Concepts of time

Concepts of Time

And just like that, it's the middle of September!   
New seasons bring forth new routines. Our perception of time morphs during seasonal changes, but I’m going to hypothesize that things might feel more blurry than usual this Fall. 

 Keeping that in mind, now is the perfect time to learn about the Chinese meridian clock.  The ancients divided 24 hours into two hour increments and then attributed those two hour windows to a different organ.  Please see below.

An organ during its allocated time is is filled with Qi (life force) and blood and its function presides over the body.  Exciting stuff! 

 Glancing through this, some of the times intuitively make sense, for example 7-9 am for stomach, that’s easy enough, breakfast time, what some refer to as the most important meal of the day.   Others are a bit more vague.  The descriptions listed on the clock are helpful to decipher, but there is an emotional component to each element that adds depth as well.  I find it interesting so included the elements and their paired emotions below.
 
*WOOD*
Liver & Gallbladder =  anger, frustration, stress
          
*FIRE* 
 Heart & Small Intestine and Pericardium & Triple Burner =
 joy  (in excess, joy can be akin to mania)
     
*EARTH*
Spleen & Stomach = worry, overthinking

*METAL*
Lung & Large Intestine =  grief, sadness

*WATER*
Kidney & Urinary Bladder =  fear

 So what does this mean for you?  When there is an overlap of symptoms and time, for example, always waking up at 3:30 am, it's interesting to look into.  The lung rules between 3- 5 am.  The emotion associated with the lungs is grief or sadness, so I ask if perhaps those emotions resonate at all.  If not, I ask the patient if they have been having issues with asthma or immunity.  It doesn't correlate all the time, but more often than you might think.    

If you are feeling slightly off or struggling with setting a routine (working from home anyone?!),  try aligning your schedule to be in sync with this clock.  Acupuncture also helps ;)