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March brings the movement of Water into Wood, Winter into Spring. For our bodies, we experience the power of Water nourishing and infusing Wood. The energy that Water gives to Wood allows for sprouts to emerge fresh and new from branches, and for new leaves to emerge from the inner growth and energetic storage that occurs during Winter.

The organs associated with spring are liver and gall bladder. The color is green.
The liver is associated with the eyes – for example if you have jaundice which is the liver not doing its job properly; you see the yellow in the eyes. Vision – or seeing and imagining what you want to create. This is the spring energy.

Emotionally, spring connects us to the spirit of birth, renewal, growth, expansion, and all that is creative. It is a time for the warrior within to emerge and it is a good time of year to cultivate this energy by strengthening our daily disciplines, creating new goals and creative projects, transforming dietary habits, and cleansing our bodies, and our homes. It is a time of hope, possibility, and inspiration. It is a time to stretch oneself as the new sapling that allows itself to bend in the spring wind.

It’s time to continue a yoga practice as you stretch and tone the body. As soon as possible, get outside to exercise and just to enjoy and see spring happen. Our diets need more green living foods: Fresh sweet immature greens like sprouts. Leafy greens, and things like asparagus and spinach. These help tone and clean the liver.

The winter season is the yin time of the year according to Chinese Medicine. Nature sleeps and goes undercover, inside, and underground.

Using this theme of the internal yin season, what is the best way to look at our New Year’s resolutions? It is to ask if it is an internal or external goal. If it is internal, then it is perfect for the energy of this season and nature’s energy will support you in accomplishing the goal without the force or will power that is required if you were to pick a more yang or external goal.

For example: A common resolution is to lose weight. In just this form, it is totally external – you would see the weight loss on your physical body. But are you doing the internal, spiritual, emotional work necessary to support the external work. Let me suggest a switch in vision for this New Year’s resolution.
During the winter months, set a goal for increasing your connection to God, to your own spiritual practice. Strengthen your inner resources, the same way that nature protects and gathers its resources during the winter months. Cultivate gratitude, and inner vision. Evaluate beliefs, thoughts and emotions that contribute to excess weight or body clutter. Heal the emotions of loneliness, bitterness, unforgiveness thru your own religious or spiritual practice. Create the vision you want in your mind and heart first during this yin season. Use the time wisely during winter for this internal and spiritual work.

Then when spring is eminent, you will be ready and motivated and supported with your inner strength and vision to bring the goal outward into the external world. Just like nature takes its stored water, roots, and seeds from the ground below into the sunshine and above ground for all to see. Then it will be the time to set the goal for weight loss for your external body. It will be easier to accomplish and will require less willpower and internal fighting and frustration. Your inner body and spirit will already be what you want and will manifest into the outer body with ease.

Evaluate all your resolutions in the same way: Here are some of the top resolutions around the country: Spending more time with family or friends, fitness and weight loss, quit smoking or drinking, get out of debt, get organized, enjoy life more, reduce stress, travel. More than half of these are external goals that could be accomplished successfully if the emotional and spiritual work is done first.

Nature has given us the guide on how to grow and improve – from the inside, the spirit, the yin first.

In Chinese medicine the late summer season is represented by the Earth element, which focuses on the organs of the stomach and spleen-pancreas. When in balance the earth element emotions are sympathy and nurturing. When we are out of balance the earth element brings anxiety and worry. If we feel we are taking care of everybody else and no one is taking care of us, or if we cannot stop worrying, we may find our stomach rebels, perhaps making us feel weak and tired, creating loose stools, ulcers or pain in the upper abdomen.

Orange and Yellow are the colors connected with Late Summer and sweet is the flavor so choose some foods for each meal that are mildly sweet foods, yellow or golden foods, round foods, -corn, millet, carrots, cabbage, squashes, potatoes, green beans, yams, tofu, sweet potatoes, rice, apricots, and cantaloupe. Not sugary sweet but naturally sweet.

Moving on to Autumn. Fall represents the aspect of Nature which embodies condensation and crystallization. In Autumn, trees drop their leaves so that their simplest and most essential form is revealed, plants die back and reveal the stones of the earth. Letting go of what is not needed, revealing the inner or essential part. Metal is the element that represents fall.

