Our destiny often looks like a fruit tree in winter. Who would think from its pitiable aspect that those rigid boughs, those rough twigs, could next spring again be green, bloom and even bear fruit? Yet we hope it, we know it.
Johann Wolfgang Goethe
In winter people should retire early at night and rise late in the morning and they should wait for the rising sun.
Nei Ching
Winter Program
DECEMBER 21-MARCH 20
Caring for your kidney’s, bladder, adrenal glands, bones & the Water Element
A powerfully receptive & deeply withdrawn time, the Winter season calls us deep to our roots in our earth, the dark mystical realm where a true preparation for Spring to come can be inspired and nourished with our heightened ability to listen in the cold, silence of winter nature.
We can unify with winter by emphasizing the yin principle through our seeking of inner warmth, becoming storage orientated, resting more, meditating more deeply, refining spiritual essence, storing physical energy - in the form of a little added weight for the cold season.
The Winter Solstice occurring Dec 21 gives us the shortest day & longest night of the year. A time that draws us inward to the shadow side of ourselves connecting to what is incongruent with our authentic nature and we are allowed the alchemical process to let go, let it die off. Being the ‘most Yin’ of all seasons, it is a time for storing & conserving energy- to slow down, rejuvenate, rest, nourish inner life, restore our foundation and deepen our roots.
The Water Element rules the Kidneys/Bladder
The Kidneys and bladder regulate water metabolism which controls the flow of vital energy that patterns through our body mind. The root of the body’s energy originates in the kidneys according to TCM.
- Winter Foods: to Avoid/to Increase
- Recipes: Winter
- Salty & Bitter: Healing Flavors for Cold Season
- Organ Symptoms Questionnaire
- Dietary Suggestions for specific syndromes of kidneys-bladder
- Nourishing depleted Jing: the Source of Kidney Vitality(overall Qi)
- Support for the Adrenals/Adrenal Nutritional supplements
- Bone building program
- Seasonal attunement exercise for aligning with introspective time of winters conservational time