Lunar New Year - improving your health with Yin Water Hare in 2023

This year the Chinese New Year is unusually early beginning with the new moon on the 21/22 January. Soon after that, 4th February marks the beginning of the first month of Spring and a change into the energy of Water Rabbit.

Being born in the year of Rabbit myself I associate myself much more with a Hare than a Rabbit. Hares seem more independent, wild and stronger. On the other hand, many other qualities these two animals do share.

Hares and Rabbits are calm and peace loving animals therefore they are associated with diplomacy. They symbolise luck, probably due to their fertile predisposition. They symbolise good health probably due to their bodily agility. They are also associated with patience and dedication. They are intuitive and decisive. They are also said to be intelligent and vigilant. The combination of all these qualities make them a symbol of success in achieving goals and plans, especially the long term ones. In fact, this year we may feel like making some long-term plans, despite the recent unpredictability of life.

This year will be Yin Water element. Yin Water relates to "lesser" water such as rain, lakes and rivers. Yin Water is of black colour so this coming year in China is also called the year of the Female Black Rabbit. Water element magnifies the Rabbit qualities of intuition, diplomacy, creativity, decisiveness, agility, charm. So, these qualities will come particularly easily to us in the coming year. It will be easier to get into a flow of things.

2023 will be the second Water year (after the Water Tiger 2022, about which you can read here https://www.dorotao.com/post/lunar-new-year-improving-your-health-with-the-energy-of-water-tiger) and then 2024 will change into Wood element. In the cycle of Five Elements Water corresponds to Winter energy and precedes Wood, which is Spring. As you imagine Water and Winter time is a time for preparation before the great "resurrection" of the Nature from dead into life. This year will be a step before that, a great preparation for "all go" the next year.

This preparation is gathering the strength, recharging, getting our firmly founded health and identity, which will be so necessary the next year when much wind will blow in all directions (Wood Dragon year).

However, Rabbit itself in Chinese Medicine is associated with Wood element, the Spring and Yin energy. So, it is associated with Liver (Wood element) but also with Large Intestine (Metal element). According to the Five Element cycle Metal controls Wood. This trend continues from the last year, only this year there will be much more emphasis on the Wood (growth) than on Metal (contraction). Rabbits are not ferocious nor potent animals (such as Tiger) and their strength lies in Yin qualities.

Rabbit is legendarily linked to the Moon, therefore emotions and menstrual cycle, the cycle of life and renewal. The origin of Chinese word for rabbit means "spit babies", so it is an auspicious year for the fertility. The Yin Water element adds to it by nourishing further the semen and egg energy.

Although the nature of Rabbits is akin to the qualities of Water, Water and Winter is not a particularly accommodating element to the warmth and grass loving Hares.

Body-wise, we will need to watch out for cold and humidity which will give rise to more conditions such as arthritis, rheumatisms, damp-related headaches, influenza, common cold and stomach congestion in summer, swellings, water retention and funghi conditions may get worse. Pay a lot of attention to the organs related to the Rabbit: Liver and Large Intestine. They are two very important organs for detoxification (Liver of blood and Fatty Intestine of liquids). The more scraps you eliminate this year the more ready you will be for next year.

Persons with general Yang deficiency (so especially women) will need to watch their Yin/Yang balance by keeping warm, doing regular physical activity and avoid excessive amounts of Yin foods (sugar, dairy and raw foods in winter). There will be a tendency for damp-cold accumulation which will lead to phlegm and further complications. Kidney Yang and Spleen will need to be top notch to cope with the damp-cold conducive energy.

But importantly, black Female Water Rabbit is healing, so it is a chance to heal new and old emotional wounds, if you are ready. The Lunar energy of Rabbit will definitely help you connect with your emotions, understand them and transform them better in 2023 than any other year. Practice moon-gazing and tree-hugging for easier connection to own emotions.

For the mental health, Rabbit year will instill more hope, provided you take care of the Yin/Yang balance as the excess Yin may make some people predisposed to depression.

