Chapter 137
Welcome to a new world! What are you going to do with it? What would you like to see in your most fabulous version of 2022?
I’d like to see more of my self in action – practising the things that make myself and others happier, healthier and thus wealthier, for wealth has little to do with finance.
In the practice of yoga and various other eastern modalities, we return endlessly to the fundamental way in which our existence is intertwined with that of everything else. The philosophies and sciences of the west and east are so disparate, yet as with everything else, so fundamentally connected. Air and water are as far apart as these philosophies, yet they all combine to make our world work. Air and water make our bodies, hearts and minds work. Without them, nothing works. Mni wiconi – Water is life.
What would you do if you had a headache? Would your first response be to drink a glass of water and go for a walk? Perhaps you would reach for a glass of water only if with some over-the-counter analgesic? Or maybe a more aggressive action to combat pain?
Did you realize that your pain is a vital element in your body’s communication system? If you have a headache, it’s often an indication of dehydration. Perhaps it’s triggered by stress, a side-effect of stress is also dehydration. Drink water. Water is one of the best medicines available to us. Water is a great antihistamine, it will support your natural immune system in reducing responses to external triggers for Hay Fever etc.
As our beautiful planet is largely formed from water, so are our bodies. Water helps to lubricate all our joints, as does regular exercise. That doesn’t mean exercise has to be leaping up mountains or pumping iron, a simple walk will do. Keeping our joints moving freely through good exercise and drinking enough to be well hydrated, will keep us happy and healthy for decades.
The practices of Yoga, Qi Gong and Tai Chi are all easily accessible these days, and what’s more, they are ALL doable regardless of your physical abilities. The beauty of these simple practices is that they will make you move all your body – “move your spine, your body will follow”. You do not have to be at a certain level of fitness to practice any of these techniques. There are modifications and alternatives for you, even if you are unable to stand. If you are still breathing, you can add one or more of those into your daily/weekly routine and it will help you feel better.
As we move through the winter months, levels of oxygen in our body may drop slightly. Colder temperatures reduce flexibility in our tissues, oxygen does not pass as freely through the lung-blood-heart-blood system to the body. Water is vital to provide oxygen to the body. Whaaa? That red stuff whizzing around your arteries to nourish your muscles, tendons, bones and bits? Blood is over 90% water, so drink more water and get your blood flowing.
Although water is essential for life, in Chinese Medicine the approach is somewhat different than in the west. Water is the foundation for thin fluids, but fat is the foundation for thick fluids. Western science recognizes cholesterol as the building block for all hormone synthesis in our bodies. We naturally produce cholesterol in our liver because every single cell in our body sits in a lipid (fat) membrane, thus to keep our bodies healthy we need lots of healthy fat. Consider switching to grass-fed Butter, Ghee, Coconut Oil (best for cooking), and Olive Oil (best for cold). Unsaturated fats are detrimental to human health, if you’re reading stuff that says otherwise, do more research.
For many, many years I have been an advocate of drinking hot/warm water. Drinking cold water is horrible for digestion and has been discussed as one factor in the wide-spread malnutrition in the USA (many overweight people suffer malnutrition). The iced water on the restaurant table, if you drink… it’s the equivalent of emptying a bucket of water over your lovely bonfire. A soggy stinking mess rather than a clean-burning fire. Our stomach’s digestive fire – the hydrochloric acid bath – cooks our food, ripens and softens it to continue the digestive process begun with teeth, tongue and saliva. When our biological fire is quenched with cold fluid, our digestion is depressed so much that we can’t get the energy we need from the food we consume and consequently we store that energy as fat.
If you struggle with weight, and you drink cold drinks, try drinking only warm drinks (avoid sugar of course), mostly water, for a month – see what happens. Between meals is the ideal time to take on fluids. Drinking anything immediately before or after eating is putting unnecessary pressure on the digestive system.
Diving into deeper water in the Chinese Medicine philosophy, there are 12 (twelve) different types of water with different therapeutic applications. The types range from Rain Water to Dew to Hot Spring or Sea Water. If you think that sounds a bit ‘far out’ I recommend you take a look at the famous Masaru Emoto’s experiments photographing water. An interesting look at how thoughts and words influence water and by logical extension, our selves.
Masaru began freezing and photographing water in 1994. He took pictures of natural water, then again after a prayer was said over it. Playing classical music produced well-shaped crystals but heavy metal songs produced misshapen, irregular crystals. Positive and negative words taped to the sides of jars of water, such as love and gratitude, produced beautiful, perfect crystals. Negative words produced misshapen crystals or none.
These studies show, among other things, that our words or thoughts have an effect on physical matter. (There are Quantum Physics studies that show this same thing.) We talk about our feelings a lot. What are our feelings other than contractions, expansions or movements in our watery body systems that our brains pick up and we express as feelings? Maybe it’s just the way in which we apply labels to how our water bodies are experiencing life at the time?
Whatever the case, there is no reason to get old, infirm and then die. We can get older, get more fabulous, dance like crazy, sing like madness and beauty, and then die. Sounds much more fun!
With gratitude and love,
Kat Dancer
bodymudra@gmail.com
403-931-3866 (h)
+1 415 525 2630 (c)
