9 Ways To Spring Clean Your Health
Each season gives you an opportunity to nourish your body and soul differently. Spring is the best time of year to cleanse your body and mind to bring it back to an enhanced state of wellbeing. You can do this by working with the element of the season, movement, diet and detoxification. Below are my best tips for a whole body spring clean.
The Wood Element
The foods we eat and our lifestyle choices in Spring can either help or harm our Wood Element which is at it’s most active during this season. The nature of wood is to rise up like a tree that sprouts from a seed and moves up towards the light.
Nature easily demonstrates qualities of the wood element:
Wood finds its way around obstacles – a tiny plant growing through a crack in concrete
Growth can be rapid but also awkward – plant growth can be vigorous and jerky
Wood is unstoppable – weeds that proliferate a garden (I cleared a massive amount of weeds yesterday)
Wood is flexible – bamboo that easily bends in the wind but does not break because it is supple.
Unhealthy wood is like a tree or plant that has become stiff and brittle because it has not been watered. A healthy tree and a healthy wood element are deeply rooted in the ground.
The Season of Spring
The word itself has an energy of jumping up, rapidity, bounding, leaping. Spring is very evident in nature. There are buds on trees, veggie patches begin to grow, weeds proliferate, birds sing and nest. In us we feel it as though something is arising, something is coming. We feel more energised, have more interest in going outside. We want to tackle the projects we’ve put aside, make plans for the future. It’s like we’ve had a call to action.
If we are truly in touch with ourselves and our own rhythms we don’t need a calendar or an outside temperature to let us know Spring is here. We feel the rise up of energy through our legs, front of body and chest – filling and expanding energy that demands expression.
Here are 9 ways your can clean up your health in Spring:
1.Healthy Eyes, Bright Ideas
In winter, our senses have been more attuned to hearing. Hearing what is inside. Our eyes have been less active as our vision has been more internal. In spring the longer days, stronger light draw our focus outwards and our eyes receive more visual input. Seeing is more than just looking. Our wood energy gives us the ability to consciously engage with visual input.
Spring brings with it the ability to look at our world with fresh eyes. At this time of year we can practice engaging with the world as though we were a toddler seeing something for the first time. Gazing at things with wonder. Falling in love all over again.
Spring is a great time to get your eyes checked. Your vision, your perspective, your focus all start with your eyes. As you use your eyes intensively for work and play every day, it’s important to take good care of them. Lutein and zeaxanthin are the main constituents of macular pigment of the retina, which help support macula and retina health and support eye health. Zinc also supports healthy eyesight as well as cognitive function.
IC Bright contains nutrients that help you maintain eye health and support healthy eye function. Be proactive in taking good care of your eyes so you can feel fresh and bright, and focus on what matters.
2.Colour Me Green
Green is the predominant colour of nature and is therefore associated with the wood element. It is the full spectrum of green – dark green, blue green, jade, apple green, lime green, frog green, pea green.
Green means go! It signifies nature, life, youth and hope. It is interesting to note how much green you have in your wardrobe. Watching fashion is an interesting way to understand energy. Each year/each season there is often a predominance to certain colours. This can give us a clue to what energy fashion designers are trying to balance. Note to yourself in a season if you find it difficult to find anything to buy. It may not necessarily be the style. It may be the colours you need to balance certain energies are not available.
Look also in your home. Too much of one colour or an aversion to it can indicate an imbalance in that energy.
3.Shout Shout Let It All Out
As the wood energy is a strong rising energy it demands attention. Shouting gets attention but it can also discharge frustration. Frustration and anger arise when we feel as though there are obstacles in our way.
Shouting gives us a way to be heard. It also allows to express anger. Shouting is not necessarily loud, but has a forceful tone or it may sound clipped or jerky. Those with quiet voices and a lack of shout are often suppressing their forceful wood energy.
Spring is a good time to spend some time looking internally and identify one thing that makes you feel irritated, frustrated, annoyed or angry (the emotions of the wood element). Work towards letting it go by engaging with the feeling rather than the reason. Once you are fully connected (this may feel quite uncomfortable) shout, scream, yell, roar, punch, jump up and down, stomp, growl, take deep breaths or sigh it out. Find whatever physical and verbal action you need to get release (without harming others of course). Then let the next wave of emotion flow. This may be laughter or tears. Do this as many times as you need to.
4.That Smells Rank
Rancid - this is the smell of old oil or fat. For those who have more of a wood type constitution this odour can exude from their body when their wood element is out of balance. It shows the gall bladder and liver are not processing oils and fats properly and the body’s ability to detoxify is inhibited. See below for ways to help get your body detoxing better.
5.Healthy Anger
Anger is often considered to be a negative emotion. It can be a strong forceful energy that can lead to destruction, trauma, terror.