All these conditions (physical, mental or emotional) are successfully treated and prevented by the Classical Chinese Medicine. To book yourself for a in-person appointment or an on-line consultation, just click on the appropriate button below:

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2023 Chinese New Year - Female Black Hare

January - balance of willpower

January is the third month of Winter and believe it or not but coming to February we will feel a real turn round in the energy around us. I somehow sense that this year Spring will come early. Until then, January's energy proceeds from that of December and is encouraging us to rest, especially now after a busy festive season. In January we still have that low time in which not much is happening in Nature, so follow it and rest and recharge your batteries (aka Kidney energy). In Celtic tradition the January's full moon is called "Stay Home Moon". So, let's not overdo on work or travel but rather rest, sleep and take care of our inner selves.

Rest is not intended to mean sitting on a couch but rather taking certain actions for the body, mind and spirit to have an off time. So, going for a walk or a run, go for a skiing weekend or a day at hot springs or a walk by the seaside, whilst at home take a bath, an afternoon nap or take up meditation (click here https://www.dorotao.com/clinic-contact to register for weekly on-line meditation at DoroTao). January continues to be a month of action intertwined with inaction, to which I will come back in a moment.

As I have mentioned in my last year's energy update (https://www.dorotao.com/post/the-third-month-of-winter-rebirth), December is the darkest month of the year. January, on the other hand, is the coldest month of the year. So, we must continue to keep warm. A chilled body is a fertile ground for viruses and catarrh. So, keep on cooking hot soups and stews and oven bake or fry foods. Use ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cayenne pepper, black pepper, garlic, onions and black tea, among others. Also exercise and movement will keep your body's circulation going and therefore warm it up.

This brings me to underline that the Winter energy is about balancing the extremes, of which I talked about in my December 2021 post: https://www.dorotao.com/post/the-second-month-of-winter-watch-out-for-extremes. Winter is associated with Water element, which is very versatile element and can change from a solid form of ice into a gassy steam in just a few minutes, passing through a liquid state in the interim. That adaptability is precisely the quality which we need to cultivate in Winter time. Water adapts as a matter of a physical terrestrial law. Us humans, although 60% water made, we have consciousness and free will to decide when to adapt and when to be constant, unchanged.

The resulting effect is that when we are not in balance ourselves, we may get it "wrong" for ourselves, meaning it may cause us illness. If we are influenced too easily by the external circumstances we may sway from our healthy resolutions or actions. On the other hand, we can become so fixed over many issues and for an extended period of time that we become calcified, immobile and therefore brittle. Balancing Water energy is not as much about finding a golden middle as being able to be fluid and change from one extreme to another as necessary.

It is also about a state of mind, meaning the believes we cherish about our personal will power. In our modern day culture, a strong willpower is so highly awarded and considered a desired virture. Most of us believe that a strong and constant willpower is a positive thing, right? Actually what I have found out is that the highly strung people, even those who apparently are always positive and on the go, consume constantly their willpower (Kidney energy) to maintain such state. Since we are born to experience all kinds of states, highs and lows, active and passive, positive and negative, using our willpower to constantly steer off unpleasant feelings can waste our energy, energy related to Water element and therefore our Kidneys. I have had clinical verifications of this.

It is not to say we should not strive for positivity but when arduous or less pleasant situations arise, to accept those moments for what they are. Use the willpower to get through them like an earthworm who must eat and digest the earth in order to plough and move on. At the end of the process you will come out stronger and wiser for it. In fact, it will be a new you who comes out at the end of a "worm's" tunnel. And the gained ability to get through or around smoothly what life presents you with is what will make your willpower even stronger.

You can also think of drops of water. Water first accumulates into a sufficient size before falling down. There is a moment of pause and accumulation first and the action later.

