The Irony of Saddness & Grief held in the Ring Fingers

​Today is all about the ring finger, our lungs, and large intestine.  If you’ve spent time in our office, you probably have heard Tait and I talking about the hierarchy of importance for food, water, and the breath.  For those of you who have yet to grace us with your presence:  I ask you three questions: 

• How long can you survive without food? 
• How long will you live without water? 
• Can you hold your breath for more than a minute? 

 
Of these three life supporting things, the breath is clearly, without a doubt, the key to existence.  Our lungs are speaking to us about relationship: how am I meeting the world?  How is my internal self relating to my external self?  How are my red blood cells working with the white ones?  How am I getting along with my partner?  How am I communicating with my team?  And anything else you can imagine having to do with relationships. 
 
The air we breathe in mingles with every aspect of our internal system.  Each breath takes approximately 20 minutes to circulate through the entire body before being released in the form of an exhalation.  In those 20 minutes, that breath is making the exchange of oxygen for carbon dioxide, and carrying a ton of impurities out of the body from literally every single cell that creates the physical self; on average humans have 37.2 trillion cells!!!  By simply breathing, we are helping our system to “take out the garbage”, we are cleaning our “house”. 
 
Here’s the really cool part: our large intestine is doing a very similar thing!  It’s deciding what gets to stay in, and what needs to be released in the form of solid waste.  Any time we let go of something (the exhale, old habits, old relationships, an old house, old ways of relating to others, digested food, etc), there will be a grieving process.  Maybe you aren’t necessarily sad about leaving that job that you didn’t like, but the change in your routine inspires the expression of grief on an energetic level. 
 
This imbalance, when left unchecked, can lead to disharmonies on the physical level.  How many of you get constipated or have diarrhea when you travel?  Energetically, the body is processing “sadness” and “grief” resulting from changes in the environment.  This doesn’t mean we are sad about being on vacation, but rather, our bodies are grieving the loss of the familiar (foods, time zones, routines, thoughts, habits, people, etc). 
 
Thankfully, we have our ring fingers to reestablish balance, and harmonize the lung and large intestine energy.  Holding the left ring finger first will clear/clean the past.  Like we discussed in the previous posts, take at least 3 nice full deep breaths (more is better), before moving on to the right ring finger (the present moment) for three more breaths.  Exhale fully.  Imagine you are wringing out a sponge, and really push it all out.  Mary Burmeister said, “We are never in disharmony because of what we lack, but because of what we have not let go of.” 
 
With love and gratitude from Exquisite Healing,
Amy & Tait