Emotions Reflect On Our Face and Body

The ideal alignment of our centers of activity and modes of being occurs when the spirit takes charge directly of mind, and indirectly, through mind of the body. It is the ultimate achievement for any conscious being who subscribes to having a spiritual dimension. Human alienation stems from conditions that arise as a result of an ignorance of this cosmic reality. It is also the source of most medical problems and relational conflict. They all reflect on our face and body. The need to gain perspective and dominion over what we feel and think is a part of our spiritual evolution. It is also a practice that benefits our health.

Wellness is not simply an absence of disease. It is a state of balance with an alignment of the hierarchy of our various selves (see previous posts) according to our own sense of what constitutes our real and complete self. It is the result of a conscious awareness. All healings involve this realignment. A patient relying only on exterior factors to heal such as doctor and drugs will not improve as rapidly and as well as one who takes responsibility for his or her healing while simultaneously following a medical treatment. It is well to be mindful that at all stages, before, during, and after an illness, our lifestyle and state of consciousness are factors that influence our health, well-being, and beauty.

Health Shows Up On the Skin

Health is more than the absence of disease and beauty is more than an absence of an unpleasant manifestation of unhealthy or prematurely aged skin!

Health is resilience — the natural ability to probably return to normal functioning whenever the individual is physically or mentally attacked. And let's face it, we seem to be under almost constant attack,

be it against our body, our ego or our feelings.

Popular admonition such as, "Don't worry so much or you'll get an ulcer!" reminders of the connection between body, mind and emotions. Our body reflects the destructive results of mental and emotional attacks just as much as it does microbiological causes, bacterial or viral.

This fact is now being re-discovered by both the public and health professionals. In most cases, Western health professionals are trained to respond to the manifestations of physical or mental problems. Fundamentally, they are in the disease fighting business. Their mission is not about promoting optimum health which would create an enhanced sense of beauty and well-being.

The notion of prevention in Western medicine focuses on vaccination and other drug-oriented solutions to contain specific conditions.

Medical doctors are generally not trained to develop an interest in regularly seeing customers who are healthy with a view of ensuring that they continue to remain that way. The unacceptably high and runaway cost of this practice will eventually force changes. As a practical result, the know-how necessary to maintain health has to be sought outside the mainstream Western health establishment.

Under the current demographic title wave of the baby boom, the forces of the market are nudging alert medical and beauty professionals into alternatives and new ways, creating the so-called integrative medicine arena. 

Spa Finder Magazine, January 2009, dubbed energy medicine #1 among new trends that would impact spas beyond 2009 and pointed to the growing importance that spa professionals and their customers are placing on effective and holistic ways to improve results.

For over 35 years, Phytobiodermie has been refining its fully integrative approach to skincare with energetic and natural products based on the energetic principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda.

How Aging Really Works

In addition to genetic influence, the effects of your lifestyle and the natural aging of your cells, energy medicine recognizes other factors of an energetic nature that will explain the aging process.

The Five Element Theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is also called the Five Phases Theory, and for good reasons. From birth to death, we move through phases. Actually, the five TCM faces are:

• Wood
• Fire
• Earth
• Metal
• Water

It is said that we spend approximately 15 years in each phase during which we are particularly under the influence of that elemental energy. That is based on an average lifespan of 75 years. Today, it might be necessary to somewhat increased by a couple of years the time spent in each phase to reflect the modern lifespan.

In addition, there are also the energetic effects we experience from January to December of every year as we move through the five energetic seasons we are subjected to the changing energies of the seasons that at times can be quite aggressive. In addition, the moment of birth – the hour, the day, the month and the year — imparted to specific energies of those moments. (Canas 80)

Associated with the energy of Wood; it is a time when the burst of yang drives the growth of the body. It is also when the skin is likely to reflect the Wood condition, namely, excess of boiling us and blackheads. Eventually, those who are not the Wood type, those who are not of Wood biorhythm, work themselves out of the natural manifestations typical to Wood as they enter into Fire, the next 15 year phase of their life. Those who are of the Wood type will have a tendency to continue to express the Wood conditions throughout the rest of their life. That is true of all dominating energies of the bio rhythm.

Fire is the time of young adulthood while Earth is the one of more mature adults. It is only a matter of time before we all experience some degree of the elements that mark the most visible phases of the aging process, namely, Metal in our 50s and Water in our 60s and beyond.

