3 Simple Ways to Stay Balanced During the Fall

As a New England native, I’m predisposed to fall. The air gets crisp, the trees burst with color, and pumpkin coffee draws excited crowds out to all the local coffee shops.

I’ve come to learn, however, that inasmuch as I love this season, many people are not so attached. For years I wondered how this could be; but when I entered the field of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the reason became clear. In most places across the Land of the Free, fall merely marks the downward spiral into winter--a season of short days, chilly nights, and colorless, dreary skies.

As physicists have explained time and time again, everything is energy. Energy makes up our bodies, the world around us, the food we eat, the air we breathe--everything about life and matter. The seasons, therefore, have their own energies as well. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which is very rooted in the principle of energy, sees summer as the most Yang (vibrant, hot, excited, active) time of the year, while winter is seen as the most Yin (cool, calm, dark, heavy). Fall is a hinge, a transition period out of the Yang and into the Yin. We see this in the physical changes marked by the season: the leaves changing color and falling off the trees, the animals collecting and storing food for the winter, how we start wearing extra layers and perhaps going to bed a little earlier. We, and nature are preparing for the cold, the winter, the most Yin time of the year. This transition can be seen and felt as a preparation for loss, a time of letting go of the warmth and sunshine and turning more towards a time of stillness, waiting, and introspection. 

TCM connects each of the seasons to specific meridian/channel systems in the body. Autumn correlates with the Lungs and the Large Intestine meridians. Today we’ll focus primarily on the Lung meridian system because it is incredibly vulnerable this time of year. 

In TCM, the Lungs are known as the “delicate organ.” They are substantially affected by cold and dry temperatures, wind, fluctuating seasonal changes, and sadness/grief--all things that transpire in the fall. When the hours of daylight shorten, the leaves and other plants begin to die, and the temperatures get cooler, is it a very common thing for people’s moods to also drop--many people even have this diagnosed as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). 

Basically, fall creates the perfect storm against the Lungs, and they become very easily damaged. This in turn causes more sadness, colds and flus, seasonal allergies, shortness of breath, difficulty exercising or walking upstairs, abnormal sweating, and even a chronically hunched over posture that the body adapts in order to protect the lungs--often leading to upper back and neck tightness. If these ailments continue long enough and cause enough imbalance in the body, then urinary issues, asthma, and long-standing depression can develop, which can then offset other symptoms and imbalances connected with other meridian systems. So what’s the takeaway? Take extra good care of your Lungs this time of year! 

Following are 3 of the simplest ways you can ensure you make it through this transition period with an uplifted spirit and a healthy set of lungs.

1. Breathe Deep 

One of the easiest and most effective ways to take care of your Lungs is to breathe deeply. Sounds simple, right? Well, when anxiety and stress set in, one of the quickest things to go is our attention to the breath. We begin to hold our breath or take really shallow gulps of air--oftentimes through our mouths, which can contribute to the anxious feelings. To ensure deep and steady breath, begin by taking really conscious breaths throughout the day, inhale through your nose, and exhale through your nose. Fill up your lungs all the way to the top and then exhale every ounce of air out. If you find yourself in a stressful situation, start counting your breath and make your exhales slightly longer than your inhales--this doesn’t have to be substantial to make a difference, even a slight elongation of the exhale can help. Lengthening out your exhales will calm your sympathetic nervous system and instantly have a calming effect on the mind and the body. 

2. Do Yoga

Do some yoga poses to help open up the Lung meridian. The Lung meridian runs along the inside of your chest, across your pectoral muscles. This is one of the first areas to tighten when the lungs are affected, and as mentioned above, this can set off a domino affect and create a tremendous amount of pain and tension in your upper back and neck. You can work to gradually open this area every day to ensure this doesn’t happen by doing these 3 simple poses. Go deeper into each one until you begin to feel an opening or a stretch but you do not lose control and depth of your breath. Your breathing should not suffer as you go deeper into the pose. Keep your inhales and exhales long and steady. 

