Blooming in Spring with Traditional Chinese Medicine

In Chinese medicine, springtime is correlated to the liver and the gallbladder as these organs carry energy to store and detox the blood. In spring, we look forward to longer days, the frost thawing and new growth surrounding us.

‘Spring cleaning’ is a great energetic way to express the change of the season, not only for your home, but for your body too.

As the bulbs begin to push through the soil, we humans should be pushing ourselves to be more active, to engage in activities or thought provoking experiences in order to move stagnant winter energy and express our creativity.

When it comes to our nutrition, raw greens, herbs and vegetables are in abundance this season to enjoy-which stimulates liver energy flow.

A restful winter that may have led to more indulging in heavy foods, alcohol, coffee, and Netflix will lead to more feelings of tension and congestion symptoms.  This tense, sluggish energy is called liver stagnation.

Symptoms of stagnant or sluggish liver energy include: muscle tension, headaches, waking between 1-3am, difficult menses, increased allergies, waking feeling "hung-over", lethargic, depressed, impatient, irritable, or more constipated. 

Foods that decrease liver stagnation are those that taste pungent such as watercress, onions, mustard greens, turmeric, basil, fennel, rosemary and mints. Too many pungent foods can lead to excess heat in the body. If you find yourself experiencing excess heat turn to foods like beets, taro root, sweet rice, strawberries, cabbage, kohlrabi or broccoli. 

If this time of year you find yourself in depression or digestive indigestion, try drinking unrefined, high quality apple cider vinegar, brown rice vinegar or red wine vinegar. To drink, add one teaspoon vinegar of choice to one cup of warm water (raw and local honey an optional addition). If the vinegar causes excess heat try drinking warm water with lemon, lime or grapefruit instead. 

Decreasing your cups of coffee throughout the day will also keep our liver healthy. In order to curb this habit reach for herbal tea rather than the caffeine. We suggest milk thistle, chamomile, licorice root or dandelion root tea. Add a hint of brightness with a fresh slice of lemon or lime and a generous teaspoon of honey to sweeten your morning or afternoon.

Upping our dose of raw foods, adding pungent, bitter and sour foods and drink along with drinking less caffeine will make for a happy liver, a calmer mind and a more creative spirit this time of year. Combine these fresh new foods with hot tea to ensure strong digestion.

yin yoga

YIN YOGA

Perhaps you’ve heard of Vinyasa Yoga, a Yang (masculine energy) style of practice that heats the body, stretches the muscles and connects your pose to your breath. Vinyasa yoga is a powerful practice that seeks balance with a Yin Yoga class (feminine energy).

In a Yin practice we slow down - poses are held between 2-5 minutes, we learn to slow and lengthen our breath, we learn to keep the mental chatter at a minimum. This practice incorporates longer held positions in order to open up the connective tissues in our body to allow for greater flexibility. In order to hold yoga poses for longer periods of time, we use props to support our poses to ease our body into a comfortable position. Once this shape is found, we learn to soften and find our breath to seek a meditative mindset.

You may be thinking, ‘this sounds a lot like your Restorative Yoga class…’ and yes, they are similar but still very different. Restorative Yoga is allowing your body and mind to surrender and deepen into the comfort of restful, easeful poses. In Yin, we work to surrender and deepen our understanding of our thoughts and our mental space because the poses in a Yin practice can be somewhat uncomfortable if new to you. Mentally, if all you focus on is the discomfort or fact that you ‘cannot do this’ or you ‘are not flexible enough’ the mind will not be in support of a restful body. There are always modifications for every body and every experience level is welcome. Examples of Yin poses would be supported forward folds, supported backbends, hip openers and shoulder mobility exercises. 

This is a beautiful practice for anyone with an over stimulated mind, stress, tightness in the body and an overall feeling of being worn out. A regular gentle Yin practice will open up your body to simply feel better. This practice will quiet your mind to feel true presence and at peace within your body. 

Yin Yoga is an effective practice that you will be guided and supported from Kaleigh, our 200 hour Registered Yoga Teacher. For her, regular Yin Yoga has made her realize how important it is to slow down her yoga practice to learn how to ‘just be’ in life and on the mat. Her hamstrings, hips, neck and shoulders always feel amazing after a class and her mind more open and receptive to the world outside the door. 

ABOUT OUR YIN CLASS

Our classes are small~ 3 people is our maximum.  Our space is warm and inviting.  We allow space to find your postures and relax with adequate attention detail.  Our space is calm, colorful, dimly lit, and enhanced with aromatherapy that compliments the practice.

Join Kaleigh and mke MindBody Wellness for this new weekly class on Tuesday’s 5:30-6:30pm, $15.  Any inquiries, please message Kaleigh at info@kaleighatkinson.com

Namaste