Harmony With Nature:
Healing Rhythms – Human, Moon, Earth, and Sun
Sharon Montes, MD
“She’s a sun worshipper. I wouldn’t trust anything she says as a doctor.”
Neighbor’s comment after observing me do QiGong in the park.
(She didn’t know that I was actually doing a set of exercises based on the phase of moon.) Author’s note
Within days of completing my family medicine residency, I signed up for a community education class in acupressure. We learned that Qi flows through the body in different hourly rhythms. The lung chi hours are 3-5 am. (See Dr Martin Eisen’s Scientific Qi Exploration – Horary Cycle’s Qi Pathways from 3 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Part II) http://yang-sheng.com/?p=9173)
Image courtesy of Masakazu Matsumoto
After learning this I paused and integrated that knowledge with the western science view that we have an early morning dip in the hormones and neurotransmitters that affect lung function. In people predisposed towards asthma, these chemical changes lead to a high frequency of asthma exacerbations very early in the morning. I gained the vision of humans with their unique stories and symptoms as a message of imbalance. These stories can be interpreted from different frames of reference “east” or “west” but always to remember the whole human while listening to the story.
Western medicine teaches about our individual uniqueness in our genetic structure and daily variation in our hormone production, but we don’t routinely base our treatment plans on this knowledge. In order to practice medicine based on individual uniqueness and cyclic rhythms, I have had to seek information outside of standard western medical training. This column focuses on cycles that I have found useful in promoting harmony and health for myself and others.
BIORHYTHMS – Human Cycles: Physical, Emotional, Intellectual
Overview:
In addition to hourly circadian rhythms, we have daily flows in our mental, emotional, and physical energies. Each month there are days when we are more likely to have high energy or low energy in each of those realms.
These mental, emotional, and physical rhythms each have different cycle lengths. Each cycle has a certain number of days of high energy followed by the same number of days of low energy. The cycle then repeats. The physical cycle (green) lasts about 23 days, the emotional cycle (red) lasts about 28 days, and the intellectual cycle (blue) 33 days.
One of my favorite websites for checking biorhythms is www.luckchart.com. Free and easy to use, it provides both a graph that shows cycling waves for the month and an annual summary page that describes a plus/minus cycles as well as line-crossing for each day of the year. (Notes for using the website: input is birth DAY: MONTH: YEAR and the yearly summary has a different symbol describing when your line crossing mid-line is shifting from positive to negative, and describes when the rhythm is at mid-line crossing from negative to positive. I’m not sure it makes much difference.)
Source: www.luckchart.com
How to interpret your biorhythm chart:
As you look at a page that graphs your biorhythms for the month, you see a center black line with days of the month marked off. You also see wavy lines of red, blue, and green curving above and below that line.
- Above the line and below the line: In general, when your cycles are above the line – the nourishing things that you choose have greater effect and you have greater resistance to non-nourishing inputs. For example, if you choose to follow a healthy nutrition plan while your physical cycles are high, it will have greater effect and benefit. Also, if you choose to consume junk food, it will have less of a physical effect. Applying this to intellectual endeavors, times when mental and emotional rhythms are above the lines are times when you may be able to more rapidly assimilate new information and have a positive attitude in face of challenges. Conversely, when mental (blue) and emotional (red) lines are below the lines are good days to review information, and observe your emotions before acting on them.
- Double or triple crossing days: Are any days where two or three lines are crossing the neutral line at the same time or within 24 hours of each other. These double or triple crossing days are times you may experience increased irritability or slower reflexes. The theory is that it is a bit more stressful for the system to be in neutral, shifting gears, i.e. the time of changing of directions is more stressful than being above or below baseline.
- Optimal Manifesting and recharging times: As you review your yearly chart, you will notice that infrequently for periods of 3-10 days, all three rhythms are above the line or that all three rhythms are below the center line. These times during the year are propitious times for manifesting (all three lines above line at same time) or resting and recharging your batteries (all three lines are below the center line at the same time). The theory about the “manifesting” times is that these are times during the year when you have mental creativity to open to new ideas, emotional energy to add passion and juice to the ideas, and the physical energy to act on the inspiration. These propitious times for manifesting are usually proceeded or followed by a period of days in which all three rhythms are below the center line. That is the time to recharge your batteries to be prepared for or recover from the manifesting times.
Applications:
Some of the uses of this information in your life could include:
Optimizing your efficiency and efficacy in mental, physical or emotional realms – Is today the best day to climb a mountain or finish taxes?
Scheduling surgery – It might make sense to schedule elective surgery when your physical energy cycle is in the positive phase.
Looking ahead for time windows of maximum productivity and good times to rest and recharge- facilitate your ability to flow.