1. Extended Puppy Pose is a wonderful pose to open up the Lung meridian, and it has the cutest name ever! To get into this pose begin on all fours and start to walk your hands forward--your toes should stay tucked to ensure stability, and your glutes should stay lifted to allow for maximum stretch of your chest muscles and a nice elongation of your spine. An additional benefit here is that your head is below your heart so it is technically an inversion, and thus it has a great power to calm the mind. Keep your arms active and your forehead facing the floor. (If this is difficult for you, placing a blanket or block under your forehead may help.)

2. Broken/Open Wing Pose is referred to by many different names. Whatever you choose to call it, this is a must-do for your Lung meridian this fall; it is second to none when it comes to opening up your pectoralis muscles. This pose can be done with a bent or straight arm. I prefer bent and find it gets more into my pectoralis minor this way which is a huge player in poor posture. There are many different stages to this pose--get into them slowly and check in with your body and your breath every step of the way. Options to ensure neck safety and stability are to place a block under your head or to do this pose at a wall. Begin by lying face down with your arms out to the side, then simply start to open up in one direction--your top leg can bend and the sole of your foot can plant on the floor if you have the flexibility and openness in your chest.

3. Heart opener with blocks is my absolute favorite! It’s an amazing heart opener and it puts my mind instantly at ease. This is done with two yoga blocks with the block under your head being a higher height. The second block goes right between your shoulder blades level with the bottom of your scapula (the triangular shaped bones on each side of your back). If you don’t own yoga blocks, this pose can be done by stacking different books to your desired height--just ensure that your head is slightly higher than your back, this helps protect your neck. Then open your arms out the the side, palms face the ceiling and allow yourself to settle into in the pose and soak up the benefits with some deep belly breaths. 

3. Get outside.

Yes, the Lungs are vulnerable to the cooler temperatures, but there is nothing better for them than breathing deep in the great outdoors. Take short walks and make an effort to spend time in nature daily--just ensure that you are dressing “seasonably." A great thing to start adding to your fall attire is a scarf around the neck.  Who knows? Maybe you could even get a little wild and connect all 3 suggestions--take a walk outside with your yoga mat, and set up to do some deep breathing and some lung opening yoga poses all at the same time!

If we can begin to understand the energetics of each season and what imbalances and symptoms they tend to cause in the body, then we can take better care of ourselves and prevent future illnesses and dysfunctions. Staying on top of your health preventatively is the best form of medicine. 

Here’s to a nice fall and happy lungs, 

Coffee: Good or Bad? A Point of View from Chinese Medicine

Coffee: Is it good for your health, or is it bad? Even if you’re an infrequent java drinker, you know this is a heavily debated topic. Experts from all health and nutrition perspectives have thoughts on the subject. Unhelpfully, these thoughts are usually extreme: Advocates for coffee cite antioxidant properties that could prevent cancer, while other experts say research shows drinking multiple cups a day could shorten your lifespan. How do you know who is telling the truth?

Let’s consider first that true health experts have your best interest at heart, and simply share what they can, based on their approach to learning medicine and the human body, as well as on what they’ve seen and experienced in their own lives to be true. Therefore aspects of all approaches could be true, even if the information presented by one group seems to contradict information from another.

So what’s the viewpoint in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)?

From a TCM approach, no food is considered inherently good or bad. Food--and drink--is classified by its properties. In TCM, food is seen as a form of medicine--arguably the frontline of medicine, because it is consumed every single day, and works internally to provide the foundation of fuel and fight for daily living.

In TCM, whether or not a food is healthful or harmful is determined by what your body tells you. In TCM, you can ask yourself:

• Am I suffering an imbalance? (Indicated by feeling one thing when you want to feel something else, such as cold when you want to feel warm, pain when you want to feel comfort, restlessness when you want to feel calm, etcetera)
• What do I need to achieve balance? (What will make me feel the way my body says it wants to feel?)

