In our office, we tend to spend a fair amount of time with people discussing the traditional Chinese view of health and the patterns that cause disease. This is an important part of the healing process for a number of reasons, most fundamentally because from the classical Chinese point of view, health is rooted in awareness. As one of my teachers put it, “self-awareness is the root of prevention: to know what the direction of life is and to be able to more and more constantly follow it.” In this sense, awareness is the ability to be fully present in the natural movement of our own life. This may manifest internally in our thoughts and feelings and externally in the movement of the seasons and all of the rhythmical alternations of nature.

The most important thing to understand about this is that it is truly self-awareness; awareness of your own energy, as it manifests in your energy patterns throughout the day, in how the foods that you eat affect you as an individual, and in the way that you alternate rest and activity throughout the day. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you understand someone else’s energy, or what works for them. All that matters is that you understand what works for you.

If for example, you have good focused energy at 11:00 am and feel scattered at 4:00pm, you can plan your most demanding activity for the morning and you will be able to use less energy and accomplish more in the same amount of time. Of course, someone else may have the opposite energy pattern, and they should do the focused work in the afternoon. Neither one is better than the other, they are both simply energy patterns.

The only problem comes if we ignore our own feelings and try to follow an energy pattern that is not our own. This means that we will be forcing our energy in a way that is not natural to us. This is not only less effective but may cause an imbalance within the body if we persist in it over time.

Even if we have no choice on when we work or have other demands on us, we can still use self-awareness to regulate our activity. If we are working all day long we can still moderate how much energy we are putting into something at a specific time. This will lead to increased effectiveness and will leave us feeling healthy at the end of the day rather than exhausted.

In a simple and practical way then, using awareness we can remain more and more in the reality of our own life.

Chinese Medicinal Herbs, an organic farm and nursery is seeking intern applications for the 2006 season. Join in with a few others for this unique opportunity to work with educator and leading edge grower Peg Schafer. Located in the beautiful coastal hills 15 minutes west of Petaluma or 1 hour north of San Francisco. The ideal applicant has some knowledge of Chinese herbs and is seeking to deepen that relationship through their cultivation from seed to harvest. Experience in farming or gardening is most helpful. Non-monetary exchange.

March – November, 2 times a month with one time a month minimum. Saturdays 9-4, healthful and tasty vegetarian lunch served.

For more information contact Peggy Schafer, pschafer@sonic.net or (707) 765-9611. Overview of farm can be seen at http://www.growninmarin.org