 By Laraine Crampton, L.Ac.
There is green and then there are other
greens. As we move through the remaining weeks of spring, which is the
Wood element season, and prepare for the transition to summer, it may be
useful to do a bit of a survey and organize the greens in our lives.
Recently, there was the ‘wearing o’ the green’ to celebrate Saint
Patrick’s Day — a happy acknowledgement that the challenges of winter
are fading and a bit of fun and laughter is good for us all. Jokes and
silliness make it difficult for even the stiffest and most rigid among
us to hang onto irritation or a critical spirit.
The natural impetus of Wood energy (invested in the Liver/Gallbladder
systems) is to push up and ahead, to reach forward, and to be ambitious
for growth and accomplishment. So, what ‘greens’ are helpful, and which
ones are not?
First, a not-so-helpful one: the green of envy. When we are busy looking
at other people’s gifts or possessions or accomplishments, we are not
paying attention to the road in front of our own life vehicle. It is
easy to crash, to run over innocent people in our pathway, or to miss
the turns we need to make. Thus, we fail to honor and follow our path
and arrive late or not at all to the remarkable destination we are meant
to have.
Daverick Leggett says in his Recipes for Self-Healing (Meridian Press,
1999) that ‘overconcern with other people’ and ‘any chronic state of
insecurity’ are related to deficiency of the Spleen (the ability to
absorb life for appropriate digestion). Consider applying a bit of
spiritual activity mimicking the herbal formula Xiao Yao San in this
case: harmonize the Liver and Spleen by cultivating inner peace and
self-acceptance to promote rich supplies of blood and smooth flow of
nutrients and energy, while releasing stiffness, rigid judgments of self
and others and bitterness. Embrace the free flow of your own work and
accomplishment, striding ahead on your own path. Instead of looking at
others as causing you headaches or drying up resources that you want to
have, consider taking a broader view and being grateful for models of
integrity and wisdom in your life.
Another type of ‘green’ is the one we hold on to, whether hoarding
actual green cash or metaphorical riches of our talents, creativity,
resources, ideas and insights. If we hoard and protect rather than
freely expressing and sharing, we become overfull and agitated or hot in
the middle, irritable, cranky, uncomfortable and cold at the extremities
—ungenerous, withholding, concerned only with warming ourselves. In this
case, why not open that internal warmth to send vision and generosity to
the Heart, as the Wood element properly does, and allow relaxation and
nourishment of others and ourselves in order to amplify our abilities
and accomplishments.
In closing, though there are many other greens to consider (list a few
for yourself while you are reading this and thinking ‘why didn’t she
mention this one?’), take a look at the too-green state of over-ambition
and over-work. There’s a well-known visual trick in which a test subject
is asked to stare steadily at a large green disk on a white page for
several moments. When you look away, you ‘see red.’ The exhaustion of
the green perceptual components in your eyes leads to a reversal and the
perception of the opposite color. All of life is interconnected. When
you work, work, work, even if striving for a great and wonderful goal,
eventually you only see red. Instead of the efforts of your work,
career, vocation nourishing your heart and those closest to your heart,
the overly-intense Yang energy of unchecked ambition disrupts and robs
what could otherwise be a nourishing flow of love. Anger, even rage, and
failure to ‘see’ accurately what is in front of you, replace
accomplishment, satisfaction, generosity and joy.
What action or internal ‘formula’ will you develop to direct your
ambition with love?
Copyright 2006 Laraine Crampton, LAc
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