I find rain to be comforting and annoying at the same time. How is that possible? Maybe because instead of being at home curled up in front of a roaring fire sipping hot chocolate (or licking it off a spoon, 'cause it's so thick and tasty) and cooking meaty stews, I'm in classrooms all day with foggy
phlegm-head. Ever notice how in damp weather, your brain decides to go on strike? And then when you absolutely force it off the picket lines, it does critical thinking and computations at
the speed of a herd of turtles swimming through peanut butter. Yup. That's 'damp stagnation', as we like to call it in the world of Chinese Medicine.
Dampness is a Yin-type pathogen, which means that it is heavy and usually comes on gradually. It is the evil that, according to a brilliant teacher of mine, "can and will obstruct the qi mechanism". Which I'm sure means a whole lot to y'all. Here's what I think he means. Qi likes to move, it needs to move because the body is in a constant state of adjustment to reach relative homeostasis. Without the stasis. All the little things that constantly act to push us out of balance like the person in line behind you sneezing on the back of your neck, or eating just one piece too much of birthday cake, or looming deadlines, our beautiful bodies have to continually adjust and readjust to compensate for and keep us in a not-sick state. Movement is necessary. Which is why, when a heavy Yin pathogen like Damp comes in, Qi stagnates. The darn Damp blocks the Qi from moving. Why, you may ask? Have you ever been in Santa Cruz on a summer morning when the fog is in? It's like there's a silent grey blanket wrapped around everything. The air is perfectly still and even the sounds are muffled. Dampness. I think that might be a new curse for me.
So what prevents us from walking around in a state of foggy oblivion every time a cloud rolls by? The Spleen. Sounds funny, I know. I keep thinking of that movie, Mystery Men with Paul Reubens playing a character whose superhero name is the Spleen (said with a lisp and spit flying everywhere). But I promise you that you can't love your Spleen (the Chinese version) too much. It is completely different from the anatomical spleen (see how one is capitalized and the other not?), and is seen as being the digestive power of the body. It is in charge of moving and transforming food and water into pure nourishment, which is Qi and Blood, and then bringing that nourishment to every single cell in our bodies. The Spleen transforms and transports, and it really, really doesn't like Dampness. No surprise since it is such an engine of movement and anatomical alchemy. If the Spleen is weakened, then Dampness takes advantage of that toehold and grabs on with all the strength of its clammy little fingers. The Spleen tries to fight it, but is blinded and deafened and bound and gagged now. It's an epic battle. This is when we start to feel foggy headed, tired, maybe even a little bloated or over-full. We might not have a whole lot of an appetite. Joints may ache, muscles feel heavy, and there may even be some dreaded mucous.
How can we rescue our poor little Spleens? Well, by taking very, very good care of them to prevent any damage or weakening of their function. As my mother says, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". And how do we do that, you may very well ask? In a few simple ways:
1. Eat warm, cooked food that is nourishing and not greasy
2. Get good sleep but not too much
3. Get good exercise, but not too much
4. Limit your intake of dairy, sweets and alcohol
and the one that I think can vie for first place,
5. Eat a good (warm) breakfast
The reason for this is because the Spleen likes warmth and dryness, hates cold and damp, so we try to limit foods and environmental exposure that are energetically or physically cold and damp, while increasing things that are warm, dry and strongly aromatic because that can punch through the haze of dampness like sun drying up a puddle. Dairy, sweets and alcohol, as well as food right out of the fridge and raw food, all have a cold, damp energy which injures the Spleen. And that is what we are trying to avoid. Breakfast is important because it is the first meal of the day, it primes our digestive system and sets the level at which it functions for the rest of the day. We want to eat warm, nourishing food for breakfast not only because that wakes up our Spleens, but because it also has the potential for keeping us off of the insulin rollercoaster that is caused when we don't eat breakfast or eat something sugary and quick burning. Like pancakes or muffins or cold cereal. All of those foods spike insulin levels very quickly. When that happens, the body says whoops, that's a wee bit too much, and insulin levels drop just as quickly. All those sugars leave the bloodstream and go into our cells and suddenly we're hungry again an hour after eating.
What has been found is that if we start our day with this kind of spike and drop in insulin, it is really likely that the rollercoaster will continue throughout the day. The problem is that too much insulin (like the kind we get from spikes that repeat throughout an entire day) can over time cause our cells to develop resistance, which in turn, can lead to metabolic disorders such as type II diabetes. Don't take my word on this, but do some research on your own. There is a lot of good info out there on metabolic disorders and insulin resistance.
What constitutes a good breakfast? Something warm. Something that has protein in it to keep your insulin down and give you good energy throughout the day. If it is a cereal, then think about whole grain cereals. It should be something that tastes good to you. I'll post some of my favorite breakfasts a little bit later. For now, I need to go rest my foggy head.
No comments:
Post a Comment