Greetings Dear Readers,
The vision we carry in our hearts of who we are and why we came here and what we are 
to do in this life, the vision of all of this is the domain of the Wood element, and specifically, the Liver system. Liver 1, Dadun, “Great Esteem” activates this potential within us to find the vision for our life, a guide post around which the decisions and actions of our life revolve. Without a vision we will feel lost, either in the sense of continuously switching from one plan or activity to another without ever finishing anything, and so our plans don’t quite manifest or materialize, or we may get lost is by following someone else’s vision, what others want for us or need from us rather than following our own vision.
When our own vision is 
lacking (isn’t it so much easier to follow along with someone else’s plan? Ah yes! But . . ) when we do this, at first our life may be simpler, then later on we may start to develop resentment towards whomever we feel is imposing their ways on us. And we’re back at square one. This resentment, which is a type of anger, (and all anger creates and manifests as imbalance in the Wood element), this anger can be resolved and transformed into growth through finding and connecting to our own inner vision of ourselves and feeling as though our daily actions are in congruence with our own plan.
Acupuncturist and scholar Lonny Jerrat defines self-esteem as “the ability to stand up for the vision that emerges from the depths of self” in his ground-breaking book, The Clinical Practice of Chinese Medicine. 1 This statement offers us a lot to ponder. Most modern talk about self-esteem is about seeing value in ourself, but what is this valuing based on? Are we seeing value in superficial elements or are we penetrating to the 
depths of self? Is our self-esteem coming from the depths of our being or from anothers’ voice that we have internalized such as the voices of our parents or the media or society? Are we valuable only if we perform to a certain standard imposed from someone or somewhere else? If we measure our worth based on external markers of “success” then we will experience self-worth only when we have those markers and so our self-worth will be very precarious. “From the depths of self” seems to speak to our spiritual values. Have we organized our actions, our self, our worth around a vision of what we hold as most high and true?
Liver 1, Great Esteem is the beginning of the Liver channel and may also be the beginning of our journey of finding our own personal vision.
Yours in health,
Cynthia
References:
- Jerrat, Lonny. (2003). The Clinical Practice of Chinese Medicine.
