To enable us to learn how to know ourselves, we need history,
for the past continues to flow through us in a hundred channels.
~~ James Hillman
Greetings to all my precious people!!
The most intense Full Moon of the year occurred on Monday May 12. The Flower Full Moon coincided with the Theraveda Buddhist observation of Vesak, marking the day the Buddha was born, became enlightened and died. This celebration is always a time of joy, reflection, and intentionally practicing the Buddhist principles of compassion, tolerance, and service. Mark a reminder on your calendar, or in your journal, and return to that Flower Full Moon date in the future—taking note of the changes unfolding over the course of weeks and months. Remain curious about the shifts—and begin to search for a pattern in the events, thoughts, and choices that offers wisdom—a truth that will resonate with you.
How can we be able to discern the patterns that are all around us? We can begin by paying close attention to our body—and the infinite wisdom it shares with us. Remember this: The body speaks to us in symbols. That will be the starting point.
We live in a culture obsessed with optimization. We are constantly encouraged to spend time fixing, numbing, and erasing the parts of ourselves that feel inconvenient, overwhelming, or broken. But what if these symptoms are not dysfunctions… but dispatches? Not pathology… but poetry?
Carl Jung reminded us many years ago: “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
What if our body—through its tension, fatigue, panic, cravings, or insomnia—is actually whispering a deeper truth? Imagine that the body phenomena—those tweaks, pains, irritations, and discomforts—might possibly be mythic messages, guiding us to a place of congruence and connection.
Our symptoms are not random. They are the language of the psyche, the ancestral imprinting of protection, memory, and longing. And each one of us has a unique profile of biochemistry and lived history that contributes to the story and language of our body phenomena. Yet, we live in a world that labels discomfort as dysfunction. That tells us we must medicate our panic, shame our cravings, discipline our procrastination, and silence our grief.
What if our body is not broken—but brilliant? Trying, always, to protect us. To signal where something within is out of balance. To keep us from repeating a history our soul no longer wants to carry.
Our body is not trying to sabotage us. It is trying to save us.
These symptoms are not malfunctions.
They are mythic invitations.
Our anxiety, insomnia, overeating, chronic pain, emotional reactivity—these are not flaws. They are expressions. Of something intelligent. Ancient. Symbolic.
- Anxiety is not a weakness. It’s your body’s nervous system working overtime to keep you safe from the shadows of your past.
- Overeating might be less about hunger, and more about a deep, unmet longing for sweetness, for expression, for permission to be big, wild, and alive.
- Numbness is not failure. It may be your internal wise one, saying: You’ve held too much for too long. Let’s pause here, gently.
- Insomnia isn’t always a malfunction—it could be your soul shaking you awake in the night, asking: Can we talk now?
Somatic pioneers like Peter Levine, PhD, Stephen W. Porges, PhD, Deb Dana, Gabor Maté MD, and Bessel Van Der Kolk MD have shown us what Chinese Medicine and indigenous healing systems have always known:
- The body remembers. The body speaks. The body is wise.
- Symptoms are messengers.
- Tensions are stories.
- Pain is a threshold to meaning.
In Taoist philosophy, illness is not a punishment—it is a disharmony. A sign that the flow of Qi—the life force—has been obstructed, diverted, or forgotten. Our task is not to eradicate the symptom, but to listen. To realign. To remember.
In Chinese Medicine, the body is not just a physical vessel—it is animated and informed by Shen (spirit). But Shen is not singular. It has five unique expressions, each housed in one of the Five Zang organs. These Five Spirits represent the multidimensional human being: body, emotion, thought, memory, dream, will, and soul. They are gateways to Consciousness and Healing.
