Watch this video before you take your next dose of medicine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDlH9sV0lHU

In Chinese Medicine the body and mind are intimately connected. Very rarely do I see patients who aren’t suffering in both mind and body. For example, chronic pain patients usually have insomnia which eventually leads to anxiety and depression. Or patients with long-standing psychological problems create an energetic imbalance in their systems which leads to organ damage. I will explain how that works.

While Mainstream Medical philosophy has come along way toward classifying different behavior problems and offering methods to treat these problems, it has largely ignored the spiritual needs of humans and the link between mind and body. Although mainstream psychology does understand that diet, stress, and sedentary lifestyle can affect a person’s psychological state, it doesn’t take the link between mind and body much further than that.

A discussion of the treatment of mental/emotional problems is not possible without first exploring the concept of the mind the way the Chinese view it. First I’ll mention that in Mountain Stream Medicine, the brain function doesn’t have much to do with our psychological problems except in a very specific and limited way. The physiological processes that go on in the brain are the end result of what happens elsewhere in the body. That’s how we look at it. Keep in mind that Mountain Stream Medicine deals with energetic processes that precede and lay the groundwork for physiological and chemical processes.

The mind in chinese Medicine is one of three "TREASURES"- as we call them - that relate directly to your total well being. The three treasures are mind, chi energy, and vital essence. These treasures represent the bond of heaven, earth and humanity respectively. In the human body, the mind is stored in the heart, the chi energy resides in the lungs, liver, and spleen; and the vital essence is stored in the kidney.

Ancient Chinese priests believed that the mind deals with the consciousness, thought, reflection and desire; the chi energy is associated with movement, power, breath and magnetism; and the vital essence is associated with creativity, sexuality, and cellular memory. So what I’m saying is that the mind works with the vital essence and chi energy on a daily basis to create an emotionally healthy person.

Treatment would address deficiencies in one or all of the three treasures.