2018​
YEAR OF THE WU XU DOG

Welcome to the Year of the Wu Xu Earth Dog! 

Read below to learn:
  • the overall energy of this Wu Xu Earth Dog Year
  • things to physically focus on
  • things to focus on mentally & emotionally
  • possible health impairments the Wu Xu Earth Dog energy brings with it
  • nutrition to focus on
  • ​specific energies for the 6 segments of the year
  • energies of the past years (since we opened in 2010- fun reading if you want to think about the flow of the last few years!)
2018 WuXu
Earth Dog

(Dominating Fire Master with guest Water and Damp) 
 
Overall the Dominating Fire energy is ready to pounce on anything that gets in its way, but in this particular year it is balanced by a guest Water energy that should keep it from getting too out of hand. What this means for us is that overall this year has a bit of a balancing quality to it. We are coming out of a very strong year. 2017 was very instinctual and animal. It was about working with our animal bodies, our emotional stuff, our suppressed urges and instincts, our repression. There was a strong guest Metal energy, which really asserted itself starting last summer. This was very strong and sharp, cutting. This was about equality and fairness, but also very righteous and injurious to a lot of people. But we needed that expression. That animal expression. We just can’t stay there forever. 

The drum 

This year’s energy is like a drum. There’s this image the Chinese have of a drum that starts beating at the winter solstice, when everything is at its darkest, and you just hear this faint drum beat in the distance. The sound grows a little louder and a little louder and feels a little closer and a little closer. It is calling back the light. Calling the light to ascend. And this is happening for all of us right now. This drum is starting to beat and we are all being called to ascend to a higher state of being. We need to think about what this means for us individually. 
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How to navigate

So how do we best navigate all of this? Well of course getting treatment is incredibly helpful. Acupuncture, craniosacral, bodywork--it is all designed to help guide your body through the changing environment. Mentally and emotionally, we need to focus on not getting attached to outcomes. Allow things to be. This doesn’t mean that you become passive and allow yourself to get run over. This is actually a very active way of being in the world where the focus is on strengthening your center in your Self.  Sometimes we feel like we have been "wronged" either on a small scale or on a big scale. Instead of allowing these 100 times a day that we feel "wronged" to toss us all over the place and engage our desire to fight, if we strengthen our center in our Self, we can just allow things to be. Choose your battles and fight only when absolutely necessary. This is the way that we can surf the waves instead of getting beaten and tossed around by them. It's a practice! So start with the little things and keep at it. 
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Nutrition

​Nutritionally the focus should be on incorporating bitter. The bitter flavor helps dry up dampness and move the digestion. This can help counteract the congested feelings and tendency to get stuck. You can use digestive bitters, which you can just add to some water around meals, or otherwise really embrace those bitter greens. There are a lot of foods that aren’t wildly bitter, but still help too, like artichokes and broccoli, radicchio, Brussel sprouts, chicory, grapefruit. Black and green teas. Even a little chocolate and coffee here and there, but don’t go crazy on the sugar. Dark chocolate please. As far as grains go, the Chinese always give recommendations for grains. This year the focus is on black grains and also yellow grains. Generally we don’t recommend having a lot of grains in your diet, and especially in a year where you may have some tendency to get digestively bogged down, but if you do use some grains, think black and yellow.


Six segments of year

The descriptions of these six segments are from the Huangdi Neijing, as translated by Dr. Henry Lu, which is the oldest classic of Chinese Medicine written over 2000 years ago. The "treatment focus" is added by us.

The first energy arrives Feb 4. Shaoyang beneath the earth. The weather becomes warm, grasses flourish early and warm diseases come up like hot sensations in the body, headache, vomiting and carbuncle in skin. Treatment focus: Counteract fire with bitter flavor and Water element (meditation, sleep, back bodywork).

The second energy arrives Apr 5. Yangming. The climate is extremely cool and makes people sick, grasses face cold energy. Fire is oppressed and inhibited so people suffer congestion of energy with fullness in the middle region and cold climate begins.  Treatment focus: Support Fire element with ritual, social connection, movement and exercise.

The third energy arrives June 6. Taiyan. Cold energy flows and rains fall widespread. People suffer from cold diseases with hot sensations in the internal regions, carbuncle and diarrhea, hot sensations in the heart and blurred vision and mental depression. Treatment focus: Counteract strong cold Water element with treatment and qigong, warming and moving herbs, bitter flavor.