This is what I feel will help you all get through January and the time that comes at the end of Winter. Check on your willpower: be your own best judge and observe where you use it too much, where you push yourself relentlessly. There you need to pause to reflect. On the other hand: where do you not use it enough? Are there things suspended that wait to be completed or projects you desire to create that need your willpower to move them ahead?

If you need help in assessing your willpower, and therefore your Water element and Kidney energy, book yourself for a consultation and an appointment at DoroTao. Click below for contact details.

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Wild Rose - for finding a sparkle in life

Each time I eat rose hip fruits I feel that amazing sensation of being fully alive; be it for the physical energy and clarity it gives me, be it for the energy it gives me. That zesty taste of its fruits gives me just that: the zest for life.

Wild Rose is captivating both when flowering: with most beautiful, delicate and pastel-coloured rose flowers, and when bearing fruits: bright red shiny fruits in the grey of Winter's background. Despite its apparent fragile beauty of its flowers, it is a robust and resistant plant growing in windy fields or cold mountains. Simply, out of all the roses, this one is the toughest one.

Hence Dr.Bach had studied it and used as one of his flower essences for "those who without apparently sufficient reason become resigned to all that happens, and just glide through life, take it as it is, without any effort to improve things and find some joy. They have surrendered to the struggle of life without complaint."

So, Dr. Bach has indicated the flower essence of Wild Rose for a lack of enthusiasm, saying that "the remedy helps reawaken our interest in life. In a positive Wild Rose state we are happy-go-lucky. But instead of apathy we feel a sense of purpose that brings increased happiness and enjoyment."

It does sound like a perfect pick-me-up for the Winter blues.

I can confirm that such energy is not only contained in the flower essence but also in the fruits of this particular rose. Be mindful of this when you go to harvest fruits of the Wild Rose and even when you consume a rose hip jam or rose hip powder.

Although Chinese Medicine uses a similar Rose, Rosa laevigata variety in its herbal medicine, it has been studied as genetically very closely related to Rosa Canina (Wild Rose)*. In Classical Chinese Materia Medica the rose hips are used more than other parts of the plant. They are considered a tonic. They are neutral in temperature, hence we can eat them in Winter without the worry of cooling our body too much or drying it by overheating. Their taste is sweet and sour but sour taste dominates giving it astringent quality. Astringent holds onto the essence and the slight sweetness nourishes.

It is from its strongly astringent quality that most of its benefits derive: it prevents all kinds of leakage: of energy, fluids and substances. Hence it is suggested when a person is not able to hold onto essence: seminal or vaginal, blood: emorragie uterine, bleedings, fluids: urine or feces (giving rise to diarrhoea) due to Kidney and Spleen weakness. Even when you notice undigested food in your feces or in your child's, that can be a sign of Kidney and/or Spleen deficiency. So, a very good Winter remedy for that is a rose hip jam or rose hip powder. As you would have gathered by now, rose hips are related to organs of Bladder, Kidneys, Spleen and Large Intestine in their capacity to regulate how much to hold onto.

The way to observe its capacity to hold essence is to note the size of its fruits in Autumn and then in December. As more rain comes in November its fruits grow substantially in size and become more juicy just before ripening in Winter.

Further, its astringent quality can reverse prolapsed muscles of uterus and bladder. So, the pulling up effect of rose hips is not only on the mood but also on the muscles in the lower part of the body.

In Winter you can use it even if in good health, as a Winter tonic. If you had read my December blog you would have found out by now that Winter is the season of accumulation of our essence and energy https://www.dorotao.com/post/december-withdrawing-and-accumulating. Last but not least, as most of you know, rose hips contain loads of Vitamin C: 426 mg in 100 g of fruits, protecting us from the seasonal influenza.

So, when out for a Winter walk in Nature, pick some of its fruits. You can eat them raw, especially if soft, squeese out the pulp leaving out the seeds. You can also bring them home, cut in half, clean out the seeds and dry in low heat (up to 40-50°C). Then, you can chew the pieces or pulverise it into a powder and take a spoonful a day.

* https://cmjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13020-020-0298-x

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