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Valentine’s Day: A Matter of the Heart (and Kidneys)
Happy Valentine’s Day! a celebration of the Heart — whose health depends on strong Kidneys. As Valentine’s Day inspires you to feel love in your heart, I encourage you to also focus for a minute or two on the level of energy (health) you’re feeling, or not feeling, in your heart and kidneys.
As I mentioned in A Mid-Winter Checkup, your kidneys are probably pretty pooped by now, leaving you feeling low in energy. Look at the Five Element Cycle of Regulation illustration on this page and you’ll notice that the ‘Water’ element, embodied in your Kidneys, regulates the ‘Fire’ element, which is embodied in your Heart.
So if your Kidneys are low in energy they won’t be able to adequately support the Heart, and as a result, the Heart function can get a bit out of alignment.
What to Look Out For
If you’re already predisposed to heart problems, you may be experiencing things like a little bit of extra pressure in the chest, or maybe some mild heart irregularities in the rhythm and beat, usually not to the extent of interfering with breathing; but for people who have compromised heart energy, these symptoms may be more severe at this point in the winter.
Mid-season is the time to start rebuilding the strength of that season’s organ.
A Way to Good Health
A ‘rule of thumb’ for good health is this: toward the middle and end of each season, focus on rebuilding the strength of the organ that is the focal point for that season. Right now, in mid-winter, it’s your Kidneys. And because each organ system has a companion organ that it regulates, (at mid-winter it’s your heart), it’s a good idea to pay some attention to the companion too so that it will be in tune and ready to go when it’s season to perform comes; (for the Heart, that’s summer).
A Mid-Winter Checkup
It’s mid-Winter and according to Five Element Theory, the Water energy of this season is coming to its lowest ebb.
If you get too chilly, you’re more susceptible to injuries.
Your kidneys may be pretty pooped by now, leaving you feeling low in energy, and more susceptible to becoming cold. Overall, your immune system is a bit weaker due to the stresses it undergoes from warding-off illness. This is a time of year when more rest is needed to maintain normal energy levels.
Be Careful
Since the kidneys are much more vulnerable right now, if get too chilly, you’re more susceptible to injuries to the lower back, hips, legs and feet. If you’re prone to sciatica, this is the time of year when it will flare up more readily. With the Water energy waning, the strength of the kidneys and the parts of your body most dependent on them can benefit by the support provided by acupuncture, Chinese medical herbs, Chi Kung exercises, and proper diet and nutrition.
Rough Sailing Ahead
The Water element energies of Winter will remain with us until we get closer to the Vernal Equinox towards the end of March, when the Wood element and the Liver will move to center stage. But, in these ecologically tumultuous times, it’s become evident that the Liver energy has already started to flow in, roiling the waters. It’s like the changing of the tides, where one tide has been high and is starting to flow out, (Water element energy), the next season’s energy, or ‘tide,’ is prematurely flowing causing unexpected and unplanned for pressure in your body and mind.Acupuncture and Chinese medical herbs can help rebuild your strength.
This early and strong flow of Wood/Liver-Gallbladder energy this year, is indicated by the premature and vigorous growth in our gardens, as well as the onset of health problems affecting the skin, eyes, and nerves. So if you find yourself unexpectedly irritable, or easily frustrated, this changing of the seasonal energy is a possible reason why.
Be Prepared
The fact that the seasonal shift is taking place so early in many locales, is a warning to start taking preventative measures like acupuncture, Chinese medical herbs, Chi Kung exercises, and proper diet and nutrition to be prepared for the strong effects on your body and mind that Spring energy brings.
Related Articles
A Mid-Winter Checkup
What You Need to Know About Winter
Staying Healthy in Winter
Winter Photos
Living in Stress-filled Times
We live in stress-filled times, there’s no doubt about it. Much of our time is taken up managing fear stemming from international turmoil, economic anxiety, concerns about the safety of the food supply, and other “macro” situations - on top of the normal challenges that come from “chopping wood and carrying water.”
Stressful times indeed, and at the same time, you have the capacity to control what you focus on, and the power to make the practical decisions that foster calm in the midst of the storm. Variations of this
simple insight have been echoing in the literature of consciousness throughout the generations.
To know this, rather than just hope that it’s true, you need a way to experience calm and balance when the ground shakes, the wind blows, the rivers rise - or whenever you feel like you’re having a bad day.
Read the articles, “Entering Sacred Space,” and “Stressing Health” to find out things to do to inflate the ‘protective’ energy that fosters your physical, mental, and spiritual health - and by extension, the health of the world around you.