shin ma

“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

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 12:46 pm and is filed under News, Newsletter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.