EmailNo one questioned the established order of life, except poets and eccentrics. You went to work at a job you could just about count on holding on to for life. The promotional ladder was clearly defined, mass tourism, avocado pears and designer perfume hadn't yet arrived in the high street, and everyone knew where they stood. And, short of the odd world war, there wasn't much that could appear on the horizon to shake the apple tree.
Then Bing Crosby gave way to Bill Haley and all hell broke loose. Suddenly rock 'n' roll whipped up the teenage angst of a generation into a whirlwind of social revolt. Then Elvis gave way to the Beatles, the Beatles gave way to the Maharishi and black bombers and purple hearts gave way to pot and acid, just around the time the Kerouac-reading beatniks started reading Leary instead and the hippie movement was born.
As the hippies turned on, tuned in and dropped out, a wave of new therapies emerged (in the San Francisco Bay Area), christened collectively as 'the human potential movement'. 'Let it out!' was what you now did with your angst. Nervous breakdowns were a thing of the past, while inflation and the Americanisation of the working culture, with its short-term contracts and insecurity of tenure, were rapidly becoming a thing of the present.
Then Thatcher's reign reinforced the 'me, me, me' culture, and suddenly any lip service paid to altruism, religion or queen and country stopped dead. Around this time, the Bay Area human-potential movement had grown into a global self-help industry, known euphemistically as the 'new age'. The new age got married to IT and now you can get enlightenment from logging on to various websites. It's that simple. So we've solved it. No more nervous breakdowns (you're out, Auntie Ethel), no more stiff upper lips (unless you've had too much collagen injected), no more staying up all night taking drugs and having your upper brain stem rattled by digital jackhammers. Now the answer to life on a planet of dwindling resources fast nearing the point of not being able to sustain us any longer, where there are no new frontiers to explore (except dread and dreary places like Mars and the moon), can be found on a website. Sorted.
Except obviously we're not. Otherwise why are so many of us so angry that we resort to violence at the drop of a hat? Why do we consume enough alcohol every week to fill all the craters of the moon? The fact is that no one ever taught us how to communicate - with ourselves and each other - and we no longer have any memory of the old-school social protocol that kept the world glued together in Ethel and Arthur's era.
In the light of the vast wealth of self-development knowledge readily available, it would be easy for every schoolchild to be instructed in rudimentary communication skills and martial arts (to sublimate the violent urge). How wonderful it would be if every parent should be obliged to train in basic ethics and induced by tax breaks to pass on a simple code of human decency or at least good manners to their kids.
In the meantime, however, we have to deal with our own bad selves, stamping our feet because we want more and we want it now. All this anger causes problems with our liver energy and needs a safe outlet before we all start losing the collective plot. The stress of external life will only increase now, especially as that naughty old recession starts biting our trouser legs. It is therefore crucial, if we wish to maintain a semblance of social propriety that would enable us to get along with each other, that we must quickly learn to relax more internally as individuals and with each other.
One way to let off steam safely and promote inner peace is to go out for a walk every day to your nearest park or open space, breathing deeply and letting your mind take a brief holiday. If you have no close canine friends to accompany you, take an imaginary one and, when you get to the park, yell his or her name a few times at the top of your lungs. No one will know you don't have an actual dog, so there's no need to feel embarrassed about it. If you're very vain, take a dog lead to make it look more authentic. My imaginary dog's name is Rowley, by the way. I find it a wholesome sound to yell - the 'ow' bit helps release any emotional pain that's been accruing. So if you see a funny looking bloke with no shoes yelling 'Rowley' on Hampstead Heath, keep it to yourself.
Your questions
Dear Barefoot Doctor, I am 33 and I have really bad cramps the day before each period, then bleed ferociously for one day only. Premenstrual tension and fluid retention seems worse every month with strong mood swings. I keep fit and am in good shape otherwise. Is this normal for a woman of my age?
Lorraine Fisher, Cardiff
Dear Lorraine, this is quite common, but you should perhaps arrange a scan to check everything's physically in order. As you know, 33 is the age when your womb cries out for a baby and it is probably this hormonal build-up that causes the worsening PMS. However, the water retention makes it sound like your kidneys need adjusting and the sudden bleed for one day only sounds like your liver and spleen are out of balance. Try a session of acupuncture around ovulation for three or four months to fix your kidneys, liver and spleen energies; take agnus castus, which seems to help rebalance hormones, and be sure to eat an iron-rich diet, including buckets of watercress from mid-cycle on.
Dear Doc, for some years, I have suffered from dermatitis in my ears (nowhere else). They itch and shed flakes of dead skin. Is there any herbal preparation which might help to clear up this condition?
Joan Callaghan, Plymouth
Dear Joan, the ears are the 'flowers' of the kidneys. This immediately makes me think of stress affecting your kidneys, for which shiatsu or acupuncture would be helpful. Also consider learning chi gung. In time, as your kidneys improve and your stress decreases, your ears should calm down. Short term, try massaging your ears lovingly every night with a preparation of lavender and marigold (calendula) - two or three drops of each in a saucer of warm olive oil.
If you have any problems you would like answered, please write to Barefoot Doctor at Life magazine, The Observer , 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R3ER, or email him at barefoot.doctor@observer.co.uk. Also, you can visit www.barefootdoctorglobal.com