When it comes to coffee, this pick-me-up drink has properties the same way other herbs or foods do that are listed in the Materia Medica. Coffee’s thermal nature is warm or hot. Its taste is bitter and sweet. It is considered a purgative. Although these things may seem obvious, and maybe therefore unhelpful, consider that coffee may make you feel warmer as you are drinking it; it may taste bitter, causing a physical reaction; it may leave you feeling slightly dehydrated; and it might help stimulate those regular bowel movements your doctor so awkwardly wants you to have. These things are significant because coffee can be either healing or harming depending on your body’s present condition; i.e., how much it does--or doesn’t--need these side effects.

Take for example that coffee is warming in nature. When you eat or drink warm-natured things, the action of consuming them often has a warming effect on the body--it can increase your circulation and elevate your heart rate. People who “run cold” tend to suffer a variety of familiar symptoms, such as bloating after eating, cold hands and feet, edema, fatigue, and a significant lack of energy and desire to sleep. For these people, the warming nature of coffee can be helpful and healthful, offering them a little “get up and go.”

If you’re not one of these people and you tend to “run warm,” you might have any variety of symptoms consisting of hot flashes, mouth sores/ulcers, anxiety, restless sleep and vivid dreaming, a bitter taste in your mouth, irritability, heartburn, and burning urination and/or bowel movements. In this case, coffee may not be the best beverage for you.

Chances are, however, that you already know the effects coffee has on you. You don’t need a health expert to tell you the positive effects of coffee if you know you don’t react to it well; nor do you need a health expert to tell you why you should quit when you know it gets you through the afternoon slump. The key in TCM is to tune into your own body, and trust what it tells you. It is always giving you valuable feedback.

When you drink coffee, how do you feel? Do you get agitated, irritable or anxious? Do you develop palpitations, have trouble sleeping, do you have hot flashes, sweat more, or feel overly excited and anxious? If so, you may want to back off on the joe for the time being, but remember: Nothing is static. Your body is ever-changing, so you may not have to cut out the delicious goodness forever.

Optional coffee add ins:

-If you run cold with extremely cold hands and feet: try adding cinnamon and nutmeg to your morning brew! It can add just the right amount of flavor and increase the warming nature with gentle and effective herbs.

-If you run warm and coffee makes you feel incredibly anxious, but you just LOVE your morning hug in a mug, try adding dairy or heavier oils to your cup, such as coconut oil or butter. This will have a more grounding and rooting effect, and may help you tolerate the coffee a little better.

One last thought, because we can’t talk about coffee without addressing caffeine… often people follow up my soap box speech about thermal nature and properties of coffee with a question about decaf coffee.

In terms of TCM, the two breeds of coffee share the same properties. Remember that TCM is a very old medicine, and over the years, we have developed many short-cuts and alternatives to things just so we can have what we want, even though they are not especially good for us. Taking this into account, there are many other factors to consider when determining if coffee is right for you, such as extreme caffeine sensitivities or allergies. You individually may want to avoid coffee altogether regardless of the healing properties listed above if you suffer extreme side effects because of your genetic makeup.

Here’s to your health,

A Happy Spleen Could Help You Lose Weight

Although most of my patients come to me initially for another ailment, I am surprised how often I get the secondary question, “Can acupuncture help me lose weight?” 

This is a great question, actually. 

Acupuncture can, in fact, help correct the underlying imbalances that show up in weight gain, and usually the underlying imbalance is something called Spleen Qi deficiency. Think of it in three parts:

• Deficiency means, in simple terms, that there is not enough of something; 
• Qi is the energy or life force that can’t be seen or touched; and the 
• Spleen, commonly thought of as an organ that has some role in blood and some role in immunity (and if you get mono you have to watch out not to rupture it), in Chinese medicine is a much bigger player. It is the underlying force behind obtaining actual nourishment for your body from the food you eat. 

