Once you’ve listened, let us know in the comments below — what do you do to settle the wind in your life?
In part one of our three part series of The Natural Healing Podcast, we converse on the topic of Wind, specifically Liver Wind. In Chinese Medicine, wind is one out of six external factors of disease. During the months of Spring, wind begins to intensify. As the wind intensifies in the external environment, it can activate Wind within you as well.
Resisting these changes will cause Internal Wind to develop, which can manifest as a variety of internal injuries.
Everything in life begins to shift once Spring rolls around. Spring is a season of change with rebirth and renewal. Resisting the changes results in Wind and disruptions in your physiological state.
Since according to Chinese Medicine, Wind is known as the precursor for all diseases, the factor of Wind can be associated with all health disorders.
When we think of wind in nature, we imagine the shaking of trees, which corresponds to our nervous system. The season of Spring relates to the Liver and Gallbladder organ systems.
Internal Wind and the Liver
The internal resources, including the blood and fluids of the body are known as Yin. The Liver stores the blood and if the Liver blood is inadequate, Wind can stir up, leading to neurological symptoms and even joint pain.
When the Liver is activated too much, the result is excessive heat in the Liver, which can result in anger, irritability, and even depression. It is essential to cool the Liver, and you can do so with a Liver detox. Liver detoxes include cutting out processed and unnatural foods, as well as coffee, alcohol, and refined sugars that can impede the liver’s detoxification process.
The Liver is also the primary organ in charge of smoothing the flow of Qi throughout the body and when the Liver Qi becomes stagnant — via stress, poor diet, or inadequate blood — this can also exacerbate the emotions. For women, this can become more pronounced around the menstrual cycle. When the Liver Qi is stagnant or Liver Blood is weak during this time, it can cause headaches, dizziness and emotional upheaval. This is one important reason why it’s important to nourish the Liver Blood at this time with foods like red meat, especially beef, which helps build the Liver Blood, and cooked leafy green vegetables, which help to cool the Liver.
Gallbladder Meridian
In the Wood element, the Liver is a Yin organ, and is paired with its Yang counterpart, the Gallbladder. When one of the two is out of balance, it can affect the other.
The Gallbladder is considered the decision maker. The health of the Gallbladder also plays an important role in your courage, decision-making, and judgment. A weak Gallbladder can cause you to become timid, unmotivated, or indecisive. There is a saying, “you don’t have enough gall”, which translates to ‘you don’t have enough courage.’
Tips to Balance the Wood Element to Prevent Wind from Impacting Your Health
Nutrition is an important way to nourish the Liver and Gallbladder. It’s important to both cool to Liver and nourish the Liver Blood in particular through foods like beef and leafy greens.
Another important way to nourish Liver blood is with berries, including goji berries, which can also improve vision since the Liver nourishes the eyes. Try drinking chrysanthemum and goji berries in hot water to nourish the eyes, reduce blood pressure, cool the Liver, and reduce allergies.
When it comes to Wind, it’s also important also to anchor Wind with essential fatty acids, especially through omega-3s which can be found in grass fed beef, wild salmon, and even certain nuts and seeds, especially walnuts and sesame seeds, both of which have an affinity with the Kidneys according to Chinese Medicine.
The most important thing to look into is foods that contain DHA's, Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which is an omega-3 fatty acid essential for brain health and the nervous system. It’s also linked to heart health, better vision, and reduced inflammatory response. This long-chain fatty acid is found in cell membranes throughout the body and helps to transmit messages between nerves.
And since Wind can impact the nerves, it’s important to anchor the Wind with these types of fats, which are most readily available in foods like salmon, herring, mackerel, tuna, and oysters.
DHA can also be derived from food sources of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which is found in nuts, seeds, and vegetable oils. ALA is the precursor to DHA, however the conversion is inefficient and therefore vegetarian sources of DHA, such as walnuts, hemp seeds, flaxseeds, chia seeds, though high in ALA, have a low DHA profile.
If you’re vegetarian or vegan, you’ll want to consider taking a high quality micro algae supplement to get adequate DHA into your diet.
In general, it’s important to cool the Liver, build the Liver Blood, and relax the Liver Qi so you can calm your nervous system and feel more settled in your life.
Once you’ve listened, let us know in the comments below — what do you do to settle the wind in your life?
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