Spring is setting in.  It is a time of new growth and regeneration. Spring pulls us out of hibernation and encourages outdoor activities in the sun. We start to experience longer days. The seeds planted last autumn have now germinated over the winter and are budding and getting ready to bloom. They break through the frozen soil as signs of renewal and hope. They are seeds of change we have planted within ourselves that now are pushing with the new energy. It is this new energy that brings us inspiration and new vision helping us bring our goals and creative energy to fruition. Nature is ready to roar! We see fresh grass growing, flowers popping up everywhere, new vegetables and farmers markets gearing up for the season. It is also the time to come out and play as all life is restored with spring renewal.

In the West, spring officially begins on March 21st, when the days and nights are the same—the spring equinox. Energetically for Chinese, spring starts with the Chinese New Year, in February, when the light begins its return, and the dormant forces under the frozen ground are called to life again.

In Chinese medicine, spring is viewed as yin transforming into yang, which gives us the spark and power and the boost in productivity we are craving as winter comes to an end.

This a good time to look at your life and come up with a new plan. Clean out what needs to be cleaned within yourself and write a new health plan.

There are five elements in Chinese medicine that dominate the seasons and correspond with specific body organs, flavor, emotion, and color. Each of the elements interacts and depends on the other.
Spring season is correlated with the wood element, which is dominated by the liver and gallbladder and they represent emotion such as anger, the color green, and the flavor sour.

The liver (yin organ) is in charge of this season and also in charge of regulating the smooth flow of qi throughout the body. According to Chinese medicine, Liver has a tendency to stagnate, which makes springtime an excellent time for cleansing or rejuvenation. Cleansing should support our liver and gallbladder.

Common symptoms associated with wood imbalance include:

– Anger
– Irritability
– Depression
– Stiff muscle
– Body aches
– Digestive disturbances such as heartburn (GERD), irritable bowel syndrome, ulcers
– Visual disturbances
– Red or irritated eyes
– Sciatica
– High blood pressure
– Menstrual irregularities and PMS
– Headaches, especially migraines
– Abdominal pain

The Gallbladder (Yang Organ) is an organ that stores and intensifies the bile that was created in the Liver for digestion and pumps the bile into the bowel as needed. Gallbladder in Traditional Chinese Medicine has the role of the “Wise Decision Maker” and helps, to utilize the Liverʼs vision and make the proper judgments and decisions to bring those visions to fruition. People with their gallbladder removed often experience difficulty in making decisions.

Anger is the emotion associated with the element of Wood. Anger is a healthy emotion to an appropriate situation to injustice, frustration or stress and it should be expressed. When expressed with care it can clear the emotions, careful control, dispel tension and restore balance. When anger is an imbalance, it is usually manifest as out-of-control anger and results either in excess or depletion. When Wood element is imbalanced anger shows up as excess, or pent-up energy and expresses itself as “quick to anger,” prone to irritability, tendency to judge or volatile outbursts. Imbalance Wood has a hard time dealing with anger and shows up as anxious and depressed.

The Wood element’s direction is East and climate is windy. The power of these is experienced most intensely between 11:00 pm and 3:00 am, where the rejuvenate of liver and gallbladder take space.
The color associated with Wood is green; its lifetime is childhood, its odor is rancid; and its sound is shouting.

We can facilitate this change and soothe our liver qi by embracing the wood element and by adopting a lifestyle that will work in harmony with the season.

How to Keep Healthy and Joyful During Spring

Nutrition

1. Don’t eat when you are tense or upset

2. Chew your food

3. Breath deeply before you eat

4. Eat whole foods, raw, cooked (baked, steamed)

5. The main foods should be those with a sweet taste. Sweet foods are nourishing, tonifying, replenishing and enriching for organs, and help normalize the function of stomach and spleen. Sweet taste foods include sweet fruits, sweet potatoes, squashes, honey, nuts, yams, carrots, and sweet grains such as corn, rice, and millet.

6. Eat food produced during the spring season such as fresh vegetables such as onions, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, spinach, radish (depends on where you live).

7. Include the proper amount of foods with a pungent taste. Pungent foods may aid perspiration and promote Qi movement upwards and outwards. Pungent foods include ginger, garlic, leek, dikon, chives, radish, scallion, onion, garlic, ginger, radish, daikon.

8. Eat proper amount of foods with a sour taste. Too much of that taste may impair the liver’s function, resulting in liver Qi stagnation. Sour taste foods include grapefruit, fermented food, lemon, pomegranate, black plum, unripe tomatoes, and unripe orange and tangerine fruit.

9. Do not overeat raw and cold food because they can suppress Yang Qi. Cold foods include watermelon, pear, and bamboo sprouts.

10. Spring is the best time for cleansing and body needs to get rid of excess waste and disease. Feel free to do some juice cleansing. Flush out the toxins, eliminate fried foods, processed foods, sugar, food coloring, food preservatives and white flour.

Visit the farmers market and enjoy the abundance of fresh food!

11. Hydrate Your Body: Drink eight to ten 8 oz. glasses of water daily. Use filtered water, not carbonated. Add some lemon juice to alkalize your body and nourish the Liver.

Follow these principles in selecting food during the spring. However, it is important to be flexible using the laws according to one’s body constitution, age, and disease.

BEST FOOD FOR SPRING

1. Fruits and nuts: Apples, walnuts, dates, lychees, longans, peanuts, chestnuts.

2. Cereals, grains, and legumes: Rice, millet, corn, millet, oatmeal, sorghum, black gram, kidney beans, adzuki beans, broad bean.

3. Meat, poultry, and fish: Turkey, chicken, hen, rabbit meat, shrimp, eel, chicken egg, goose egg.

4. Vegetables, seaweeds, and mushrooms: Onions, potatoes, onions, carrots, radishes, chives, scallions, daikon, broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, lettuce, cooked spinach, coriander, garlic, leeks, eggplants, yams, Chinese cabbage, wax gourds, sweet potatoes, celery, common mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, white wood ears, black wood ears, kelp, dulse and arame seaweeds.

5. Herbs, spices, condiments, oils: Peppermint, dandelion, chicory root, perilla leaf, peppermint, honeysuckle flower, basil, parsley, wolfberry, licorice, astragalus, flower root, rhubarb, ginger, pepper, honey, sesame oil.

Get outside since the weather is nicer than during the winter, take a long walk, hike, walk in nature, observe the changes going on all around you, and invite change in. Take a yoga class, Thai Chi or Chiqong.

Clean up your house from all unwanted items that only clutter the space. Create a new space for new to come in. Allow yourselves to be more open and spontaneous.
Let Go of Resentments. They are toxic to the liver. Practice forgiveness.

In Health,

Angie

Check out my Gentle Spring Detox! Click on the image below!