Spring Wellness & Chinese Medicine

Spring Wellness & Chinese Medicine

 

In Chinese medicine, we often look to the Five Elements (or Five Phases) for balance and harmony within our systems. Spring is the Wood element; the organ it governs is the Liver – one good reason why it’s not the worst time to do a spring cleanse on ourselves, spring clean our houses, and we feel the itch to move, do and change.  As the earth’s energy shifts and changes, so does our inner climate; our bodies feel the same Spring arising inside.  As buds are about to emerge, that budding energy also rises within us – it’s painful!  Most people think SPRING!  It’s exciting!  Flowers! Shorts! My $200 sunnies!  But most of my patients are actually pretty agitated at this time – they’re it’s difficult to move out of winter into spring, let alone in the Pacific Northwest – just this week we had a 72 degree day and today it’s raining and 51! 

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Summer Health & Chinese Medicine

It’s so common in summer, especially in Washington where we really cherish the warmth, to… well, overdo it a bit. Excessive drinking, lots of cold brew, eating sporadically and not well (hello, pizza) and blazing in the sun for hours – sound like a lot of your summers? What does Chinese medicine say about staying healthy in the summer months?

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