Chinese Food Energetics – Rhiannon Griffiths

Jul 24
2018

Eclipse Season, the Wood Element + What to do When You Don’t Know What’s Next

We are in eclipse season & it’s BIG, there are three this time, when there are normally only two, & most of us are feeling it in one way or another, I know my patients certainly are, & I most definitely am right now… I have recorded you a video of a download I had late at night about what’s going on energetically for us right now, & what to do when you just don’t know what is next…

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And if you prefer to read, rather than watch or listen, then the words are below…

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I’ve been having a lot of chats in clinic about this “emotionally itchy” energy that so many of us are feeling – knowing there are big shifts & big changes happening or ABOUT to happen, but we don’t know what they are, and things aren’t moving forward, we have to wait…

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Itchy energy is Wood Element stagnation, the frustration at HAVING to sit still, HAVING to wait, not knowing what’s next, not being able to SEE what’s next, not having the Wood Element’s virtue of VISION, to have the vision of the future, to be able to see the bigger picture… There’s a reason for that old saying “you can’t see the wood for the trees” when we are unable to see the bigger picture… It’s all Wood element energy in Chinese Medicine…

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Cross, frustrated, impatient, and irritable feelings are all the domain of the Wood Element – that WANTING to shout “hurry up” to the universe, (or to the moon, or the eclipses), you want the next step to be revealed, but it’s too slow & it’s too uncomfortable to be in this “itchy”, restless energy…

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And whilst we aren’t in Spring right now (in the northern hemisphere), which is USUALLY when we might feel this kind of energy within us & around us, (as Spring is the associated season of the Wood Element) – and think about how we have to sit & wait in Winter, before we can actually SEE the growth of shoots & buds coming through the ground – and in some years, it feels like that wait for Spring is endless, it takes sooooo long that we get impatient & frustrated…

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So it’s the same energy we have here now, although in a slightly different context – and yet it’s potentially no surprise that as this eclipse energy, the bigger planetary alignments, as THEY ask us to make big changes, to grow, to expand, to EVOLVE, to ALIGN with growth, to push through the stuff that is illuminated in this eclipse season, to flow WITH whatever happens, not to resist or block things that are changing during this time of crazy big shifts – THIS is what we recognise as Wood energy in Chinese medicine… It’s about FLOW of energy – the Wood Element Organ of the Liver, ensures we have good & correct flow energy in our bodies & our lives – so if we are not in flow, we get stagnation… when we resist, we get stuck, we get stress and pain…

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And THIS is what the planetary stuff, the new moon & full moon eclipses – this season of three eclipses – THEY are asking us, or maybe even forcing us to GET into flow, to GET into alignment… To leave behind the stuff in our lives that has been creating stagnation, things we have outgrown, things that have been causing us pain, not allowing us to flow, to get OUT of sameness, out of stuckness in our lives – physically, emotionally and spiritually…

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And this is the tree, this is the Wood Element at its finest, it is growth, it is upwards & outwards movement… and this is for ALL of us right now, whatever Element type we are, not just the Wood Element type people…

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So what can we do NOW, in this weird, restless waiting time? What can we do to move this stagnant energy, if we can’t move forward yet (because we do kind of have to wait right now), or if we don’t actually know what’s next?!

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I go through breaking down the big visions and our big plans, into smaller, easier steps to reduce overwhelm, ALLOWING us and ENABLING us to move forward more EASILY, in my online Spring course, but for today focus on JUST ONE SMALL THING that you COULD do today to move forward – it can be a TINY thing, but just STARTING TO SHIFT some of the stagnant Qi, that WILL help you feel better…

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And right now it’s hard because NONE of us, including me, really know what is next for us, what the big vision or big change in our lives is going to look like… so if you can’t even take one tiny PRACTICAL step forward right now, because its too unclear, just focus on moving the stagnant Qi in your BODY and your emotions…

