STAY HEALTHY IN WINTER
To stay healthy in winter, it is important to take care of your body and mind. Winter is the most stressful season for the body, which has to adapt to the weather conditions: nights are longer than days, and it is colder and weather. Nature encourages us to slow down and stay warm indoors. In this article, I’ll tell you how to take care of yourself for a healthy winter!
10 SECRET OF TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE to stay healthy in winter
The oriental approach to health considers the being as an inseparable whole: physical, mental, spiritual, place of life, social and relational. While in the West we go to the doctor to get medicine when we have a sore throat, in traditional Chinese medicine we are rather in a logic of prevention.
It is personally this method that I adopt for myself and my family, and I recommend it to all those who consult me in holistic therapy and shiatsu. Since I was a child, I have only used plants, physical exercise in nature, and a healthy and local diet. Today, I am happy to share with you some health tips for winter.
THE KIDNEYS: THE MOST SOLICITED ORGAN OF WINTER
To begin, let’s specify their function. It is to maintain a good balance of water and minerals, and regulate arterial pressure. Also, they constantly filter the blood, and pass waste products to the bladder which eliminates them. In Chinese medicine, it is said that the Kidneys are the seat of the vital energy, the innate chi.
For a healthy winter, it is important to stimulate the adrenal glands located in the lower back, and to strengthen the kidneys. To do this, you can do qi gong exercises, self-massage, and adapt your diet.
WATER, THE ELEMENT OF WINTER
Good time in the year to feel and be aware of all the liquide of your body: blood circulation, lymphatic system, water… Winter is also the symbole of mystery emotion spirit, dreamlike and unconscious. Time for inner work and personal development then!
THE KIDNEYS, SEAT OF FEAR
The kidney is sensitive to fear, which lowers its KI. It is said that when the yin is low in the kidneys, anxiety becomes strong. And when the yang becomes strong, will and determination is strengthened. But as you will have understood, it’s all about body-mind balance to stay in good physical and mental health.
Winter is the perfect time to do some inner work. And just go explore your fears, liberate them, and transform them. Take time for yourself to journal and write down your feelings regularly. Or release what you feel through art therapy, drawing, music, or dance therapy with ambient music.
And this is also an excellent time to do therapeutic work in kinesiology to release old memories, and old irrational fears that prevent us from living in the present.
GENTLE EXERCISE TO STAY HEALTHY IN WINTER
1. Rub lower back
To strengthen the adrenal glands, energetically rub the lower back with both palms of the hands (lumbar region). You can stop when you feel warmth in the back and hands.
2. Slam your teeth 100 times
Then with the tip of your tongue, touch the top of the palate. Then swallow and feel or visualize the water going down into the hara, 3 must under the navel.
3. Contraction of the perineum
This helps prevent the decline of sexual function. On inspiration, contract the area towards the anus if you have difficulty feeling your perineum. Release on exhalation.
4. Rinse your face with cold water.
Performed every morning, it stimulates and strengthens the Qi or Chi of the Lung. And thus help us to get through colds, flu, angina.
5. Foot bath, for cold food
This will help the blood circulation, and chasse away the cold from the leg, like they say in China. Here is the simple recipe. Do it every day until your feet recover a normal temperature. Then, do it 1 to 3 time a way until the end of winter.
- Pour 2L of water in a pan
- Put 50g of fresh ginger (stimulates blood circulation)
- Boil over low heat for 20 minutes.
- At the end of cooking, add 1 small pinch of salt (stimulates the energy of the kidneys).
- Pour the whole in a basin
- Add lukewarm water to adjust the temperature (warm but bearable).
- Bath your feet for 15 minutes
- Wipe carefully (to avoid chapping, cracking or other skin problems).
- Foot massage 5-10 minutes (or ask your partner)
It is important not to go to bed with cold feet.
6. Meditate or relax in the evening
It is important to go to bed calmly and quietly to get a good night’s sleep. Taking the time to relax with ambient music, read, or meditate helps release the tensions of the day.
