My journey to deciding to open a holistic health practice was a circuitous route that began about twenty-five years ago. Friends still shake their heads in disbelief at the changes I made and the risks I took to leave the lucrative, yet stressful, corporate world and pursue a career in Eastern medicine and holistic health.
That's my "Wall Street to Well Street" journey--the details of which I'll save for another day, a different post. For now let's just say... I listened to my heart and I fed my soul. And never looked back.
I did discover a key truth, embarking on my graduate studies in acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine at forty years old after two decades of working in the financial world. No matter the breadth of one's life experience or expertise, it's still best to build on the foundations of any new system or wellness approach before honing in on specialties or trying to uplevel too fast. My new vocation and passion at 40, brought me back to the beginning and to a fresh perspective steeped in ancient wisdom. With "a beginner's mind", I spent my early years of my second career embracing both TCM core principles and my intuitive gifts and decided to let whatever healing "specialties" I was meant to bring to the world make their way to me over time.
About six years into my private practice, some recurring themes surfaced in the lessons I gleaned from my patients. I never forget and am forever grateful for how much patients teach us! Through their clinical responses to treatment, their curiosity and my own questioning and continuing education work. I noticed that patterns of pain, patient complaints, and the ease or difficulty of obtaining positive treatment outcomes often varied
based on the season of year along with the patient's
environment (e.g. significant stress, climate factors, poor sleep quality, toxicity) at the time. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has an ancient framework called
Five Element Theory, based on nature's laws, that explains these patterns and the foundational principles stemming from them. What I was finding over the years and becoming more aware of and influenced by, was that the more I helped my patients tune into this holistic framework and the seasons of the year and aspects associated with those five elements, the more quickly my patients' symptoms improved and the less often they needed to return with repeated complaints.
They became more seasonally well.
THAT got my attention!
By teaching my patients and clients about this seasonal blueprint I knew that ancient wisdom would provide the container for what they could add to their natural toolkits. Running counter to what one may learn in business school or that I was being taught about entrepreneurship, my guiding principles in private practice have always been to empower my patients with natural wellness tools so they wouldn't need to see me as frequently. If they had accessible tools for support and actions they could take themselves, they could take as much time between acupuncture treatments as they would like. I know, I know, it's a lousy business model! But I knew If I could show them how much healing is in their hands and help them understand how nature gives us clues to survive and thrive health-wise, then they could be more in charge of their health. They would be more optimally well and they would want others who need my help to have the same experience. By focusing on prevention, empowerment, and the wellness tools within their reach, they could make choices toward becoming well beyond well. And I could ultimately reach more people who needed this wisdom.
Ideally, from my perspective, my patients would want to have treatments at minimum, four times a year-- at the change of the seasons--to use acupuncture to provide an energy bridge from one season's vibrations and frequencies to the next. They would obviously want to come in with acute injuries or sudden health issues. They might even choose to come weekly or monthly for maintenance or just for the balanced and relaxed feel that comes with regular treatments. This became my personal medicine model: Put the deciding back in my patients' hands. My "specialty" zeroed in on treating, facilitating the body's innate ability to heal, and on sharing the wisdom of seasonal wellness and natural tools of support.
So why does knowing about the nuances of and the reasons for each season matter to us?
Each season has an energy and a purpose; animals and plants naturally keep in tune with those energies, When we pay attention to how the animal and plant kingdoms adapt to the seasons, we can see that they adjust what they do to the energies of that season. In the winter, animals hibernate, slow down or head for warmer climates. Plant activity is almost non-existent with most of the plant’s dormant energy deep in earth. In spring, the world is bursting with activity and what appears to be overnight growth and blossoming. allowing them to be healthy and to flourish in alignment with the laws of nature. In this upcoming season of fall, we have reached the end of the cycle. It's about the dying away of our natural world for one more annual cycle. Clearing the old to make way for the new. If we tune in, we can feel the energetic shifts around us that reflect this. That fall leaf isn't holding on for during life. It innately knows it's time has come to let go and become part of the earth to nurture whatever new life will eventually break through in spring.
Most of us don’t adjust our activities at all from one season to the next. We are creatures of habit, going to the gym and doing the same workout routines with the same intensity every day, eating the same foods; we do this all with little attention paid to what is happening outside in nature. To become seasonally well, we can let nature’s wisdom be reflected in our lives by altering our daily routines to match the energy and purpose of the season as well as by easing ourselves into the next season.
Let's take a look at what seasonal aspects will be felt in the coming season as we near the autumnal equinox next Sunday on September 22.
If you check out the Autumn Aspects chart above you can start to get a feel for how you can take care of your mind, body, and spirit, seasonally. With the Lung and Large Intestine energy front and center, it's all about what we take in and respire (Lung energy) and what we eliminate or let go of (Large Intestine energy). Makes sense right? This is a great time of year take it all in and reflect on what the year held and how that sits with you. It's all a perfect time to focus on letting go, releasing, and healing things: excess weight, grudges, limiting beliefs, old patterns, longstanding grief. Of course you can do these things anytime. But when you match the energy of the season with actions, positive results come more easily. So if you've been considered "shedding" some extra pounds, decluttering, or doing a mild detox, your timing is excellent.
It's a time of year where dryness predominates, so your skin care could benefit from some extra TLC. Similarly, it's important to keep your hydration upleveled to combat the season's dryness. Boosting your immune system is key to prepare for the fall and winter cold seasons. Eating and drinking warming foods like root vegetables, soups, turmeric and ginger teas or lattes will help move you in that direction too. Follow
me on Instagram as I share some tips and strategies in the coming weeks for strengthening your overall resilience and immunity.
As we move toward these next months of autumn, filled with various holidays of mischief and thanksgiving, don’t forget to give a nod of gratitude to nature for providing all the answers.
Nature provides the framework--YOU are the medicine. xo
If you would like to receive tips, protocols and seasonal recipes from Well Beyond Well or know someone who would benefit from this wisdom please click here, or share this link and help me spread this goodness further. With love and gratitude, xo K