Thawing from the freeze state + recognizing the self-sovereignty of the Heart Shen

In Chinese, Wu is translated as a number of words. A few relevant to this series include: Five (wǔ), as in five spirits or elements, shaman (wū), and dance (wǔ), which is also symbolic in the context of the five elements/spirits.

In this series, I’ll write about the context of healing through Chinese medicine and what it means to be supporting the continuity of humanity and helping people maintain or return to their sense of being human. That’s quite a feat living in today’s sped up and fragmented world, though I hope to offer inspiration and maybe some clarity when you think about health, healing, medicine, humanity, and what you’re doing here.

For the last few months some of us have been having conversations about the aftermath and ongoing influence that the last year and a half has had on our wellbeing. Many people are thawing out from a freeze state (or are finding themselves stuck there) from the long winter that COVID 19, institutional racism, social injustices, hate crimes and violence inflicted during protests, and political unrest of 2020 coincided with and brought to the public’s attention.

Now that Mercury is retrograde (Mercury, and the Moon, are associated with the nervous system) we’re being nudged to go inward and notice any disconnects between the body and mind. Mercury’s proximity to the earth and its slower pace suggests our cerebral tendencies are withdrawn. We might even find an anchor in a sitting and forgetting meditation practice.

Are there remnants of unresolved stress or trauma lingering in the nervous system? Like the Heart Shen, Mercury is an indicator of our mind/consciousness. What previous events led to gaps in our thinking and perception? What unfinished business awaits us? These are a few reflections that beckon responses meant to be integrated around the upcoming solar eclipse in Gemini on June 10.

“Traumatic symptoms are not caused by the event itself. They arise when residual energy from the experience is not discharged from the body. This energy remains trapped in the nervous system where it can wreak havoc on our bodies and minds.” — Peter Levine

A freeze state, unlike fleeing or fighting when activated by stress or fear, elicits feelings of being stuck, immobile, stiff, heavy, cold, numb, and/or essentially frozen before the threat. It’s a pattern of holding. There’s no better or superior mode of survival in the face of threat in the animal kingdom. All is “fair” on the battlefield because winning is really about surviving. Although our choice to fight, flee, or freeze isn’t a conscious choice when our nervous system becomes activated, the survival advantages of freeze include:

An analgesic effect which minimizes pain. When/if wounded, we’re able to escape from harm/predators easier. Showing vulnerability is more likely to elicit predatory behavior from even animals of the same species if they see another animal licking its wounds.

—I think about this a lot I’m the current ethos of social media, vulnerability porn, and self-reported sea of anxiety people are reportedly swimming through. Not only is the internet and social watering hole part of our resonant field, it can be a space where we pick up other people’s fear or put ourselves in such a state by disregarding our own boundaries in an attempt to connect, make friends, get validation, release our stress, substitute therapy, or get a quick dopamine hit.

Conserve energy so that we can survive when we have little energy to keep going.

I imagine many new mothers experience this, and even more so for mothers who had their children during 2020 and early 2021.

Deterring predators because immobile prey doesn’t seem worth killing since already dead animals might be “bad meat”
It’s harder to detect immobile prey

Jupiter’s ingress into Pisces suggests many of us might be swinging strongly between sensations, emotions, and moods as we thaw and find our way back to our constitutional baseline (resting state) where organic pendulation between our various natural states of being can occur.

In the warmth of summer, many of us might imagine that our energy is free to spread out under the light. Restrictions of school, and now masks and gathering limitations, are being lifted which might lead people to optimistically think or feel we’re finally in the space of rejuvenation. Healing the nervous system does indeed come with more vitality and a sense of aliveness, but that’s after chronic stress or trauma has been resolved. To do so means discharging those threat responses, whichever that may be, and finding stability. From a Chinese medicine lens, this means moving the Qi and blood— clearing stagnation and stasis.

From both models there’s a recognition that first we need to rebuild our reserves and allow our capacity to respond to recalibrate. In the summer heat, under the yang of more daylight, there’s an inclination to scatter and squander the Qi. And as the summer heats up, there might be a feeling of restlessness, boredom, or anxiety arising. The rising yang of the season peaks on the solstice (the beginning of summer in the Gregorian calendar), and with it the brightest of sun and the smallest of shadow cast of the year. Consequent exhaustion, burnout, and irritability are a few signs pointing to out of control yang dominating and injuring the yin and this becomes more apparent in the strongest rays of the sun for people whose lifestyle or adaptations to life have cost their yin reserves.

In American culture, for example, we associate summer with letting ourselves be wild. Our energy gets dispersed quickly and there’s little to no containment, which is crucial for repair and restoration of the nervous system. This is akin to over flooding the Heart with stimulation and excitement. We don’t just do this by partying more. We do it by exhausting ourselves through work, exercise, and play. It happens in disregarding what our body actually has the capacity for in our current state. This includes exposing ourselves too much to the fire (yang) of our screened devices— our handhelds, our desktops and laptops, and our TVs. Sometimes some of these might aid as resources when we’re alone, (like TV shows that offer a sort of medicine through archetypal exposure and reflection— unpopular opinion, I know). Most often, however, it leads to imbalances.

Previously, in a Wu Woo Wednesday post about cultivating an appetite from the Heart Shen we explored what it means to read the countenance/Shen (Spirit) of a person. What somatic forms of healing, including Chinese medicine, teach us is that humans possess the capacity to heal themselves. Physicians can trust that you will find your way back to wellness with a little help.

