Time	Organ	Intent	Actions
5:00-7:00am	Large intestine / colon	Transform	Get up, drink water, evacuate bowels, stretch, meditate, exercise
7:00-9:00am	Stomach	Balance	Be sweet to yourself, eat breakfast, arrive, become real
9:00am-11:00am	Spleen	Develop	Act, make decisions, work hard, think, communicate, achieve
11:00am-1:00pm	Heart	Communion	Articulate vision and purpose, access your soul, spread the love
1:00pm-3:00pm	Small Intestine	Refine	Have lunch, go slow, ride the wave

Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity
– Lao-tzu

 

In Western medicine, sex is not considered an integral part of health, in Traditional Chinese Medicine though, sexual practices are considered to have a huge impact on health by affecting levels of ‘Jing’, a substance which determines your basic constitutional strength and vitality. Jing is supposed be carefully managed but there are lots of things that we do that can contribute to its decline, and consequently an earlier death, and excessive ejaculation in men is one of these.

As a holistic health counsellor, I treat many people who have had an addiction of some sort in the past. They come to see me because they want to make changes and become healthier but they often mention having to give up just one ‘last vice’ before they reach this goal. One of the most common ‘last vices’, particularly for ex-drug addicts, is cigarettes. However, I don’t believe there is a ‘last vice’ because once we start on the path to health and self-realisation and undergo daily practice of meditative techniques, we naturally constantly refine our energy fields.

My first acid trip was, I thought, a beautiful spiritual experience. It satisfied the deepest desires of my soul. I understood the ultimate goal of human existence. I felt utterly complete. It was as if a filter had been removed and all my senses could finally function at optimum level.

A lot of my clients have been to several healthcare professionals and often to rehab centres as well before seeing me. I hear from many of them that when they raise the possibility of having had spiritual experiences on drugs including LSD, ice, speed or ecstasy this is immediately dismissed. They are told that what they had were hallucinations or symptoms not spiritual experiences. I don’t agree. Speaking as both a long-term drug-user and then a spiritual seeker I think the states derived from drugs and deep spiritual practices are similar and connected. The major difference, apart from the way the state is induced, is that drug experiences decline over time whereas spiritual experiences derived from specific practices improve constantly. There is a limit to how high you can get on drugs but not on how high you can get afterwards.

From the body-mind perspective drugs feel good because they create a temporary union of body, mind and spirit. If the process of recovery does not capture this sense of union it can result in a feeling of chronic lack – as if something crucially important is missing in life. This is a major contributor to the cycle of addiction. In TCM quality of life and a sense of fulfilment is dependent on the effective functioning of the organs.

How marijuana becomes addictive

In my work I frequently treat people who feel they have become ‘addicted’ to marijuana. Most can’t understand why, as marijuana is not universally considered to be addictive – at least not in the sense that heroin, speed or painkillers can be. According to my observations in many cases it is not that the person is addicted to marijuana, but rather that over time they have progressed from using the drug recreationally to using it medicinally – to correct imbalances and mask symptoms. They feel as if they have become dependent on the drug because symptoms arise when use ceases, but disappear when it resumes. In most of these cases it is not the marijuana that’s the main problem but lifestyle.