Seasonal Self Care: the Herbalist is in!
Getting restless and feeling sludgy as winter crawls toward spring? Read on for solutions, suggestions, and the best herbs for supporting yourself as we move into the warmer months.
But first: I’m over the moon with the cover for The Night School for Young Mystics, coming August 6! (You can tell me how pretty it is in the comments. 🤣)
If you’re feeling motivated, it’s available for pre-order wherever books are sold.
And, now, back to our regularly scheduled program:
Winter can feel long. At first it is cozy to bundle up inside, sipping tea and awaiting spring. But by late February, we are beginning to get restless. Plans are starting to formulate... maybe for a garden or painting the house or something as simple as finding a warm day to vacuum out the car. The weather is variable. It’s not unusual to feel irritable during this transitional time.
What to do?
Turn toward seasonal self-care.
During the winter we are indoors more, so get less exercise and less fresh air. We also often eat more fats and gain a little weight to help stave off the cold. Spring is the time to clear out and cleanse…inside & out!
I’m going to put on my clinical herbalist hat for a sec so I can explain my ideas around seasonal cleansing:
Our bodies cleanse themselves everyday. Every out-breath, each drop of sweat, and every trip to the loo are our bodies’ ways of eliminating toxins. No harsh measures are necessary; just gentle support for the processes already underway.
When we think about a spring cleanse for our bodies, we need to support both the organs doing the cleansing and the organs doing the eliminating. The two organs most responsible for cleansing our insides are the liver and the kidneys. So when we think about a cleanse, our goal is to assist the liver in removing toxins. In Traditional Chinese Medicine the liver was considered the house of the soul. It is responsible for the flow of energy or qi. In medieval medicine, the liver was referred to as the “seat of life.” The word “liver” is derived from the Anglo-Saxon “to live.”
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