Spring forward

Photo by Mie Sato

This is a beguiling time of year.  The weather is shifting, nature is showing itself more visibly with its sprouts and color.  Yet, counter-intuitively,  people are feeling drained.  Is it the long winter catching up on the worn, winterized organism?  Or is it the incredible action of deep-seated Spring that is drawing on our reserves?

There is this expectation that more light and fairer weather will have us livelier in all ways; yet this is not always the case.  For many years now, this is the time of year I call my acupuncturist for a "tune up".  As she has described: this extremely worn-out fatigue like symptoms in humans, is due in large part to the enormous awakening of the earth below, surging forward and upward, drawing on all to do its bidding, to arrive.  When you put it that way, Wow. I guess it takes an entire planet (and all its occupants) to make a season happen.  That theory kind of puts things in perspective.  That we at the top of the food chain are not the center of the universe after all (and not at the top of the food chain when all existence is taken into consideration).  That Great Nature, whether below us or above us in planetary realms actually influences how we feel and how we are.  It's so big, it is difficult to acknowledge the relationship.

Unlike a western approach, classical Chinese medicine does not treat per the symptom.  The complete pattern and principle of reharmonizing bodily imbalance of Yin and Yang are considered. Not surprisingly, other medical paths such as original Greek medicine, Arab and Hindu Ayurvedic systems, define health and illness in relation to balance.

So, in considering the whole picture, the earth below pushing forward, birthing itself, the cosmos above taking what it needs to maintain itself and we in the middle in a mostly unknowing position of being acted upon-- how do we seek a balance? A balance of the Whole?  Our western way is to treat a single objective, our not feeling well.  These other highly developed civilizations have put together a larger spectrum approach that indicates our unwellness is related to the larger picture around us, which has to be considered when looking for balance.  Working with nature, not in isolation; how to spring forward in unity?