Water, the energy of Winter, is also the energy of the peak of yin. It's the fifth and last of the five 15-year phases (after 60 years of age). It influences body shape as it increases the tendency to stiffen and to dehydrate causing loss of skin tone. There is also a loss of collagen with yang energy at its lowest point.

As you age, you accumulate the effects of your own energetic and balance according to your biorhythm of the seasonal/climatic effects of your lifestyle and of the 15 year phases as you make your way through your 60s and beyond. All those energetic factors bear, to some extent, on your health, your body shape and your skin conditions.

More on the aging process in an upcoming post. For more info., visit phytobiodermie.us.

Canas, Jon. Energetic Skincare Naturally. Eustis, FL: Phytobiodermie, 2010. Print.

The Skin: Treat It With Reverence

The skin has been much studied yet it still remains somewhat misunderstood. It is traditionally seen as a complex tissue made of three major layers: epidermis, dermis and hypodermis. The epidermis, the outside layer, is mostly an accumulation of dead cells. In the time of the moon cycle, the epidermis is entirely renewed.

There are about twelve pounds of skin on an average human body. Its thickness might vary from half a millimeter to a few millimeters depending on the part of the body it covers. An eyelid is thin like a piece of paper but heels can be thick like the soles of shoes.

The skin harbors an enormous amount of blood vessels, nerve endings, fluids and tiny oil glands. A square inch contains millions of cells to be fed and oxygenated and whose waste needs to be eliminated. Eventually, dead cells must make room for new ones.

In TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), skin is viewed with great reverence. It is more than a barrier between the inside of the body and the outside environment. It is linked to the organ function of Lung (i.e. a breathing/eliminating function) and consequently, to the energy of the Metal element. But there is more: Your skin is particularly important because it is a reflexive organ that provides important telltale signs of what is going on within your body. Any skin problem reoccurring in the same area is an indicator of your health condition. Your skin's role as a provider of natural early warning signs can help you maintain or achieve an improved state of wellness.

The Rediscovery of Color Therapy

Color therapy (also known as chromatherapy is rediscovered! – A new but powerful holistic approach to health. In fact, traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicines work well with chromatherapy. Phytobiodermie uses the term chromatherapy to refer to both the use of color in matter such as in clay masks of different colors and for light therapy using lights of certain colors.

This is why chromatherapy is a logical extension of the Phytobiodermie method. As a result, Phytobiodermie became a pioneer in chromatherapy, first with its use of pigmentation with its five color clay masks and then with colors of light for which it was awarded the Prize for Innovation at the 1998 Beauty Trade Show in Paris, France. Color therapy is spectacular when applied with knowledge and experience.
Learn more about it by visiting our training center's website at phytoinstitute.com.

Healing with Colors

Chromatherapy, sometimes called chromotherapy, was part of the medicine of ancient Egypt, Greece, India and China. Literally, it means healing with colors. It can be with colors of matter (walls, clothing, stones or topical products), or more potently, with colors of light – a pure form of energy. Phytobiodermie uses the term chromatherapy to refer to both the use of color in matter such as clay masks of different colors and for light therapy using lights of certain colors.

At the turn of the 20th century, light therapy experienced a new level of interest and favor as many scientists and medical doctors had returned to the use of colors to heal serious conditions. 

In 1903, Niels Finsen of Denmark received the Nobel Prize for successfully treating skin tuberculosis and certain skin conditions with light therapy.

In the 1920s and 30s, both Dinshah Ghadiali and Dr. Harry Riley Spitler, among others, conducted substantial research in light therapy and obtained many spectacular results.

But in the late 1930s, with the advent of antibiotics, medicine and medical research were directed toward chemicals at the expense of everything else. Light therapy was temporarily forgotten. Today, with the growing concerns over the long term effects of antibiotics on the immune system, thoughtful physicians and others have returned to older, proven methods that are more natural and noninvasive such as light therapy.

Phytobiodermie is a pioneer in light therapy.

Three Body Shapes in Ayurveda

Ayurveda is the ancient and traditional medicine of India. In Sanskrit, ayuh means life and veda means knowledge. While the language of Ayurveda is different from what we encounter in Traditional Chinese Medicine, the concepts are close. More similarities than differences. By way of comparison, we outline the categories they use and their specific terminology:

There are five elements are expressed as:

• Space
• Air
• Fire
• Water
• Earth

All living beings are created with a specific mix of the five basic elements and of their energies. As their proportions very, they form three doshas or general human types divided as:

• Vata
• Pitta
• Kapha

Not surprisingly, each of the three types corresponds to a body shape. Each type exhibits differences in level of energy, aptitudes, propensity to certain physical attributes and problems as well as certain emotions. Each type is prone to a certain skin problem. Diet and exercise requirement varies from one type to another.