This is the time of transition from the bright, yang energy of Summer to the dark, yin season of Winter. We gather and store the last of our harvest, stocking up and then letting go and reducing to only the most important things. Condense and refine – that is the metal element. The body organs that go with the metal element are the lungs, respiratory system and the colon or large intestine.

utumn is the time of withering and decay, so the emotion associated with Autumn and the Metal element is grief and loss. However, death can also be a releasing and letting go of old behaviors and emotions or things that no longer serve us. Not only should we clean out the garden, we should clean out our closets and book shelves and old behaviors.

Ways that we can enhance and balance our Metal element would include massage, dry-brushing, drinking fluids, and eating a high-fiber diet. The pungent foods of autumn would be garlic, onions, radishes, ginger, horseradish, broccoli, winter squash, pumpkin and peppers The best thing for our lungs and immune system support is to practice deep breathing everyday – not just on the days you have a yoga practice.

The metal element is related to the mucus membranes which line both respiratory and digestive systems. These mucus membrane linings are the body’s first line of immune defense. Most infections will enter through this route. So, metal is also symbolic of our immune response like a metal shield.

The season of summer is here. In summer the sun is at the highest point in the sky. This is the most yang time of year. In “the summer” of our own lives or the fire time of our life cycle we are at our highest time of our life. It is when we arrive at our own maturity. These are the years we are out working with other people by doing the work we are meant to do.
The season of summer supports the fire in all of us. The Fire element holds our capacity for relationship. Relationship has two aspects to be considered. There is the aspect of the relationship we have with ourselves and the aspect of relationship that we have with others. It boils down to love. The health of our internal fire stokes the love we have for ourselves and our ability to extend that love to others.

In Chinese philosophy the Heart is seen as the sovereign of the kingdom – of the body/mind/spirit. We show the condition of our heart through the light shining in our eyes

For seasonal balance, summer eating requires one to eat and cook lightly, with dashes of spicy, pungent, or even fiery flavors. Be creative! Brightly colored summer fruits and vegetables assist in designing healthy as well as visually pleasing meals. Continue the practice, begun in the spring, of sautéing, steaming, or simmering foods using high heat for a short period of time. While it is counter-intuitive, Chinese medicine holds that drinking hot liquids, such as spiced teas can be beneficial in the summer because they bring body heat to the surface where it can both induce sweating and be released. This “heat-on-the-surface” reflects the summertime climate and thus harmonizes the body with the environment. Spices such as fresh ginger, horseradish, cayenne and black pepper are useful for this purpose.

Create a temperate environment, drink more water, and introduce cooling foods. These can include salads, sprouts, cucumbers, and tofu. Limes, apples, watermelons, and lemons are fruits that are excellent for cooling summer heat. Heavy foods, such as meats, eggs, and root vegetables, can lead to sluggishness and should be avoided on the hottest days.

A Traditional Heart Exercise: Smiling from Your Heart

According to TCM, your face—particularly your eyes—is the mirror of your Heart. The Heart is home to the Shen, or spirit, so your face reflects this aspect of your soul. When your spirit changes, your face changes as well.

True smiling from the heart, not just a fake smile, actually has a profound physiological effect. It promotes the flow of Qi and blood throughout your entire body. Both smiling and laughter can create emotional Qi and drive it through your body, helping it—and your heart—to heal.
Summer activities are perfect for promoting this smile from the heart:
family reunions, social gatherings, dances, parties, camping, races, sporting events, staying up late with friends and family.

We used this reference last year, and I am posting it up this spring so we can see it again. Happy Spring!

Spring cleanse options: Do one of these or all of them – but not at the same time!

1) Eat 2-3 apples every day for the first week of spring. Apples are the highest of all fruits and grains for soluble fiber. It soothes and regulates the digestive tract, stabilizes the intestinal contractions and normalizes bowel function from either extreme. Cut out all junk food but still eat regular meals.

