NATURAL HEALTH CORNER
Joshua Singer, L.Ac.
Licensed Acupuncturist
We’ve talked about acupuncture and Chinese herbology so far in this column; another branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine is exercise. Exercise is thought of differently in China, especially historically, than we typically consider nowadays in our country.
We’re designed to use both our bodies and minds to accomplish tasks. However our culture has become less and less dependent on actually using our bodies for survival, as it has been for most of human history. Whether that was hunting, gathering, planting, or building, we depended much more our bodies to do what needing to be done to live. Partly because of technological advancement, we’ve learned how to survive in different ways, becoming more dependent on our minds. Now that we’ve created engines, plumbing, refrigeration, computers, to begin a list, most of us don’t need to walk a distance to the river, come home carrying heavy buckets, or chase after our food. In Vermont, many of us heat with wood, hunt, keep a garden, requiring physical effort at times of the year. But the general trend in our country is imbalanced in the use of our minds compared to our bodies. So we are advised to go to the gym, walk, run, ski – exercise.
Chinese Medicine is based on the understanding that any living thing has an animating force, or energy, that allows it to grow and function the way it is designed. The brain, organs, muscles, blood, cells all need that energizing force to perform their function.