Welcome to the official podcast of the Grammy-nominated record label Metta Mindfulness Music,
Where we discuss how the ancient wisdom and neuroscience of our sound healing music can improve your health,
Well-being,
And transform your life into an inspired,
Positive experience.
I'm your host,
Pete Serdan,
And this week we are continuing our series on our album Six Healing Sounds,
Discussing the earth element from the traditional East Asian medicine practice of qigong.
You are currently listening to our music track titled Earth,
From the Six Healing Sounds album by Yuval Ron,
Which was composed in the key of C,
Utilizing the same tonal assignment as the healing sound of earth from ancient East Asian wisdom traditions,
As well as incorporating vocal recordings of the sound as well.
Activating the earth element is tied to the health of the spleen,
Reducing symptoms of appetite issues,
Indigestion,
Fatigue,
Gassiness,
Mucus congestion,
And excessive bruising,
As well as boosting concentration and study skills.
Now,
We will listen to the subsequent excerpt from a seminar given by the president and executive producer of Metta Mindfulness Music,
Dr.
Richard Gold,
Discussing the earth element,
Its impact on the spleen,
And a demonstration of breathing and stretching exercises you can practice,
Pressure point openings,
As well as dietary habits and herbal remedies to support your spleen health and boost your strength and concentration.
Moving along,
We're down to earth.
So we say in earth,
It's the spleen and the pancreas and the stomach.
As I'm speaking,
I'd like you to bring your,
Your actually physical spleen is here on the mid axillary line.
So we can put our hands towards the stomach area,
Which is here on the left side in the spleen.
We're going to send some love and down to the spleen and earth element.
It's in the key of C,
The emotions associated.
We're going to breathe in fairness,
Openness,
Compassion,
Centering,
And balance.
And we're going to let go of,
With our breath out,
We're going to let go of worry,
Anxiety,
And pity.
We're going to affirm that you are sincere,
You are faithful,
And you are loyal.
The sound we're going to make is a guttural sound of,
You want to create a vibration like in our epiglottis here.
I'm not a very good bullfrog,
But it's sort of like a bullfrog sound.
The action of the qigong is very simple,
Which is going to be almost like a acupressure technique on ourselves.
We're going to bring in our,
This is on our left side,
We're going to use our fingertips and compress into this area with our inhale.
And as we exhale,
We relax our hands and we make the healing sound.
And again,
Compressing in,
You can bring your tummy in,
Compressing,
Inhale,
And exhale.
That's our qigong for Earth.
The spleen is a broader concept than this giant lymph gland that we have anatomically.
We say that the main thing that the spleen's doing,
It's for the transformation of food and fluids into blood and energy.
It's what we call the source of all postnatal qi and blood in the body,
Which is absolutely vital for health and continuance of life.
It also has an important function with fluids in the body,
And it's the,
When the spleen is healthy,
There's going to be abundant of nutritive essence for the qi and blood.
You can see how the stomach,
Which is its paired yang organ,
Plays into this.
Emotionally,
We're going to see people that have balance in the Earth are going to be compassionate and nurturing people.
They're going to be great mediators,
Peacemakers,
And people with strong Earth are going to be the most loyal friends you're going to ever have.
The spleen helps us to concentrate,
Memorize,
Study,
And apply critical thinking skills.
This is really important.
In fact,
Some of the formulas we see are actually formulas to help students study and to be strong in their heads for school and to memorize and concentrate,
Besides all the digestive issues.
And often digestive issues are things which make studying and memorizing and critical thinking more difficult.
When the spleen is out of balance,
There's going to be loss of appetite and poor digestion.
Because we don't have adequate blood and qi,
There's going to be fatigue and tiredness.
Oftentimes it's distention and gas related to weakness in the Earth element,
Loose stools.
A phlegm accumulation is a sign of weakness of the spleen.
It can be either coughing or sinus with mucus.
The spleen rules the muscles of the body,
So there are going to be weak muscles.
The mouth is the orifice related to the spleen.
If the lips are pale and the tongue is pale,
That's a sign of the blood deficiency.
That means the spleen is not creating enough blood because it's not drawing nutrients from foods.
An important clinical sign is a tendency to bruising or spontaneous bruising.
This is a sign of spleen deficiency or Earth deficiency.
