Photo taken by Laura Kara
By Laura Shahinian Kara
Acupuncture in spring
It’s hard to believe that spring is actually here. With the cycle of the seasons comes the biggest transition of all - The transition from winter (the most Yin time of year) into spring (the most Yang time of year). Because of this extreme change from the deep, dark, damp and dormant winter to the fast and aggressive nature of bulbs pushing their way up through somewhat frozen soil, all of nature is affected by the birthing of spring.
For the ancient Chinese, nature is the center from which they derive their medicine. Traditional Chinese Medicine dates back thousands of years and is still living today because of its efficacy in being a complete system of healing - that which recognizes the body, mind and spirit. Just as nature is affected by the cycles of the seasons, what effect is it having on us? We are all familiar with the term “spring fever” and that feeling the first flowers and warm sun bring to our spirits. When living in harmony with nature we feel the joy that spring can bring and the lifting of the heaviness we’ve endured through the long cold winter.
Symptoms of spring - emotional
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, spring is the time when the liver and gallbladder are most active. The emotion most closely tied to the liver and the quality of spring is the explosive nature of anger. If you’re off balance, overtaxed (pardon the pun) and have put on some weight over the winter months, moving into spring can feel like a strenuous transition, making us feel easily angered over trivial matters. Anger is the most Yang of the emotions and often surfaces more quickly and intensely in the spring months.
Symptoms of Spring -physical
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, the liver/gallbladder meridian governs tendons and ligaments, and I find my clients coming in with more injuries this time of year, especially because they get the urge to exercise and often overdo it early on. Like the transition from winter to spring, exercise should go from more quiet to more active and definitely outdoors, but not all at once.
Allergies are also something we see as the spring. Trees and grasses pollinate and make you sneeze, itch, and have difficulty breathing.
keeping the liver clear with acupuncture
Chinese medicine teaches that the liver is the organ that is most susceptible to congestion and when congested will throw the body into disharmony. This congestion in the liver may be the first sign of spring. Physical symptoms may include muscular-skeletal stiffness, sneezing, red itchy eyes, nasal congestion, constipation, and an overall agitation.
treating allergies with acupuncture
According to Chinese Medicine, allergies are an example of misplaced immunity. Wei Qi (pronounced “way chee”) is our outer layer or defensive Qi. The nearest thing we associate with Wei Qi is our resistance to respiratory symptoms such as colds and allergies. When our immunity is out of balance, it overreacts, creating histamine and allergic rhinitis. Balancing the immune system with acupuncture can be simple or complex, depending on the individual. Usually, if attended to early on, it can ward off hay fever season all-together. Acupuncture keeps the immune system balanced, strengthens our defensive mechanisms and soothes the liver Qi which balances the emotions, and gives my clients a deep sense of calm. This is why acupuncture done at the change of seasons is important, but especially in spring - the most extreme change of year. The following poem describes it perfectly:
“Spring is an ache.
Buds swell on their branches.
Bulbs cannot stay in their casings.
There is the breaking out of one state into another.
This is true in inner development as well.
We are both the ones giving birth and the birthed.
We are incredibly vulnerable, beautiful, dependent,
dynamic, needy, and bursting at the seams.
The Spring of the soul hums and aches.
Birthing is full of pain, full of fear, full of exquisite excitement.
It must be carefully attended.
It must be left well enough alone.
Whatever has the dynamism to develop cannot be stopped.
It will grow. It will grow.”
- GUNILLA NORRIS, from her book, A Mystic Garden, Working with Soil, Attending to Soul.