I was first exposed to this information in over 20 years ago and didn’t apply the information to my life. After accumulating more life experience, I now see this information is a modern application of ancient wisdom. Various world health and wisdom traditions mention similar principles and information. Western science about this subject is variable. Some studies showing effects of these biorhythms on behavior, learning, and performance. Other studies show no effects. In the decades since I first learned about this information, a variety of other rhythms have been proposed (e.g. intuition, chi, and clairvoyance.) I have stuck with the above basic three because they at least have some science looking at their existence and effects
As I have become more observant of events around me and decided to be wiser with my use of energy I have applied this information more consistently. I noticed that my mother who had her blood drawn for routine blood draw on a day that was double line crossing day, developed a vein inflammation severe enough to require an emergency room evaluation. Last year when I needed to schedule two different surgeries I paid attention to my physical biorhythm cycle. I scheduled the first surgery during the high energy part of the cycle. Beautiful recovery, I was dancing in local parade five days later. I scheduled my second surgery during the low energy portion of the cycle. Choosing that date enabled me to get the surgeon I wanted and save over $1500 because I had met insurance deductible for year. I decided that the “risk” of having surgery during low physical time was less important than having the competence of my preferred surgeon and being able to save a lot of money.
This coming year I have marked my “manifesting” times and plan to organize my schedule to take advantages of these windows during the year that may be more propitious for manifesting.
Do I stop working on creating and manifesting during other days of the year? NO
Do I release my power of will or intention to some lines on a paper ? NO
Are there other rhythms of earth, moon, sun that also affect my thinking, feeling and physical energy.. YES
© Galina Barskaya | Dreamstime.com
(I paid for this “royalty free” rights include up to 500,000 copies. Not sure how to credit it.)
Moon Cycles
Another rhythm that I have integrated into my life is focused meditation for five days each month during specific moon phases. These phases are the new, full, quarter, and two days after the last quarter (also sometimes known as the dakini moon.)
In understanding why these five days are important, let’s start with a vision of the moon’s effect on the water outside our bodies. For several, years I lived near a bay. It was amazing to watch how the whole community was tuned in to the moon cycles. The tides are reported as vital signs with the weather. The movement of water; force, waves, depth, rivers connecting with the bay, bay connecting with the ocean, are all influenced by the dance between the earth and moon. Knowing about and flowing with moon cycles is woven into life on the shore.
I am member of a group of “Planetary Partners.” Although our members live throughout North, Central, and South America, during the five moon days, we share seven minutes of focused practice. We choose to focus our free will, intention, and energy on creating a healthy peaceful planet inhabited by critical mass of humans that make wise decisions (promoted by projects such as educational computer games like NASSAAQ) and support each other in the world-service that each of us is doing. Woven with that use of free will and intention are the waves/frequencies created by the different moon phases that we can surf to carry us further.
As it relates to an individual’s choice to cultivate a quality of energy that supports higher consciousness, I see the five monthly moon days as days that create different waves. Each day offers us the opportunity to “surf” different types of consciousness. Just as different chemistry results in different emotions, then different frequencies result in different states of consciousness. While this “surfing” the waves of moon energy is really more to be experienced than explained, my verbal understanding of the qualities and gifts of each of the moon days is briefly described.
New moon – FREEDOM – time to release what no longer serves; focus on new beginnings. Make sure that our thoughts, words, and actions are in alignment with future goals. Carries us towards and supports embodiment of freedom; use the few days before new moon for inner work; reflection and goal setting for the month.
Quarter moon – BALANCE – male/female yang/yin in balance. Momentary stasis; equal forces in the space of unity; nourishing.
Full moon – GRATITUDE – celebrating, gratitude for what is, reaching out expressing ourselves in the world.
Two days after waning quarter moon (getting darker)DAKINI — My favorite…… light headed towards dark; yang moving to yin. This is a day that promotes creative intuitive work, contributing to human evolution.
The website created by David Rose http://www.moonconnection.com offers a great downloadable moon tracking program and phone apps.
Earth Seasons
The seasonal rhythms of spring to winter to spring also affect what kind of healing is best attended to at different times of the year. Given the abundance of wisdom and knowledge shared by Ellasara King in her Seasonal Harmony column http://yang-sheng.com/?p=9184 I am going to ask you to click on over to her advice for our current season.
Wishing you a lovely harmonious moment, in the presence all that is.
If you would like to receive the Moon Phase calendar for the rest of the year or learn more about the Planet Partners meditation group, please send me an email.
Sharon Montes, M.D. – practiced and taught family medicine in medical schools for 17 years. Former medical director of University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine, Dr Sharon Montes can currently be found living in Loveland, Colorado, and joyfully dancing with 10,000 things. Her email is thedancingdoc@gmail.com and her blog site is http://drsharoninfo.blogspot.com/
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