One of the key elements to be healthy is to live in harmony with your natural rhythm. The acupuncture meridian most affected by whether or not you are in balance here is the triple warmer.
How do you know if you are living in harmony with your true self?
For one, you will experience little to no stress in your life. You will never feel hurried or pressed for time. Whatever work you do will flow out of you easily and effortlessly. You will know how to play, when to stop eating, when it’s time to take a rest. If you are a woman, your female cycle will come and go like clockwork. You will go to sleep easily and sleep soundly through the night without interruption.
The typical rhythm of 9 to 5 is usually set to get you to march in tune to a company clock.
I have clients whose own natural rhythm is to work two weeks a month, travel two weeks. Or work 2 hours, rest the remainder of the day. These aren’t lazy people. They have simply figured out how to live and work to their own best advantage.
I have others who do their best work around 11 p.m. They are the night owls.
Others love to rise at dawn.
If you study alchemy, a system of healing from the Middle Ages, every day of the week corresponds to a planet, and various planetary imbalances show up if you feel out of sorts on a regular basis on particular days of the week.
Monday is moon day. If you are out of balance on Mondays, you may feel slightly loony.
Tuesday is Mars day. Mars is the most physical of all the planets.
Wednesday is Mercury day. Mercury is the quickest of all the planets for the mind.
Thursday is Jupiter day. Jupiter is a planet of largesse.
Friday is Venus day. Venus is the most spiritual of all the planets and rules love and beauty.
Saturday is Saturn day. Saturn excess is the best description of over eating, over drinking or over doing anything.
If you always feel bad on Sundays, you have a sun imbalance and are prone to depression.
Every hour of every day is related to a specific acupuncture meridian.
If you always feel bad at a certain time of day, it really pays to figure out which meridian is being affected.
3 to 5 a.m. is lung time.
5 to 7 a.m. is large intestine time.
7 to 9 a.m. is stomach meridian time.
9 to 11 a.m. is spleen time.
11 a.m. to 1 p.m. is heart time.
1 to 3 p.m. is small intestine.
3 to 5 p.m. is bladder.
5 to 7 p.m. is kidney time.
7 to 9 p.m. is circulation/sex time.
9 to 11 p.m. is triple warmer time.
11 p.m. to 1 a.m. is gallbladder time.
1 to 3 a.m. is liver time.
If I have a client who always feels bad on a certain days of the week, I will look for the alchemical correlates and figure out what they need to do to be more in balance.
If I have a client who always feel bad at a particular hour of the day, I will investigate the acupuncture meridian itself and/or the organ.
You can’t be truly healthy or happy unless you are in tune with your own natural rhythm.
How can you figure out what your natural rhythm is?
Ask yourself, how do you usually run your life if you are on an extended vacation?
What time do you get up?
What time do you like to go to sleep?
What time do you prefer to eat your meals?
How many meals per day does your body thrive on?
How many hours of sleep do you really need?
Our natural rhythms are not surprisingly affected by the seasons. We can eat more carbohydrates, raw fruits and vegetables and stay up later in the summer time. During winter, we need to go to bed earlier, eat cooked foods and drink more hot fluids and get more rest in general.
Seasons of our lives have a huge effect. At 20, we may be able to pull all nighters in college and get away with it without too much kickback. Menopause causes us to slow down, get more rest and work smarter not harder. As my older clients express it, “You just can’t push any more.”
A simple way to get more in tune with your natural rhythm is to leave your curtains open at night so you can attune to moonlight. During the day, spend more time in natural sunlight. The most powerful rhythm of all is the rhythm of the earth cycling through moonlight and sunlight. That’s why people who have jobs at odd hours – say starting work at 1 a.m. and holding down the night shift – are prone to huge hormonal imbalances, overweight, fatigue and depression.
I use my hobby of knitting as a way of getting in tune with my natural rhythm. I slow down, feel my feelings and allow my thoughts to quieten.
