When you toss and turn all night, your body aches more, and your mind becomes exhausted. So many people suffer from this vicious cycle. In Donguibogam, chronic pain and insomnia are viewed as a state where the body's balance has collapsed. Rather than merely looking at a sore back or sleeplessness, it understands our body as a microcosm. Our body is organically interconnected, so when one part hurts, other parts are inevitably affected. As I always say, if any part of our body becomes blocked or unstable, it sends out a signal.
In Korean medicine, pain is described as pain from obstruction, meaning if there is no free flow, there is pain. When the circulation of qi and blood is blocked, pain arises, and this pain in turn creates a vicious cycle that further hinders the flow of qi and blood. In particular, lower back pain is closely linked to kidney qi. The kidneys store our body's fundamental energy and serve to strengthen the bones and the lower back. When kidney qi weakens from working late into the night and suffering from stress, lower back pain worsens, which easily leads to insomnia. This is because when energy is depleted, the body finds it difficult to achieve complete rest.
Furthermore, Donguibogam regarded sleep not merely as an act of resting, but as an essential time for restoring the body's yin-yang balance. When the sun sets, yin energy strengthens, making it a time for the body to rest and purify itself; however, severe pain causes yang qi to become excessively hyperactive, making it difficult to fall asleep. When a state such as upper heat and lower cold occurs, where the head becomes hot and the feet turn cold, the mind fills with wandering thoughts, and sleep does not come even though the body is exhausted. It is as if the sun is shining brightly in the middle of the night, indicating that the body's natural rhythm is broken.
When pain persists like this, it also affects the body's spirit. Here, spirit does not simply mean the mind, but is a broader concept that oversees vital energy and physiological functions. When the spirit becomes unstable, falling asleep becomes even harder, and when you cannot sleep, your sensitivity to pain increases, causing you to feel severe pain even from minor stimuli. It is just as if sensitized nerves are dominating the entire body.
To break this vicious cycle of pain and insomnia, Donguibogam placed great importance on promoting the circulation of qi and blood and restoring the yin-yang balance. Through acupuncture and moxibustion, blocked qi and blood are unblocked, and through medicinal herbs, the deficiency-cold parts of the body are reinforced while excessive parts are controlled, thereby enhancing natural healing power. In particular, stimulating meridians and acupoints is a very wise method that smoothens communication throughout the entire body to reduce pain and help you fall asleep comfortably. You can understand this not merely as treating the painful spot, but as an effort to resolve the whole-body imbalance that causes that pain.
