Hello Dharma Lifeways community. My name is Emilie Sheridan, and I am a licensed acupuncturist and traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, and I would love to share with you some tips that might serve to keep you moving towards your wellness goals. My training is in 5 Element Acupuncture and the basic principle of this medicine is that we are nature. What exists outside and in the seasons and the movement of life around us, also exists within, and the same patterns we see in nature play out in our lives and our bodies. The root of disharmony often comes from a disconnect from the patterns of nature.
A Journey to Holistic Wellness
Emilie Sheridan • September 1, 2024
The path to a more aligned, healthy life is a journey with no clear end and is not something to be achieved. It is a lifestyle or state of being more than it is a destination. True holistic wellness is working towards balance in all aspects of our lives, taking stock of what in our life is serving us and what no longer serves us and letting it go.
Align with Nature
Take a look around outside today for just a few minutes. What are the animals doing this time of year? How long are the days? What is happening in your garden? We are already in Fall according to the Lunar calendar, and the energy of Fall is all about taking stock of the harvest, ensuring you have enough resources to get you through the long, cold winter, and beginning to move inward.
This time of year it is best to wake early, but go to bed when the sun goes down. We should be beginning our prep for Winter by ensuring we have resources to get through, and this can mean energy (ample sleep), food (harvesting our gardens), or warmth. It is a good time to strengthen those relationships in your life that bring you joy and comfort in the winter months. "Warmth" in modern terms can mean connecting to those things in life that bring fire to your soul, that inspire you and make you feel more connected to the world around you.
Find Acceptance
A great deal of disease and disharmony come from embodying the "should be's" or expectations of society that get placed on us or we place on ourselves. In 5 Element Acupuncture, we diagnose what's called a constitutional factor, which is the base element that is a person's greatest strength and greatest weakness. The elements are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water and they all correspond to seasons, Spring, Summer, Transition Times or Harvest, Fall, and Winter. Each element has core characteristics, values, attributes, and every one of us has all 5 elements in us, but one is predominant.
I see disharmony when a person is finding trouble living in alignment with their constitutional factor (CF). For example, a Wood CF who is the embodiment of the birthing energy of spring, the rapid growth, and forward movement, and planning of the coming year, has been told her whole life she is too loud, too "aggressive," too commanding. So she get's frustrated, pushes that energy inward, and later in life we see disease arise from this stagnation.
If we can see the beauty nature, we can see the beauty of nature within us. We can find compassion and acceptance for ourselves and who we are meant to be in the world.
Take 15 minutes this week to sit outside and notice each element around you. The heat of the sun, the beauty and richness of the soil, the movement of water in a stream or river, the minerals nourishing the soil, and the trees swaying in the wind strong but flexible. Can you see any of these traits in yourself?
Holistic wellness is about so much more than your physical health. All aspects of you are connected and they all impact one another. We can be the most physically fit possible, but if we only have toxic relationships in our lives, we're going to have illness. Holistic wellness means evaluating all areas, spiritual, financial, work, relationships, exercise, food we eat, time on electronics, and more. Slowing bringing each one more and more into alignment with who we are and our values, is how we find true wellness.
Everyone's journey to wellness will look different and that is the beauty of the journey. It won't be linear. You will have ups and downs. But as long as you come back to yourself you are on the right path.
Be gentle with yourself.
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