Do You Have a Spring in Your Step?

Well by now you should have noticed that Spring has arrived here in the Washington, DC area. The Cherry Blossoms are on the trees, the grass is growing and the temperatures are growing warmer. To me the sun seems brighter and warmer and this gives me a spring in my step. I love the Spring season.

To me Spring brings with it the hopefulness of the future, it tells me that after the darkness of winter brighter days are ahead. In Chinese medicine Spring represents the Yin transforming into Yang – more and brighter energy. This requires us to begin transforming as well.

How do I do that one may ask. Well let’s look to Chinese medicine to guide us. As we know all things are made up of yin and yang aspects. In other words everything has a flip side – coins, day/night, positive/negative, up/down, good/evil. Without one the other would not exist and so we need both for balance and existence.

A person has yin and yang aspects as well – for example the front of the body is yin and the back is yang. The inside of a person is yin and the outside is yang. Our energies both yin and yang react to the seasons and as the seasons become more yang, so it attracts our own yang. Our yang is becoming stronger and our yin is becoming weaker. The opposite is true as autumn begins and leads into winter. We need to recognize this and begin our own transformation.

In fall and winter one tends to want hot beverages, heartier food, and to stay indoors and hunker down. In spring and summer one tends to want cooler beverages, lighter fare and to get outside more and soak up the sunshine. This is in line with Chinese medicine and its holistic approach.

We should also be starting to think of ways to lighten our minds and spirits (even as the IRS tries to get in on the act and tries to lighten our wallets). I believe that activity can be great in moving us towards this goal – for instance many of us like to garden. This activity is very, pardon the pun, grounding. It connects us to simpler things and times, to the earth and its ability to renew and regenerate. Walking or bike riding, outdoor activities that speed up our hearts, causing us to breathe deeper and inhale the spring air and energies within. Cleaning and fixing up the exterior of our homes tends to lend us a feeling of clearing out and lightening the load so to speak. All these activities help nourish our yang energies and prepare us for the coming days.

In future posts I will write about changing our diets from winter fare to spring and summer fare. It is through this holistic, mind/body approach that I like to guide my patients. It is this Wholistic view, looking at the whole person that is the hallmark of my practice.  My clinic is located in Silver Spring, MD which is close by to Washington DC.

Wishing you an enlightening Spring and a bright future.