Spring Fever: Fun with the Hun.

When I was in Philadelphia in December, I went to the Magic Gardens.

The Magic Gardens represents room after room after room of incredible mosiac...which have been a work in progress for years...

The man whose work this is has a very strong desire, a compelling need to create.

As you can see from these pictures, it almost borders on obsession (no judgement intended).

And this is Art.

This particular artist, we would say, in Traditional Chinese Medicine, has an "overactive" Hun.

Our Hun represents our creative energy, our will to succeed, our ambition.

This artist has been working on this fantastic site for years...day and night and day....

The Hun is said to be housed in our Liver. It is the part of our spirit which accounts for movement....the movement of energy in the body....and for creativity.

What we experience as the Hun is a quickening, an excitement. Now, the end of February, the first week in March, many of my patients are experiencing that sensation that the Hun is coming alive. This is really what we feel as "spring fever". The Hun is the most active in the early spring.

The part of us that appreciates a very blue sky, a flock of birds, an exuberant experience or a new idea to be developed...this is the work of the Hun in our life.

When the Hun is healthy, we have enthusiasm, zest for life -- and balance.

Now....if we find ourselves overactive, taking on too much, unable to say "no"...

we may feel we are not sleeping well, we are too "wound up"....

we may have trouble sitting still, focusing on a task...talking excessively, sometimes manic-like,

being EXTREMELY productive (even if it is a creative task)...then we may have an overactive Hun. Many Chinese herbs as well as acupuncture can help to adjust this issue. Artists, in fact, who find that they are working "obsessively" can have acupuncture and herbs to help to balance them without losing their creative "edge".

Conversely....if you are tired, depressed, cannot find any joy in life...feel worthless....

this obviously represents a Hun which needs to be strengthened....and I can help with that as well.

The rising of the Hun is one of the excitements of spring...the stirring of our connection to movement in nature once again....and yet, it is also diagnostic for practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine to see how patients will respond to the surge in spring energy -- to the surge in the Hun.

And sometimes the Fun in the Hun...is that it makes awesome Art.