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WINTERWinter time is the most yin time of year, all around nature is stripped back to its bare minimum presenting us with a sense of stark clarity and awe
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Winter hibernating- restoring, reflection and celebration
Winter time is the most yin (inward) time of year, all around nature is stripped back to its bare minimum presenting us with a sense of stark clarity and awe. It is associated with the Water element in Traditional Chinese Medicine and is linked to the bladder and kidney meridians. These meridians represent containment and getting in touch with our deepest essence and potential. These are both great themes as we go into the season where we may need to fall back on our reserves (our larder, our core energy, our vitality) and have the longer darkness for quiet time, reflecting, meditating or sleeping. This is the time of ‘dreaming’ and connecting to our deep essence, the place of our potential. Think of the tiny acorn that holds everything it needs inside to become a mighty oak tree, this is the ‘knowing’ that we can tap into during the winter months. By connecting with this potential and then concentrating and distilling it throughout winter we can emerge in the spring light knowing what we need to plan for in the springtime.
Winter Eating
So in terms of food how can we best support ourselves this winter:
Winter time is the most yin (inward) time of year, all around nature is stripped back to its bare minimum presenting us with a sense of stark clarity and awe. It is associated with the Water element in Traditional Chinese Medicine and is linked to the bladder and kidney meridians. These meridians represent containment and getting in touch with our deepest essence and potential. These are both great themes as we go into the season where we may need to fall back on our reserves (our larder, our core energy, our vitality) and have the longer darkness for quiet time, reflecting, meditating or sleeping. This is the time of ‘dreaming’ and connecting to our deep essence, the place of our potential. Think of the tiny acorn that holds everything it needs inside to become a mighty oak tree, this is the ‘knowing’ that we can tap into during the winter months. By connecting with this potential and then concentrating and distilling it throughout winter we can emerge in the spring light knowing what we need to plan for in the springtime.
Winter Eating
So in terms of food how can we best support ourselves this winter:
- E:ven though we may be less active we still need to keep water levels up, we don’t have to drink cold water; straight warm water or warm water with lemon and ginger is also good.
- Nature slows down so we slow down, whether we choose to ignore it or not, so millet or oat porridge for breakfast and warming soups and broths are perfect, both easy to digest and warming. For a more substantial soup cook with pulses such as green and yellow split peas and the warming grain pot barley.
- Go for lightly steamed vegetables rather than raw, much easier on our sluggish winter ‘go slow’ digestive systems.
- Seasonal fare include the more hearty sweet root vegetables which reflect the deeper seasonal energy and the need for denser complex carbohydrates to keep us warm; swede, celeriac, beetroot, parsnips, shallots, onions and leeks.
- Also feast on hardy brassicas; kale, sprouts and cabbage which sweeten and become even more delicious with the increasing cold and frost
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Raise your energy level & feel revitalisedOn the bottom of our feet is the important acupuncture point called 'Bubbling Spring'. This point recharges our whole system. As we walk the movement of the feet activates it, as does giving the point a good rub. Either way working this point will leave you feeling refreshed and energised.
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Try these stretches that work the kidney & bladder meridian
