Lunar New Year - your health with the energy of the Green Dragon in 2024

On the 10th of February there will be a New Moon that will mark the beginning of the Chinese New Lunar Year, the year of the Green Dragon. The Green is associated with the Wood Element, therefore with the Spring, and all that which this represents. The Dragon itself is associated with the Fire Element.

It will be a truly different year from the past several years as we are moving out of a two year period in the Water Element, and out of a five year period of the Yin energy. It is like flipping a coin, there is a sudden move into a full Yang energy of Wood and Fire elements.

What are all these changes in the energy going to mean for your health? Read on below.

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The Green Dragon and your physical health

Even though we have had a year of a peaceful Rabbit in the Water Element, the energies have been pretty active despite that. So, it does not require much imagination to work out that entering into the year of a ferocious creature such as the Dragon and into the very active, rising Yang energy of Wood Element, is going to be very fast and full on. It can be compared to having a new born baby or to having school age kids around the house, all the time. You are going to be kept on your toes.

Wood Element is linked with Spring, with growth, childhood, creativity, overstepping the boundaries in order to find new experiences to learn from. Wood element is associated with Liver and Gallbladder, so these two organs will get an extra energetic support and, beware, could overheat. Hence it will be an excellent year to detox your Liver! It is best to start in early Spring to prepare your body for a busy year ahead. Follow my other blog for a Balanced-6-Week-Detox programme.

Detoxing your body systems all around will help you feel rejuvenated and ready to face a busy year ahead. Wood element is linked to Liver, and Liver detox is key especially if your emotions are hard to keep at bay. After the detox you will find it easier to contain them. It may be a difficult year, in fact, for containing anything, be warned! On the positive side, you will feel more energised and hopeful for the future, despite all.

In the same time, it is the Dragon year, which will add the pressure on your Heart. Be mindful of it and take times off to rest, spend time in Nature and open-air spaces, which will give your Heart the calm it requires. You may also like to join me in weekly live meditations to practice Heartfulness. It will be necessary to take care of your inner peace for maintaining deep sleep at night. Develop regular sleeping habits and rituals to assure adequate amount and sleep quality.

The Green Dragon and your mental health

Getting enough of good sleep will be essential for your mental health this year as your mind, during the day, will be kept occupied with many activities, projects and all unexpected events.

In the Green Dragon year we will have a greater need and capacity to learn new skills and acquire knowledge, start new activities or projects. So, do take advantage of it, be courageous and sign yourself up for a course and learn a new skill or finish a diploma you've dreamed of for a while. The key to success will be to choose well and stick to it! Particularly now, the tendency will be to be swayed by the winds and be unstable and easily distracted in your mind. Therefore, at the beginning of the year, set yourself a plan for attaining your objective. That will help you keep focused and peaceful mind.

The result of choosing too many studies, projects, jobs, etc may lead to mental "overheating" or confusion. So, prune out the actives that are not essential for driving you to your final goal or destination. The Dragon energy will help you eliminate all that is not necessary for you, if you have the mental will to command your mind.

You will need a conscious, concerted effort to will your mind when necessary as the energy of the Green Dragon can also be rather immature and scattered at the same time as being courageous and determined.

The Green Dragon and your spiritual wellbeing

Equally scattered may be your psycho-spiritual wellbeing during the Wood-Fire year, if you are not attentive. It is with no doubt a year marked for change and growth. We will be challenged, in one area of life or another, so being elastic and adaptable will be an essential trait for your wellbeing and personal growth. It will come easier and more helpful to take your life changes with the openness and curiosity of a child.

There are two ways in which to approach changes as explained by Confucius:

On one hand he says:

"It is only the very wisest and the very stupidest who never change."

Instead in all other cases, Confucius says:

"They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom."

Before we all think that it is our inner voice of wisdom that murmurs us to never change, check out that such state is in line with your life realisation, in Chinese Medical terminology Ming Men. If not, Lao Tzu warns:

"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading."

And where you are heading may not be your Ming Men, realisation of your life purpose.

The change may actually come as an unexpected falling in love! The Dragon energy is capable of inciting a lot of passion in us, however, fuelled by the argumentative and assertive Wood element, we need to be aware of not getting into huge fights whilst being transformed by the fires of passion.

In fact, we will be surrounded by news about conflicts and wars around the world. It is crucial to maintain the innocent vision of the world in peace, despite all.

As Lao Tzu has taught:

"If there is to be peace in the world, There must be peace in the nations.

If there is to be peace in the nations, There must be peace in the cities.