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Drink hot lemon water, or green tea… MOVE your body – walk, dance, do yoga, stretch – all of these MOVE Qi physically and emotionally – if you can’t do something with the BIG life stuff yet, do one of these small things to shift the Qi & get some sense of FLOW back again…

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And obviously, I must say, I am not an astrologer – I have some amazingly talented people that I consult when I need more insight – but Chinese Medicine wisdom very much has the “as above, so below” school of thought, with heavenly Qi & the importance of balancing our connection to the heavens (through the Metal Element) as well as to the earth (both the literal Earth, the ground, & the Earth Element itself)…

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And THIS is how we live a Five Element life & how we live in alignment & flow – we see what the energy of the moment NEEDS, or what it is asking us to do, and adapt or live accordingly, even when it’s challenging & “itchy” – because as long as we let go of resistance, remove stagnation & embrace flow, we have balance – and in Chinese Medicine, balance is key – balance in our bodies, our minds, our emotions & our souls…

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I hope this has been helpful & maybe gone some way to explain some of the stuff you’ve been feeling or wrestling with these past couple of weeks – let me know, & let me know if you’d like me to do more of these kinds of Element energy videos for you…

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Sending much goodness & bye for now

R xx

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If you don’t know what Element you are, download the FREE ebook here

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Learn more about the deep coaching course, “Embrace Your Element – 9 Weeks to Life Changing Self-Acceptance”

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Or check out the all seasonal wellness courses that you can access online & do at home

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Feb 26
2015

Top 10 Ways Acupuncture Helps Stress

by Rhiannon Griffiths

Lots of people know acupuncture is good for bad backs, migraines, fertility and frozen shoulders, but did you know acupuncture helps stress? Read on for the top ten ways acupuncture helps with stress:

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1. Stagnation of Qi

In Chinese Medicine we view stress as energy (or what we call Qi) that has got stuck or become stagnant in the body. This can cause emotional or physical stress, such as mood swings, irritability or tight neck and shoulders. For optimum health on all levels, the movement of Qi energy in the body, should be naturally free flowing throughout all the meridian channels or energy pathways from the top of the head to the tips of the toes. Acupuncture uses ultra fine needles, the thickness of a human hair, to actively move Qi in the channels, thereby tackling what we view as a root cause of stress.

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2. Happy Hormones

In scientific terms, acupuncture has been shown to stimulate the release of endorphins and oxytocin. Endorphins are the happy hormones that get released with exercise, and oxytocin is the calm and contented hormone, that is often associated with breastfeeding mothers. This leads to a biochemical reduction in stress levels, and is why acupuncture is so relaxing and makes patients feel so good!

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3. Talk It Out

In my treatment room, a large part of the session is spent talking to my patient, before I even think about picking up any needles. Discussing what has been going on for them emotionally, physically, at home, and at work. Not only does it help inform my choice of exactly which acupuncture points are needed for that session, but it also helps lower their stress levels with the old adage of “a problem shared is a problem halved”.

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4. Chinese Food Energetics

During an acupuncture session, your acupuncturist is likely to offer various lifestyle and dietary changes that complement your treatment. The way we view food is via the impact it has on the internal energy of the body, what properties the food has, and what it does. According to Chinese Food Energetics, or Chinese Dietary Therapy, green tea helps to move Qi in the body, making it the perfect drink to reach for when you feel your stress levels start to rise.

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5. Emotions

In Chinese Medicine, we believe our emotions can be a huge cause of illness or imbalance in our bodies – anxiety, fear, worry, frustration or anger can prevent the smooth flow of Qi energy in the body. This creates stagnation in the channels, or depletion of the body’s overall energy, ultimately causing stress levels to skyrocket. Needling different acupuncture points helps to stabilise and regulate different emotions, restoring flow, and giving emotional support to reduce stress.

