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Spring Health Tips
Seasonal health tips for Spring - the 'Wood' season.
Staying Healthy in Spring—The Five Element Way
Feeling over-amped? Do people around you seem a bit manic? Insomnia more of a problem than usual? If yes, you may be surprised why this is:
Because it’s Spring!
According to the Five Element Theory of Oriental Medicine, Spring is the time of year when the Liver is most active energetically. Which means we’re all vulnerable to seasonal symptoms like irritability and run-away mental activity—inside ourselves and in people around us.
We’re Part of Nature Too
Liver energy in Spring is intense. It has to be ... Nature has work to do.
You can see the force of the season at work by observing the forcing-out energy in our parks and gardens, as plants force themselves out of the ground in search of the sun and trees force leaves and buds out of their branches.
This is the energy that’s around us, and within us—after all, we’re part of Nature too. Liver energy is what we need to smooth out as it courses through our nervous systems in Spring.
Eliot Furness Porter, “Wildness Portfolio”
Balance is Key
How out-of-sorts you feel in Spring is different for everybody. How your body processes Liver energy in Spring, and the symptoms you experience, depend on your constitution and general state of health.
Normally when your Liver is energetically balanced you would experience negligible health problems because of Spring’s forcing energy. But for most of us these days our Liver energy is not sufficiently balanced. This is because life’s normal stresses have become more stressful, and our bodies are in the process of learning how to adjust to evolving environmental problems.
Spring-related Health Problems
So given all that’s going on—inside and out— depending on the energetic condition of your Liver, it’s not uncommon at this time of year to experience Spring-related health problems like:
- Insomnia.
- Allergic, nasal and sinus discomfort related to plant pollen and some of the foods we eat.
- Headaches.
- Lower back and sciatic pain.
- Skin problems like eczema and psoriasis.
What You Can Do To Feel Good In Spring
Acupuncture and Chinese medicinal herbs are always good for rebalancing your body and mind—and maintaining and sustaining that balance.
Eat Well. The simplest thing you can do to improve and maintain your health is to learn about Healthy Eating: The Five Element Way where you’ll learn how to order or prepare meals in a way that keeps your body energetically balanced and healthy.
Exercise. Get some exercise every day so your Liver energy doesn’t get stagnant. Walking is an easy way to keep your body’s energy flowing.
The exercise you choose to do doesn’t have to be strenuous or a test of endurance. It’s easy to strain or sprain yourself in Spring if you jump in and exert yourself too quickly, especially if you’ve been relatively sedentary over the Winter.
Get Enough Rest. Give your body the time it needs to rest. Rest is an inexpensive, powerful medicine for the body and the mind.
Spring can be a joyous experience of movement and growth. Let Nature be your guide.
Garden Haiku
Magical green dusk of Spring
Lights the new tiny leaves
Life returns to the garden
— Lao Xian
Improve Your Digestion in Springtime
It’s Spring ... a great time to focus on improving your digestion; and a healthy digestive system can improve your overall health.
Spring is the season of ‘Wood’ energy. The Wood Element according to the Five Element Theory of Oriental Medicine is what powers your Liver and Gallbladder.
When the energy or Chi of an organ becomes imbalanced it’s normal to experience health issues, ranging from minor to significant, depending on your general health. In Spring these symptoms or discomforts tend to be associated with the Liver and Gallbladder.
Digestive Problems in Spring
A major complaint during the Spring involves problems with digestion.
The Liver and Gallbladder affect the strength and health of your digestive system throughout the year, but because Spring is the time when these organs are most active energetically, it’s also the time when people who have chronic digestive issues tend to have more complaints.
Spring is also the time when people who don’t normally have digestive issues start to experience digestive discomforts.
Your Digestive System
(Click for larger image)
So what kind of digestive issues are most common in Spring?
These would include discomforts in the upper digestive system like:
- Stomach ailments.
- Heart burn.
- Indigestion.
- Pain in the Gallbladder area of the abdomen.
Liver and Gallbladder imbalances can also affect the intestines.
Common discomforts affecting the intestines include: diarrhea and constipation.
Relieving Liver and Gallbladder Discomfort
There are some simple things you can do to get relief from poor digestion, while strengthening your digestive system at the same time.
Adjust Your Diet
There are a few simple and tasty things you can do with food to boost the health of your Liver and Gallbladder.
Manage Your Stress
Be aware that stress affects the Liver and Gallbladder foremost. They’re the organs that capture the initial brunt of stress in your body. Then the stress can go on to affect other parts of the body, but the Liver and Gallbladder are where stress hits first.
Things I suggest to manage stress include:
- Deep breathing.
- Chi Kung.
- Acupuncture.
- Chinese medicinal herbs.
- Meditation.
(There are other ways to reduce and manage stress, but this is what I do and suggest to others.)
Get Some Rest
It’s very important to find time to rest in Spring to not feel burned out. This can be a challenge because—like the trees and plants around us that are budding and blooming—we also want to express ourselves now that Winter has passed.
Try to make sure your sleep is as uninterrupted and restful as possible.
If you suffer from insomnia, another symptom associated with an out-of-balance Liver and Gallbladder, acupuncture treatments and Chinese medicinal herbs can help.
Try to take a few minutes each day to settle down and turn your attention away from your work day activities and take a few, slow deep breaths.
Some people find it beneficial to set an hourly ‘alert’ on their computer calendar to remind them each hour to stop and take a few slow, deep breaths.
