According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, each season corresponds to a specific element and organ system. The season of spring corresponds to the wood element and Liver energy in Chinese Medicine.
The wood element in the cycle of the five elements is where manifestation begins, from deep seeds full of potential. Energy has been latent throughout the winter, buried deep in the earth, and now, as spring bursts forth, energy wants to move. Sometimes this means there’s more physical energy available to start a new project or plan a new goal.
This energetic shift can also trigger a desire to change your diet or lifestyle as we move from the heavier, denser season of winter. Check out Self Care for Spring to learn more.
Because energy wants to move, this time of year can feel stagnant if there isn’t enough change or movement in our lives. In particular, liver energy can become stagnated with stress (especially emotional stress), intoxicants, and too much rich or denatured food. When the Liver is stagnant, we may experience problems with our emotional life, menstrual cycles, eyes, and tendons.
So lighten your diet and lifestyle this time of year and watch as the transformational nature of this season changes you!
Springtime Invites you to Find Clarity
The spring and the liver are related to vision (both physically and metaphorically). This time of year is an excellent time to find clarity about your direction and plans. You can use this time to move forward on your goals, create a vision board, or reflect on what you’d like to create in the next 6-12 months.
Express yourself creatively and use your imagination this time of year to cultivate emotional balance and release stuck emotional patterns.
Food Preparation for Spring
During springtime, you can eat a little more raw food and cook food for shorter times at higher temperatures. Examples are light steaming or a high-temperature sauté. But if there are signs of digestive weakness and/or bowel troubles, use caution when adding raw food.
If your body and mind are pretty balanced and healthy, you can adjust your diet for the season by adopting a cleansing diet with lighter meals and less food. Include more green foods like sprouts and limit salty foods, which are contractive. This will help cleanse the heaviness of a wintertime diet, which often includes denser, heavier foods.
During the spring, include more “sweet” and “pungent” foods. These flavours help to emphasize the natural spring energy of rising and expansion. Sweet foods include complex carbs (whole grains, legumes, seeds), young beets, carrots, and sprouts. Pungent foods include basil, fennel, marjoram, rosemary, caraway, dill, and bay leaf.
Watch the video....
Check out the Seasonal Practices for Spring video.
