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.

---

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.

Contact me

---

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

---