The important thing is to break up the momentum of the day to avoid the build up of stress that you can’t see, taste, or smell as it’s building up in your body. We only tend to recognize stress once it’s done its damage.
The solution to so much of the stress we experience is right there beneath your nose. All you have to do is breathe consciously and the stress automatically begins to dissipate.
Enjoy Spring
So use these ideas and suggestions as ways to balance the Liver and Gallbladder energies. By keeping the Liver and Gallbladder balanced you’ll feel calmer and be in a position—mentally and physically—to enjoy the wonderful life experience we call Spring.
‘Fire’ Energy of Summer: Arriving Early This Year
It’s clear to me that Summer’s ‘Fire’ energy is starting to come in already, I’m already seeing more Heart/Kidney imbalances, ranging from panic attacks to discomforts like puffiness or swelling in the feet and ankles — and it’s so early to be seeing things like that.
It’s mid-May, how is the seasonal energy affecting health?
People are starting to complain about heat-related symptoms … so it’s pretty clear the ‘Fire’ energy of Summer is starting to come in early. I’m already seeing more Heart/Kidney imbalances — ranging from panic attacks to discomforts like edema (puffiness or swelling) in the feet and ankles — and it’s so early to be seeing things like that. And what makes it all the more noticeable is that these symptoms are happening in people who are not prone to these conditions in other seasons of the year.
To me this is an indicator that the Fire energy this Summer will be more intense than usual. And what it should be telling you is that now is the time to prepare your body so it can minimize, or avoid, the health problems that arise in Summer — a time when the ‘Fire’ energy is pulling hard on your body’s Heart and Kidney systems.
What do you mean when you say the energy this Summer will be more intense than usual?
Energetically, all of the seasons and their specific types of energy — Fire in Summer, Earth in Late Summer, Metal in Autumn, Water in Winter, and Wood in Spring — have been more intense than normal over the past two or so years.
How do you measure this ‘intensity’?
The main way is by noticing how intense the symptoms are in the people I treat. For example, I’m expecting this Summer to be intense energetically — specifically regarding how the body’s Heart system is affected — because ordinarily Heart-related symptoms wouldn’t be showing up in early May, but they have been.
The seasonal energy should just come in somewhat unnoticed in the six or so weeks leading up to the solstice, and only when the season is fully upon us should the body start to show the normal symptoms of the season.
How do I know if I’m more likely to experience Heart- or Kidney-related issues in Summer?
The likelihood of experiencing health problems in Summer is relatively low if your Heart and Kidney energies are balanced. And ‘balancing’ is what Oriental Medicine does.
If you’re not getting periodic acupuncture treatments and taking Chinese medical herbs, you can get a sense of how balanced your Heart and Kidney energies are by spending some quiet time with yourself to get a feel — physically and intuitively — for what’s going on with your body. After you do that, take a look at the Five Element Chart on this page and see which aspects of the ‘Fire’ and ‘Water’ energy (if any) relate to how you’re feeling.
Important: Keep in mind that the Five Element Chart is a generalized representation of the Five Element Theory.
When referring to the Five Element Chart, if you sense you have a health issue, it’s essential to see a medical doctor and/or an Oriental Medicine practitioner
The fact is ‘Fire’ energy affects everyone uniquely at any given time. But if you can recognize and sense the ‘Fire’ in your own body, you can begin to notice some of its general effects on an unbalanced Heart-system. For some of us it’s a simple matter of blood pressure, for others it’s more complicated.
What does it mean to be ‘balanced’? How do I know when I have balanced energy?
Well let’s take Wood energy, which is predominant in Spring, as our example. The ‘balanced’ trait of Wood energy is Kindness; so feel in yourself: Do you feel an abundance of Kindness in yourself? Do you predominantly experience Kindness in the world, in the society where you live? How much Kindness you experience in yourself only you know, but in the world today it’s easier to come across fear, anger, and hatred than Kindness.
So you can see from that, if you’re looking for ‘balance’ in Spring, look for Kindness — inside yourself and out — and if you don’t find it you know you’re not in a balanced place.
What does ‘balance’ look like in Summer’s ‘Fire’ energy?
The balanced side of ‘Fire’ energy is ‘Joy’ and ‘Courage.’ So if a challenging opportunity arises this Summer that asks you to try something you haven’t done before, if you feel ‘joyful’ that this opportunity has come to you and feel the ‘courage’ to take it on, that would be an example of balanced Heart/Kidney energy. On the other hand, if you feel anxious about trying something new and different, and are overly concerned about whether you’ll do well at it, that’s an example of Heart/Kidney energy in need of balance.
And although this kind of situation can obviously arise any time of the year, in the Summer — the time of the ‘Fire’ energy — it’s more likely for these emotional traits of the Heart and Kidneys to surface.
So here we are now, late-Spring, still at peak Liver energy, with “Fire” energy coming in on top of that … what’s a person to do?
Start by beginning to carve out a space in your busy schedule where you can feel some peace. Learn and practice techniques that enable you to calm your mind. Too many people today are being tortured by what’s going on in their own heads — not to mention everything that’s going on around them.
Spring is probably one of the worst times for this because, as you can see on the Five Element Chart, ‘mental activity’ is the trait associated with the Wood energy of Spring. Being more moderate in your daily life brings some relief from stress and tension, and as a result, more calmness and Kindness … in a word: Balance.
So Oriental Medicine treatment will help me balance my energy and feel calm?
Oriental Medicine is an ‘energy balancer.’ All of the Eastern medicine is about balancing the energy, all of it; so do as much of it as you can.
Related Article
Staying Healthy in Summer