When it is not healthy, the spleen does not have enough Qi (or energy) to do its job. This is when food intolerances begin to show up, as well as these other symptoms: 

• heaviness/tiredness in the limbs, 
• fatigue
• weight gain
• abdominal bloating/distention
• diarrhea/loose stools
• lack of appetite

Most people have at least some form of spleen Qi deficiency--not surprising, since some of the primary causes are overwork (mental and physical), worry, and diet. 

How do we keep the spleen happy? Well, the spleen likes warm and sweet foods, and being fed with regularity. Who doesn’t like all those things? Let’s take a closer look at these things, one by one. 

Warm

This brings me to the biggest misconception with weight loss that I see in my clinic. When someone is trying to lose weight, what do they start eating? It is almost always raw foods, particularly salads. 

As mentioned above, the spleen likes WARM. Warm foods, such as cooked vegetables and soups, will help the spleen do its job best. Have you ever noticed severe bloating, gas, and in some cases diarrhea after you eat ice cream, smoothies, raw fruits/vegetables, or even ice-cold beverages? Most people attribute uncomfortable digestive symptoms to the TYPE of food they are eating. But the discomfort could be from spleen Qi deficiency, caused by introducing cold foods into a warm digestive system. 

This misconception can reach as far as mistaken food intolerances. For instance, I commonly hear people say that lactose bothers them. Fair enough--lactose bothers many people. But as one of my favorite and most knowledgeable teachers says: “If you have a healthy spleen, you can eat anything and not have digestive problems.” A spleen that is injured by cold has to work twice as hard to digest and therefore may develop things such as food intolerances and allergies. With this in mind, it may actually be the temperature of the food that is giving you the problem rather than the food itself. If you have any sort of digestive symptom or a weak digestive system in general, this should be your first and most important change you make in your diet. 

Simple ways to give your spleen warm foods: 

• Sautee your vegetables instead of putting them into salads. 
• Incorporate mildly warming spices in your cooking. I emphasize mildly here because you don’t want to go too far in the other direction and, say, add hot sauce to everything because this will damage the stomach. Some good spices to add are: ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, and small amounts of black pepper. 
• If you MUST eat cold foods (smoothies, salads, etc.), follow them up directly with hot tea or lemon water. 
• Drink lots of warm-to-hot liquids throughout the day. Your best options are herbal teas (caution with peppermint--it’s cooling) and lemon water. Drink all your beverages room temperature or warmer. 

Sweet 

You may have been reading this thinking, “Yes! I can have my sweets!” Unfortunately, you can but you can’t. You can have whole foods that are sweet in nature. Actually, a common sign that your spleen is suffering is that you are craving sweets; lots of women experience this around their menstrual cycles. 

GOOD sweet foods to incorporate into your diet:

• Root vegetables. I cannot say this enough. Please see this post for a really simple recipe idea to make my favorite dish, roasted rooties. 
• Bake up a couple of sweet potatoes at the beginning of the week and top them with coconut oil, cinnamon, and nutmeg and you have an extremely spleen healthy meal that only takes a couple of minutes to heat up after a long work day. 

Regularity 

Eating at regular mealtimes will help your spleen get on the right track and heal as well. I know everyone has busy schedules, but try to come up with a system that works and stick to it. My optimal meal schedule is below. It is brief and I promise to detail some healthy options for meals in a later post, but for now, this is just what I have found to be best for me. You may have to experiment a little and see how you feel best.

• Warm protein- and veggie-rich meal for breakfast, around 7 AM - my “go-to” is sauteed vegetables in bone broth, with eggs 
• Some sort of snack - vegetables, yogurt, or fruit (if raw, I always eat alongside some ginger tea). Good ideas for cooked fruits are poached pears/apples or homemade apple sauce. Side note: it will help a little to eat these things at room temperature, but whenever I eat something not cooked I ALWAYS also drink tea (luckily, I love tea) 
• Big lunch around 1pm, once again protein and veggie rich- usually some sort of meal I’ve prepared in my crock pot, such as chicken with veggies 
• Another snack/light meal around 4, and one at 7pm

I tend to eat my heartiest meals in the morning/afternoon and have things like soup or nuts in the afternoon. Whatever you decide, try not to skip meals, and try to space out your food throughout the day. 

