“In my 10 years of practice as a Chinese Medicine Doctor, if there’s one thing I’ve learnt it’s this; we are all subject to the same life stresses in varying degrees, be it health troubles, financial crisis, friendship breakdowns, family feuds and so on. Nobody is exempt. And for some reason, we have been conditioned to think that some people are ‘lucky’ that they don’t experience the same pressures as the rest of us. Guess what – it’s not the case. We are all in the same boat. We are all sharing this same planet.   It’s not that people are exempt from negativity and stress, it’s the choices that they make around their triggers that count – and all of us can be of the same practice.

To think that something magic will come along someday soon and take all of your issues away is something that might exist in fairytales but in the real world, it’s up to us individually to create our own magic. Sure some people might win the lottery or score the perfect job. Does this make them happy – not necessarily. Worry will affect the digestive system. We’re all conditioned to worry in times of hardship, and this is why we can often feel our appetite decrease or increase depending on our constitution. Understanding how emotions will impact our body allows your TCM practitioner to better treat you and move towards wellness.

From a Chinese Medicine perspective each of our organs absorb our emotions in different ways. This means that different feelings will impact the body and affect certain areas. For example, the emotion attached to the liver is anger, as is the emotion of the lung sadness. If there is residual sadness over a long period of time, one may experience chest infections or recurrent coughs for no real reason. It isn’t until the emotion is dealt with and we gain understanding of how to nurture our stresses in a positive way that the body can fully heal.

It’s so important that we ourselves get clear on where our own life’s negativity is actually coming from. Did you know that only 3% of your thoughts are actually conscious? Our brain bounds along at a million miles an hour mostly on autopilot meaning you may be totally unaware of what you’re actually thinking. This means that for the most part, 97% of our what’s going on in our brain we aren’t actually privy to. Sure it’s in the background, but it isn’t until we bring it to the front of our minds that we can actually get clear on what’s really going on in there. It also means that if you have negative thoughts on repeat in your mind, it can be infiltrating your entire life – research clearly shows us that what we think about is what we create for ourselves. If we constantly have horrible thoughts about ourselves like “I’m not good enough, I don’t have enough money and I’m fat and ugly” we will only ever find evidence of this – because that’s the very tune we are playing out in our heads – much like having a Pharrell Williams song annoyingly on repeat in your mind. We can easily find ourselves constantly focused on the very things we dislike about our lives, only to actually be continuously creating that for ourselves unknowingly.

So how do we remove the negative emotions and energy from our lives? How do we change the tune? There is actually only one person that can do this very thing – and that’s YOU! Those annoying people who consistently look like they’ve got their whole lives in order are no different to you – they’ve just worked out how to nurture their thoughts and feelings to create what they are most wanting in life and not the opposite as so many of us are.

One of the best ways of removing the negativity is to practice positive affirmations. We all find ourselves thinking nasty or unkind thoughts. It’s learning to ‘catch’ those thoughts and turn them into something fruitful rather than something that becomes toxic. So for example, when you find yourself having a ‘frumpy feeling’ day, focus on what you love about yourself rather than what you don’t. Using affirmations can be the savior. I have myself a set of affirmations on hand that I have created for these very moments when I need to change the track. An affirmation can be as simple as “I love and accept myself completely, no matter what” or “I am healthy and thriving, constantly becoming a better version of myself.” It is in those times that we feel a little low we can whip our affirmations into action and pull ourselves out of the negative mind chatter.

Simply drawing your attention to what you want to create, rather than what you don’t is the first step you can make toward removing negative energy from your life. Surrounding yourself with like-minded people, nourishing your body with a holistic approach to nutrition, movement and rest are the icing on the cake. But most of all remembering that life is a journey, rather than health being an end point can keep things lighthearted, because after all, life is for the living – wasting it on what you don’t want is nothing short of useless. Be that person you want to be. You have all the power to take charge of your one big, beautiful crazy life”.

With love,

Your Tea