Tending the Heart Spirit: 3 Part Series
I am not inherently romantic by nature, which is probably why Valentine’s day has never meant all that much to me, but my kids are excited for it, hence the topic du jour.
When I think of Valentine’s day, the first image that comes to mind is that of a heart, specifically a candy heart with a sweet message.
When I listen to the stories of my patients and those of their hearts, the messages often are not so sweet. Many of the stories tell tales of suffering, trauma, loss, pain, fear, longing, and hurt.
It is evident is that everyone is carrying A LOT more than love in their hearts.
I don’t treat cardiovascular issues, aside from the occasional regulation of blood pressure. The issues of the heart that I most often treat and see are those which are an imbalance of the metaphysical aspects of the heart.
Over the next couple of weeks, I will share TCM concepts of the Heart (capital H means we are talking about the Heart of TCM) so that you may take this wisdom and have a deeper understanding of how critical it is to tend to your Heart.
I will break down complex ideas and hopefully make things a little more digestible as you gain new knowledge and perspective about the function of the Heart.
The heart is far more than just a pump!
When talking about the emotional and metaphysical concepts of TCM, a good place to start is the theory of the Shen.
There are a few contexts and differentiations of this one word. Shen can be a noun, an adjective, or a verb.
It can be translated as: mind, spirit, consciousness, vitality, expression, soul, and energy.
As a practitioner of TCM, there are many ways I can determine whether a patient is thriving or not. My first clue is through observation.
What I am observing is the spirit or the Shen, reflected back at me through the voice, the skin or complexion, the eyes, the hair, the movement of the body, the pulse.
The word Shen indicates an undefinable and subtle quality of “life”, “flourishing”, “luster” or “glitter” which may be observed in the health of a person.
Shen has a functionality, beyond the undefinable and subtle qualities of life.
Shen is the capacity for self awareness. Shen allows the individual to be conscious of his/her self. Shen permits the cohesion of various parts of our psyche and emotions, and allows us to feel and assess them.
Shen allows us to perceive, feel and sense; it is responsible for thinking, cognition, memory, intelligence, wisdom and ideas.
Shen gives us the capacity for insight, the sense of Self, and the ability to relate with others.
Shen is the capacity for all of these things, however, it is not the outcomes.
Consider for a moment, all of these functions I listed that the Shen is responsible for. Then consider how, over the course of a lifetime, repeated injuries to the Shen might manifest as disturbances to our psyche, our senses, our thoughts, cognition, memory and even our ability to be in relationship.
Once we are able to decode imbalances of the Shen through signs and symptoms of the physical, mental and emotional, we can begin to heal the woes of our Hearts.
That’s a lot to digest; next week, we will dive into the The 5 Mental-Spiritual Aspects of a Human Being and connect it to the spirit of the Heart.