As the Winter Solstice approaches and the weather gets colder, it’s important that we work in harmony with the earth’s elements to acclimate and nurture our body and mind in the most nurturing and healthful ways. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Winter is connected to the Kidneys and therefore it is the most important time to develop practices to help strengthen this organ to ward off disease and eliminate mental imbalances.
Addressing an important emotional factor that corresponds to the Kidney is fear. Fear is rampant in our society, either passed on generationally and genetically from our ancestors, holding patterns from past lives, attitudes and behaviors of our parents, psychological traumas or physical traumas that have occurred during our lifetime, surrounding ourselves with negative people, or subconscious programming from the things we choose to watch and listen to.
A healthy amount of fear is necessary to prevent accidents and to help keep you alive; such as jumping back on the sidewalk from a speeding car, keeping away from the edge of a cliff or distancing yourself from a venomous snake. These are all an innate responses to common threats. However, due to the enormous amount of negative content we consume on an everyday basis from the media, coupled with the stress of making money, paying bills and dealing with challenging family and work situations, our kidneys – more specifically our adrenals – get overworked and overtaxed – to the point we develop irrational fears and anxieties.
Build Strong Boundaries
One thing I highly recommend to bring back emotional balance and to strengthen your Kidneys is to set firm boundaries around what you willingly allow in to your mind.
- Avoid watching scary or violent movies or video games
- Refrain from reading/listening/watching the mainstream media news
- Distance yourself from friends or family who only talk about negative and disturbing things
- Unfollow content creators who only point out the doom and gloom of the world or who regularly post violent content
- Reject reading or watching disturbing/upsetting stories
- Disengage from watching or looking at pornography
- Don’t pay bills before bed or first thing in the morning
- Make peace with your loved ones before bedtime
Distancing yourself from the above list will greatly allow your system to destress and self-regenerate as if you were taking a relaxing vacation in nature. All of these above activities are very taxing and draining on both the kidneys, the body’s essence and adrenals which primes the body to harbor further disease.
Regularly immersing yourself in the above activities and situations create a strong stress response in the body which lowers your vibration to a point of attracting more of the same and even lower frequencies to attach to you and your psyche. As a result you can develop mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, insomnia, chronic headaches, migraines, chronic body pain – especially in the lower back, digestive disturbances, infections and frequent colds. These are just a few of the myriad of health issues that can sprout from the above common daily routines.
It will take time and practice to step away from these things, situations and individuals but becoming aware when you go reach for your phone to check the latest fearful news update, see what Negative Nancy posted, checking your email first thing in the morning or before bed and stopping yourself from doing it is the best practice you can do for self-care.
If a friend or relative calls you and you know they generally only want to complain or vent – let them know in a polite manner that you’re not available to talk. Eventually they will get the hint and find some other person’s energy to drain from. Emotional vampirism is alive and well, unfortunately, and you don’t have to “play nice” just to appease another. Cut the ties now. You will be better off both mentally and physically in the long run not to be surrounded by low vibe people.
Now that we’ve addressed what you can eliminate from your mind and to steel up your emotional well-being, let’s add in what you can do to help ground and center yourself while strengthening your kidneys.
Uplift Your Mind and Your Spirit
Reading and watching material that helps to uplift you, helps you reach your goals in life, listening or watching people who inspire you, people or things that make you laugh or make your heart melt. Listening to music you enjoy is very healing and helpful as well. I personally like to watch funny cat videos, hiking, playing with my pets, having dance parties with my son and making miniatures to help destress from more serious matters.
Finding what it is that brings you joy in life: hobbies such as, playing chess, painting, wood work, making ceramics, miniatures, fishing, writing, playing with animals or children, or volunteering for a cause you’re passionate about. Find what it is that lights you up inside and implement these practices into your daily life as if you were taking a vitamin, as joy and love are the strongest health tonics you could ever take.
Self-Care Winter Tips
Below are some simple self-care practices I recommend to help you harness the energy of the season, tonify your kidney energy and prevent disease.
Because Winter is considered to be the utmost yin time of the year it’s important to integrate yin practices and energies in order to benefit your kidneys as well as to prevent disease in this season and beyond.
Yin Yoga & Magnesium
One excellent practice to take up is yin yoga. Yin yoga is different from other types of yoga because it has you hold postures for extended amounts of time that you relax into as opposed to forcing yourself to stretch into. Each stretch can last anywhere from 60 seconds to 5 minutes where you focus more on letting go and using deep breathing techniques as you hold the pose.
Yin yoga helps to stretch and lengthen deep connective tissues vs solely the muscle, creating greater mobility and circulation deep within the body. Whenever I finish a yin yoga session I feel such a deep relaxation on so many levels. My body feels like I just had a deep tissue massage and it helps me to wind down for bed.
I recommend finding a reputable yoga studio in your area where you can take up this practice or download a yoga app such as “Yoga | Down Dog” which you can do in the comfort of your own home. All you need is a mat, a blanket and dim lighting to set the ambiance.
