Posted by Kimberly Rex

Winter Wellness Naturally

Winter is a time to consider going within to nourish your roots. It is time to incorporate self-care even more consciously during these cold months. This article shares natural ways to build integrity in your winter wellness naturally.

via GIPHY

1) Take Care of Your Kidneys and Bladder

Winter is Water Element time in Traditional Chinese Medicine. So this is is especially a good time to do self-care for your kidneys and bladder. 1) Be sure that the food you eat and the beverages you drink are not cold. They should be at least room temperature. Drink 2-3 cups of water or tea between 1 and 3 pm to hydrate your system. Add a little salt to your meal at dinner (between 5 and 7 pm: Kidney time). 2) Eat foods with root vegetables, whole grains, and small amounts of meat or fish protein. Include foods that are dark blue or close to black in color to feed your kidneys. If you are a vegetarian, eat more beans, nuts, seeds, and tempeh. 3) Keep your feet and kidney area warm throughout the winter. Wear a scarf to keep your neck warm. 4) You can do some movement for this purpose as well: marching in place is helpful. Rub your ears also as they are related to Water Element.

2) Take Care of Your Lungs

Movement and Breath: Be sure to stretch your upper body. By doing this so, you are expanding your lungs. You can do this by opening your arms to the side and above your head to open your chest (stretching your lungs). Open your neck and mouth with a sound to expel toxins from the lungs as you do so. Stretch your upper body from side to side with your arms crossing over each other in a push to the opposite side to stretch your lungs for winter wellness.

Breathing Exercise: Pursed Lips Breathing: Pursed-lips breathing can slow down your breathing, reducing the work of breathing by keeping your airways open longer. This makes it easier for the lungs to function and improves the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. This breathing exercise can be practiced at any time.

How to:

1. Inhale slowly through your nose.
2. Purse your lips, as if you are going to blow on something.
3. Breathe out slowly through your pursed lips. This should take at least 2 x as long as you take to breathe in.
4. Repeat.

3) Take Care of Your Large Intestine

Taking care of your digestion means being sure you are eating to keep your digestion running smoothly. When you have issues with digestion or elimination, incorporate fennel, ginger, marjoram, thyme, cinnamon, cloves, and black pepper in your cooking and teas. Consider flax seeds, flaxseed oil, and psyllium if you have difficulties with elimination.

Look at stress in your life that constricts your ability to let go. Be sure to keep hydrated. You can also use the sound, “M” for the sound of letting go.

4) More Natural Remedies for Winter Wellness

These two articles have additional winter wellness resources with nutritional, herbal, and tea recipes.

Natural Healing Ways to Treat a Cold

Getting to the Root: Staying Well with Root Teas and Vegetables during the Cold Months

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Posted by Kimberly Rex

4 Stages of Disease: The Interaction between Your Kidneys, Liver and Heart

4 Stages of Disease Leading to Chronic Illness 

Chinese Traditional Medicine TCM looks at the pathway of disease from the perspective of the relationship between organ and meridian systems. The heart is the emperor of the body-mind system, however, in order to begin the healing process, the heart must connect with kidney. When there is a disorder of stagnation in the kidney your liver is affected. When your liver is negatively affected this impacts your heart.  This starts with distortions in how you think related to what you believe and see in life. This, then, can lead to both emotional and physical imbalance.

When there have been long-standing issues with unresolved emotions and perception of victimization or overwhelm over time, dis-ease becomes more likely a possibility. This happens through 1) Shen Stagnation 2) Chi Stagnation 3) Blood Stagnation and resulting 4) Body Stagnation.

The interaction and relationship between your organ systems impact the integrity of your wellness and well-being. 

From the Kidney’s Perspective

The kidney relates directly to the reptilian brain function. This means that survival, fear, and overwhelm in your current life get translated into how the energy in your body-mind system is communicated throughout your body. Kidney stores short-term memory. The impact of the relationship to the reptilian brain can make it difficult to discern what is a current danger or a residual thought, belief, or attitude about a stressful event or situation from the past. The reptilian brain‘s job is to search for anything that reminds it of previous danger, and then to take action through the fight, flight, or freeze.

In practical terms on a day-to-day basis, this affects how your Nervous System responds to perceived danger and threats. It impacts your Adrenalin response, blood pressure, hormones, cortisol, and sleep cycles. This impacts your ability to retain information accurately in the present. It affects the amount and quality of life energy or vitality you have, your ability to remember important information, and your ability to hear things clearly.

More on Health Implications between Kidney, Adrenal, Excretory and Circulation Impacts

From the Liver’s Perspective

In Chinese Medicine, Liver stores emotion. The liver is related to the Limbic or Emotional Brain. When liver is distorted by anger and frustration is repressed over time, it impacts the way you perceive the world through your thinking and seeing. The ability to modulate your emotional responses to your external environment has an effect on your internal response to challenges.

The liver filters blood and this in turn affects your chi or energy level. When the liver is out of balance, it limits your vision and your ability to see from the perspective of another person. It keeps you from considering that there might be another alternative or possibility. Your decision-making process becomes clouded, and your body-mind system’s ability to prioritize thought and action becomes less clear.

More on Liver’s Impact on Health and Well-being

From the Heart’s Perspective

Heart is the home of the Shen Spirit related to the capacity for compassion, forgiveness, gratitude, tolerance, joy and love. It is primarily related to your reasoning and decision-making Cortex. There are 5 functional responsibilities for the heart including consciousness, thinking, imagination and planning, the ability to modulate emotions and long-term memory according to TCM. Because of these functions, it is important to engage all three places: the kidney, the liver and the heart in order to heal internal conflict and dissonance related to your mental, emotional, physical and spirit.

This is your personal invitation to working with creating greater harmony and balance in your life. As we move into Winter, Water Element related to Kidney and Bladder are the prominent organs that express information for special needs and care. There is much to be acknowledged on the health benefits of starting with the kidneys to inform and play a healing role in transforming the rest of the body-mind system through focusing on nourishing the transformation of your Reptilian Brain’s reaction to trauma from the past and to balance your need for giving and receiving in a loving way within your body, your mind, your relationships and in the world.

Build integrity in your wellness and well-being for the winter months by taking part in a personal Resonance Repatterning® session that works with this purpose to create greater harmony and balance for your kidneys and bladder’s impact on your ability to build life energy to heal the past so you can be more energized and able to go with the flow of life, set boundaries, increase resilience through the winter months.

Here is an opportunity to continue on the path to building integrity in your wellness and well-being with monthly healing modalities and repatterning events from Windows to the Heart Repatterning.

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