“… I realized that there would be no discouragement or despair if the power of one’s mind remains strong enough…” This is a passage in a recent e-mail received from my friend now involved in some important task for the peace of the world in the United States.

She wrote in the mail about a wedding to which she and her mutual friend were invited.
This friend of hers made a lone trip to the United States to felicitate the newly married couple despite her spinal cancer which makes it very difficult for her even to walk normally.

Despite her own physical problem, this woman traveled to the United States in order to partake in the joy of the newly marrieds…. What an admirable friendship! I was moved by the story. Courageous deeds express the depth of one’s heart and mind and draw out the innate goodness of other people more profoundly than words.

Unexpected things happen in our lives anywhere anytime. How we should face and cope with them is a matter of the power of our mind. We all have the strong side and weak side. I’m sure that the woman who suffers from spinal cancer mentioned above is also spiritually supported by a number of friends, including her newly married couple among others.

People deal with each other as they are dealt with. The benevolence extended invites benevolence in return. Disinterested friendship of mutual dedication enhances one’s power of will and motivates one to overcome whatever happens. I deeply appreciate the friendship I’m blessed with every day.

Friendship helps us to win, but it does help us more “not to lose.”

Multiple personality, manic-depressive psychosis, psychosomatic disorder. I see not a few people visiting my clinic suffering from these mental problems that I would call a case of “common cold,” in the sense that common cold is literally quite common among many people.　Encountering such patients reminds me of Carl Jung’s view on synchronicity and makes me think seriously of their problems as if they were my own, and realize the need to know more about my own life itself.

So, I bought about five books written by Dr. Hayao Kawai, my favorite clinical psychologist. Even just touching his books thrills me. It is as if my excitement is immediately detected by somebody. Dr. Kawai is an expert at exploring the unconscious. He takes us even deeper beyond the unconscious, I should say.

Suppose there is a borderline between the conscious and the unconscious, it must be very narrow and feeble in cases of the people who are susceptible to the chronic mental problems which I likened to common cold as above. For such people, if anything vicious invades their conscious, it may affect their unconscious as well and cause mental disturbance in many ways.

By the way, for 400 days since November 2011, I’ve been blogging on this homepage what I would call “poems” describing honest reflections of my thought. The responses of my readers are astonishing, because so many of them say they cannot help crying as they read what I write. Some even say they stop reading my poems not to be moved to tears so much.

Why and how do my poems impact the minds of the readers so much? Maybe it is the state of “frailty” of the border between the conscious and unconscious that causes the mental confusion or turbulence in their minds. Honestly, writing these poems is an outlet of my mental stress I beg to be forgiven by real poets for making this remark, but I think poetry is something that is born out of the stress that seeks to rise into the conscious mind from the unconscious.

What I want to say is that as long as the border between the conscious and the unconscious is strong and stout enough, crossing back and forth between the two realms is nothing so difficult. In other words, there is no serious risk involved in looking into and searching the unconscious minds.

Maybe what I say here is just based on my own conjecture. But I wish to be allowed to conclude that strengthening the border between the conscious and the unconscious is a way to develop the potentiality of those who suffer from psychosomatic disorders.

No matter how late I finish my work of the day, I seldom break the habit of taking a walk. That is because I always tell my patients to take a walk, saying, “Let’s take a walk at ease.” This is a case of practicing what one preaches.

At first, I was not much interested or thought I would take much interest in the simple job of just walking, so it is a kind of surprise to myself that I am still in the habit of taking daily walks. My bicycle has been left alone so long that its tires are all flat.

Taking a walk is a way of maintaining good health advised by my mentor to all his patients, too. Taking a walk at ease enhances the flow of the force of our spirit and gives good training to the bottom half of our body.

I once watched a US TV documentary program sponsored by a university in New York presenting the practice of walking as its theme. To summarize, its conclusion was that walking helps to get rid of pessimistic emotions and useless worries that are all taken over by some excellent ideas and thoughts.

A medical doctor also says that walking requires the use of 70 percent of our whole body muscles, enhances the function of the heart and lungs, stabilizes the blood pressure and
vitalizes the brains.

Mr. Yukio Ozaki, who was looked up to as champion of constitutional government would often say, “A good walker wins in life.” He himself was no exception and despite feeble health in his childhood did serve as a member of the Lower House until he turned 95 years old and made history in Japanese politics. Obviously his walking custom helped him achieve the miracle.

Among my patients I see quite a few people these days who think too much with their head without being able to have their mind keep step with what they think. These people tend to feel irritated or jumpy, especially as the season gets chilly and cold and

A few years ago, a male patient visited us one day. Nothing unusual except that I saw some bruises on his face here and there. “How did you get them?” I asked him. “They came from my wife…,” he responded. Oh, we have come to live in an age when a female hits a male, I thought. This morning, a TV program was presenting the topic of violent wives, too. So, I thought of considering this problem from the viewpoint of oriental medicine.

