Being invited to submit an article on the theme of ‘Loving Now’ my first thought was to write about the heart, as it is in traditional Chinese medicine; the emperor of the organs, the seat of the soul and the transmitter of love. I was going to write about the chi-cycle time of the heart, the magical two hours between 11am and 1pm each day when you have an audience with the emperor, when you are closest to your soul and to your purpose. This is the time of the Fire element, when you can fan the flames of your love and spread this to your partner. But traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is nothing if not practical and successful relationships are about much more than the heart. A healthy sex life is considered essential as well and this means a compatible sex drive is important. If you are in a relationship with someone that you love but you have a mismatched sex drive it doesn’t matter what your heart is up to, you are heading for an emotional challenge. Our sex drive is connected to our kidneys not our heart. So really on the topic of Loving Now I should be writing a long, poetic essay about kidneys, but it just doesn’t sound romantic. If you mention ‘kidneys’ people tend to think of a dish you can order in a restaurant, and one that no one really likes. But in a good relationship our kidneys play just as an important role as our heart does. They store our life force, known as jing and this is directly connected to our sex life. But our kidneys are also ‘the mother of yin and yang’ and in TCM everything is about yin and yang including sex and relationships, so this is the angle I’m going to explore the idea of Loving Now from.

Continue reading ‘YIN & YANG & SEX & RELATIONSHIPS’