The fourth energy arrives Aug 5th. Jueyin. The struggle between wind and dampness will take place with transformation of wind into rains to bring forth growth and transformation and maturity. People will suffer from extreme heat and scanty energy with withering of muscles and weakness of feet and dysentery containing white and red stools. Treatment focus: Use foot soaks, yoga, movement and activity to counteract dampness congestion.

The fifth energy arrives Oct 5th. Shaoyin. The yang will recur, grasses will begin to grow with the activities of transformation and maturity taking place, and people will feel relaxed and healthy. Treatment focus: Relax and create space in your life and don't fill it up! Enjoy the space.

The sixth energy arrives Dec 4th. Taiyin. The Earth element energy will be victorious, and the order of dampness will be widespread. Yin and cold energy will fill up the Extreme Void with dust and darkness covering the outskirts. People will suffer from a cold climate and when cold wind arrives, pregnancy will become very difficult. Treatment focus: Use bitter and drying herbs to counteract damp, clean up diet, no sugar, limited carbs, focus on Spleen and Stomach and moving Lungs.
Higher ground

2018 is about lifting us up to a higher state of being. It is about spiritual progress, transformation. Connecting with a calling. This is happening all over the place right now. It may not make sense in your life and it may not be convenient, but this is the time to listen to it. It may look like a career change, an inspiration, a writing project, a change in the way you act around others, a commitment to speaking your own truth. It has most likely already started showing up for you. If it hasn’t, then be on the lookout for it. Reflect a bit on what has been happening in your life recently and see if you recognize any information that may be trying to come through. 

Health tendencies

There are certain Health issues that may be more prevalent this year: Ascending to a higher state of being isn’t always the easiest work. If things get overwhelming, there’s going to be a tendency for our system to get backed up. It can be hard to digest everything. It can get our whole system stuck. The Stomach specifically may get full and stuck. The Kidneys may suffer. Abdominal pain, mental disturbances--these are all things listed in the classical Chinese texts. Mainly though, we are looking at Kidneys and Stomach and an overall tendency to having issues with the back muscles, the neck, spasms, headaches and even mutism. (Some of these symptoms may be a bit more rare.)
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Sort the seeds

There’s a lot of new information that needs to get in. If we attach ourselves too strongly to the things we want, we very easily could squeeze out new opportunities that may bring in exactly what we’ve always needed! Allow life to come to you and to move through you without much judgment about what it is or what it means. Try to keep your emotions from swinging back and forth too much. There may be a lot of tasks being put on your plate, but there’s no reason to get overwhelmed. Just sort the seeds. There’s a beautiful Greek myth about Aphrodite and Psyche, which essentially is about the evolution of consciousness. One of the tasks that Psyche has to do is to sort out this huge pile of seeds. It feels very overwhelming for her, but these ants come help and get right to work. This is the sort of mentality we need when there is a lot being asked of us. Just sort the seeds. One at a time. Just keep sorting. Eventually things will shift and open up, but we need we need to cultivate patience and the ability to surrender ourselves.
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Physical

Okay so hopefully by this point it has become clear that this year we’re going to have a tendency to get stuck. This absolutely does not need to happen, but that is the pitfall to look out for. So physically, as we move through this year, its going to be really important to keep moving. Release any inhibited energy as you start to feel it. This means walking or hiking or swimming or whatever your physical practice is. Qigong, Taiji, yoga. All of this information is wanting to get down to us and it wants to keep moving through us, but we have to keep our bodies open in order to receive it.

Previous years

2010 Geng Yin (Dominating Metal) – Cut out things we don’t need, harvest what we can, let go
2011 Xin Mao (Submissive Water) – reflection/introspection and also faced with a mirror
2012 Ren Chen (Dominating Wood) – strong rushing energy of change, breaking through restrictions
2013 Gui Si (Submissive Fire) – idea phase, new light, sparks of life and the beginnings of transformation
2014 Jia Wu (Dominating Earth) – start building a foundation, structures and containers
2015 Yi Wei (Submissive Metal) – refine the gold out of this foundation, what is most essential to take with you
2016 Bing Shen (Dominating Water) – the Unconscious comes in, introducing some of the missing pieces in our awareness, things we have been neglecting or denying flood into the consciousness.
2017 DingYou (Submissive Wood) – Direction and growth begin again, but more focused on the instinctual and animal aspects of life. Harvest what you can that is great about your viewpoints and let go of all the stuff that is blocking your ability to connect with others.