Are Your Skincare Products "Energetic?"

Energetic products must contain vital energy. The root of the term vital means life. Vital energy can only come from what is vital, from life itself. Synthetic ingredients are artificial and not vital. There is no life in plastic, therefore there is no energy of a vital nature in petrochemicals or in any other synthetic ingredient.

For a product to be energetic it needs to have functional ingredients that have specific vital energy. Synthetic oils, sometimes falsely listed as essential oils, have aromatic value but no therapeutic value because they have no vital energy.

Only natural ingredients have energy such as plants, minerals, algae, grains or seeds, but let's remember that natural essential oils have a multiple of that energy by virtue of being concentrations. Not only are essential oils extremely potent, their potential is magnified by the creation of synergistic blends.

Phytobiodermie's formulations follow the blending principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Five families of blends are used to balance each of the five energies or five elements.

Integrating the Two Stages of Wellness

(For a description of the Two Stages of Wellness, see previous two posts.)

Wellness centers have the potential to be learning centers where we can gain knowledge about ourselves from the physical to the spiritual and where we are taught how to live from the spiritual to the physical. That is achievable even with those who do not believe in any God but who have an openness of mind regarding a dimension of humans existing beyond the mental and physical. Clearly, not everyone is ready for this which is a good thing because there would not be enough teachers to go around. Yet it is not too early to get started!

At the first stage of wellness, there must be the awareness that our life experience and our state of wellness are products of what we do, what we feel and what we think. We can develop ways to achieve greater control over our body and emotions. Physical activities are selected to create or enhance awareness in the moment as attention and energy flow through the body. Meditation helps the process of inner self-discovery and achievement of greater dominion over body and mind.

At the second level of wellness, deeper practice of meditation reveals that we are not simply our body, emotions and mind activity anymore than we are defined by our title, financial capacity or the size of our house. We discover a new connection, a higher spiritual dimension from which all else depends. This revelation initiates a shift from a life centered on our body-mind entity ensconced in our particular life situation to a vision of our unique identity as a state of consciousness that we can elevate by the decisions we are willing to make and live by. It becomes clearer that our ego is not who we really are but a make-believe sense of self that represents an obstacle in achieving higher levels of wellness, wisdom and peace.

Achievement at the second level of wellness would appear to be contrary to where we started when we embarked on our wellness search with a great emphasis on how we look and feel, but by then, it should become clear that from this new state of consciousness, we enjoy greater ease at maintaining our body, he motions and thoughts in a state of harmony and true wellness.

The Second Stage of Wellness

(For the "First Stage of Wellness," please see yesterday's post.)

Although achievements pertaining to the first stage are very productive and most adapted to the level of the greatest amount of people in search of wellness, it is nevertheless incomplete.  There is a deeper dimension to our being that needs to be included for more complete and lasting wellness. This aspect, call it spiritual if you want, exists outside of religious beliefs and can be found also in atheists and agnostics.

Energy medicine supported by ancient holistic philosophies knows that just as there are generally invisible energy fields surrounding the physical body (the ethereal, the emotional and the mental, there is also an outer spiritual field and envelops the whole. It is called the causal field because it is intended to because over all other aspects of our being that are effects.

The human experience reflects the sequence through which we discover ourselves and the world: learning first about and through the body, then our emotions and later our intellect, never going beyond, for most humans. It is insufficient if we subscribe to the notion that our spirit has primacy, even dominion, over all other aspects of our being. Our spiritual self projects an energy field that directs and maintains the harmony of the other fields only when we have a conscious awareness of it. Its most direct effect is intended to be on the mental which in turn should control the emotional, the ethereal and finally, the physical. That alignment is the highest wellness goal.

The ideal integration from spirit to the material body is extremely rare yet possible. It is exemplified by the white or golden aura depicted by artists to convey the perfection of spiritual masters. Auras are generally visible only to the attuned few that have that special gift.

Wellness and wisdom are intertwined and wisdom is expected to be gained with age. Ultimately, for those of a certain age, wellness requires an acceptance of the cycle of life with death as its natural conclusion. Acceptance and surrender become part of our emotional, mental and spiritual evolution. It is a pre-condition to maintaining wellness for older people.

