Winter is not forever...spring is on the way

​I bought these tulips on Tuesday as a pick me up during this cold spell and a reminder that winter is not forever. I wanted to share them with you in case you are in need of the same reminder. Winter is not forever. In fact, spring is on the way and I have been noticing the shift of seasons in my body despite this week being really cold here in Minnesota. To me, it feels like something is slowly growing and expanding inside of me. Do you feel that too?

In case you need more evidence that spring is on the way, today marks the first day of the Lunar New Year, a 15 day festival celebrated by Chinese and many other Asian cultures as the beginning of spring and the new year. The festival starts on the first new moon and ends on the first full moon of the lunar calendar. In Chinese Medicine, this is the time of year when the winter Water element energy starts to move into spring Wood element energy. That means that right now is a great time to start harnessing that Wood element energy through your practices.

Wood element energy is expansiveness and creative. This makes the spring season a great time to start new projects, develop new habits and get creative. The Wood element is also associated with the color green, sour tasting foods and the Liver and Gallbladder organ systems. Because Wood element energy can be strong and expansive it can also cause discomfort in the body. This usually manifests as headaches, neck and shoulder pain, feelings of stuckness and depression.

A simple way to work with Wood energy is to get your body moving. Shaking, bouncing and tapping are all great ways to move stuck energy in a short amount of time. Here is a short video on shaking and bouncing that I made. I would also highly recommend dancing for moving stuck energy. All dancing will work, but I really enjoyed the class I took at Pony Sweat recently per a friend's recommendation. It moved the funk right out of me and moved the joy in. The classes are self-described as a "fiercely noncompetitive dance aerobics celebration" and can be done live or you can rent a recorded class to do on your own time. I really appreciated that the instructor encouraged the participants to listen to their bodies and only do what felt good. Also the music was great! Just thought I would share in case you were looking for some new ways to move your body.