Ushering in Summer ❤️🌻☀️✨

Hello, Summer!

The Summer Solstice arrived Friday June 20th and we have most definitely been initiated into the heat of the season here in Madison, WI!

The Fire Element in Chinese Medicine

In Chinese Medicine, the Summer Season is associated with the Heart and Small Intestine systems, also referred to in combination as the Fire Element. 

The Heart and the Small Intestine have many familiar correspondences from the Chinese Medicine perspective. Physiologically, the Heart governs the health of the cardiovascular system while the Small Intestine manages elements of the digestive process and has a responsibility to your immune system.

Emotionally, the Heart and Small Intestine systems help us metabolize, manage and relate to our experience of not only anxiety, but also to our expression and experience of joy. As such, an imbalance of the Fire element can also limit our ability to experience joy and can be a contributing factor to depression or depressive episodes. An imbalanced Fire Element can also contribute to our experience of anxiety or panic.

{I find it's always important to note: the transient experience of ANY emotion whether deemed "positive" or "negative" is not pathological. I tell patients with great frequency: emotions are physiological, NOT pathological.

Healthy emotional expression, supported in your own relatively resourced state or in the context of professional or personal relationships ultimately moves Qi like anything else. Honest emotional expression is deep self-care. 

It is the stagnation of an emotional state over lengths of time that can create greater issues both internally and within one's behaviors and relationships. Your acupuncturist most certainly cares about your emotional state of being!}

Spiritually, the Heart and Small Intestine systems evoke and engender our capacity for conscious awareness. Just like your Heart must keep pumping in order for you to be alive/awake, the spiritual capacity of the Heart (and Small Intestine) is integral to your ability to awaken a la conscious awareness. You know, consciousness - just the thing that we need now more than ever <3 

When Fire Blazes...

There's also a classical saying in Chinese Medicine "all pain, sores, swelling and itch belong to the Heart."

If you or someone you know suffers from anxiety-induced hives or gets caught up in some poison ivy or poison oak, there are acupuncture point combinations and herbal remedies that can help to alleviate those symptoms efficiently while also supporting the health of your immune system! 

Boils, bug bites, cystic acne and breakouts can be treated and soothed utilizing Chinese Medicine. Part of our focus will be always be on balancing the Fire element. 

The Winds of Spring Build Healthy Fire

Part of the what makes Chinese Medicine so uniquely validating and particularly useful is that, like many ancient traditions, this medical system honors cycles. Here we are again: moving from Spring to Summer. 

Have you noticed in your own life, emotionally or physically, that your symptoms arise with some regularity or in the context of a particular Season or at a certain time in the year?

Have you noticed that Seasonal transitions can be a bit of a bugger? While your headaches/PMS/sleep cycles/immune system/mood were once well-managed, symptoms have reappeared lately?

Each Season has a unique energy or Qi and sometimes imbalances can express themselves in a particular season. 

How Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine can help

The Seasonal energy of Summer is "the height of Yang energy". Yang energy is warmth. It is the force that animates this bag of bones. :) It is cellular metabolic energy. Yang energy is active and mobile and it circulates warmth in order to prevent any (Cold) accumulation. 

Specific to Heart and Small Intestine imbalances in Chinese Medicine, I often see people experience any number of the following: headaches, poor sleep or insomnia, anxiety or panic attacks, depression.

People may experience swelling of the ankles or face, heart palpitations or irregular heart rhythm, excessive sweating/night sweats or lethargy.

Many digestive complaints can stem from what we would refer to as "Cold" in the digestive system and lead to the experience of nausea or loss of appetite, chronic loose stools, diarrhea, bowel irregularities, frequent urination or decreased thirst.

If your immune system feels challenged or you find yourself suffering from a Summer cold, Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine are always here to aid in your speedy recovery!

Summer Retreat

Given the energetic quality of the Summer, our lives tend to be busier and our days a little bit more full of activity. Coming in for regular Acupuncture treatments can help maintain your energy in this Season to support your experience of wellness in real time while also supporting greater balance leading into the next Season. I look forward to seeing you soon for any grounding or symptomatic relief you might need! Until then, I hope you take great care and get to enjoy the simple pleasures of these warm Summer evenings <3