The First Stage of Wellness

A major premise of energy medicine is that the body is not simply matter (solids and fluids) but energy as well. I am not talking about the endless energetic reactions stemming from the various chemical activities within the body but from a constant and systematic flow of "vital energy."

In Ayurveda as well as in yoga, it is called prana and for the Chinese it is chi. The flow of vital energy is present at the earliest stage of the embryo. It provides the blueprint of specialization of cells while positioning them in their respective place and with their proper function expressed by specific vibrations. Chi is not only vital because of its energy but also because of its transmission of information.

Energy medicine dictates that there must be a balance in the flow of vital energy, both in terms of quantity and quality. But energy is affected not only by what we do, what we eat and drink, but also by what we think and feel. Consequently, since energy is a critical element of the health of an individual, what anyone believes, thinks and feels affects his or her state of health and wellness. It follows that the first stage in achieving results toward wellness has to start with the relationship between our physical health, our emotional health, and our mental activity including thoughts and beliefs.

The Five Element Theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine conceptualizes particularly well the interrelationship of all aspects and activities of humans. Nothing happens in isolation. Everything has and effect on other parts, be they physical, psychological or mental. As a result, what we think, believe, feel and do impacts all facets of our being like an echo bouncing back and forth.

Wellness centers have the opportunity to become places where people are coached to learn about themselves in ways that have generally been denied them. The purpose is to help them discover how they can holistically improve their lives. Often, people undertake self-improvement programs that focus on narrow areas of interest without creating the balance required to improve their state of wellness.

Holistic improvements are best achieved when a coaching staff works from a common methodology. A coordinated effort and a shared approach among various practitioners create a philosophy that defines the wellness center or spa. Wellness centers offer different modalities supportive of mind and body alignment.

Each modality should be supportive of the others and have a synergistic effect. A massage for the sake of relaxation can also incorporate techniques and products that and hands energetic balance. A facial can include a reflexology modality that rebalances all five energies. A tai chi class should not simply have a physical objective. It should equally emphasize vital energy flow and also be practiced as meditation in motion. The multiple effects or byproducts of treatments or activities create a synergy that comes from applying a common methodology to all aspects of the personalize program designed for each client.

Being Well All the Time

Wellness is a sustained state of well-being–feeling good–consciously experienced. It is an absence of symptoms of physical, emotional and mental disease. Wellness contributes to a state of peace and contentment. 

Health, as conventionally defined, is a component of wellness. It is a necessary condition but it is not sufficient. There is more to wellness than physical health or temporary relaxation.

How can wellness which is such a desirable state, be achieved and maintained. A better understanding of wellness is required in order to outline strategies to achieve and maintain it.

Energy medicine and ancient philosophies concerning the nature of humankind are more useful than modern medicine and psychology when it comes to understanding the components of wellness. That is because of the modern trends toward endless specialization in the various fields of science, at the expense of the holistic views that prevailed at an earlier time.

Nevertheless, a number of modern men of science and medicine have embraced as well as contributed to the filed of energy medicine, amplified by findings in quantum physics. Writings from many contemporaries like Robert Becker, MD, Richard Gerber, MD, Deepak Chopra and Amit Goswami, PhD are most useful in creating a paradigm for a modern view of wellness.

The Five Element Theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine, a cousin of Ayurvedic Medicine, is a holistic explanation of the physical as well as of the psychological inner workings of humans. Yet, one needs to go even further to more fully understand the nature of man. Without consideration for our spiritual dimension, any definition of wellness is partial and our paradigm remains incomplete. This dimension is found in the mystical interpretation of the great spiritual teaches in both Eastern and Western traditions, but because most people will not or cannot embrace this more elevated view, we need to break down the route to wellness into two major stages:

• Alignment of the mental and physical
• Alignment of spirit, mind and body

We Can Learn How We Are Likely to Age

Anti-aging goes far beyond what modern medicine can do for us at this time. Thankfully, the relatively new specialty known as sports medicine has focused physicians on how to contribute to the top performance of highly paid athletes and not simply to fix what is broken. Their approach to prevention and to achievement of higher performance levels is a start in the right direction. The more they embrace a holistic view of the body, the more they will succeed. In the process, they will contribute much to general medicine's understanding and prevention of premature aging.