Oriental medicine puts everything in the Yin and Yang perspectives. To put it more simply, or to give a specific instance, women are on the Yin side, men on the Yang. This can be seen in the form of their reproductive organs, too. As Yang represents “heat,” “motion,” “rise,” and “light,” Yin stands for “cold,” “still,” “fall,” and “dark,” for example.

From this perspective, the state of violence, which is caused from agitation and rush of blood to the head, can be described as a Yang symptom. Yin and Yang are symptoms of relativity and can be observed only on the basis of comparison between the two, meaning one who acts with violence and the other who faces the violence. It would not to too wide of the mark to presume that the husband who gets violence from his wife is a quiet and Yin type of person, for few will act violently against those who may or might strike back with twice as much violence in retaliation.

I have met with a female patient coming to me saying, “As my period comes near, I often lose control over myself even to such an extent that I seriously consider divorce…” Most of such people look mild-mannered and gentle on the outside. When the period is approaching, the physical condition gets into the Yang state and often gives rise to irritability. The patient who thought of divorce escaped the crisis without taking medicines. This convinced me that acupuncture treatment serves the peace between spouses, too.

Speaking about the violence committed by wives, there seem to be various backgrounds.
But it can be said that one factor is such wives are often frustrated by their tame husbands who fail to “comprehend” how they feel, who tend to produce a gloomy atmosphere, and who are not able to communicate well. In other words, men who are a Yin type of character. In fact, however, these males are, in the depth of their minds and hearts, are literally “regretting” that they have not and are not treating their
spouses fairly enough. These men really are kind-hearted individuals. The problem is it is impossible for an outsider to help extricate the wife and husband from the negative effect of their Yin-Yang relationship.

There is, however, one way to escape from the hard plight. I may call it a change of the vector, so to speak. The violent wife who is in a state of Yang could disperse and dissipate her frustration by, for example, taking a walk, chatting with friends, singing songs, or trying to write, or whatever will release her irrepressible discontent.

On the other hand, the tame husband, who is usually kind-hearted and equipped with maternal instinct, should turn his attention toward keeping animals (killifish is recommendable for the healing effect), or helping other people. This may not bring about complete solution, but it should be remembered that most of these problems are caused from lack of mutual communication, typically between husband and wife. In my personal opinion, nothing would make us happier than being able to exchange frank thoughts and communicate with other people.

I would like to conclude by asserting that today more and more people are losing this humanistic talent of establishing rapport among one another, which is a very serious problem.

At a recent workshop, I was asked by some fellow acupuncturists how I would or should talk to people suffering from psychiatric problems. I responded by saying it was a difficult question to answer because each and every case was different. Maybe spontaneous utterances at such encounters are something quite honest and frank. I myself have no idea at all what I would or should say.

In fact, an increasing number of patients who sustain a variety of mental pain are knocking at my door these days. Their problems are categorized by medical specialists under such denominations as “obsessional neurosis,” “panic disorder,” “psychosomatic disorder,” or “depressive psychosis.”　(I cannot help but wonder if such categorization is really needed or appropriate, by the way.) All are intractable but demand proper treatment, of course.

I have read and am reading various books about these problems, but the most impressive message that has caught my attention is by Mr. Hayao Kawai, a noted clinical psychologist. At an interview he said, “We should not think too much. We just go and face a situation where we must say something. Then, proper words come out that depend on the situation….” I was extremely delighted at this remark by him, and I completely agreed with it. I seldom or never contemplate in advance (because I cannot) what to say to any particular patient at an upcoming meeting. Mr. Kawai’s words put my mind at ease.

Each and every patient has different characters and personalities and lives in different environments even though he or she happens to suffer from a disorder under the same category. His or her mind-set and emotions change from moment to moment. So, what I say spontaneously at the moment we meet is the best and the most natural response toward the patient, no matter who I am talking to, patient or no patient.

At the same time, however, I have something that I think I must tell my patients, too. When I’m doing some thinking, I feel as if I were reading something or talking with some people. Plenty of hints and information help me enhance and promote my thinking process. When I am by myself, taking a walk for example, what I see and watch affects my thought, as they do that of a child, whether they are of any use or no use.

The patients diagnosed with “panic disorder” or some other psychological problems seem to have one thing in common with each other. That is a lack of equilibrium between the state of the mind and that of the heart. Putting it in other words, between what they think with their brains and how they feel with their heart.

Their heart may not be able to keep up with the excess of their thought. Your heart may be yearning to “admire” the beauty of a flower as it presents itself to your eyes. Watching Nature as it presents itself makes us feel happy and contented. Watching the blue sky, for example, and seeing how beautiful it is, altering its outlook from moment to moment.

Most of us have a propensity for reminiscing about unpleasant happenings of the past, or anxiety about the future. But why not treasure our intuitive feeling toward the beauty you see now at present, instead? Which I think is one of the best ways to regain proper mental balance.

It might be a very good idea to give a little rest your thinking mind and give yourself up to the intuitive feeling toward the “now.” Why not try to feel the beauty you see as it is here and now?