Afterwards it’s important to drink a glass of room temperature water with a good sourced liquid magnesium to help further relax your system and give it the minerals it needs. Magnesium helps the body to perform over 600 cellular actions. Pretty much everyone is deficient in this mineral due to our poor soil quality so supplementing with it is highly recommended.
If you have time and a nice soaking tub, you can take an epsom salt soak instead of drinking the magnesium water. This will help to further relax your body and help with any soreness that can occur after a yin yoga session. Of course you will still need to hydrate but because Epsom salt is magnesium, your body will absorb it trans-dermally instead.
Embrace Deep Rest
As the days become shorter our bodies naturally crave more rest. Turning off your devices and TVs after the sun sets, light a few candles or turn on some salt lamps and wind down the day. Creating this disconnect from screens helps to regulate your sleep/wake cycle with the natural rhythms of the season.
Make sure your room is pitch dark while you sleep: no digital clocks, light pollution pouring through your windows and remove all EMF devices from your bedroom. This the season for you to turn inward, rest deeply and to conserve your energy as much as possible.
Hold a Regular Meditation Practice
Naturally, regular meditation is recommended in every season, but because winter is especially for going inward, having a regular meditation routine is extra powerful at this time. Carving out 5-10 minutes in the morning and evening to meditate will help to cultivate peace in your body, mind and spirit as well as help you cultivate your qi – which builds health, balance and longevity.
Do the following Root Chakra meditation to harness the energy of Winter:
This grounding qi gong meditation can be done either standing or seated, whichever position you feel more comfortable. If you easily get dizzy, especially with your eyes closed, I recommend to do this meditation seated as pictured below.
To begin, we place our hands at chest level, hands facing each other – as if holding an imaginary ball – between about the size of a softball or basketball. Relax your shoulders and your jaw, unclench your abdomen.
Close your eyes and gently rest the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth – just behind your front teeth, on the palate. Your tongue will remain in this position throughout the duration of the meditation.
- Take three full breaths in and out through the nose.
- After the exhale on the third breath, inhale fully and then exhale 50% (half of what your normal breath would be).
You are now in the grounding meditation.
While in this meditation, imagine a crystalline cord of light shining down from the sky, going into the crown of your head, down your spine, coming out of your perineum and submerging into the earth.
Follow this light as it plunges deep into the many layers of the earth until it reaches the earth’s core.
Envision this light wrapping itself around the earth’s core, becoming purified and enlivened with gold. This cord of golden light then begins its ascent – coming up through the many layers of the earth, out of the soil and returning into your body.
This light now travels up through your lower 1st and 2nd chakras, then emerges out through your 3rd chakra (which is the area just above your belly button).
Now imagine this golden, purified light pouring out of your 3rd chakra and closely surrounding your entire body, as if you’re encased in a golden shaped egg.
Let this light fill your being with cleansing, positive energy, and let it act as a shield – protecting you from any lower vibrations that may try to come about.
Now envision a second layer of protection surrounding the golden egg. This second layer has a rose quartz hue, which only allows positive, loving energy through.
Lastly, envision an aqua-colored light as the third layer of your aura – allowing only pure light energy to enter your surroundings and repelling any and all things on a lower vibration.
Stay in this meditation for 5 minutes or longer if you’d like. I recommend doing this after waking up and before going to bed for optimal results.
When you’re ready to exit the meditation, take 3 full breaths – inhaling and exhaling through your nose – now open your eyes and relax your tongue.
Take a few moments after this meditation to focus on how you’re feeling and journal any thoughts or inspirations that came about. Don’t rush immediately to your screens to check on whatever distraction is going on, instead, step outside and connect with nature for a few more minutes. Put your bare feet on the earth, hold onto a tree or stone, take some deep breaths and give thanks for the day’s energy from Gaia.
This meditation practice will help guide you to a healthier, better version of yourself which, in turn, will energetically ripple outwards to the collective as we are all connected.
Press This Point!
Kidney 1 -Bubbling Spring – is the first point on the Kidney meridian. It is the point that directly connects our body to the earth and can energetically draw strength from the planet just as a tree gathers nutrients from the earth through its roots.
Activating this point daily may help with decreasing and potentially eliminating the following symptoms:
😫 stress
🤯 over thinking
😵💫 dizziness
👀 restlessness
🦉 insomnia
🤕 headaches
🤨 confusion
😓 anxiety
🤪 mania
😰 panic attacks
😡 agitation
😤 irritability
👺 surges of anger or rage
😵 impaired vision
👃🏼 nosebleeds
⬆️ hypertension
👂🏼 tinnitus
😱 fear
Press on this point firmly with your thumb and rotate in a counterclockwise motion for 5 minutes while taking deep belly breaths. Make sure to do both sides and practice this daily for optimum results. View my reel on TikTok if you’d like a better visual description on this.
Conclusion
These are just a few natural healthcare tips I recommend to my patients and loved ones. You don’t have to implement all of them to be healthy. Just pick what resonates with you and your lifestyle and run with it. Embracing small changes, one step at a time will help set you and your body up for an abundantly healthy future.
All my best to you and your health!