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6. Relaxing & Rebalancing

Contrary to popular belief, acupuncture is not scary and painful, it is actually an incredibly relaxing experience, during which many patients actually fall asleep on the treatment couch whilst the needles are in! This makes the acupuncture session itself de-stressing, but by rebalancing the system on a deeper level, this relaxation from the clinic continues at home. In Chinese Medicine we view acupuncture as harmonising Qi within the energy pathways of the body, restoring balance, health and wellbeing.

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7. The Four Gates

The number one de-stressing point combination in acupuncture is called the “Four Gates”. It combines LI 4, found in the fleshy webbing between the thumb and forefinger, with Liv 3 on the foot, over the “knuckle” between the big toe and the second toe. This combination strongly moves the Qi in the body, calming the system physically and mentally. These can also be massaged at home as a form of acupressure to de-stress, but should be avoided during pregnancy.

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8. Energy Boost

Sometimes we can feel stressed out when we are exhausted and overwhelmed. This feels very different to the frustrated or snappy energy that we often think of with the word stress. Acupuncture can help support and nourish the body, by using points that boost up energy levels, such as St 36 just below the outer side of the knee, thereby reducing this type of stress. Eating blood-nourishing foods, as according to Chinese Food Energetics, will also help here – add beetroot, beef, spinach, eggs, apricots, figs and kale for an extra boost.

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9. Bespoke Treatment

Traditional acupuncture is a holistic practice that treats YOU as you, as an individual, as a whole person. You may have a group of people all claiming to be “stressed out”, but the acupuncture points chosen for each person might be completely different, depending on what is going on in their lives, what symptoms are present, or which of the Chinese Five Elements they are. This bespoke de-stressing is one of the key reasons acupuncture is so effective at combating stress, it’s not a one-size fits all approach.

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10. Me Time

An average acupuncture session runs between 45 minutes and 1 hour. It is your time to stop, relax, and focus purely on yourself – how often do we get that in our daily routines? Patients often say that just knowing they have acupuncture booked into their diaries is enough to help their stress levels – knowing they have a support system in place, that will help them physically and emotionally, is de-stressing in itself.

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Jan 13
2015

5 Ways to Connect with the Water Element for Winter

by Rhiannon Griffiths

This post was first published as a guest post on Aussie health blog This Is Lifeblood – it is most definitely Winter here in the Northern Hemisphere, that cold, still, watery, dark Yin time. I often write about the Water Element, as Water is my constitutional element (or CF), but Winter is the season of the Water Element, and it is important to connect in with this energy now, at its most potent, whatever your own Element is.

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1. Slow Down & Think Hibernation

The quickest way to connect with the Water Element at any time of the year, but particularly as we move into Water’s season of Winter, is to slow down! Many of us will have been super busy and outwardly sociable during the Summer, with lots of outdoor gatherings with family and friends. Winter is about stillness, coolness, darkness, hibernation – think about what nature is doing at the moment, everything is retracting inwards, seeds of potential are underneath the ground, barely a bud or leaf above soil, and animals are retreating to warm safe spaces. The Water Element will respond beautifully to increased rest in warm safe spaces! Up your commitment to quiet self-care, scale back your social commitments, and keep the Kidneys warm – no crop tops or showing your midriff! Just remember, the energy you conserve during the Winter, becomes the pot of Qi you have for the following Summer – it’s well worth topping yourself up now!

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2. Activate the Water Element Taste

Each of the Five Elements has a “taste” associated with it. Fire is bitter, Earth is sweet, Metal is pungent, Wood is sour, and Water is salty. Salt is a hot topic in health circles, and many people avoid salt at all costs. Processed table salt is not advisable, especially if you have high blood pressure, but in Chinese Medicine, we know that the Water Element and its associated organ, the Kidneys, actually NEED some salt to be supported and function correctly. Add a touch more sea salt or pink himalayan salt to your Winter cooking, or opt for something naturally salty like miso – it is warm, sweet and salty in terms of Chinese Food Energetics. It goes straight to the Water Element organ of the Kidneys, helping to activate their function of fluid control within the body.

