Winter in the Chinese Five-Phase (or Five Element) wheel, is the time of Water. Every element also has multiple associations with it, including a color, flavor, sense organ, emotion, body part and climate or temperature. In Winter, the color is black, flavor is salty, sense organ is the ears, emotion is fear, body part is bones, and climate is cold. In Winter, the Yin and Yang organs that rule this time are the Kidneys and Urinary Bladder. What does all this mean and how do we apply it to our lives?
Read moreSpring 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!
Read moreFall and Chinese Medicine
Many of my patients come to me during this time and tell me the Summer to Fall transition is a hard time of year for them. They may not know why, or be able to recognize what is causing them to feel the way they are feeling. Right now, a lot of us are having a difficult time because it is WAY past the Equinox and we are still combating the wildfire smoke!
Read moreSummer 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?
Read more