Fall: The Season to Strengthen Your Wei Qi
The seasons of the year come and go just as our lives have cycles of activity, rest, endings and new beginnings. Fall is a time to start slowing down, it is the breath of fresh air after the summer heat, and it is the perfect time to start preparing for the months ahead.
Here are a few things we can do in the fall to keep us healthy and thrive in the coming months.
Strengthen your Wei Qi. Colds and flus are more often spread in the fall and winter, therefore it is important to improve our Wei Qi at the start of autumn. In Chinese medicine, Wei Qi is equivalent to our immune systems and is controlled by the lungs. It is effected by what we eat, drink, how we move and very heavily, our emotions. Therefore it is important to drink clean, filtered water, eat fresh, non-processed, chemical-free foods, exercise regularly, breath clean, fresh air, meditate, do deep breathing exercises, reduce stress and worry, properly process all of our emotions especially sadness and grief, and be able to let go. The predominant emotion attached to the lungs is grief.
“Wei Qi is Equivalent to our Immune Systems.”
Nourish the Lungs. The specific kinds of foods we choose to eat at different times of the year greatly influences our health and organ systems. Protecting and purifying the lungs in Autumn can be done by eating foods that are high in antioxidants like carrots, squash, kale, and broccoli to name a few. The color associated with the Lungs is white so eating fresh foods that are white or have white insides such as pear, apple, onion, garlic, rice, oats, cauliflower, daikon radish, potato, turnip, parsnips, sesame seeds, and white mushrooms are very good for the lungs. Eating plenty of fiber is important. Other beneficial foods that are moistening for the lungs are seaweeds and flaxseed.
Keep your neck warm and out of cool breezes. There is a point on either side of your neck, at the base of the skull that is very vulnerable to wind. If blasted with cold air it can easily cause your body to be susceptible to pathogens which can cause runny noses, sore throats or in rare cases bell’s palsy.
Eat more cooked warm foods, start cutting back on the cold raw. Cook foods longer on lower temperatures using a crock pot or slow cooker, and start baking and roasting your meals. How we cook something effects how our bodies use it. It is also hard on your digestive system to warm up and break down raw foods. In summer your body can more easily handle this due to the active nature of the season but once the seasons change you really want your energy to be used to keep warm and fight off viruses rather than digesting food. Don’t forget to drink warm drinks and cut out ice/chilled water as well.
See your acupuncturist! Acupuncture and Chinese herbs have been used to improve the immune system and treat and prevent illnesses for centuries.
When we follow the seasons and treat our bodies like the part of nature that they are, we can live more harmoniously and flow from season to season with ease!
“When I Let Go of What I am, I Become What I Might Be.”
-Lao Tzu
At Garden Acupuncture we treat our patients through all of the seasons of the year and all of the seasons of life. Our specialty is women’s health but we are here to balance all our fellow humans. For more information about our office, click here.