Spring is here, and Chinese medicine has a lot to say about it! I know that it seems like this past winter would never end, with the bitter cold and the endless snow. But spring is inevitable, and there are ways to embrace this season beyond moving your winter clothes out of the closet. Embracing the personality of each season is a path to physical and mental health, as well as balance. Here are a few things to know about this amazing time of year:
-The nature of spring is that of expansiveness. The days become warmer, the sun is shining longer, and it compels to go outdoors. Gone are the dark winter days of hunkering down beside the fireplace; spring lures you outdoors. Like a seed that’s been planted in the dark earth that moves upward toward the sun, you are also coming alive from long months of cold and inactivity and being drawn out by the light. The theme for spring is growth; it’s a great time to start something new!
-Spring is also a time of going from inertia to movement. You’ve been pinned down indoors by the cold days of winter, but the weather is calling for you to come outdoors and play. Take a walk, get on your bike, or take a hike in a nearby park.
-It’s incredibly healthy for you to watch nature’s shift from frozen to green. Marking the return of the red-winged blackbirds, watching the trees bud, and finding tiny wildflowers poking up through the ground all put you in touch with nature, and that’s a good thing for your health. Spending time in nature or walking in the woods can lower your blood pressure, decrease your stress, and improve your immunity. There’s a great deal of research that has documented these effects. Being out in nature is calming and puts you in touch with something larger than yourself.
-Spring is associated with the element of wood—not only the hardwood of grown trees, but also the small shoots of plants sprouting up through the earth. Hardwood trees are strong but flexible. If one becomes dry, brittle, or rigid, it will bend and break. Also, while wood seems to be stationary, it is actually in a state of constant flow and growth. Sap is flowing, plants are growing, flowers are blooming, and trees are bearing fruit. Likewise, in Chinese medicine maintaining flow, flexibility, and the ability to take changes in stride all help you maintain your physical and emotional health.
-Not surprisingly, the color associated with wood and the season of spring is green. In Chinese food therapy, eating foods that are local and seasonal are also a pathway to good health, and this time of year, they’re green. This means that eating sprouts, shoots, baby greens, and lettuces that are the first vegetables ready to harvest are a good way to honor both your health and the season.
-Where growth and expansion and the color green come together is in your garden. Whether you grow vegetables in a garden plot or pots of vegetables and flowers out your back door, now is the time to think about getting some plants into the soil. From ideas and planning to harvesting vegetables or cutting flowers, gardening is another manifestation on the spring’s theme of expansiveness and growth.
-I think about spring as a time of new starts, activity, going outside, and getting in touch with nature. It’s a time to get your internal sap flowing, welcoming change, and broadening your ideas. Spring is a reminder that we’re all a part of nature, and embracing nature is good for your health.