There are dreams, not only of revitalization, but also of rejuvenation. The former is achievable in degrees the moment we engage in some internal cleansing and rebalancing of energies as we include realignment of the spiritual–mental–emotional–physical aspects of our being. 

That is clearly achievable now.

It can be a unique field offered by superior wellness centers with a greatly needed approach to holistic revitalization. In turn, this also opens the door for holistic rejuvenation.

When it comes to the subject of rejuvenation, we start tinkering with the clock of life, yet the potential exists for science to be able to reset our biological clock through modification of hormonal activity in aging people as well as modifying our DNA, but again, will it e done in a holistic way or with the current mindset of the mechanic replacing a carburetor?

Current hormone therapies are still too young and their long-term impact too uncertain to embrace them early enough in our adulthood so as to make a lasting impact. Of course, those solutions and others re likely to remain "unnatural" and invasive wit hthe potential of unforeseen and undesirable long-term effects. Under the best of circumstances, they will be very costly and will remain affordable only for very wealthy people. However, the real issue remains, even for the very fortunate. Fixing the physical body is not enough and does not, of itself, bring about wellness. There must be, simultaneously, an effort at balancing vital energies and maintaining a body–mind–spirit alignment.

The concept of energetic biorhythms, presented earlier, provides a superior tool to help us understand the likely direction of our personal aging process. The biorhythm also helps us to understand the root cause of our health challenges and physical manifestations as skin conditions and body shape.

If we know early enough how we are likely to age, we can more easily adapt our lifestyle and skincare treatments to compensate and more closely achieve our full wellness potential which translates into physical appearance.

Can We Truly "Anti-Age?"

Many of the people who talk enthusiastically about everything that is natural (implying that they are superior to what is not natural) have a difficult time with the realization that nature is seemingly not interested in preservation. In other words, there is a cycle to life, from birth to death, that is inevitable, and our physical decline is as certain as our growing phase. Aging is inexorably linked to the unstoppable ticking of the clock. If one cannot stop time, one cannot truly "anti-age."

Even if "anti-aging" is nothing other than an oxymoron, it is nevertheless a market force and a lifestyle driver that will push the envelope on many fronts, medically as well as in the broader business of life-coaching. Its first objective will be avoidance of any factor that could prematurely age us (physically, emotionally and mentally). Its success will require far more integrated and multi-disciplinary knowledge than is currently available. It will also require a commitment initiated very early in life when youth has no concept of aging and no recognition that aging is also part of growing up. Its second objective will be to repair any damage that is hindering our ability to live at a higher level of wellness and closer to our inherent potential.

To live at our optimum potential should be our wellness objective, but it is difficult to have a good idea of what our individual potential is, both in the length of our natural time span and on the level of its vitality. To start with, it requires successfully avoiding all the things that prematurely age us and doing all the things that preserve our health and vitality. It requires many factors to come into play, not the least of which is knowledge and wisdom from very early 

The Role and Importance of the Biorhythm

To know your biorhythm is a big help. You will be able to anticipate the likely direction of your aging process and to start mitigating its effects as early as possible. This is true both for skincare and body shape. It helps your technician select and personalize the most desirable treatments for you and to prescribe the most preventive of skincare products. 

Knowledge of your dominating energy explains certain factors affecting your present state of wellness and anticipates its future evolution. Consequently, it can also help you to make other adjustments such as with your lifestyle and habits.  For example, a Fire-type person (see previous posts) is more affected by the midsummer day heat than anyone else and should be careful in warm climates if playing golf at midday. That person would be stressing the heart with strongly accelerated red blood circulation manifested as a very red face, excessive perspiration and a likely increase in skin sensitivity. The proper response is a Phytobiodermie "Fire facial" with a Fire energetic drainage.

Each element has its own energies which cause specific skin conditions and specific body shapes. Manifestations of those conditions are either temporary or more permanent when they are also a condition of your dominating element. They are magnified as you age and when you do nothing to compensate through energy balancing treatments.

Understanding the energetic forces at work behind your biorhythm becomes a powerful tool in creating an appropriate and personalized response to the premature effects of the aging process and any particularly vexing skin condition or body shape.

This energetic solution to anti-aging based on Traditional Chinese Medicine is intended to help you live at an optimum level for your individual energetic make-up.  Conceptually, the solution is always the same but it needs adaptation according to the energetic tendencies of each individual as defined by their biorhythm. The tools for the solution are many, from skincare to all aspects of your lifestyle. The more complete and integrated you make the various aspects of your solution, the more likely you will succeed.

