Siouxland Magazine - Volume 5 Issue 3

Siouxland Magazine | BeComing / 42
Summer, the season of the heart, illuminates
as the culmination of our Attunement with
the Seasons series, which brings us to this
element: fire. As always, ancient medicine provides
sound guidance in embracing, understanding, and
absorbing the medicine of the heart through its
season. Kathy Jensen of Mind & Body Connection
in Sioux City sheds a vast orb of light on the many
unique herbal protocols associated with each season
in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). She explains
that the blood is the mother of chi (or qi), that vital,
life force energy carried, as a child, throughout the
body by the bloodstream. This approach paints a
unique picture of the cardiovascular system, aiding
us in nourishing and healing the physical system and
its emotions, neurology, and general energy.
Healing in Your Own Hands
By Emily Larson
Attunement with the Seasons: Play the Music of the Heart in Summer
deeper qualities of the summer season, associating
it with fire and the color red and the South direction,
from which warm winds come. This is a time of action,
as represented by the winds of the South and the fire
element. In acknowledging these deeper concepts of
the seasons and how they align with the body and the
Earth, we can find our own unique and personal ways
of attuning to the season of Summer.
One such example is music. Of course, a full seasonal
cleanse, with its many protocols and disciplines, has
deep healing qualities and provides a full hero version
of alignment with the Earthly season. However, music
provides a modern yet timeless alternative to the
alternative medicine seasonal approach, specifically,
playing musical instruments.
As a clinical herbalist and longtime student and
teacher of TCM, she stated that the season is not
simply associated with certain herbs but that the
Earthly season supports and has an affinity for certain
medicine, movement, emotions, and energy. For
example, hawthorn berries are a staple in TCM as a
heart protector. Western medicine aligns with this
finding by observing the polyphenols in hawthorn
berries, which act as antioxidants, cleansing the
blood of toxic free radicals. However, in following
ancient medicine to its great depths, we find much
more than this physiological benefit.
Sometimes, understanding and communicating the
heart can prove to be a prickly challenge laced with
miscommunication and confusion. Words like happy,
sad, or excited can name an emotion but may not do
justice to the raw expression of that emotion.
However, as Zach Pickens, lead guitarist of the Sioux
City band Port Nocturnal, states, “Everyone has a song
that makes them cry” and explains that music provides
a resource for tapping into emotions and inner human
experiences that beg for more than words as their
deliverance.
In TCM, Kathy explains
that summer is a time
to listen to the heart’s
deepest desires, connect
with what we love, and
heal with love. The heart
and the element of fire
are associated with the
emotion of purified joy
and creation, so the
summer season also
supports working with
family and intimate
relationships.
Kathy states that Native
American medicine also
acknowledges these
Whole dried hawthorne
berries can be a heart
tonic in many forms.
Pickens also provides an intuitive connection between
his musical creative process and the true expression of
the heart. “When I’m feeling something big, complex,
or difficult and can describe that sonically, it allows
me to fully feel, explore, and communicate it without
confusing words to get it out there. Talking about my
feelings doesn’t have the same effect.”
According to Pickens, this ability to manifest genuine
expression of his emotional life is further validated
when he and his bandmates, Layne Medema (bass
wizard/riff dealer) and Alex Rhymer, find themselves
in their dark basement studio. “When we jam, each of
us is allowed to play what we feel in real-time. One of
us leads while the other two paint the canvas that’s
been provided, playing to that feel, that vibe. It gives
us a chance to understand each other without having
to explain it.”