Spleen Qi and Corona Virus

Today I’m mostly over-thinking it!
To be honest, I can’t help myself, my mind’s running wild like a herd of Dartmoor Ponies who have been spooked by a rocket going off!
This is not a normal state of affairs however.
It has to be said that I can generally keep my mind pretty still for long periods in a day, or at least be aware of the internal dialogue and keep it to a minimum.

Not so, since the onset of Coronavirus.

It’s all been fine, nothing more than an average Christmas Flu.
Aching muscles and shivers are pretty standard, nothing that a hot bath can’t help.
These things have a tendency to invade my chest, but the discovery of a Salt Pipe, with a few drops of Lugol’s 15% Iodine used three times a day has been amazing.
I’ve gone all in with Vitamin C and D (To bowel tolerance ) and all seems to be going well.

It’s the Mind that seems to be causing all the fuss however!

I find that sitting in Meditation is almost impossible today, the toddler is unleashed, and it wants to do anything except sit still! (Interestingly, it’s not happy to actually apply itself to anything else I find.. I’ve had to walk away and come back to this short article quite a few times already!)

Many people seem to be having a related problem of “dodgy memory” with Coronavirus.
Suddenly finding that they are not remembering to do things or not holding information well. Another aspect is rampant dreaming. The crazy stories bubbling round my head, the last few nights.

A quick check of my pulses shows that the Spleen pulse is a little out of balance with the others.
From The Five Elements system, we learn that Spleen governs the Muscles.
That’s pretty obvious, they are sore at the moment. Doing a bit of light Qigong really helps to keep them from aching too much.

Another aspect to Spleen is Overthinking. We can stand a bit of Overthinking, perhaps it’s time for your exams, you cram like crazy, you fuel yourself on sweet coffee and tonnes of biscuits. Hopefully the exams come to an end, and you relax.
It’s pretty rare that that happens these days, one of the aspects of life in the UK, is that so many of us have moved from physical labour to cerebral jobs that require you to be thinking all the time. The kind people who market all their sugary products to us, in clever psychological ways, know this and take advantage of selling us their cheapest additive (sugar) by the bag load in our daily diet!

The Spleen LOVES sweet things, but only requires them in a balance way.
The more you churn your brain, the more sugar you need to support the process, the less in balance your spleen will be..it’s a cycle.

Let’s say you aren’t a busy worker, let’s take the outmoded and old fashioned image od a House-wife. Worried about her children’s wellbeing and careers, worried about her husband’s fidelity, health and sanity, and leaning over  the back fence gossiping about the latest scandals..
This person is over-thinking life too, just in a very different way. In my broad brush-stroke, this lady is headed towards Tea and Cake with the neighbours and coffee and biscutes at the Woman’s Institute to get her sugar fix! You get the idea, we can worry and overthink in any setting, be it work, study or daily life, and they all impinge on the Speen’s ability to go about its daily jobs.

Coronavirus, seems to be fighting a battle with my muscles then.
Lots of my internal resources are engaged in this combat but also my Qi.
My energy is being focused into the physical task of fighting off the CV.

I have found it very common, originally for myself, but now for my students, that during Meditation they have a habit of nodding-off.
This signals an insufficiency of Qi to support Meditation.
(You’d think something like Meditation would require no energy, but it’s quite the opposite..)

In the case of Coronavirus, I’m discovering an insufficiency of Qi to support my meditation, that was until recently wholly there! It seems that the Qi is busy elsewhere.
When I try, there’s just not enough strength to hold it, as try I may!

The Dreaming too. There are two aspects to this, one is that the body is indeed cleaning itself and with that comes an outpouring of attached “rubbish” thoughts.
The second is that there’s not quite enough energy to sustain solid sleep leading to awareness of the maelstrom of daft images..

People who’s spleen energy is low, generally have memory problems.
The easiest shorthand is “Foggy thinking”
So if indeed the Coronavirus is taxing the Spleen, it’s little surprise that the Memory clarity should be affected.
What is called the “Yi” of the spleen governs our abilities to memorise, use applied thinking, focus or study.
Sometimes a quick glance at your tongue can tell you a lot.
In this case, bang in the centre of the tongue, is there a big crease or split? Bright red, or very pale? We can sometimes visually discover what the spleen is doing just by looking at the centre of the tongue this way..

Finally there’s plenty of Mucus and Phlegm! Sorry, but there just is! It’s a flu thing, and to be expected, but it’s all tied up with the Spleen too.

I’ve decided to do plenty of Side Bends, drink Ginger, Lemon and Honey tea and make sure my sweet tooth doesn’t get carried away!

There’s a simple side-bends film here, created by John and I for Three Monkeys..
https://youtu.be/dsSLOkCaWFI

Now I’ve given my brain “it’s head” I think I might have a wee lie down!
Hopefully my mind will feel it’s distracted me enough for today, by making me do all this thinking, and it’ll let me alone for a while – sorry you’ve had to be part of my therapy session!

Hao Le!