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3. Warm the Qi with Food Energetics

As seen above, we can affect the balance in our bodies with that we eat. During Winter we need to reduce raw and cold food intake, cutting down on salads and turning to physically warm dishes like soups, stews and risottos. Apart from being warming, they also have a very “watery” aspect to them, which automatically connects in to the Water Element. Adding energetically hot spices like garlic, cayenne, chilli, ginger, or cinnamon is important in Winter as the temperatures drop down. But note, if you have a tendency to run towards being a hot person, go easy with those very heating spices, even in Winter – nourishing your Yin with rest, and gently warming with thyme, sage or rosemary should be a good balance for you.

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4. Reign in the Fear & Ramp up the Reassurance

The emotion associated with the Water Element is Fear (or conversely, complete lack of it!). This element is all about risk assessing and then reassuring. In Winter, my fear tends to crank up a few notches, as the weather gets worse with snow and ice in the UK – it is riskier to travel, there is more disruption, more uncertainty, and my Water Element has a bit of a wobble! It might not be about the weather, but notice if fear is creeping in and holding you back, this exercise may help you reign in the fear. Write down the issue you are fearful about. Then divide the page in two, with a line down the centre. On the left, write down everything you can think of that is the “worst case scenario”, what you are afraid will happen, what could go wrong, what is stopping you. Once you have really connected into the fear of that column, and exhausted all the potential options (remember, the Water Element WILL find ALL the possible risks, so to harness the positive side of this power, you need to do the same!), turn to the right hand column. You may find it helpful to switch seats or go into a different room for the right hand column – be in a different energetic space!

For each of the risks or fears you wrote down on the left, write down ONE thing that you COULD do, if indeed the worst thing were to happen. For example, it could be the idea of moving to another city is too scary for you, despite your heart knowing it is what you want to do. So in the left column you might write, “I could move away and then not have enough money to support myself”; then in the right column, one thing you COULD do if that were to happen would be “I could find a flatmate”, or “I could move back home with my folks”, or “I could be creative with coming up with new revenue streams”… whatever feels congruent and true to you – this is not a BS exercise, else your Water Element will not feel reassured enough. It must feel as true as possible.

You should find that by connecting to the Water Elements resourcefulness in coming up with contingency plans, you can prove to yourself (and your Water) that even if the worst thing happened, you WILL be ok. Give it a try, it can be really liberating to write it all down and visually see if the bad thing happened, it really wouldn’t be such a big deal – and this is coming from a Water CF girl, who does the risk assessing thing constantly!!

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5. Have Acupuncture!

And of course, having acupuncture will immediately connect us into the Water Element ready for Winter! There are specific points we call “horary points”, which have particular potency during their specific season. Don’t forget each of us has ALL of the Five Elements – Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal & Water – within us, we just tend to have ONE of the Elements that we resonate most with, or is like our default setting… (read more in my FREE ebook to see what Element you might be!)… So although this post is particularly relevant to those Water CFs (constitutional factors or constitutional Elements) amongst us, we can ALL benefit from connecting in with the Water Element in Winter.

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Aug 8
2014

What Does Going Off Coffee Have to Do With the Heart?

by Rhiannon Griffiths

A patient recently emailed me, surprised that she had gone off her beloved coffee. Having previously drunk a lot of the black stuff on a regular basis, she found she just didn’t feel like she wanted it any more. She was intrigued and wanted answers.

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From my integrated Five Element Acupuncturist perspective, it wasn’t a surprise. Each of the Five Elements – Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood – have an associated taste, as well as many other resonances, read more in my new ebook. Coffee is bitter, and bitter is linked to the Fire Element. The main Fire organ is the Heart, and in Chinese Medicine and Chinese Food Energetics, the bitter taste is said to go straight to the Heart and affect the energetics, feelings and functionings of the organ.

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Coffee Heart Five Elements Chinese Medicine

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This is why I avoid coffee, I LOVE the smell, but its affects on me and my heart are super strong. I get shaky, light headed and feel sick, like my blood pressure has dropped. I feel my heart beating like mad, skipping around with palpitations.