- SHEN (神) — The Mind / Spirit
- Element: Fire 🔥
- Organ: Heart
- Psycho-Spiritual Function: Consciousness, presence, insight, connection, radiance
- When Balanced: Clarity, joy, compassion, spiritual awareness
- When Disturbed: Insomnia, anxiety, mania, confusion, spiritual disconnection
- Image: The light in the eyes; the flame that animates life
- Keywords: Awareness, love, perception, soul-purpose
Reflection: Shen is the sovereign spirit, the conductor of the symphony. When Shen is rooted, the other spirits can thrive.
- HUN (魂) — The Ethereal Soul
- Element: Wood 🌳
- Organ: Liver
- Psycho-Spiritual Function: Imagination, dreams, planning, inspiration, life direction
- When Balanced: Creativity, flexibility, vision, movement toward goals
- When Disturbed: Anger, resentment, indecision, frustration, lack of purpose
- Image: The dreamer who flies at night
- Keywords: Vision, growth, soul path, transcendence
Reflection: Hun is the part of us that leaves the body during sleep to dream, receive visions, and return with soul-messages.
- PO (魄) — The Corporeal Soul
- Element: Metal 🗝️
- Organ: Lungs
- Psycho-Spiritual Function: Instincts, breath, body awareness, primal memory, grief
- When Balanced: Embodiment, presence, integrity, instinctual wisdom
- When Disturbed: Depression, unresolved grief, disconnection from body
- Image: The animal self, deeply in tune with nature
- Keywords: Somatic, breath, presence, primal truth
Reflection: Po is the soul that returns to the Earth. It governs our instinctual knowing and connection to mortality and the sacredness of form.
- YI (意) — The Intellect / Intent
- Element: Earth 🌎
- Organ: Spleen
- Psycho-Spiritual Function: Thought, focus, memory, mental clarity, intention
- When Balanced: Centered thinking, mindfulness, study, compassionate understanding
- When Disturbed: Overthinking, worry, obsessive thoughts, brain fog
- Image: The mothering mind that gathers, integrates, and digests experience
- Keywords: Nourishment, reflection, mental presence
Reflection: Yi helps us digest the world—not just food, but also ideas, emotions, and experiences.
- ZHI (志) — The Will / Drive
- Element: Water 🌊
- Organ: Kidneys
- Psycho-Spiritual Function: Willpower, ambition, determination, survival instinct
- When Balanced: Courage, endurance, deep faith in life
- When Disturbed: Fear, withdrawal, apathy, burnout
- Image: The quiet, determined root that grows through stone
- Keywords: Destiny, potential, deep inner strength
Reflection: Zhi is our ancestral will—the inner spark that keeps us going, especially in times of great fear or uncertainty.
WHAT IF, INSTEAD OF SUPPRESSING OUR SYMPTOMS, WE ASKED THEM QUESTIONS?
- What truth have I been afraid to face?
- What grief hasn’t yet had its song?
- What longing is buried beneath this behavior?
- What soul part is knocking, begging to come home?
- What risk am I avoiding because of fear, shame, or history?
The pain is not a punishment. It is the passageway.
THIS IS SACRED INITIATION.
We are being asked to come closer. To sit with what aches.
To become a fluent speaker of the soul’s symbolic language.
This is not about diagnosis.
This is about deep remembering.
We are not broken. We are becoming.
🧭 THE WAY THROUGH IS CURIOUS COMPASSION
This is not about “fixing” yourself.
It’s about meeting yourself—with reverence.
The process of healing is not linear. It is cyclical, spiral, seasonal.
As in the Natural cycles of the year, we move through darkness, descent, rebirth, and emergence.
Working with our symptoms symbolically is a sacred act.
We become not just a patient—but a pilgrim.
✨ READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP?
If this resonates, you’re not alone.
As a Chinese Medicine doctor, soul guide, and somatic coach, I help people decode the language of their symptoms—not to erase them, but to walk through the portal they open.
You do not need to stay stuck in the pattern.
You are not broken – you are becoming.
And you don’t have to make that journey alone.
🌱 Curious to go deeper?
Book a Resonance Session / Discovery Call