These are 3 extremely simple ways to start building your spleen health right away. With a healthy spleen you will see many great benefits such as improved energy, better muscle tone, less spider veins, less bloating, less gas and diarrhea, more calm and focus, better appetite, appropriate weight loss, and fewer cravings--to name just a few! Try it for yourself. This may be a huge change for some and more subtle for others, but I guarantee that if you stick to it, you’ll start feeling better soon and you’ll jumpstart your natural ability to get at your optimal weight. 

Here’s to happy spleens and happy lives, 

PS: With weight loss, as with ANYTHING you might seek treatment for, it is necessary to put in a little bit of your own work at home in order to see the changes you’re hoping for. Think of it this way: You have one treatment maybe once a week, and some of you only once a month. The rest of the days are up to you. What sort of foods do you put into your body? How do you choose to spend your time--exercising, or sitting on the couch watching the entire new season of House of Cards? Health requires commitment and discipline. A healthy spleen will give you a leg up, but then you gotta move the rest of your body, too!

Is Acupuncture Right for You?

One of the most common questions I get after I tell someone I am an acupuncturist is, “Can it help with (insert any condition or ailment here)?.This is because the majority of us suffer from something we wish we didn’t have to. The reason most of us suffer is that we have been taught only to receive medicine and health care as a means of fixing something which is already broken; we do not think about creating and maintaining a healthy body before malfunctions start to occur. But what if we could change our way of thinking?
As a society in general, we tend to be hyper-focused on fixing problems. When we shift our focus back a bit, we can usually see how problems come from preventable causes, and that it is the causes, not the problem, that need to be addressed. When it comes to the human body, we all ought to be able to recognize ourselves in the following scenario:

Imagine a time where you had an injury or felt pain somewhere in the body. You may have noticed that you quickly developed a very intuitive way to relieve the pain; perhaps you shifted your bodyweight to avoid an achy foot, or used your non-dominant hand to pick up something heavy, or placed a pillow below a sore hip in the car. Whatever the situation, I’m sure you instinctively and creatively found a way around worsening your pain. 

At first, these adjustments may have been just what you needed to allow some part of your body to rest and heal. Sometimes, however, circumventing pain can cause prolonged unnatural use of your body in other areas; and when you strain one part of your body in order to avoid strain on another part of your body every day for a week or a month, or in many cases even years, you will without a doubt begin to feel pain somewhere else. The body has a way it is supposed to move, and when you move in a way that is contradictory to it, you incite a domino effect.

The entire body is interconnected. Every system, every organ, and every cell that is out of balance has to pull from reserves somewhere else. Simply put, the sick robs from the healthy. This is how imbalance forms in the body, and it is the reason unpleasant symptoms begin to manifest. Symptoms of imbalance can be subtle--they may show up in the form of dry mouth, a slightly aching head, or difficulty sleeping. Every person has a different chemical makeup, and therefore these imbalances will show up differently in everyone. It takes an in-tune and aware individual to begin noticing these changes in their body, and an even more proactive and intelligent person to decide to do something about them when the first signs arise.

 At last, we come to acupuncture and its role in all this. Acupuncture is part of a holistic medical system that originated in China and dates back thousands of years, and its entire motivation is to restore balance anywhere in the body. That means that in a roundabout way, acupuncture can really work with anything, although its strength is with preventative and early-onset illness. This is why acupuncture is fantastic for children and adolescents, because the majority of their imbalances are fresh and new, still close to their root cause, and relatively easy to reverse. It becomes more difficult when we keep ignoring the subtle changes that show up in our bodies, because they continue to get more numerous day after day. This then leads to a very deep, systemic malfunction in the body, which in turn takes longer to treat with any form of medicine.