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For others, and maybe for you, it is different and the Heart is given some support from coffee – some boosting, a little kick in the morning of familiar warmth, of feel-good happy contented energy. But for some, a craving or too much dependence on coffee can indicate (or even create in the long term!) an imbalance in the Fire Element and it’s energy.

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The more we return to balance in the Fire Element and the heart, the less we NEED coffee. And this is what had happened to my gorgeous patient. Through work on herself, with the support of coaching and acupuncture, she had become more in touch with her Heart. She connected with her Heart, acknowledged it and really FELT into it. She was fully enjoying this Heart space she hadn’t realised she had been missing.

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So what does that have to do with coffee? The support from acupuncture and coaching had created a mindful, ACTIVE connection to the Heart space. This connected to the energy of the Heart, the nurture of the Qi (or life force) there, focusing attention there, shifting the energy there, creating a boost, a stimulation, a kick start of the Heart and the Fire Element. It therefore no longer needs to rely on the coffee and it’s bitter taste for that Heart boost or stimulation. As a result, the craving goes down, the body, mind and spirit no longer require it; it’s a sign that something internally has changed.

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Have you noticed something has changed for you recently? Have you gone off a certain food, or found yourself suddenly reaching for something that isn’t normally on your menu? It could be an indication of an internal shift, one of your Five Elements is in a changing state of balance – towards imbalance, or toward a better state of balance. Share your thoughts in the comments below and my acupuncturists brain may be able to shed some light on it for you!

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Note: original coffee cup photo from Tumblr

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Jun 7
2013

Awesome Aussies – Krys Hansen

by Rhiannon Griffiths

This is a slightly belated post this week, from a skype filming a fortnight ago with my fabulous and beautiful friend Krystal Hansen. The fourth vlog in my “Awesome Aussies” series introduces this gorgeous creature and discusses how May was her month of compassion, and how her next project focuses on making meditation easy and accessible to everyone, including a very interesting way of funding the project via community!

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Who is Krys? She is a modern yogi, an amazing yoga teacher and a holistic health coach. Krystal is another kindred spirit that I connected with first online via Instagram – I am @rg_acupuncture & Krys is @practisewellness – and on my arrival to Australia, she noticed some familiar local places in my photos!

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In Australia we met up: on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. This is where my main base was for my trip in March, as I had flown into Brisbane from the UK. We spent hours chatting in Buderim, having had green smoothies and raw tartlets at the fabulous raw vegan cafe, Ground.

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In the video below we chat about what compassion means and how it creates a ripple effect of energy outwards to everyone around us; how our gifts / vocations, be it yoga or acupuncture, or whatever our paths are, find us when we are in a dark place, and leads us out into the light, becoming our professions.

Krys explains more about her latest project – The Modern Yogi Meditation Ecourse – and the community funding behind it via Pozible, you can pledge your support there right NOW!

And we also discuss what overlaps there are between the three body types in Ayurveda and the Five Elements in Chinese Medicine – how it is ultimately about understanding the seasons, how that relates to you, understanding what you are, what you might be like when you are in balance, and what you might be like when you’re out of balance! And most importantly how these ancient concepts are SO relevant to modern day life and can help you be healthy in mind, body and spirit!

Be sure to listen to the very end to hear about the strength of the HEART energy – it’s a gem of scientific info that will blow your mind!

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IbAlstrUTs%5D

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Although the May is now gone and the month of compassion has concluded, I encourage you to look on Krystal’s instagram feed or facebook, and check out what the beautiful prompt is for the day of the month you are on NOW – it will work for the month of June too! And if you are drawn to connect in with the energy of her latest project – the method of funding and/or the actual meditation Ecourse itself – then please do visit her website or the Pozible site for more details… its going to be an EXCITING project, one I am THRILLED to be a part of! <3

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