In PHYTO5’s descriptions of five element skincare products, no matter the season or element, and in most of our customer communications whether by email or blog, we very often talk about balance. For us, the word balance isn’t an arbitrarily chosen word we attach to our products. Rather, it’s a highly vital concept to be embraced if you want to understand why you have a certain skin condition or even why you may be sick or unhealthy. If you want to reverse your unpleasant conditions or poor state of health, the concept of balance must be embraced and further, it must be sought after and lived in your life every single day. The pursuit and maintenance of balance applies to not just physical health but emotional, mental and spiritual health just as importantly.
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In traditional Chinese medicine, all disease is seen as a result of imbalance or disorder in a system or a number of systems of the body. The primary target of traditional Chinese medicine, on which PHYTO5’s five element lines of skincare are based, is to support and maintain balance within the human body in order to maintain a state of wellness. PHYTO5 energetic lines are vital energy balancing because the products of each line uniquely contain proprietary blends of natural essential oils selected and combined according to the Five Element theory of traditional Chinese medicine.
Within the human body, as we know, there exist many organs and tissues all of which provide nutrients to each other by means of their interdependent relationship. A complex system of meridians or vital energy pathways connects organs and tissues all over the body in order to nourish the body with vital energy and nutrient-rich blood. This nourishing symbiosis of organs and tissues works to maintain balance between yin and yang energies, fluids, our essence and our spirit.
Chi (qi) is also called life force. It is the unseen vital energy that flows through not just all of us but through all things. It gives us life. It animates our being. It is the foundational “fluid,” according to traditional Chinese medicine, that must exist and flow correctly for total well-being.
This is why we urge everyone, no matter their skin condition, to incorporate into their skincare regimen some of the products of the Wood line of skincare because Wood products encourage the flow of vital life force throughout the body. Think of Wood as the energy of the vital energy and in that sense it is fundamental to all treatments and any skin care regimen. For that reason, the use of the Wood line should not be limited to the typical Wood conditions or to the time of energetic Spring. Clearly, without proper vital energy flow health and balance cannot occur.
Our vital energy or chi energy moves through our bodies in a flow similar to the flow of breath and blood. We keep it nourished with healthy diets, adequate sleep and exercise.
Yin and yang chi, the fundamental feminine and masculine energies, respectively, help establish the balance and harmonious flow of vital energy which is crucial to maintaining balance throughout the body.
Yang chi is protective chi and yin chi is nutritive. Disturbing the balance between yin and yang chi can result in conditions and illness.
Yin and yang are affected by each other. When yin is stronger, yang is weaker. When yang is stronger, yin becomes weaker. Maintaining balance between yin and yang creates a body in balance.
Traditional Chinese medicine has observed the human body as a holistic organic system with functionally interrelated parts influenced by the same fundamental forces that govern nature and the cosmos. It sees the human system as a microcosmic yet complete reflection of nature and the cosmos (often termed the ‘heavens’ in ancient Chinese texts).
Author Daniel Reid, a leading Western authority on traditional Chinese medicine and Taoist healing practices offers the following synopsis of states of balance or imbalance in the body system using metaphor. He pays attention here to not just telluric energies which affect our state of balance but cosmic ones as well.
“When the elemental energies within the human system remain in a natural state of dynamic balance and functional harmony, ‘fair weather’ prevails within the body and the garden of human health flourishes, both mentally and physically. But when balance is upset and aberrant energies invade the system, flood and drought, wind and rain, heat and cold, and other types of ‘stormy weather’ may occur, causing damage to the internal landscape. Because the mircrocosmic energy system of humans (ren) stands midway between the cosmic powers of ‘Heaven’ (tien) and the natural forces of Earth (di), drawing power from both sources, human health depends not only on internal energy balance within the system, but also on harmony with the macrocosmic powers of ‘Heaven’ (the cosmos) and Earth (nature).”
One of the keys of traditional Chinese preventive medicine is to detect and correct abnormal patterns in the human energy system before they have a chance to become somatically rooted in the body thereby causing potentially permanent physical damage or harm.
In traditional Chinese medicine, the occurrence of disease represents a failure in preventive healthcare that seeks to maintain or reestablish balance and harmony among the systems of the body. It is far easier to prevent sickness and maintain balance than reverse a condition or sickness once it arises, although reversing these can often be achieved.
“Before an omen arises,
It’s easy to take preventive measure…
Deal with things in their formative state;
Put things in order before they grow confused.”
Traditional Chinese medicine works to slowly but surely restore the human system to a state of equilibrium. It does this by eliminating the symptoms at their root which inevitably arise whenever human energies lose their internal balance and fall out of harmony with natural and cosmic environmental forces.
Traditional Chinese medicine also finds that as soon as normal balance and harmony have begun to be restored to an energy system, that system immediately goes to work to repair physical damage, flush toxins, replace cells and rebuild tissues. The body is imbued with a healing master plan contained in the DNA and when we begin to reestablish balance, the body innately follows that restorative master plan.
Creating internal balance in the major aspects of our being—physical, energetic, emotional, mental, spiritual—and maintaining harmony among all of these are the keys to total well-being and longevity.
“By promoting and protecting our natural balance and inherent harmony… we can just as easily prevent disease, arrest degeneration, and prolong life as we can destroy health and hasten death through ignorance and violation of the natural laws that govern life on earth. All that life really requires to accomplish the goals of health and longevity is to synchronize its enemies with the natural pulses of the planet and the rhythms of the cosmos from which life springs. Traditional Chinese medicine endeavors to facilitate this harmonic balance on all three levels of body, energy and mind with nutrition, herbs, acupuncture, massage, qi gong, meditation and other holistic methods that restore nature’s patterns to the human energy system and weave it back into its proper position in the great web of life on earth.”
The idea of finding and maintaining balance for enduring health and well-being may seem simple but then truth is always simple.
Rather than chasing after symptoms and treating the surface manifestation, traditional Chinese medicine drills down to the root cause and then goes into motion to bring alignment and harmony where chaos and disorder have been allowed to grow, often without our conscious knowing.
The more we learn to embody balance in all aspect of our lives, the more we will prevent conditions and sickness. Learning to create this balance is an enjoyable, exciting and a refreshing way to live. To learn how, continue to read our blogs and subscribe to our e-newsletters for the keys.
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Endnotes:
Stiles, Kg. Chinese Medicine Guidebook to Balance the 5 Elements and Organ Meridians with Essential Oils (Summary Book Version). N.p., Draft2Digital, 2020.
Twicken, David. I Ching Acupuncture - The Balance Method: Clinical Applications of the Ba Gua and I Ching. United Kingdom, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2011.
Zhaoguo, Li, et al. Key Concepts in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Germany, Springer Singapore, 2019.
Healthcare with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). N.p., Glittery Aurora, 2012.
Reid, Daniel. Shambhala Guide to Traditional Chinese Medicine. United Kingdom, Shambhala, 1996.
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