What is the Cycle of Life? It’s the sentience of all nature. Unfortunately, many of us have no or little connection to this sentience where we feel at one with the natural world. We’re unprepared to live harmoniously with our natural rhythms. But traditional Chinese medicine’s (TCM's) Five Element Theory can teach you how. You'll end up loving the natural rhythms of life and excited to live it and its cycles.
Cosmic forces drive our natural rhythms and cycles. They energetically influence humans, animals and plants. These influences get the more aware person’s attention. You find yourself asking, What is the cycle of life? Truly?
What is the Cycle of Life? It’s the symbiosis of natural rhythms.
Natural rhythms coalesce to form a never-ending cycle brimming with life. Nature will not have it any other way.
These natural rhythms provide the foundation to all life and also to PHYTO5 skincare.
In an article by Dr. Daniel Glaser(1) at The Guardian, we find important supporting assertions on this topic.
His article, How Rhythms Become a Vital Part of Us,(2) offer key points answering the question, What is the cycle of life?
Whether it’s the physiological of a woman’s moon cycle or a plant’s seasonal cycle, the external world influences biology.
Cells and systems in the brain and body enforce a 24-hour sleep–wake cycle. Light-sensitive cells in the eye and elsewhere keep this cycle synced to the earth’s rotation.
Animals and plants regulate their activities on an annual cycle. They get frisky in Spring and hibernate in Winter. Intrinsic mechanisms tend towards an annual cycle. And sensors of various kinds nudge the cycle to keep track of the earth’s rotation around the sun.
It's culture, particularly religious culture, that established the seven-day cycle an organizing structure for our lives. Once something is in the external world, however, it starts to invade our biology, particularly our neurobiology.
Dr. Glaser makes two broad and relative points about how the cycle of life and natural rhythms influence us:
Along with plants and animals, the sun, moon and stars energetically affect humans too.
Our cultural habits, particularly when they repeat themselves on a regular basis, affect our biology.
Although we have no control over natural rhythms affecting our lives, we can attempt to harmonize with those natural rhythms. We can be like the adept surfer who catches the wave rather than wiping out under the wave’s overwhelming power.
What is the Cycle of Life? It’s the sentience of all nature.
Unfortunately, many of us have no or little connection to this sentience where we feel at one with the natural world. We live in an era disconnected from the roots of our original natural environment. We’re unprepared to catch the wave and live harmoniously with our natural rhythms.
My daughter gifted me two books I devoured and feel compelled to mention within this context:
The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World by David Abram(3)
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer(4)
Both written in the 80s and superbly written by very learned scientists with a poetic bent, they reveal the sentience of all nature.
They discuss the essential relationship of reciprocity between humans and nature. Such reciprocity affirms we understand natural rhythms. We can easily answer the question, What is the cycle of life?
Both authors, Abram and Kimmerer, love the Earth and lament our disconnection with it. They lament its attendant dire consequences for our culture, lives, health, and (implied) future as a species. Among the bodies of work of many others, theirs have contributed to the development of ecopsychology(5) in the 90s.
They observe we seem to choose the “splendid isolation of technology.” And it’s detrimental both to the animate world (plants, animals and humans) and the inanimate world (our planet).
I found this excellent definition of ecopsychology at soulcraft dot co:
Ecopsychology has a greater cultural project: to redefine the relationship of the natural environment to sanity in our time. Ecotherapists wish to heal the soul while engaging the whole. We wish to speak for the planet and its imperiled species. We wish to recall the long forgotten Anima Mundi and honor it in our relations and work… The planetary environment is the context for healing the soul because the two are inextricably bound by bonds that are sacred: life and consciousness. Implicit in this project is the need for a scientific paradigm that gives life and consciousness a new central status in the universe. Based upon such a paradigm, ecopsychology is more than a mere academic exercise; it is part of an ongoing and practical healing mission that recognizes and honors that the health of the individual human psyche depends upon the collective health of all the kingdoms of life on Earth.
And from John Davis, Ph.D:
The deep and enduring psychological questions—who we are, how we grow, why we suffer, how we heal—are inseparable from our relationships with the physical world. Similarly, the over-riding environmental questions—the sources of, consequences of, and solutions to environmental problems—are deeply rooted in the psyche, our images of self and nature, and our behaviors. Ecopsychology integrates ecology and psychology in responding to both sets of questions. Ecopsychology offers three insights:
1. There is a deeply bonded and reciprocal relationship between humans and nature.
2. The illusion of a separation of humans and nature leads to suffering both for the environment (as ecological devastation) and for humans (as grief, despair, and alienation).
3. Realizing the connection between humans and nature is healing for both.
What is the Cycle of Life? It’s understanding natural rhythms all the way down to how we treat our bodies and skin as their first defense.
Our company, PHYTO5, offers you skincare plus a holistic method based on the principle of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). We see skin as an integral and not isolated part of the body.
We see the body as a part of being and being the sum of physical, mental, psychological, emotional, and spiritual.
And we see the individual being as participating part in the natural rhythms of life. We all participate in the natural environment, planet, and cosmos (even if only limited to our acknowledgement and thankfulness).
In our company, we find all these considerations relevant. We found our product mission, formulation, manufacturing and application of the skincare by consumers and professionals on these considerations.
Why? Because our conscious awareness of who and what we are in relationship to others and to nature supports us to live in concert with natural rhythms. And when we do we live better on all levels.
The PHYTO5 method of skincare respects balance of the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. And through this balance we achieve wellness which essentially means we feel good in our own skin and in our hearts.
Our method respects the natural rhythms and cycles of life through TCM’s five energetic seasons and five phases of life: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. We acknowledge the movement of the heavens and celebrate the cycles of life ushered in by the equinoxes, solstices, new and full moons.
When one of the five seasons of TCM arrives, we honor the natural rhythm and cycle of life it represents. And we celebrate each season with its corresponding element.
These natural rhythms remind us to live in concert with the change in energy we feel with each season. We embrace the colors, foods, exercise practices, emotions, skin balancing, organ nourishing, fluid movement and more that each season in the cycle of life brings.
When you understand TCM’s Five Element Theory and its Phases, it leads you to love embracing the natural rhythms of life. You get more excited about life as each cycle of life arrives. And by living in concert with natural rhythms, you not only answer your question, What is the cycle of life? you love the answer and live it.
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Endnotes:
Dr. Daniel Glaser is neurologist and director of Science Gallery at King’s College, London.
“How Rhythms Become a Vital Part of US | A Neuroscientist Explains.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 14 Jan. 2018, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/14/how-rhythms-become-a-vital-part-of-us-a-neuroscientist-explains.
Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World. United Kingdom, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2012.
Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. United States, Milkweed Editions, 2013.
Ecopsychology studies the relationship between human beings and the natural world through the prism of ecological and psychological principles. The field seeks to develop and understand ways of expanding the emotional connection between individuals and the natural world, consequently assisting individuals to develop sustainable lifestyles and remedy their alienation from nature. Theodore Roszak is credited with coining the term ecopsychology in his 1992 book, The Voice of the Earth.
Image courtesy of Dimitras Vetsikas at pixabay