When explaining this to those who are new to acupuncture, I often get follow-up questions about whether or not acupuncture can cure things such as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimers, and other extreme ailments. Without a doubt, there are some very debilitating diseases that are best managed with a combination of pharmacological treatments and acupuncture. Until you begin getting treated with acupuncture and seeing how your body responds, it is nearly impossible to determine the level of imbalance in the body. What I can say with clarity and assertion is that acupuncture will most definitely help in some area of a person’s life. When dealing with chronic illness, there is such a deep imbalance in the body that the person’s main concern may not be transformed in the way that they hope. In these individuals, although their illness may not be cured, their quality of life will almost certainly improve and many symptoms will be managed with acupuncture included in their care.

Because acupuncture works with such a variety of individuals with drastically differently manifesting symptoms, it is challenging to specifically say what changes you will see after beginning your course of treatments. Following are a list of benefits I have found to show up in almost everyone I treat, regardless of primary concern:

• Improved and more stable mood
• Stress reduction and the body’s ability to handle difficult situations 
• Better and more sustainable energy throughout the day  
• Deeper and more quality sleep 
• Appetite regulation- more or less depending on what the individual needs 
• Overall increased feeling of well being 
• Decrease in pain and inflammation in the body 

There are many lists out that there have been approved by the FDA detailing specific ailments that “acupuncture can treat” and they can be helpful, but just remember that looking at the benefits of acupuncture in that way minimizes the vast comprehensive approach that it actually has on the body. It is a much more holistic medicine that can positively affect many individuals. 

Here's to healthy and balanced bodies, 

3 Easy Steps to Prevent Burnout

Congratulations! You’ve found the section of my blog where we are going to get very real. I wholeheartedly promise to highlight my deepest regrets, failures, mistakes, and saddest of times. 

Why would I do this? Because it is in these times where transformation happens; it is here where our souls grow in ways we never thought possible. I’ll start small, of course; after all, I don’t want to scare you. I merely want to share with you some of the valuable lessons I’ve learned and some of my most treasured experiences, in the hopes that some of my stories may help you in the future. 

I also want to remind you that although we as individuals of a specific culture create images on the web of what our lives are like, often using only beautiful pictures, carefully edited words, and strategically chosen brands, there is a very real side to each and everyone one of us. Every single one of us will fail, lash out, cry heavily, say things we don’t mean, and feel defeat many times throughout our lives. The goal of this section in my blog is to help all of us accept that this is normal, and this is where the beauty lies, this is the truth, this is where real change and growth happens. 

BURNOUT is REAL! My 3 Very Simple Tips to Avoid (or correct) Burnout 

I have a tendency to overload myself in life. I work too hard and create so many unrealistic goals that would never, ever be possible in a million years. Since as far back as I can remember I’ve been working at least 2 jobs at a time, studying something or other, attempting to exercise, and trying desperately to take care of myself (and I wonder why I get headaches or feel exhausted!). Needless to say, I have burnt the candle at both ends and have nothing left to burn. I had an intense breakdown the other night where I cried my eyes out in front of my wonderful, loving, and ever-patient roommate. What about? I had no idea. I just knew that every other sentence ended in: “I’m just so exhausted.” 

After spending some time journaling to follow my massive waterworks, I realized that something had to change. I had started in a situation that I absolutely loved: I’m a practicing acupuncturist and, in my totally biased opinion, there is no better job out there. I have an extremely loving support network, I live in a beautiful area, and I have so many wonderful ideas for the future. The problem? I often had no energy to enjoy any of it. 

I realized I was beginning to feel burnout. If you’re not familiar with burnout, the term is used to describe fatigue, high stress, and impossible standards that are specifically related to your job. The major downside of this, in addition to the toll it plays on your overall health, is that many people begin to dislike their jobs. 

Burnout was originally referred to as an issue affecting medical health professionals, but today, with our high-stress, high-speed lifestyle in any first-world nation, it can be seen in almost every profession. Imagine my immense panic when I started to feel burnout in my acupuncture job? Literally, I love acupuncture. I think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Since my cognizant, rested mind knows this, I knew I NEEDED to do something to make sure my fire for the medicine kept alight. 

