Comfort Shen

Chinese Modular Solutions

Mind is the Yang aspect of Jing-Shen (soma-psyche), the unity of body and consciousness. Whereas Jing (Essence) is stored and secured by the Kidney, Shen (Mind) is enveloped and protected by the Heart. The Shen is not synonymous with the Heart, but the Heart, through its governance of the Blood, maintains the matrix through which the enlivening power of the Shen expresses the true nature of the organism. Shen then is the “complexion” or fullest revelation of the essential nature (Jing-Shen) of the individual.

Embodiment and anchoring of the Shen endows us the quality of animation and the faculty of attention, which we recognize as our conscious awareness. This non-corporeal aspect of our being is somewhat autonomous and evanescent and is said to easily wander and desert its bodily vessel when startled or restless. Any number of influences may unsettle or disturb the Shen, leading to a kind of sense of unease that may be experienced as occasional lack of sleep, over-excitement, emotional shock or travail, an uncomfortable feeling of heat and dryness, occasional dehydration and even intense pleasure.

The interpenetration of Shen Jing is likened to that of Yin Yang. When the Shen is not peacefully settled within its bodily matrix, the fundamental unity and equilibrium of soma and psyche, of the Shen Jing, is vulnerable.

Comfort Shen soothes the Shen by settling the Heart and Liver Yang, nurturing the Heart Blood and strengthening the Kidney Yin. Unlike the formula for supplementing the Heart, Comfort Shen emphasizes sedating and cooling.

Herb: Mother-of-pearl shell, Poria with wood root, Dragon bone, Magnetite, Polygala root, Reishi fruiting body, Polygonum multiflorum stem, Dry fried sour jujube seed, Ophiopogon tuber, Amber resin, Sichuan lovage rhizome, Schisandra fruit