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Chinese Medicine Makes the Perfect Mind and Body Connection

Everyone knows that in Chinese medicine the body and the mind are intricately connected and in many ways not separable. Yet did you also know that the myth which claims illness is a direct result of mind-made decisions - whether this is done consciously or subconsciously - and that is commonly popularized by the New Age movement and erroneously believed to stem from Chinese medicine is, in fact, not at all related to this discipline? As a matter of fact, Chinese medicine strongly disagrees with the notion that all illness begins in the mind!

On the contrary, Chinese medicine makes the perfect mind and body connection by showcasing that there truly is not distinguishing the mind from the body, instead, they are one and the same entity, albeit imbued with different functions. This school of thought is showcased in the Chinese belief that the mind is not one centrally located unit but instead is divided into a five separate but interconnected centers, all of which are located in differently bodily locations. This leads practitioners of Chinese medicine to believe that the mind affects the body in the same way that the body may affect the mind, making it hard to pinpoint the cause and effect in the case of illness.

Understanding the five fold aspect of the mind and body connection, take a closer look:

1. The portion of the mind which separates the sentient human being from an instinct ruled animal is the controlling awareness. This awareness is placed in the heart of the person and thus if the heart stops, the ability to be a sentient human stops as well.

2. The will is closely related to the awareness portion of the mind. It urges on the latter to continue its life and thus keep the heart beating. Even so, it is located in the kidneys.

3. The soul of the body - as opposed to the soul of the spirit - may be found in the lungs. At death, this portion is expelled.

4. The soul of the spirit, the divine component present in each and every human being, is seated in the person's liver.

5. Last but not least is the portion of the mind which is related to learning, intelligence, and also memorization. It is found in the spleen.

Thus when a practitioner of Chinese medicine is consulted because a person is noticing that her or his memory has begun to slip, the first course of action will usually be a closer examination of the spleen to ascertain if the life force is forcefully flowing through this area or if there is a hindrance. Conversely, if a person becomes subject to fainting spells and dizziness, the odds are good that the healer will pay attention to the heart and also the lungs. At times it is a combination of systems that will be examined in the hopes of ruling out those which may be declared healthy as being at issue. Even though to Westerners this may be an odd approach, centuries of practice bear out that there have been quite a bit of success associated with this methodology.