Traditional Chinese Medicine

the most difficult side of learning traditional chinese medicine 'TCM' is getting to grips with the oriental concept of self, as it applies to the rules of nature...
according to modern interpretations of TCM, which dates its conception back to the time of the 'I-Ching' and 'The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine' (many moons before even the ancient disciplines of Taoism and Confucianism rose out of Chinese civilisation),
there are five principal elements of human nature;
> fire, as it relates to the heart organ and the associated small intestine

> earth, the stomach and related association with spleen and pancreas

> metal, the lungs and their relationship with the colon

> water, obviously the kidneys and bladder

> wood, the liver and gall bladder

.. more about each element, its functions, diagnoses and resolution methods later

suffice to say, I'm water - lots of qi in my body looking for a path to exhaust itself, an abundance of inspiration that needs careful coordination with the other four elements in order to provide a clear avenue for the flow of creative energy, a dreamer of wonderful aptitude if my piscean tendencies are correct!

As I have become more aware of my natural self through TCM study, combined with the discipline of reiki meditation, daily martial arts practice and an increasing respect for altruistic, buddhist logic, the orient of North East Asia is beginning to make much more sense.
Consider the dialogue from 'Memoirs of a geisha',
"I can see too much water in her eyes, she will be dangerous ... all that water wanting to flow, no matter what obstacles it faces ..."

having recently spent a week travelling from Shanghai to the deepest parts of Hunan province by overnight train, accepted as an equal in the sleeping cabin company of complete Chinese strangers,
my life has changed
for once in my life, I felt the complete lack of societal expectation and its second cousin, suspicion -so pervasive in western personality,
my personality flowed with the train,
assisted, no doubt, by the constant top-up of green tea and spicy tofu offered so effortlessly

one day in a train clarified 40 years of unresolved inspiration,
now it's time to act