If there is to be peace in the cities, There must be peace between neighbors.

If there is to be peace between neighbors, There must be peace in the home.

If there is to be peace in the home, There must be peace in the heart."

On that note, I wish you a peaceful, passionate, fortunate but most of all healthy year of the Green Dragon! (Dragon is a symbol of fortune).

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Winter and the Water Element - the Inner Explorations

How to Stay Healthy and Balanced During the Winter Season with the Five Element Energies?

Have you noticed the clouds in the sky have become dark blue? Have you noticed the cold humid air penetrating your skin and getting deep into your bones? The energy is that of inward direction and of inner explorations, both for us and for all the Nature around. Even the energy pulses I sense on my patients have now been withdrawing and going deeper than in summer months. All this inner activity requires us to slow down and reflect more.

Connecting with the Water Element in Winter

Spirit focus

The penetrating energy of Winter is allowing us to dive deep into our Soul and see the bare bones of our essence, that is of who we really are. Winter is a perfect time for reflection on our identity, on the incarnation of our Spirit in this life. Knowing yourself is knowing your path in life, the Tao. The illness comes when we stray away from our path, from our essence and moving further away from the completion of that for which we were born. Hence, self-reflection is the time well spent for our health and wellbeing.

Apart from the downtime spent in self-reflection, it is useful to reconnect with your tribe too, the people who root your Soul into the society. So, family and long-time friends can be a mirror of your current existance; realising that you and them are one as the drops of water in the ocean. The only difference is that each human has an individual Soul, incarnated on Earth for his/her specific purpose. That implies you also need to recognise the boundaries between you and your tribe in order to direct your essence at your will. Otherwise, you become ill.

So, take time in Winter season to, first self-reflect and recognise your own essence, both individual and colletive, and then take notice of where your boundaries must lie. By the way, "the boundaries" does not mean erecting the walls, but recognising when you allow your essence to be compromised to the point you cannot will who you are into being.

Mind focus

It may not be easy to reflect on your essence and your place in the world. With such tumoulous energies in the worlds right now, one can find that the mind is easily dispersed by the social media, fast developing technology, constant availability to asnwer a phone or messages. Sleeplessness or emotional tribulations can result from such restless mind.

Winter energy in itself can be still but can be rough too, just as the sea, depending on the winds. In fact, the conscious mind can navigate those rough winds. Mind control comes particularly strong in Winter. Some of you may know that the mind is closely linked with the Heart in Chinese Medicine, fewer of you may know the brain is also related to the Kidneys. Kidneys, with their will power, determine what your mind focuses on. That's why we need to realise that "the mind over matter" does matter sometimes and disciplining of the mind is an act of our own will power.

I encourage you to try out one simple exercise of willing your mind. If you have thoughts that are negative and/or repetitive, try to say to yourself three time (more potent): "(your name) stop thinking about it, now". Sometimes willing your mind that way does work. There can be other ways and methods of training your mind.

Meditation practices are aimed at focusing your mind. I remind you of my weekly meditation sessions I hold live on Facebook here:

https://www.facebook.com/DoroTao.ClassicalChineseMedicine

and soon to be available also on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/dorotao.kowal/

Body focus

Kidneys and Bladder are related to the Winter season and the Water Element. These organs take care of our waterway systems in our body, including distribution of warmth. Just like the central heating system, the thorough distribution of warm water around assures the right temperature is maintained in every parts of the body.

How to maintain our good circulation when it is freezing or nearly freezing outside?

First of all, the diet. Absolutely avoid ice-cold foods and drinks. They will not only slow down your circulation but also digestion, creating more phlegm and in turn lower your overall energy. There are also foods that are cold or cooling in nature, such as cucumbers, lettuce, mint and most fruits and raw vegetables. It is best to avoid or reduce cooling foods, selecting the seasonal ones and cooked preferably. If you are consistently feeling too hot in winter you may be having toxic heat inside and should seek treatment to adjust your energy rather than eat or drink ice cold foods to cool down in winter.

Secondly, I suggest hot and cold showers (with gradual application) to stimulate the circulation. Thirdly, do regular brisk walking or better: running. Yes, Winter is actually a good time to do some running. Since we are not totally hibernating species, we need to keep the circulation going well. Running awakes in us the primordial memory of flight from the danger, which stimulates the life preserving energy of Kidneys and the Water element in us.

And if you are feeling pulled down by long and dark winter days, remember to drink tea from the flowers of St. John's Wort plant. It's flowers have enclosed in them the peak summer sunshine and now you can boost your mood by drinking its infusion.

