Is 2023 your year to feel more robust?
I’d like to make it clear from the get-go that this is not another ‘new year, new you’ message.
There’s no smoothie recipe in sight, nor a hardcore fitness regime or diet. This is a guilt-free zone and a place to look towards yourself with optimum kindness.
However, there’s no doubt that a new year is a key time for reflection and setting positive intentions. And what better than a gentle approach to becoming more robust in 2023, by working in harmony with the seasons?
Perhaps your menstrual cycle is a cause for distraction, your hormones feel imbalanced or you’re regularly experiencing pain, digestive issues or you’re not feeling emotionally stable. Are you fed up with always being susceptible to coughs and colds? Would you like to sleep a full night without waking?
Most of all, would you like this to be the year where you put your health first, have more energy and feel balanced in order to enjoy the good things in life?
An easy way to do this is to adapt to seasonal shifts, and as we are now in Winter, this is the time to support the Water element and the Kidneys.
Winter: The time of the Kidney energy
In Chinese Medicine, a practice that is over 2,000 years old, the Winter is a time for recuperation. This is the season to focus on your Kidney energy, one that is highly sensitive to overwork, overexercise and other ways we deplete our deepest energy stores. Therefore, this is definitely not the time to introduce a new intensive fitness regime, raw food diet or fasting that overworks the system. Instead focus on regular opportunities each day for proper rest, even for 20-30 mins (Netflix and chill is definitely acceptable).
One of the oldest Chinese Medicine texts, the Huang Di Nei Jing ("The Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor") reinforces the importance of conserving our energy in the Winter and this still holds true in present day.
“During the Winter months all things in nature wither, hide, return home, and enter a resting period, just as lakes and rivers freeze and snow falls. This is a time when yin dominates yang. Therefore one should refrain from overusing the yang energy. Retire early and get up with the sunrise, which is later in Winter. Desires and mental activity should be kept quiet and subdued, as if keeping a happy secret. Stay warm, avoid the cold, and keep the skin covered. Avoid sweating. The theory of the Winter season is one of conservation and storage. Without such practice, the result will be injury to the Kidney energy. This will cause weakness, shrinking of muscles, and coldness; then the body loses its ability to open and move about in the Spring.”
Here are ways you can protect your Kidney energy:
~ The body should be kept warm, particularly the feet, lower back and neck where important meridians run and can be susceptible to the elements
~ Incorporate gentle movement like walking in nature, Qi Gong or Yoga
~ All foods should be warm and cooked and drinks at a minimum of room temperature (no raw veg or ice-cold smoothies)
~ Don’t skip meals and start your day with a warm breakfast by 10am to fire up the system
~ Have ‘Yin’ nourishing foods such as soups, stews, rice, sweet potatoes and good fats (coconut milk, eggs, oily fish, nuts, seeds) to restore your fluids
~ Quality sleep is very important - the body activates cellular repair from 10.30pm onwards. Treat yourself to a lovely pre-bed routine. Reduce blue light a couple of hours before to ensure you get off to a deep restorative sleep, get cosy with a hot bath and a good book under the bed covers.
~ Incorporate Acupuncture into your routine to reduce latent stress hormones in the system - research shows acupuncture deactivates our ‘fight or flight’ mode that many of us perpetually live with. This will be deeply restorative and strengthening for the kidney qi and as rest is the theme of the season, the time on the treatment table will guarantee you that time for yourself.
Prevention over cure
You don’t need to wait to have troublesome symptoms before having acupuncture. In China, many of the population have weekly maintenance treatments. Comparatively, in our culture we visit our doctor or acupuncturist when we are ill – a prevention-over-cure approach has huge benefits. Regular acupuncture creates resilience in the system on a physical and emotional level, including increased immunity.
Hayfever support – getting to the root
Did you know the optimum time to start priming your system with acupuncture to combat allergens is actually in the Winter before pollen is in the air? Once symptoms like a runny nose, itchy eyes and sneezing begin, it is much harder to manage the ‘root’ cause of hayfever, which acupuncture is excellent at treating.
Warm wishes,
Melanie
