Choù Fèi 臭肺 ‘Stinking Lungs’ Relates to the experience of grief/sadness/dissapointment. Have you grieved hard? Have you watched someone else? Do you remember how their eyes changed? Do you recall the slumped, caved-in body? Being under the influence of Choù Fèi will be strongly felt in the Chest Center (Also an acupuncture point, on the sternum and level to the 4th intercostal space). This experience is the inability to accept a relationship no longer existing. This denial seperates you mentally from yourself, since you are not mentally where you are in reality. This is counter to a law of the Universe: change is the constant. Choù Fèi is a rift of spirit/form/being from circumstance because you are stuck in a time no longer existing.

In times of prolonged grief, endless sobbing and chronic despondency神 Shén will dissipate. This is why ones’ eyes will be blank, without life. Shén can be translated as ‘Heart/Mind’ It is recognized as a presence of ‘light in the eyers.’ It is the internal part of ourself which reaches externally to connect. It is interesting to look at a modern Chinese terms: most of the medical terms that include Shén relate to nervous system disorders, implying a lack of calm within the system. When there is disruption like denial of circumstance, we have left ourself behind: while the body continues on the mind is stuck and the spirit is disturbed.

In times of heavy grief and sadness I have found solace by crying, sitting beneath large trees or by a stream and with Martín Prechtel’s ‘Grief & Praise’ (Found on YouTube in 3 parts).

悲 Bēi or Sadness/Grief/Dissapointment conveys a tightening of the heart that is too strong. Lingshu ch. 8 says: “In the state of sadness one is moved at the center, there is a drying up, interruption and life is lost.” In many traditional Chinese culture there was specific clothing worn to signify mourning and a period of time allocated to lament. In the radical Bēi we see an opposition/denial/turning of back to back above the heart. Bēi signifies a length of time in which grieving has gone on too long.

How long is ‘normal?’

Who can decide?

With many traditional ways forgotten, ignored or inappropriate in today’s ‘rise and grind’ who has the luxury of time or money?

So, you can choose to allow the experiencing of grief.

Acceptance is the salve. For grief is a necessary adaptive pause surrounding any type of loss.