Understanding Our Morphology and Biorhythms

There are many things about our physical bodies we can never do anything about such as the color of the iris of our eyes. There are others over which we have some control such as our lifestyle habits. 

With better understanding of the energies at work, your Phytobiodermie professional gains more knowledge and tools to increase the personalization of your treatments and this gets you better results.

Knowledge of your biorhythm (see previous posts) improves your selection of treatments and home products, all totally adapted to your energetic needs at the particular point in time.

At any time, it is appropriate to have a treatment to balance the energies of your biorhythm. It can be done as part of any body treatment and would be personalized to you. 

A most interesting aspect of the biorhythm is the intelligence we gain to personalize the right anti-aging treatment for you.  Knowing the energies of your biorhythm gives you and your therapist a high level of confidence anticipating how the sequence of the "Destruction Cycle" of Traditional Chinese Medicine will engage your personal aging process. That information helps decide how to construct a plan to mitigate the appearances and other effects of premature aging. 

Remember that the energies of the biorhythm are simply a set of influences amongst many. They never are an overwhelming and inescapable power because each of us is also subjected to many other factors, principally genes, climate, diet and lifestyle, yet both morphology and biorhythm are important tools to better understand the energetic tendencies that affect each of us. They can also explain the reasons behind chronic conditions.

Knowledge of Your Biorhythms

Knowledge of your biorhythms assists the Phytobiodermie® professional to select appropriate Phytobiodermie® treatments and products to use at home, all totally adapted to your energetic needs at the particular point in time. 

Knowledge of your biorhythms has a number of other applications. For example, if someone is Metal and feels a need to go through a detox program (diet and treatments), it is best done during the eighteen days of transition before the Metal season starts.

At any time, it is appropriate to have a treatment to balance the energies of your biorhythm.  It can be done as part of any body treatment and would be personalized to you. 

A most interesting aspect of the biorhythm is the intelligence we gain to personalize the right anti-aging treatment for you. Knowing the energies of your biorhythm gives you and your therapist a high level of confidence anticipating how the sequence of the "Destruction Cycle" of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) will engage your personal aging process.  That information helps decide how to construe t a plan to mitigate the appearances and other effects of premature aging.

Remember that the energies of the biorhythm are simply a set of influences among many. They never are an overwhelming and inescapable power, because each of us is also subjected to many other factors, principally, genes, climate, diet, and lifestyle, yet morphology and biorhythm are important tools to better understand the energetic tendencies that affect each of us.  They can also explain the reasons behind chronic conditions.

Biorhythms: Six Energies and Five Elements

Ancient Chinese doctors and Taoist philosophers conceptualized man living between "heaven" and "earth." From earth they derived the five elements, their laws and principles. The theory of the five energies (of earth) pertains to, and regulates all earthly things, namely, matter.

From "heaven," meaning the atmosphere or cosmos, they observed six energies:

• Heat
• Cold
• Humidity
• Dryness
• High pressure
• Low pressure (climatic depression)

The ancient philosophers observed that the cosmic energies could influence any of the five elements or earthly energies. It is easy to observe that during any season the days can be very different from each other. For example, any summer day can be:

• Windy (Wood energy)
• Very hot (Fire energy)
• Humid (Earth energy)
• Dry (Metal energy)
• Cool (Water energy)

Continuing with the above example, we can say that any summer day can express:

• The Wood of Fire  (windy summer day)
• The Fire of Fire  (very hot summer day)
• The Earth of Fire  (humid summer day)
• The Metal of Fire  (dry summer day)
• The Water of Fire  (wet/cold summer day)

Since each of those energies can be manifested during any season (the energy of an element), it confirms that all energies affect each one of the five elements.

The effect of six energies on the five elements makes for thirty possible energetic influences, but since each situation always has a yin and a yang version, it makes for a total of sixty conditions that follow each other in a predictable way and that repeat themselves at the end of each cycle. As a result, the specific energy dominating any given year will be repeated only sixty years later.

It is interesting to notice that traditional Taoist astrology recognizes twelve signs (similar to the twelve signs of the zodiac), named according to an animal (i.e., a rabbit or a rat), but each animal is differentiated by one of the five characteristics of the five elements (green rat, red rat, yellow rat, white rat, black rat). As a result, they also have a sixty-year cycle.