You do it naturally. This can be inherently understood when we recognize the presence of Shen within another. Qi follows intention. Having rapport with an effective clinician offers an opportunity to learn how to listen with our heart. When we start to do this organically and automatically, we realize that coming into relationship with a physician isn’t about being saved. It’s about realizing your natural state of being and how to recalibrate into that state when you get knocked off the path. If you’re digesting well and you’re sleeping, and dreaming, your physician will trust that you’ll have an easier time getting back to your baseline. If, however you aren’t assimilating nutrients and digesting well, or if you’re not sleeping and dreaming, your blood will need to be nourished and cleaned up before more complex forms of treatment of acupuncture and herbal formulas are ready to be applied. The most fundamental aspects of being is digestion and generative health, but that won’t function well if you’re struggling to assimilate nutrients and sleep, both of which help transform the air you breathe into further nourishment.

How are you reorganizing and approaching the changes that have required adaptation? Who or what serves as your resource as you navigate the complexities of the choices in front of you? If you notice you’re craving the flow of simplicity, I’d like to kindly, respectfully, remind you that simplicity is not impossible, nor opposite, relative to your complex experience. It can very much be one in the same if you allow it to be. Attachment to the complicated is what blocks simplicity. To be complicated and complex are two different states.

If you want to appreciate more simplicity, you must have the willingness to wait. Slow down. Do not rush yourself or let others control your pace by imagining anxiety-inducing what-if scenarios about being interested in what you must do for yours and your inner circle’s well being. This is part of your resource.

When we allow ourselves to be who and what we are, without pretense, we honor and uphold the Heart Shen (Spirit). Simplicity reveals itself when you decide to live according with self sovereignty. This might feel hard at first, especially if you’re not used to being firm, confident, and outside of a current that’s constantly operating in a sense of urgency. What needs to get done will get done anyway, in the time it is supposed to... sometimes that is different than the deadlines and expectations we set. Astrology shows us that all the time.

Integration can flow and you’ll naturally manage to start assimilating your choices on the physical and spiritual level. You’ll see they’re not different at all. But you must ask yourself what does coherency look like for you?

Jupiter, especially at home in Pisces, nudges us to seek coherency. Not uniformity and standardization that insinuates we’re not experiential or that we don’t possess uniqueness. Coherent in the sense that we are supported by systems that come together and communicate naturally based on their tension and similarities.

Here are a few suggested methods of resourcing as we move closer to the solstice and more into summer:

Wake early and go to bed later (once the sun has set).
Stay hydrated! (Obvious, but water is often the simplest and most effective solution to too much heat)
Adapt your diet to reduce meat which is yang in nature and include more bitter, greens, and cooling foods (dairy ice creams create dampness which obstructs and can engender more heat or complicate heat patterns, so substitute dairy for alternatives).
Some suggested dietary adaptations include: celery, rye, wheat (which is the staple grain for the heart and soothes the spirit), romaine lettuce, mint or cucumber (add it to your water for refreshment), green tea or sheng puede (both cooling in nature), roasted barley tea (drains dampness and cools), skip fried and very oily foods as part of your appetite cultivation, and eat smaller but more frequent meals (only until satiated, not until your hunger sensation goes numb because this leads to food stagnation).
If you find yourself recovering from deficient and fatigue, this is a good time to incorporate autumn foods like pumpkin or squash into your diet.
Have your biggest meal at breakfast.
Avoid information overload! Take small bites and chew thoroughly.
Allow yourself to speak more slowly! The heart is connected to the tongue (which is another muscle we examine for diagnostic purposes) and when there’s too much heat we might speak nervously or rapidly and feed a cycle of racing thoughts and speech. Practice slowing down— even if it feels too slow.
Take short but frequent rests throughout the day at at noon time when the sun is at its peak. Continuous movement helps with the flow of Qi and blood during the period of summer.
Avoid napping at noon as this interrupts and disorganized the natural rhythm of your Qi and blood. Take 20 minute naps if you’re exhausted or need to recalibrate sleep habits.
Avoid over exerting and exercising directly under the sun.
Avoid sitting in wind or very cold blasting air when sweating.
Take short cold showers and air dry to strengthen your wei (outer) layer of Qi around the skin.
Cover the ground before you sit on it (you can’t see them, but the animistic lens of Chinese medicine recognizes that spirits live all around us and sitting in the ground in the wilderness is a good way to allow for entry of them especially if your body’s integrity is compromised).
Don’t squander your Qi with big anger (seek therapy if you have trouble managing states of upset). If you think you’re coming out of a freeze state, consider seeking a somatic based therapist, like. Somatic experiencing therapist. If you’d like to be introduced to this, clients can currently sit for mini sessions with me during their astrology readings. Be sure to mention that you’d like to try somatic experiencing in the intake form notes, on the site.

Edit: As of January 24, 2022 this entry and following entries that were part of the series called “Wu Woo Wednesday” are being left with the title following the designated category of “WWW” posts. This has been done in response to and out of respect for the word Wu and its meaning as “shaman” in the Chinese language. This post script is here to create accountability rather than to erase a poor choice and to show respect for the culture, people, medicine, and ancestors of East Asia.

Ashley OteroJune 2, 2021