2) Detoxing baths –Epsom salt and ginger. This bath opens pores and eliminates toxins and also helps to eliminate pain. Stir one cup of epsom salts, baking soda and 2 tablespoons of ginger in a bowl. Put the bowl into the tub and pour boiling water over the mixture and dissolve the mixture before adding the bath water. Add as warm of water as you can handle. Do not do this bath after having fasted. Do not remain in the tub for more than 30 minutes. You will begin to sweat. Shower lightly to remove extra salt or soda. When getting out of the tub wrap up in towel or robe and rest for longer and continue to sweat. Ginger causes the sweat, salt draws out toxins and soda absorbs toxins so your body does not reabsorb.

3) Lemonade fast. Drink ½ -1 gallon of lemonade in place of food and drink for 24 hours. 1 fresh squeezed lemon in 16 oz pure water. Pure maple syrup or honey to taste. 2-3 TBl or so. Take your weight and divide in half. Drink that much in ounces during the day. But not less than ½ gallon. Then next day, break the fast with more lemonade first thing in the morning, and fresh, light foods during the rest of the day.

Yoga for digestion.

Digestive problems could come in different varieties. Here are 3 and the yoga therapy for them.

Sluggish digestion: Eat more soluble fiber everyday, like apples or oats. Sun Salutes every day include the forward and backward bending that will encourage peristaltic movement in the digestive system. Do twists everyday. Poses that build the core muscles are helpful as well.

Too much fire or heartburn, diarrhea, inflammation and acid: Supported and passive backbending poses. Stay in these supported backbends for 5-15 minutes.

Stomach in knots, constipation, bloating, gas: warmth and pressure, supported forward bends, child’s pose, adding props to stay warm

More info- Yoga Journal

Abdominal massage – good for stomach ache or cramps

1) Laying down with knees bent. Use a light easy fist and massage in the direction of the colon.

2) Begin right above the right hip bone and gently knead. This spot is where the gall bladder is located. Knead here for a bit and you will hear gurgling. This is the gall bladder releasing bile.

3) Keep kneading with light pressure going up the abdomen, then across under the ribs and then downward on the left side of the body.

4) Keep abdomen soft and relaxed and breathe deeply if painful. Keep up kneading for 2-3 minutes in this same direction.

From Leslie: With some ideas and inspiration from Barbara Handclow. I’ve decide to not celebrate New Year’s in January anymore. It’s going to be springtime from now on. Here’s why:

The New Year is not January 1st! The new year-the Spring Equinox-occurs this year around March 20, For Earth, this is when the Sun is directly over the equator. It is the perfect balance between day and night. The modern calendar abuses our consciousness! The Spring Equinox – not the dead of winter is the time to identify the intentions we wish to fulfill during the four seasons. If you rearrange your life so that your new creativity comes in with the Spring Equinox every year, you will be amazed by how much more successful you are; you will love this powerful and easy flow with nature.

Think about when you have made great New Year’s resolutions. You start strong and then they just seem to peeter out as the month goes by. Then maybe you feel depressed because you didn’t succeed again and thus miss the great potential of the Spring Equinox, when we naturally feel the tug of change and new life and new ideas.

Spring is when we should bring forth new intentions, new directions and new possibilities for the year. During the Summer the time has arrived to birth these ideas into recognizable form. It can be a time of wild growth with the new idea. The Fall Equinox is the time to flesh out, balance, and assess these creations and to weed things out that just are not working or not necessary. The Winter months are the time to enter into deep contemplation to decide how our personal creations work for us and evaluate if those creations have blessed or been detrimental to others. It should be internal work that we do during winter rather than the frenzied spending and partying that Christmas and New Year’s brings each year.

If you made New Year’s resolutions, renew them and ponder them again and see if you still feel inspired by them this spring. If so, work with this spring energy that we feel from nature. Take some time and meditate and visualize these new directions coming easily into reality. One way to do this is watch the movie in your head of this goal being accomplished and generate the feelings you have when it comes to pass.

If you did not set any New Year’s resolutions, think about 1 new thing, or 1 new attitude or 1 new goal or event you would enjoy bringing into existence during this year and meditate on and visualize that.

After seeing clearly in your head what you want, write it down in a journal and forget it. We will revisit these ideas later in the year.