Here's How To Balance Your Hormones For Better Moods & Digestion
Anyone else feel worn out by this weather? One day it's 60, the next it's snowing and 20 degrees! Spring is literally around the corner, and so I invite you to use the transition as an opportunity to relax and to balance your hormones. You are used to pushing yourself to get things done, and while that can be productive, it can also wear you out if you do it all the time. Spring, bringing with it, the seeds of change and growth...
So take these last cold days to refuel on rest and inspiration. It's actually healthier right now to give yourself a break and help your body replenish. TCM practitioners recommend you sleep more, eat and drink warm nourishing foods, and expose yourself to inspiring art or books, to take the time to refill and restore your body, mind, and spirit. Give yourself the energy you will need for spring.
We are coming out of the most yin of the seasons: In the Chinese System, yin energy is female in nature and more sustaining, while yang energy is characterized by being more masculine and active. In our bodies the organs fed by yang meridians have periods when they are very active then at rest; the stomach fills with food, processes it then releases it to the next organ; the gallbladder, bladder, small and large intestines also have similar activity patterns.
The organs associated with the yin meridians work constantly. These meridians and their associated organs are the ones in our systems to get drained and depleted first, as they are the ones that process environmental toxins, balance our hormones, and they are the meridians from which energy gets pulled when we are under emotional stress—just as a mother and wife is often responsible for multitasking and managing the care of the children, and the household operations 24/7. Our heart, liver, kidney, spleen, and lungs work round the clock to keep us alive.
Doing these exercises consistently over time have over time helped my clients balance their hormones, alleviating the symptoms of PMS and even lessening the number of hot flashes. Try these quick and easy exercises daily; they both take under three minutes to do and give you a big bang for your small time investment!
To Give Your Yin Meridians an Energy Boost
Once you learn this exercise, you can do it all day long to bring energy to your immune system and to stimulate your kidney, liver, and spleen meridians, which are the meridians most taxed by our environments, toxins, and stress. Definitely start your day with this one. Lots of my clients actually do it in the shower, then, do it throughout the day for a boost of energy anytime!
For a Natural Chill Pill
Do this stress relief pose at night for three to five minutes when you get into bed. This pose helps calm your body's reaction to stress by sending the message to your body to move into a parasympathetic nervous system response, a restive state verses a stress state, so you can have a more peaceful night's sleep. This particular head hold stimulates neuro-vascular points on your head, which stimulate and replenish the yin meridians, which are the first to get drained when we are stressed.
Everything contains yin and yang, the two opposite, yet complementary energies. Yin and yang cannot exist without the other; they are never separate. For example, night and day form a yin-yang pair (night is yin and day is yang). Night looks and is very different from day, yet it is impossible to have one without the other. Both create a totality, a complete whole.
Without rest, you can't be productive. Use these exercises to replenish your reserves so you are ready for spring and the growth and change that come with it!
Lara Riggio is the creator and owner of The Lara Touch Studio in NYC. Fusing her knowledge of western exercise science and eastern healing techniques, she has created what her clients’ call The Lara Touch. In The Lara Touch exercise classes, videos and private sessions, she has helped tens of thousands of clients: with muscular aches and pains feel better, with high levels of emotional stress stay calm, with excess weight, lose it and feel more agile and active again,with a lack of energy, feel more energized naturally.
Lara graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Psychology, and she holds advanced certifications from the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), American Council of Exercise, Muscle Activation Technique (MAT), Eden Energy Medicine, Psych-K, EFT and in Essential Oils Healing. She has been featured on FOX News and appeared on CW11’s Morning Show, and featured in The Daily News, Elle and Women’s Day. Lara contributed the exercise section of the book 100 Questions and Answers about Migraines by Katherine A. Henry, MD and Anthony P. Bossis Ph.D.