Spring is Here! by: Carolyn Laney, BA, MCM, Dipl.OM., L.Ac., CMT

Hello, spring! The sun is shining. It’s getting beautiful outside, but why am I so agitated? Could be an imbalance of the wood element in Chinese medicine that corresponds with springtime. This article explains the season from a Chinese medicine perspective and offers tips to help you feel your best this spring.
 
Spring is here! 
by Carolyn Laney, BA, MCM, Dipl.OM., L.Ac., CMT
 
“Spring is the beginning of things, when the energy should be kept open and fluid.”
—Huang De Nei Jing, The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine
 
In Minnesota it seems like spring will never come, and life will never appear again from the barren landscape. And all at once it seems, the snow melts. The trees bud and leaf. Flowers bloom and the grass grows once again. New life is everywhere. 
 
In Chinese medicine, spring corresponds to wood in Chinese five-element theory. Wood represents the concepts of:

• Renewal, rebirth, creativity, cleansing, flexibility, and growth
• Expansive, smooth, free and easy movement of energy and activity
• The organs liver and gallbladder, the tissue of the tendons and ligaments, and the sense of sight
• Emotions of: kindness, forgiveness, gratitude, anger, negativity, and frustration

 
I feel the wood energy of spring bubbling up every year. I suddenly want to clean and organize my whole house. I want to get outside and feel the sun, plant my garden, eat lighter meals, and move my body. 
 
One of the things that pops up for me, that I hate to admit, is irritability. If I’m not living in balance, my fuse gets short and my perspective of the world becomes quite negative. Luckily this is a common sign of wood element imbalances and can be shifted. Wood imbalances usually manifest as:

• A rigid, inflexible attitude, and body stiffness or tension in the neck and shoulders or headaches 
• Quick to anger, an overbearing approach to others, lingering depression, an inability to assert one’s self, and a general pervasive, negative point or view
• Trouble making decisions or impulsive behavior, difficulty adapting to change, and making future plans
• All of these symptoms can be made worse with stress or in windy weather

 
The good news is that all of this can be shifted with diet and lifestyle modifications, acupuncture treatments, and Chinese herbal medicine. Some things to try at home include:

• Doing a liver detox by avoiding drinking alcohol and instead drinking water with fresh lemons added or drinking peppermint tea and taking a milk thistle herbal supplement. 
• Eating foods that are sour, bitter, or pungent in taste will help balance the wood element. Try adding dandelion greens, mustard greens, turmeric, fennel, basil, ginger, mint, beets, taro root, strawberries, peaches, turnips, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, or brussels sprouts to your diet. Spring is also a good time to eat raw, uncooked vegetables and fruits, sprouts, and fresh salad greens. 
• Incorporate an exercise routine that gets your heart rate up and your body moving on a regular basis. Brisk walks, light jogging, vigorous yoga, and gentle bicycling are good choices. 
• Spring is a good time to develop a meditation practice around gratitude and loving kindness. Five to ten minutes a day is enough to reap the benefits of this practice. Here’s a link to a guided meditation to get started if you are curious about adding this to your daily routine. “Loving Kindness Meditation to Develop Mindfulness and Compassion” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d_AA9H4z9U

Getting regular acupuncture treatments and taking Chinese herbal medicine is the best way to manage symptoms of wood imbalances if home remedies aren’t quite doing the trick. Acupuncture is the quickest way to move Qi or energy in the body and releases blockages or stagnation caused by wood imbalances. The use of Chinese herbs help extend the acupuncture treatment and balance the wood element effectively by utilizing plants that directly affect the liver and gallbladder. 
 
Have fun this season! Get outside, soak up the sunshine, and go for a walk. Enjoy all the dramatic transformation the renewing spring landscape has to offer in Minnesota. If you need a boost along the way, reach out and schedule an appointment. We’d love to help you get back in balance. 
 
Ni, Maoshing. The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine: A New Translation of the Neijing Suwen with Commentary (pp. 7-8). Shambhala Publications. 
 
Saunder, Mary. Rhythms of Change: Reclaiming your Health Using Ancient Wisdom and your Own Common Sense. Hidden Needle Press.