The world is full of mystery.
In some ways this may be a wonderful thing because hope often lives in the unknown. However, most of us find comfort when we have the world categorized, contained, all in order and organized. Hope is a wild thing though; it cannot live in the halls of the past or the walls of the present. It lives in the chaos of the undiscovered future.
The human body is definitely one of those mysteries.
After thousands upon thousands of years of studying the body, using it, experiencing life through it, with eyes that see and ears that hear, we are still left grasping at straws to explain why and how things suddenly go off the rails.
Medicine has many different perspectives on the matter.
Chinese Medicine looks at the body as if were human ecology, and treats the emotions and feelings as if they were the climate. In nature, it is the relationships between things that really matter. A tree cannot exist without the soil, water, minerals and sunlight, but neither can the soil exist without the trees and the other elements. These five elements and the relationships they have with one another are one of the foundations of Chinese Medicine.
The other major organizational systems of Chinese Medicine are the twelve organs and their associated channels. Each of these organ systems are responsible for a general set of functions within the body, and exist in a defined relationship with each other.
The channels are described as a series of interconnected rivers that either start at the organ and end at the fingers and toes, or vice versa.
Disease is a manifestation of ecological changes in these river systems that change the environment of the body in a negative way.
In essence, acupuncture is the science of finding where those rivers are blocked, flooded, empty or have been diverted into another, and then the acupuncturist opens the blockage, drains the flood, fills the empty, or re-channels the diversion back into its proper river bed. It is in fact, a form of ecological restoration, and when the ecology has been brought back into proper relationship, the body begins to heal itself.
So, while the body may be somewhat mysterious, and Chinese Medicine may seem so as well, when you put them together, it is there that the idea- the hope- that one’s body may be returned to health.
Begin your journey back to health by scheduling an appointment with us at Active Living Chiropractic and Jade River Healing Arts Center. If you have any questions, give us a call at 503-718-7991.