Working in the Navel Center
The skin is also known as “the third lung” both in the East and West and helps the lungs eliminate carbon dioxide. In the Taoist exercises of Bone Marrow breathing, one learns to draw in Chi directly through the pores of the skin. Good Metal Chi, like the Autumn air, helps one to experience clear, crisp, sharp, cool, and dry sensations and mental states. Serious and sober, it is the energy of a steady gaze and heroic determination. This is the energy one can call upon to resolve any contradiction and get the job done. Metal energy fills one with courage, purity, rectitude, solidity, sharing, generosity, and forgiveness. The negative qualities of Metal include hypocrisy, grief, sadness, depression, dishonesty, affectation, confusion, unreliability, irresponsibility, pettiness, stinginess, jealously, and resentment. e. Water Phase of Energy and the Kidneys/Bladder Water, associated with the kidneys, is the foundation energy in the body which feeds energy to all the organs. When it is abundant, the body is balanced, beautiful, and powerful. It is crucial to keep the kidneys healthy, producing this vital energy. All the organs are vital. If any one of them became dysfunctional, you could become very ill. If matched according to the vitality of the energy they can produce, the kidneys would easily be the most powerful. The Water phase is also associated with the planet Mercury, approaches from the Northern direction, and corresponds to the Winter season. The Winter is a time for gathering and conserving. External life is chilled or frozen, but life continues internally. This is the season of hibernation both for bears and humans snowbound in warm homes and cabins. Trees, seeds, animals, and people are all saving and conserving their energies until they can again welcome the Spring-the season of growth and renewal. Water means life. It is the element of birth, growth, purification, cleanliness, regeneration, and renewal. It is also the essence of the Earth. Life energy arises from the Water element. This follows most theories of evolution that portray the human being as a life form that emerged from the sea. The life that water gives also can be taken away by destructive floods or tidal waves. The kidneys store the energy passed down from our ancestors and parents. The kidneys govern all the crucial functions of life
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