The energy of anger fuels much activity in the world because it is dynamic. Anger gives us the energy to find our way around obstacles so that we can achieve goals and desires. Without it we collapse at the slightest hurdle.
Anger, if seen positively, can become a powerful strength rather than a weapon we use to harm others. When we are in harmony with our wood element then we have access to its positive qualities and gifts:
Vision – imagination, foresight and envisioning future possibilities
Planning – the ability to find ways to meet our vision for the future. Like a general who has maps, lists of troops, formulating a strategy or grand plan for the battle. It is a good idea to plan each day. To prioritise, organise and strategise. This makes a day run more smoothly and gives our future a sense that we know where we are going. Otherwise we might not be able to see the wood for the trees.
Decision Making – the plan and map give us the step by step decisions to proceed forward. If our wood is healthy we can see the details and big picture at the same time.
Good judgement – an ability to consider all evidence impartially, weight it for truth and validity and come to a judgement decisively considering all facts.
Clarity – being able to see with objectivity. Thoughts are sharp, clear, quick and clean. The movement of wood is not impeded.
Imagination – This is when we are able to see something in our mind’s eye that is not present to the sense. Imagination has powerful effects on the body. If we imagine a dangerous situation our adrenals can produce adrenaline. If we imagine exercising studies have shown the beneficial effects are almost equal to actual exercise. Imagination helps us make sense of the world and plays a key role in learning.
Creativity – this is imagination in action. It is how ideas become concrete and lasting. It is invention.
6.Meridians and Organs of Spring
The two meridians and organs of the wood element are the liver and gallbladder.
The gallbladder, the yang organ, is a small organ that sits below the liver on the right side of the abdomen, just below the ribs. It’s primary function is to collect bile from the liver and to concentrate and store the bile.
Energetically the gallbladder controls the sinews – this is the tendons, cartilage, particularly in the limbs. The Gall Bladder provides energy so the body can move and be flexible.
The Gall Bladder also controls decisiveness. It is responsible for decision making and motivates all the other organs which depend upon its decisions.
The Liver is a triangular organ that rests in the upper part of the abdomen cavity mostly on the right hand side. It has over 500 functions. The most important of which are to synthesise amino acides and cholesterol, metabolise carbohydrates, proteins and fats and produce bile to aid digestion in the small intestine.
Energetically the liver is yin. Its main functions are to:
store blood – regulating the volume of blood in the body, moistening the sinews with blood. If the liver is not functioning regularly it can cause menstrual irregularities in women – a deficiency of blood causes scant or absent periods, an excess causes heavy periods and stagnant blood causes painful periods.
Ensure the smooth flow of qi – this is the control of flow and movement of energy and blood around the body, through the meridians and organs. When smoothness is absent there can be agitation, shaking, a lack of coordination. The smooth flow of energy also contributes to a balanced emotional state.
Thirdly the liver houses the ethereal soul – This is the spirit component of the wood element. It is responsible for planning and finding a path in life.
Meridian Pathways
The Gall Bladder meridian has a complex pathway down the sides of the body. It is like the chief of staff riding back and forth across the battlefield. It begins at the corner of the eye, moves out to the front of the ear, up into the temple, then around the back of the ear to the outside of the base of the skull, up over the top of the head to a point above the eye brow then back over the head to the base of the skull again, before moving down to the top of the shoulder. From here it zig zags down the side of the body, taking in the rib cage and the hip, before it finally straightens out down the outside of the leg, under the outer ankle to the outside of the fourth toe.
The liver meridian begins at the corner of the big toe, moves up the inside of the leg and thigh and does a loop around the genitals before ending at a point in the ribcage below the breast.
7.Bust A Move
The wood element likes to move. It’s energy is active, dynamic and irrepressible. When wood is held back from its tendency to move we can feel tense, frustrated and angry. We need to move often. We don’t move all the time but we are rarely still for long. Even in our sleep we tend to move around. Just watch a child that is asked to sit still and behave. They quickly become irritable, loud and rebellious.
If we don’t move and channel our energy it can leak out and lead to conditions such as restless legs or another shaking condition or nervous habits such as nail biting, hair pulling or angry, snide or cutting remarks.
Body therapies such as Shiatsu help to move the energy in the body. At this time of year treatments can be a bit more vigorous with stretches, rotations and use of points to clear blockages. Belly treatments also help the circulation within the abdomen encouraging the body to naturally detoxify.
8.Springtime Diet
Green vegetables are particularly supportive of the liver and gallbladder. And in spring, leafy greens abound. Get to a farmers market and load up on leafy greens, the darker the better – Kale, collard greens, chicory, spinach, rocket, mustard, bok choi, silver beet, endive, coriander, parsley, basil, mint….the list is endless. You can also eat the green tops of many vegetables such as beetroot and celery. Get into your green tea and green herbal teas such as peppermint, nettle, passionflower.