This is one of those things,
Unless it's a severe problem,
Which might be indicative of blood cancers,
Which can come back to Earth element,
But it can be an early sign if you bump yourself lightly and you get a big bruise,
That that's going to be a sign of spleen deficiency.
That's a question we ask very commonly in our intakes,
Which is probably not asked very much by your physicians.
Bleeding disorders,
Including excessive menstrual bleeding,
Are a sign of weakness of the spleen.
We can definitely nourish our spleen with our diets,
With all the organs,
But the spleen especially because it's the engine,
The furnace that's going to be transforming and transporting through the body.
Soups.
I can't emphasize how important soups are to this type of health.
In fact,
We say in physiology that our spleen turns everything into a soup so we can assimilate it.
So if it starts as a soup rather than as something raw,
It's going to be more easily digested.
And if your spleen young or the furnace of your spleen is diminished,
Our ability to transform raw foods is going to be diminished also.
Corn and rice and millet are really good grains associated with spleen health.
Carrots and carrot juice,
Certainly cooked carrots also.
Chickpeas,
Which you're going to get in hummus,
Are very good for the Earth element.
The squashes,
Especially the yellow squashes,
Are really,
Really valuable for nourishing the spleen.
The Asian pears are really nice and crunchy.
Cucumbers,
Jerusalem artichokes,
Potatoes,
And sweet potatoes.
These are all good foods to support the spleen.
And really,
These all are more,
When you have them more cooked,
They're going to be more beneficial.
A marvelous herb formula is the bourgeois yiquitang,
Which is central qi tea.
This formula dates,
It's been written up since 1249 AD.
So again,
Empirically,
This formula has been used over and over,
And it's used every day in clinics of Chinese and East Asian medicine to this very day,
This formula.
It actually is very,
Very nourishing for the Earth element.
And it has ginseng,
And atractylodes,
And astragalus.
Some of these are common knowledge now,
Even.
Dong quai,
Angelica sinensis,
Jujubees,
Which is a dried fruit,
Citrus peel,
And bupleurum and licorice.
These are all,
And ginger.
And I didn't even mention ginger as a food,
But this is really,
It's part of this formula.
This is a very,
Very classic formula.
And this can be used quite regularly,
And you don't even really have to have a lot of symptoms to gain benefit from this.
It's not too hot,
So if you run hot,
It's not going to make you too,
Too hot.
Some points to help with the spleen energy.
Number three,
Spleen three are known as supreme white.
I'll show you in a minute where it is.
It's on your foot.
Really good point for epigastric pain and abdominal pain,
Digestive issues.
And one of the main things I see myself using it for clinically is to reduce sugar cravings.
And one of the crucial emotional component of spleen disharmony,
It's not really a classic emotional problem people have.
It's just too much worry.
And eating too much sugar increases worry.
Supreme white,
Especially with moxibustion,
And also like a bourgeois yukitong herb formula,
Can actually help diminish sugar cravings.
This is very important to reduce sugar cravings in times of type 2 diabetes and metabolic disorders,
More or less getting out of control.
Here we see it.
It's on the inside of the foot.
If you look at your,
Feel down by your big toe.
If you come off your big toe towards your heel,
You're going to fall into depression,
And that's spleen three.
And we say of source point,
You can see written there.
Source points are the way we energetically get energy most directly deep into the organ.
It's the functionality of the organ itself.
It's not so much for the meridian,
The pathway,
But into the organ itself.
Spleen three.
And here's one of the wonderful great points of Chinese,
East Asian medicine,
Spleen six,
The three yin crossing.
So all three of the yin come through spleen six.
It's the yin of the leg,
The liver,
The kidneys,
And the spleen.
So with this one point,
We're able to affect the energetics of these three essential,
Highly important energies of the body.
Spleen six.
And what you see is if we put our hands just above the ankle,
Where your fourth finger will rest just behind the tibia bone on the inside of the leg,
Is where spleen six is.
And if you press there,
You're probably going to feel a certain amount of tenderness.
It's going to be tender on almost every body.
And this is a point that's used very commonly.
It can be used symptomatically to relieve menstrual cramps,
For instance,
Or in PMS.
It's good for digestive disorders,
Urinary function.
It's a very,
Very valuable point.
And it's very,
Very often used with the warming technique of Mach-Sebastian too.
So spleen six is for digestive,
Gynecological,
Urinary,
Emotional,
And sleep disorders.
So it's a very,
Very dynamic point.
