"Our tears are the waters of the ocean.
Our wombs are filled with this same water.
This water forms crystals when spoken to softly.
How are you speaking?"
This concept that water is mutable and reflective echoes throughout Taoism and Traditional Chinese Medicine TCM, and many other indigenous healing systems. Water can take any form, any pathway, and span any time.
This is an intriguing thought because what are we, if not water?
Babies in utero are 95% water, and adult humans are about 60-80% water, which is the same ratio of water to land on mother earth’s surface. Our brains and hearts are 70% water. Our plasma is 90% water. So if we are mostly water, how changeable and mutable are we really? How changeable are our bodies, thoughts, beliefs, and the sense of what is possible for us?
Water corresponds to the yin aspect of the body, and yin corresponds with how much creative, unconscious, and receptive energy we have to work with. Yin energy can be damaged by perfectionism, low-self esteem, or lack of unconditional love. Likewise, these experiences continually damage our health. So many of us are dried out from these years of pandemic living, from hyper-vigilance, fear and loss. And most likely, our yin damage goes back further to our birth, childhood, abuse, or abandonment issues.
Acknowledging the yin deficiency (or trauma and depletion) is essential to healing, but it is only the first step on the healing journey. From here, our creative and resilient yin waters have to form new pathways through the forest.
If we keep telling ourselves that we are wounded/lacking/not good enough, then our waters reflect that mantra back to us. Water remembers, listens, and responds. But a river that has broken through the dam sings a new song of victory and joy.
What would happen if we honored the waters of our bodies?
I believe that the rest of who we are would also create a new pathway and sing a new song of triumph and joy, reflecting the truth of who we really are.
Winter is the time for rest, drinking water and herbal tea, eating soups, practicing gentle Qigong for winter, and turning inward. As I take a sip of water from my water bottle or tea cup, I whisper to the water, “I love you.”
We are what we eat, think, and drink.
What are you whispering to the water?
This winter, may your yin waters be blessed, and may you receive what you need from the sacred waters.
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