emotions are germs too

Phlegm loves to linger after a cold welcomes it in... I'd tried so hard to resolve it on my own through my diet and behavior: no cold or raw foods, no sugar, no dairy, no alcohol - keeping up yoga, getting to bed early. In Chinese medical theory, most of those things support the Spleen, which controls the transforming and transporting of fluids in the body (and, when weak or not working efficiently, can't keep the fluids moving --> they get stuck --> e voila! Le Phlegm.).
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You know how that bottom layer of crusty, impenetrable, petrified snow sticks around long after the top layers have melted off? Stubborn beyond belief. So I went to see herbalist B. J. Wang. He's the kind of herbalist who can feel your pulse and tell you about your past injuires, current maladies and projected problems, without ever hearing a word from you. (I have an acupuncture teacher who knew just by feeling a woman's pulse that she was the mother of two girls and a boy. Yowza.) I was his first visitor that morning at his Allston clinic... sat down, put my wrists onto piles of tissue-pillows, and waited for the verdict.
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This sinus congestion, I said - I feel like I've been doing everything right but it's still not moving.
Are you thinking too much?, he said. Yes, I said.
Of course. Always the last thing I remember to change.
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In Chinese medicine, all the organs have behaviors and emotions associated with them, and rumination or worry is the Spleen's bailiwick. If you let that run rampant, it wears the Spleen out, and phlegm can be the result. Think of a little hamster running in a wheel and the wheel's job is to make water flow. Tired hamster - water backs up.
I've heard and said it a million times, but my body gave me a more cogent reminder: you can get sick from germs you can see under a microscope, and you can make yourself sick with your mind. Thinking-too-much was the pathogenic factor here.
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So the herbs he prescribed gave my Spleen a little massage and calmed my active mind and within 2 doses and less than 24 hours, the phlegm was about 85% gone. I've finished my batch, and it's 100% gone.
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You can find B. J. at his Allston clinic or online at http://eshantang.com/