Following is my attempt to reverse the burnout I’ve been experiencing in myself, and hopefully help prevent it in some of you! 

1 - Have at least 2 days off a week. 

If you’re lucky enough and it’s financially accessible to you, I highly recommend taking 3 days off. Operating on 1 day off is literally impossible. That day ends up being everything but a day off. It is spent doing laundry, grocery shopping, meal prepping, exercising, doing bookwork, and trying to prepare for the week ahead. There is absolutely no way around it. You need (I need) one full day to do nothing. NOTHING! Or at least whatever comes up, be it hiking, Netflixing, reading, or sleeping. Trust me, adding extra jobs, working overtime, or offering to cover coworker’s shifts may seem like a wonderful idea at the time but this is not sustainable over time, and what good will the extra money be? You’ll be too tired to do anything with it! 

2 - Schedule in lunch breaks. 

Lunch breaks, doesn’t that sound so simple? Well, let me tell you when it’s NOT so simple…when you’re fresh out of graduate school and you feel like you need to cater to your every patient’s optimal schedule or they won’t see you, they’ll find someone else, and you’ll never make a dime. It would probably be better to just call your whole degree a wash, declare bankruptcy, and hide under a rock. If this sounds familiar to you, you are not alone. It is EXTREMELY difficult to advocate for yourself when you own your own business. More often than not, your needs get pushed behind those of your clients. Once again, this is a completely unsustainable lifestyle. You are NOT a better person if you put everyone else’s needs before yours, you are just a more tired person with a whole bunch of resentment. When you begin to skip things like lunch, I’ll tell you what happens. You send the message to your body that you are not important. So not only will you get moody, light headed, irritable, and over tired from lack of nutrition, you will also begin to lower your self worth and importance. This leads you to become short and frustrated with those around you, and you won’t be able to show up in a present way for your clients, patients, colleagues, and loved ones. Here’s hoping you have a job that schedules this time in for you, but if not and you are a small business owner- please, please, please make this a priority for yourself. Even if you work from home, make a healthy lunch every day, eat it without distractions and optimally take half an hour to get out of your place of work to change up the scenery a bit. Things that especially help me regroup are: short walks, deep breathing, yoga poses, meditation, and journaling. 

3 - Make “me time” a priority. 

Get it in your head that your “me time” is just as important as a business meeting with the head of the company. Schedule in time for whatever makes you tick. For me, it is meditation, yoga, and/or getting outside. I find that my days are so much more pleasant (and I am more pleasant) when I do these things for myself. This all circles back to the idea that we have to show our “innerselves” that we are our number one priority in life. And, as an added bonus: when we take time away from work, it will be that much more enjoyable to come back to it later feeling refreshed. I have an abundant history of using so many excuses on the reg: “I’m too tired”, “there’s not enough time”, “if I cut out my yoga, I can schedule one more patient on that day.” No, no, no, honestly you can make an excuse every single day of your life to avoid “me time”, it gets pushed aside SO OFTEN. Just think, you wouldn’t miss a meeting with your boss would you? By missing out on your quality time with yourself,  you rob yourself of your importance and you will start to skimp in other areas of your life. This is simply crucial, you need to know that you are taking care of yourself, it gives you grounding, stability, and confidence. So, start blocking off time in your day to do something that brings you joy. If you don’t start looking out for yourself, who will? It is nobody’s job other than your own. 

Take it from me, burnout, even at the early stages is no fun. Please don’t let yourself get there, look out for yourself from day 1. Make yourself your biggest and best priority in life, and everyone else will respect and honor you. It is so easy to pick out the people who take care of themselves in a crowd, be one of those radiant, shining humans who everyone wants to be like. 