Each year represents the energy of one of the sixty possibilities. The year of birth determines, for an adult, the dominating physical energy that will influence the individual's physical characteristics. It is his or her biorhythm of the year. It gives an indication about the likely esthetic and health challenges that will be encountered in the process of aging as a consequence of energetic imbalances.

The same concept applies for the energy of the month of birth, pointing to a biorhythm of the month. That energy influences the physical growth of the youngsters, but from the mid-twenties onward, it switches to influence the psychological characteristics of the adult while the energy of the year becomes the dominant one affecting the physical aspect. Phytobiodermie® provides trained therapists with tables to identify both the biorhythm of the year and of the month for their client.

The Two Manifestations of Acne

Most people visualize acne as pussy red pimples invading the entire face and certain parts of the body, mostly the backs on men. The condition is what Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) recognizes as yang-type acne. There is another type of acne, the yin-type, that is cystic and inner where the fluid has hardened and the skin might not be red. Yin-type acne can also appear on the back.

The two different manifestations of acne cannot be treated the same way and with the same products as opposed to what some well advertised cosmetic lines attempt to do.

Two different manifestations cannot have the same cause and the same remedy. This is why acne is so persistent. 

Further, bacteria do not cause acne. The presence of bacteria is a symptom and not a cause. 

Most common acne treatments only address the symptoms. This is why temporary relief if often achieved, but it is just that–temporary.

Acne is an Earth condition that needs to be treated as such. Severe conditions will require a serious series of treatments to balance the energetic root cause. Drainage of the lymph is essential, not only on the face but all over the body, particularly in severe cases. Bath treatments sponsoring lymph drainage are well advised.

There should be a highly personalized approach to acne. It is not only based on the type of acne but also on its location relative to reflex zones. Yang acne on the liver zone is a different type of acne than a yin type on the upper cheeks, the stomach zone. In each case, the energy of the element corresponding to the reflex zone must also be balanced.

Eye Area: The First to Show Aging

The eye area is a sensitive one where signs of age manifest early. Not surprisingly, it is a very active energetic area with three meridians near the eye (bladder, stomach and gallbladder) and three meridians that end nearby (triple warmer, small intestine and large intestine). While product-only treatments can help, adding the energetic work of rebalancing all six meridians on each side is important. 

This can be very effectively accomplished by directing the color of light corresponding to each meridian to the area with Phytobiodermie's Biostimulateur™ in toning mode on all points. This energetic treatment is as good as it can get as a non-invasive and holistic treatment.

The eye-cup, a flat small glass cup used with the Biodraineur™ (drainage machine) is selected to darin the fluids around the eyes and to flatten away the small lines. There might be puffiness or dark circles under the eyes. This is a kidney reflex zone. Puffiness points to an excess of kidney energy and dark circles to a lack.

The Biostimulateur,™ thanks to its unique "disperse" and "tone" modes, is very useful in dispersing the excess of kidney energy or in toning the lack of it. It is done with the soft vibrations of the machine module tip in light contact with the skin while it is gently moved over the area. 

Frequency of Skin Treatments

When a skin condition in need of balancing requires a series of treatments, it is advised to do them over a relatively small period of time. Series of energetic treatments are most effective when about 24 hours elapse between treatments within the series. It is best not to exceed three to four days between treatments.

After the skin has been balanced, it is advisable to maintain it that way by periodically doing a balancing treatment

Follow the Energetic Calendar to select your products, your treatments and their timing. It is particularly important during the energetic season of the element of your biorhythm to receive the treatment of the season. 

When possible, do no less than five balancing treatments a year, once per energetic season, selecting for the Earth treatment the 18-day prior to the season of your element. For people with a manifested Earth condition, the ideal is to also do one Earth treatment during each one of the four Earth periods, making a total of eight treatments a year.

Do Not Forget the Scalp!

Many people have the same problems on their scalp as they do on their face. There are excellent Phytobiodermie scalp treatments using the same or similar products as for the face. They provide welcome results and great relief fro mthe discomforts of scalp problems. Any of those problems left untreated can be a resin for premature hair loss. 

In-depth treatments from trained Phytobiodermie practitioners are recommended and simpler home treatments are also available. A healthy scalp is a most important factor in enjoying healthy hair. Healthy scalp and hair respond better to styling, too. If you color your hair or subject it to any kind of chemical treatment on a regular basis, your scalp most likely requires soothing and balancing treatments.