Other greens such as avocado, asparagus, cucumber, broccoli (the single most health giving plant food available with its cancer fighting properties – high sulphur content), brussel sprouts, green bean, leeks, peas, spring onions, green peppers and zuchini.
Food tips:
Get into your sprouted greens as they have lots of young energy.
Green fruits are less abundant but you can try green apples, grapes, kiwis, limes and honeydew melons.
Sugar snap peas are great as a snack or make your own guacamole or kale chips.
Leek and potato soup for the cool spring evenings. Keep the leek tops and boil them for 30 minutes for a great stock.
Chinese stir fries can takes lots of greens: Kale, bok choi, spring onions, broccoli, peas and beans
Add peas to curries or pasta dishes
Use collard greens as substitutes to a wheat based wrap.
Green up a fruit salad with green grapes, kiwis and melons
Look up recipes for green smoothies. They are great way to get more fruit and veg into your diet. For women we require at least 28g of fibre per day – this is equivalent to 15 serves of fruit and veg!!!
In spring it is best to lightly steam veggies for good liver health.
Utilise the sour flavour as it is the flavour associated with the wood element. Lemon juice in warm water in the morning is a great way to help detoxify the body. Or try apple cider vinegar as dressing on your salad. Cloudy version of this with ferment at the bottom have a probiotic quality to them.
9.Detoxify Mind, Body and Soul
Spring is also a great time to support your body’s natural detoxification and cleanse your body.
Detoxification starts in your liver. While it’s a complicated process, your liver essentially does this in two phases. First, it converts toxic substances to highly reactive metabolites and then excretes these toxins. Your kidneys, lungs, and even gut also play a role in detoxification.
Effective detoxification, as a means to support overall health, demands reducing or eliminating what creates a toxic load, but it also requires giving your body everything it requires to optimally detoxify. Food becomes the best way to do that. After all, we detoxify constantly, and we eat several times a day.
Copious studies show whole foods including cruciferous vegetables, berries, garlic, and spices like turmeric can help your body detoxify through various pathways. Paired with protein and quality fat creates an optimal food plan to support detoxification and lose weight. Go for organic plant foods and the highest-quality animal foods whenever possible.
Other ways to help detoxify include:
Using a Cleanser
Using a dietary supplement “cleanse” product is a safe and gentle way to help support your body’s natural cleansing process. These products generally use ingredients from natural sources to promote healthy digestion and maintain your body’s innate cleansing power.
Support Your Gut
Gastrointestinal issues make it more difficult to support a healthy digestive system as part of the body’s natural detoxification processes. Maintaining a healthy digestive system requires removing obstacles that create dysbiosis (gut imbalances) and other common gut issues, but also incorporating the right gut-supporting foods and nutrients.
Reduce The Body’s Inflammation Response
Toxicity contributes to a natural inflammation response, which can lead to a heavier toxic load, stalling fat loss in the bargain. An anti-inflammatory diet includes wild-caught seafood, plant foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids including flaxseed and chia seeds, lots of non-starchy vegetables, and spices including turmeric.
Support Your Immune System
At a minimum, ensure you eat well, get good sleep, manage stress levels, practice good hygiene like washing your hand regularly, and get the right nutrients that support optimal immunity.
Dry body brushing is also a great way to bring Qi and Blood to the skin and help the lungs capacity to provide the right energy to fight off pathogenic invaders.
Minimize Exposure
Prevention is always your first line of both offense and defense. Avoid household cleaners, building materials, plastics, processed foods, and other places toxins linger.
Sweat Out Your Toxins
Among its benefits, exercise can help your body better excrete toxins and burn fat more effectively. Whether that involves hot yoga or high-intensity interval training, find a consistent workout plan that fits your preference and schedule.
Get Some Bodywork
In spring we can be more affected by wind. Many people experience dizziness, cramps, pains that come and go, pulsating headaches, ringing ears, agitation/nervousness, a feeling of being unsettled and hayfever. From a Shiatsu perspective these are all signs that wind is effecting the body.
Wind can get in to every corner and stir things up. It can also show where there is congestion and a limited flow of life force. With my clients I see a lot of upper body issues especially tension/pain in the shoulders and neck. This is stuck energy in the wood related liver and gallbladder meridians. Shoulders with limited range of movement can effect your breathing, your ability to be open and receive life and can potentially impact your thymus gland due to the tightness that comes into the collar bone.
Shiatsu can help to move stuck Qi. Adding cupping into your Shiatsu session can also help to detoxify the body by improving energy and blood circulation.