Mad love to all you hard working souls, 

Your Simplest Detox Trick for Warmer Weather

Spring is the time for detoxing, is it not? Whatever your motivation, be it to trim down for beach season or to purge that junky feeling inside leftover from winter, you’re not alone if you feel an innate desire to cleanse your system and get ready for summer. And whether you have an annual cleansing routine or you’ve never cleansed before, adding warm lemon water to your morning routine is easy, low risk, and can add substantial health benefits to your life. 

Let’s dig a little deeper and explore the motive behind detoxing, especially in the Spring. In general, most detoxification targets the liver, this is because one of the liver’s extremely important roles is that of… well, detoxification! The human body is introduced to new toxins daily. Even those of us who argue that we live healthy lifestyles are, unfortunately, exposed to fresh toxins all the time just from breathing, and sometimes from foreign elements we are unaware are in our environments or foods. The liver helps to sort out the “bad stuff” coming in, ensuring that’s what we excrete, sweat out, or release in other ways. The liver works really hard to make sure our bodies remain as clean as possible, while also playing a role in metabolism and blood filtration. So clearly, it is a very important organ that needs to be cared for. 

To take this one step further, and to look at things through a slightly different lens than you may be used to, let’s explore the liver’s function from the perspective of Chinese medicine. In regards to mental-emotional health, our liver is the organ/channel system that is “in charge” this time of year. The liver provides us with an exciting burst of energy in the spring, but this energy needs to be harnessed and directed appropriately. Signs of balanced liver energy include strength and stability, motivation, and a strong sense of direction in life. Signs of imbalanced liver energy might show up as excess emotion and energy with an inability to handle it--in other words, outbursts of anger, irritability, and frustration. Depending on your genetic makeup, character, and personality you may be extremely affected by this season change, or you may hardly feel it. Either way, the Liver is running the show this time of year, and giving it a little clearing out can only help improve mood and motivation. 

How does lemon water help detox the liver? It “jumpstarts” or promotes the detoxification action of the liver; most of the work of the liver is done at night when we sleep, and drinking a glass of warm lemon water in the morning has been shown to clear out any toxins that have built up overnight. Lemons are full of antioxidants, and despite their acidic nature, they actually have an alkalizing effect on the body once they are metabolized and enter the bloodstream. This promotes new, healthy cell regrowth and production.  See this short video for more.     

So let’s juice some lemons!

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• Boil water in your kettle/tea pot-- warm or room-temperature water in the morning is something that is talked about a lot in Chinese medicine and Ayurveda because of its ability to get the systems of the body flowing in a gentle way. Cold water is a major shock to the system, especially first thing in the morning. It damages the spleen and our ability to help digest the food properly (more on this in a post to come) 
• Juice ½ of a lemon--I quite simply use a fork and hold it over a strainer as pictured 
• Sip and enjoy. 
• Pro tip: This is best done on an empty stomach first thing in the morning. 

Optional Add-In’s: 

• Apple Cider Vinegar - works in a similar way to the lemons, adds more detoxification to the drink, and can help lower blood pressure, sugar, and eliminate excess yeast (candida) overgrowth.  
• Honey - makes the drink sweeter, but also the sweet/sour nature that the lemon and honey give to the drink help to nourish Yin. Yin represents the fluids in the body, and the honey and lemon together can help you absorb more fluid and feel more hydrated. 
• Cinnamon - I’ve talked so much about cinnamon in previous posts, I’m clearly a fan. I like cinnamon in this case because of the flavor it adds and it’s ability to warm the hands and feet. It can jump-start the circulation of blood/fluids in the body.

Things to consider:
 

• Lemons can be harsh on the enamel of teeth, so sipping through a straw may be a beneficial thing to consider especially if you have weak enamel or sensitive teeth. 

• People with severe digestive impairments, stomach ulcers, reflux, etc. should be careful when trying this. If you have any of these issues or an easily angered stomach in general, start small and see how you respond. Even though I have seen this work wonders for most of my patients, everyone’s physiology is different, pay attention to your own body and what it needs.  

Cheers to happy livers everyone!