It's hard to know which came first, the stress or the inability to handle it. When it affects your sleep, stress becomes insidious and self-perpetuating. We hear from lots of people who are not sleeping well. The reasons are complex and varied. Anxiety often compounds the problem. Sleep disturbances usually start with an edge or moodiness caused by a hectic culture. Our minds fill with endless dialog. It wouldn't be so bad if we were filled up with things that were important to deal with eventually, but this stuff, indeed worry, is useless. That's easy to say and harder to control.

We are a busy community with much to do. The problem is that we are virtually crazed by excessive activity and drained from effort. Self-medication includes a triple latte in the AM and a double martini after we get home. Western medicine uses a particular strategy for this problem — sedation. Bi-polar? Sedate 'em. ADD? Sedate 'em. Psychotic? Thorazine drip. The problem is that while a thorazine drip will keep the psychotic from moving, it does not change the underlying condition. There seems to be no understanding or attempt to learn why this edge exists. For those affected, it can be a wild ride.

Oriental medicine (OM) sees the purpose of life as being fairly far removed from seeking. Instead, one OM bias is that the purpose for our very existence is to "mix Heaven and Earth." This could be interpreted as taking that which has no form (Heaven) and mixing it with that which is form (Earth). In other words, we are speaking of the basic creative process, a magical occurrence where we allow the divine to mingle with our more mundane selves. This, as you can imagine, is a large, highly technical consideration from within Chinese medical philosophy itself. Outlets for self-expression abound. Creativity does not necessarily mean becoming the next Frida Kahlo or Igor Stravinsky nor does it mean ordering up some white robes and preaching to the masses from the closest mountaintop. It does mean exactly what it says, to "mix Heaven and Earth."