AND SOME TIPS THAT WE HOPE WILL ASSIST YOU IN COPING
This year's slow transition from Winter to Spring has intensified our modern human tendency to have vulnerability in late Winter and Early Spring. Vulnerable to grief especially. Additionally, as a collective, we are reeling from 2+ years of unpredictable events and circumstances, many of which have resulted in many large life changes, family changes, location changes, political changes, and most of all, health changes.
All of that impacts our physical and emotional organs, especially, in this case, our hearts, gallbladders, and kidneys. These organs have been particularly impacted, and recently, with the energy of the planetary shifts layered onto our recent experiences, as well as our collected vulnerabilities, in place mainly due to our culture, diet, and behaviors, have come together to intensify these particular symptoms. Sleep, anxiety, future planning, willpower, energy level, restless tendencies, acid reflux, and sweaty nights are all some symptoms of imbalance in these organs (kidney, gallbladder, and heart).
So, how do we feel better? What changes are worth making as far as getting the most relief for our time, efforts, and resources?
A few important rules that you have heard before turn out to be key to these specific systems;
You are what you eat. And sadly, many of the things that taste 'good' to us are not actually food, at least not in the sense of providing nourishment. Starting out by minimizing refined sugar and processed carbohydrates helps assist in balancing these organs.
Breakfast IS the most important meal of the day. Starting your day with 20+ grams of protein within one hour of waking will start lowering your cortisol and increasing melatonin so that, as the day goes on, these two hormones continue to shift, supporting sleep, calm mood, and energy levels.
We are creatures of habit. Living our lives similarly from day to day will regulate our bodies and schedules and minimize these symptoms and irregularities in these systems, as well as the system of digestion, which is very closely related to sleep, mood, and the rest of the body.
Exercise is the number one most effective way to find balance. Reminder, walking is exercise. If you are tired, anxious, and not sleeping well, vigorous exercise is stressful for the body. It can increase stress hormones, contribute to disharmony, and increase the intensity of our symptoms. 30 min of walking, 2+ times a week (increasing slowly to 5+ days), is plenty of exercise for many, if not most, of us. If you crave vigorous exercise, return to it once you are sleeping, your energy level returns, and you no longer feel anxious or out of balance.
Last and actually most important, get outside and into nature, specifically, and now that it is warm enough, get to a mountain forest. By bringing the metal and wood elements together, as is true of the mountain (metal) forest (wood), and spending some time (hiking, sitting, eating, sleeping, meditating, playing, reading, etc.), we all benefit, as do these organs specifically.
Of course, there is more that may be done, and if you have these elements in your life and are still struggling or if you need some other ideas or support, please book an appointment, come in and see us for acupuncture, herbal support, and more. Take care.