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.

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.