Generally, the Winter season is the time to eat more root vegetables and herbs based on roots, tubers or rhisomes. They give us sustenance necessary to keep the body going but simultaneously sustaining our Winter Yin energy. If you would need a consultation for diet and herbs best fitted for you in Winter months, contact me here https://www.dorotao.com/clinic-contact.

How do you live through the winter season yourself? Do you know that depending on our energetic make-up we approach each season differently? Leave your comment about your particular challenges or tips for living through the Winter season.

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Autumn - Body, Mind, Spirit clear-out

One starts sensing the arrival of Autumn after 20th September. The first signs are the insects, which feeling the cold nights, march inside the house. Before the leaves start dropping down, as trees withdraw their photosynthetic activity, you yourself may notice the difference in temperature between day and night and may even catch a cold.

This year I have also noticed the arrival of Autumn has brought a great need to clear out my body, my house and my life of what is no longer needed. For Autumn is the season of great preparations for the downtime in Winter. We can utilise this energy for our health and wellbeing if we align with the season's energy.

Body Focus: clearing out your gutters

This month I start from the physical aspects of the seasonal energy. Autumn is associated with Large Intestine (Colon) and Lungs, both being the Metal element in the Five Elements of the Chinese Medicine. The two organs are the mechanics of "out with the impure and in with the clean". Most of what goes through the Colon gets eliminated and most of what is inspired into the Lungs is absorbed into our bodies. When the Lungs struggle to absorb (or accept) we cough it out. When the Colon struggles to eliminate we feel clogged with impurities, which often show on the skin, our third lung.

If you have problems emptying your intestine, you should try waking up at 6am, which is the peak time for Colon activity; get moving around or better do some exercise, drink a glass of warm water and you will ensure emptying of the bowels. If it does not help, you may have an energy block stopping your Intestines from working efficiently. In such case book yourself for an acupuncture session right this month of October, when the Colon's activity is at its best. Click on the contact below to book.

To everyone of you, even who is emptying regularly every day, I suggest to take advantage of the seasonal energy and detox your body. The season of the Metal element resonates best with a heavy metal cleanse and/or a parasite cleanse. It is a good practice to do both at least once a year and I strongly suggest you do it in Autumn. Some examples of effective heavy metal cleanse supplements are alghe, zeolite or tourmaline water. For more information on how to use any of these supplements, please contact me by clicking below.

Sulfur is known to eliminate heavy metals, especially aluminum, and it is found, among other in cruciferous vegetables, allium vegetables (onion, leek and garlic, which are all related to the Metal element), green leafy vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds and eggs.

All these vegetables add fibre to your diet which additionally improves intestinal movement. One more essential addition to the healthy intestinal clearing are microorganisms. You can take home made probiotics such as fermented vegetables or fermented diary products or for adding more variety of probiotic strains to your intestines, you may consider supplementing with probiotics.

The Classical Chinese Medicine does not promote colonics for generally healthy persons as these deprive the Colon of good as well as the bad bacteria. It is preferable to save colonics for when one really needs them, analogically to antibiotics, they should be used sparingly.

Mind focus: declutter your thoughts

How often in the recent couple of weeks (since the start of Autumn) have you managed to have your mind clear of thoughts and see the life through a clean lens?

Do you encounter difficulty in falling asleep as your head runs through the chores? Do you wake up at 3am or 5am in the morning and find yourself with the same thoughts you had when were falling asleep? Do you find it hard to focus during the day as your mind repeatedly side tracks from what you are focusing on?

These are some of the signs that you need a mental decluttering.

One of the best way to declutter your mind is through meditation. If you wish to get started join me in a weekly on-line, live-streamed meditations, each Tuesdays at 7.00am CET at the FB page https://www.facebook.com/DoroTao.ClassicalChineseMedicine.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Spirit focus: devoid your personal space of futile distractions

Clearing your personal space I mean leaving the space for yourself to be in. In another words, pay attention to distractions. A lot is always going on around you and in life in general. Deciding to let lots of it in, by giving it always attention, is your responsibility. The Metal element in this season, is helping you cut out most unnecessary distractions to create space, emptiness, vacuum, void. A vacuum by definition is already devoid of impurities. In such a state it is easier to reflect on what is truly inside of you, and that is the divinity.

So, it is a profound month for self-exploration and connection to the Divine, provided you take time to clear your body, declutter you mind and your personal space beforehand.

Contact me for questions and appointments

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Autumn Forest, Metal Element