be considered medical advice.