Do you know the emperor?
Did you know that every season has a corresponding flavor? Summer’s flavor is bitter. It enters the channel of the Heart and can be used in herbal medicine and food to resolve imbalances.
The Heart is the yin organ of the Fire Element. It is referred to as the Emperor as it has dominion over many facets of our psychology and physiology.
Summer is the time of year when the disposition of the Heart should naturally be light and pleasant. As the Emperor, the Heart regulates many functions. We have previously covered how it rules the Shen or spirit. If the Shen is disturbed, it is made manifest in a variety of ways, some subtle, some overt.
Because the tongue is the sprout of the Heart, it governs speech. Distorted speech is a tell-tale sign of a Heart Shen imbalance. Just as Fire emits warmth, a warm personality and friendliness can be a reflection of a balanced Heart. Due to the Heart’s governance of speech, it also plays a major role in interpersonal communication skills. Rudeness, sharp language, harsh words, entitlement and disrespectfulness may in fact be a consequence of upbringing, culture or society, but it is also a dysfunction of the energy of the Heart.
A common question patients have been asking about my travels is, how did people respond to me being American?Everyone, everywhere we went, was super friendly, warm and welcoming. We were met with openness and kindness at every turn.
We were mindful to always be courteous, friendly, and conscientious of the fact that we were “guests” in someone else’s “home”. I told my daughters, who at some point started quarreling while waiting online for a ferry, “girls! please demonstrate what courteous young ladies from the US look like. Let’s not be the rude American stereotype.”
Yes, it’s true, Americans have a reputation of being rude.
Upon our arrival at La Zagara, a very quaint family-run inn along the Amalfi coast, our hosts Salvatore and Nilda greeted us with fresh-squeezed lemonade from their orchard. Under the canopy of century-old lemon trees, we made small talk and were given the lay of the land. We were charmed, to say the least. The next morning over breakfast, Salvatore commented on how incredibly friendly we were. We inquired as to whether Americans, in general, were polite. “Not really” he said, “in fact they were often rude.”
It left me wondering, how did we as a society become this way?
Scrolling the socials just yesterday, I came across a quote from Helen Mirren: “Women have got to stop being polite. If I ever had children, which I don’t, the first thing I’d teach a girl of mine is the words “f-off”. (That is her grammatical error, btw, not mine).
To be honest, I cringe.
That’s the first thing she would teach her child? Really? Maybe this is part of the problem…
I see it in real life and in viral videos online. Rude, entitled, disrespectful. The worst offenders caught on video in parking lots, coffee shops, airports, airplanes and on the street. It’s really disheartening.
Culture and society aside; what effect do these attitudes and words have on our health?
I don’t know for sure, but it makes sense that as we harden our hearts, minds, and language toward others, it pushes us out of biological and psychological balance.
It seems there is a crisis of the Heart.
Maybe we can begin to heal our Hearts by simply being kind.