Spring spring such a joyous thing
This first day of spring
The sun was out, the sky the bluest blue
Cherry blossoms waiting to be found
Picnic season has come around
As you can tell, Spring is my favourite season, a time of growth and movement. Spring is a fantastic time to start something new. This is why we spring clean the house, to get rid of the old (winter hibernation) and allow in new energy/ new potential. The organ related to Spring according to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is the liver. The liver is the general of the body and is in charge of the free flow of energy.
We have a saying in Chinese Medicine
Tong zhi bu tong, bu tong zhi tong
Which translates as:
Free flow means there is no pain, pain means there is no free flow
Therefore if the liver is balanced and harmonised, the blood will be able to flow freely and there will be no pain.
So how do we harmonise the liver?
The liver belongs to the wood element, and its colour is green. Eating green leafy vegies can help keep the liver happy. We also want to avoid the things that can unbalance the liver such as very spicy foods, fried foods, take-away foods, excess alcohol, irregular eating patterns and stress.
Spring is a fantastic time to start bringing back healthy salads into your diet. Some greens to consider trying could be kale, silverbeet, bok choy, broccoli, broccolini, spinach, rocket, rainbow chard…
Salad can be a lot more interesting than iceberg lettuce with some tomato and dressing:)
Experiment, have fun making salads, most of the leafy greens can be eaten raw. Kale is lovely with a squeeze of lemon juice and a touch of salt. You can even use your green leafy vegies to wrap your meal using avocado as your butter, kind of like a literal salad sandwich (see pic below)
Make your own salad dressings with apple cider vinegar, balsamic, olive oil, lemon juice, sesame oil or avocado. Add some nuts and seeds…and you have a lovely delicious tasty healthy meal.
sesame oil rubbed kale with mashed avocado, lime, salt, grated carrot, beetroot, corn and parsley
and it is as delicious as it looks 🙂
Here is an example of a lovely green spring inspired salad
Green bean and avocado salad
Handful of green string beans topped tailed, cut into 1/3’s
Mushrooms quartered
Small red capsicum diced
Fresh corn off the cob, ¼ cup
Roma tomato
A few Snow pea sprouts or mung bean shoots
½ cup Roughly chopped nuts (cashews, almonds, hazelnuts)
Handful baby spinach
Dressing
½ avocado diced into cubes
Balsamic vinegar
Lemon juice
Mix all the ingredients together except for the dressing ingredients.
Add avocado, a splash of balsamic, squeeze of lemon juice, toss gently.
Enjoy your crunchy raw treat 🙂
Natural body rhythm
Spring is a fantastic time to start waking up earlier, in harmony with nature. When you are eating the right foods in tune with the season, such as leafy greens in Spring, you are helping to reset your body clock back to its natural state. You will find yourself waking up earlier and perhaps even ‘springing’ out of bed 🙂 Walking bare foot in the grass is lovely and grounding, and can really help when you have millions of thoughts running around inside your head. Any chance you can get to go outside, please do. Your body has no doubt been missing the sunshine over the long winter months.
Meditation for spring
Meditation is another lovely way to help bring you back into balance. It’s lovely to wake up in the morning and sit in quiet meditation for a few moments before you start your day. It can be as simple as sitting comfortably, hands resting in your lap, or on your knees, and becoming aware of your breath. Slowing your breath down to breathe deeply into the tummy… and gently pulling the tummy back to the spine on the exhalation.
Breathing in for a count of 5…out for a count of 5… just focussing on the breath.
Once your mind has slowed down a little, you can bring your awareness to your hands… see if you can feel them tingling a little… bring your awareness to your arms…your shoulders..
Bring your awareness to your feet, can you feel them tingling… your lower legs…thighs..
Bring your awareness to the base of your spine, going up one vertebra at a time till you reach your neck. Bring that awareness to the back of your head, forehead, eyelids, eyebrows, nose, mouth, lips, tongue, chin, jaw.
Allow yourself to just be aware of the gentle pulsation going through you. You may even feel a little warm. If you find your mind straying, just come back to the breath.
Allow yourself to slowly come back into the room, breathing a little deeper, wriggling fingers and toes, slowly opening your eyes when you’re ready. Thank yourself for taking the time to harmonise and help bring your body back into a peaceful calm balanced state.
Hay fever
Spring can signal hay fever time in some people. Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine techniques, can help you find out the reasons why. The causes of hay fever can be dietary related, improper food for your body type, erratic eating patterns, related to stress and other causes… Regular Acupuncture treatments can help you gently strengthen your immune system, so that you are less likely to suffer the uncomfortable symptoms of runny nose, itchy eyes, and irritability
A great technique to help strengthen the immune system involves tapping an acupressure point in the middle of the chest. This is known as Ren 17, or Sea of Qi
Tapping this point 36 times while stating to yourself,‘ I am healthy’ or ‘my immune system is strong’ ‘my lungs are strong’, is an incredibly powerful positive affirmation to the self.
Try to incorporate it into your morning routine under a hot shower.
located on the centre of the chest, between the nipples. Tap 36 times (Tarzan sounds optional 🙂
* Having hot water with lemon and ginger in the morning can also help ward off colds and flu.
Cold and Flu
Spring is a time of change of season and extreme weather, gorgeous sunny picnic days one day, raining and hailstorms the next…and it could even be in the same day… if you’re a Melbournite 🙂
This means that your body has to continually adjust to different temperatures. Many people come down with colds in the first weeks of spring, due to the onset of windy weather. It is important to always keep your neck and lower back covered… keep the scarves and cardigans handy when it’s cool or windy outside 🙂 If you get caught in the rain or the cold, have a hot tea with ginger when you get home. Ginger helps gently warm you, and can prevent the onset of a cold.
If you do happen to come down with a cold, drink plenty of warm fluids and rest for a few days. Your mum possibly gave you hot honey lemon ginger tea as a child. Keep drinking this tea throughout the day as is it is antibacterial, antimicrobial, warming, tastes really yummy, and is one of the simplest most effective ways of treating a cold.
For the more adventurous, at the onset of a cold you could try hot water with two fresh spring onion stalks and fresh ginger boiled for 10 mins. This tea can make you sweat and bring on the cold quite strongly, so it’s best to hop into bed and sweat it out. The best thing about this tea is it generally gets the cold over and done with, in a few days…rather than a couple of weeks.
Alternatively you could come in for an acupuncture treatment. Acupuncture if given at the onset of a cold, can help strengthen the immune system and can sometimes if treated early enough.. fight it out of the body on the spot
Spring is such a fantastic season of new energy and growth….
Try incorporating more leafy greens, hot water with lemon juice in the morning, walks in nature, and some meditation. If you set up the foundations now, you will have an amazing rest of the year 🙂
Namaste – may the light in me recognise the light in you 🙂
Jessica x
References:
Food for the Seasons; Prof L Wong, K Knapsey; Griffin Press, Australia, 2002
Chinese Medicine- The web that has no weaver; T J Kaptchuk, Random house, Australia, 2000
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