Indeed, when we have too much emotion in us, the heart rate has a hard time slowing down. As a result, it only allows us to sleep superficially, even causing insomnia.
7. Go to bed early
We are not stronger than animals or nature, we need more sleep in winter for good health. Going to bed early and getting up late is a more natural rhythm in winter, advice from Lao Tzu.
In the evening go to bed with an empty stomach and a light heart
Lao Tzu
SELF-MASSAGE
For the simplest and not publicly embarrassing, I invite you to join my newsletter to know the days of the self-massage workshops I offer on social networks. Some of them are free and open access as facebook live, others are paying on registration (contact-me).
8. Point between the anus and the genitals
In order to strengthen the original energy, balance the yin and yang and meridians, and prevent uterine problems. Massage with circular movements, back and forth.
9. The spring gushing out
First sit down. Rub both hands together to warm them up. Then rub the inside of the feet 20 times. Then massage the Kidney 1 point located between the two pads with your thumb. This can help you sleep better if you are prone to insomnia, and improve kidney and heart communication.
10. Breast massage
It is recommended to massage several times, in each direction. The purpose of this is to regulate hormonal secretions, slow down aging, strengthen immunity, and improve sexual function.
WINTER PHYSICAL THERAPIES
Shiatsu in the winter season
I advise you to come and try shiatsu massage: it consists of acupressure with the thumbs and very gentle and relaxing body manipulations. It adapts to any age and to each person. It will strengthen your kidneys and release your fears. Thus, your body will be prepared for the next season. You will then be able to spend the winter without pain, and start the spring full of energy!
If you don’t preserve your kidneys in the winter, not only will you feel very tired as spring begins, but you will also have difficulty dealing with the anger that often rises in the spring as your body prepares for renewal.
In fact, it is in winter that the kidneys recharge their batteries for the whole year… and also ensures a long and healthy life by taking care of your vital CHI!
Kinesiology for a healthy balance in winter
Perhaps you have heard of Health Through Touch Kinesiology developed by American physician and chiropractor Dr. Goodheart? It is a method that aims to search for and restore imbalances in the body according to the principles of Chinese medicine.
This method brings together meridians, organs, and muscles. It allows to recover the physical/structural, nutritional/physiological, mental/emotional balance of the person with the help of massages and acupressure points.
Indeed, if you follow me or you are interested in holistic and natural medicine, you know that the body functions as a whole that cannot be dissociated. And if a shock can create a physical imbalance, our diet or our emotional state influences the health balance.
THE KINESIOLOGY of body and emotion, for mental health
It is true that Applied Kinesiology has an extremely wide field of action. We go through the body to go and search for your conscious subconscious memories, or cellular memory. Indeed, we can even go as far as the perinatal, but we can also explore transgenerational memories and those of the soul.In the latter case, we technically leave the field of kinesiology, to move on to energetics and Reiki.
In my sessions, we navigate a lot from one field to the other. Because I consider you as a whole being, with all its physical, physiological, energetic, psychological, emotional aspects… But also social, environmental, family, professional, and place of life.
To sum up, to stay healthy in winter, you have to take care of yourself. Of your body with small gestures that are simple to integrate into your daily life and self-massage. The balance between body and mind with preventive or curative holistic therapies for winter. And finally, of the mind, to take advantage of the energy of the kidneys, favorable to introspection and work on fears. Without forgetting a diet adapted to winter, which you can consult in my next article WINTER FOOD.
To resume, take care of yourself, adjust with winter rythme to stay healthy in winter!
“Keep your head Cool, and your feet Warm.”
Chinese provebe
The climate was harsher, it is important to save yourself and preserve your energy. Thus, it is important to avoid anything that could make us lose energy physically and emotionally: dispersion, agitation, stress. But don’t take the expression at the bottom of your head: do go out with a hat on or you will lose too much heat.
Take great care of yourself, to stay healthy all winter long! And if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask for comments 😉
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