shin ma

Hibbertia is used for the integration of intellectual and heart wisdom. It can moderate addictions to self improvement and endless aquiring of knowledge and bring contentment with one’s own knowledge and an ability to use what we we already have. It is used in various remedies to support the immune system.

“When spring comes the grass grows by itself. ”
– Tao Te Ching

Hello! Welcome to this edition of my ‘Sustainable Health’ newsletter and an especially warm welcome to those of you receiving it for the first time.

Melbourne has been turning on quite a spring spectacle for us recently. We have been lucky enough to have some early spring rains and have certainly had spring wind. Spring is the time when everything is on the move, upwards and outwards. In Eastern Medicine, this corresponds to the element of Wood, the Liver and Gall Bladder meridians and the colour green. Things that have lain dormant or accumulated over winter are pushed to the surface with this vital new energy.

So, how do we take these cues from nature and interpret them into healthy living choices?

Body

Typical spring complaints are all signs of our qi rising upwards and to the surface with the warmer, sunnier weather. These include itchy eyes and skin, respiratory illnesses, blood noses, stiff necks and shoulders, stabbing pains and headaches. Health Tips Keep your neck covered when outside, increase fluids to counteract dryness, include hot water and lemon first thing in the morning, consider a gentle fast by eliminating inflammatory foods for 10 days such as caffeine, alcohol, dairy products, red meat, fried food, salt and sugar.
Stretch, stretch and stretch again.

Mind

Spring brings with it a restlessness that can turn into irritability, frustration or uncontrolled anger. Health Tips Embrace this increase in energy and channel it into spring cleaning and new projects. Communicate feelings as they arise rather than trying to hold them in, practice deep breathing and include sighing and yawning to get stagnant qi moving.

Spirit

Now is the time to start that yoga intensive or daily walk with the dog, rearrange the furniture and get as gorgeous as a spring blossom! Spring is the season of love, after all.

Wishing you health and happiness,
Elizabeth

The Sturt Desert Rose essence helps us to follow our own inner convictions and do what we know we have to do, no matter if it seems hard or other’s would prefer we did not. It helps resolve guilt and low self esteem stemming from past actions. It encourages the development of strong personal boundaries and personal integrity. Physical manifestations of an imbalance in these areas include: sexual dysfunction and disease, pain of indeterminate origin, thoracic back pain, addictions and hoarding. Emotional symptoms include: vulnerability, unreliability, lack of trust in self, feelings of guilt over other’s actions, lack of assertiveness or the inability to say ‘no’ in testing situations.