TCM Deep Dives is a series of ongoing explorations of Traditional Chinese Medicine—bridging physiology, emotion, and spirit. Each arc invites you into a living system, where you begin to recognize patterns of harmony and disharmony and respond with steadiness and care.
If you’re new to this series, I recommend going in order: beginning with the introduction, followed by the Spleen, the Lung, the Kidneys, and the Liver. Today builds on that foundation.
I know what joy is because of Kim, my best friend in the era of Cabbage Patch Kids and Care Bears and “V” (the original series) trading cards.
I know what joy is because of waking early on hot summer days, looking out my window at the woods surrounding our house, feeling the surge of excitement as I rode my bike down the street to hers.
We’d spend the day co-creating fantasies, eventually ending up in the above-ground pool at her house or mine, swimming faster and faster around the ten-foot circle until a whirlpool formed, carrying us—my younger sisters and her younger brother—around and around, until we turned and went the other way, pushing together against the current until it changed again. Until we had altered reality.
I know what joy is because of lying on our foam surfboards, covered in lime green and white plastic, catching our breath after rounds of creating, breaking, then creating again, the vortex of water and laughter and chlorine.
I know what joy is because, when we finally climbed out of the pool, shivering and giggling, we’d throw ourselves onto Mickey Mouse beach towels warming in the sun, the grass grown too long beneath them.
I know what joy is because there was no censor, no filter, no pretense. Just forts in the woods, tar bubbles on backcountry roads, and intergalactic battles on bicycles.
I know what the Heart is in Chinese Medicine. As a TCM doctor, I can tell you how it shapes and integrates body-mind-spirit.
But I learned it from Kim long ago.
The organ of aliveness
The Heart (xin 心) belongs to Fire and is paired with the Small Intestine, its Yang partner. One orchestrates. The other discerns. They work in concert.