New Year 🌱Seed Tending & ❤️‍🔥Nourishing Experiment + Schedule Updates

Happy New Year!

I’m not a big new year’s resolution kind of person—at least not the kind of resolutions that call for making dramatic changes to strive to be better in ALL-THE-WAYS.  Every moment is an opportunity for fresh thinking and insights, and that’s where real change comes from, not the turning of a calendar. 

This year at the start of our winter break I made a fun “resolution” to light the candles in our fireplace more often because I was enjoying resting and nesting.  My husband happily bought us more tealights in support, but jokingly reminds me that the fireplace candles can’t be this year’s resolution since I technically made it last year, humorously highlighting the absurdity of the pressure and timing of New Year’s resolutions.

So instead, I enjoy the new year greetings as a reminder that a fresh start is available at any moment.  And I embrace the kind of reflection that happens naturally around the start of the year. 

If you picture living in harmony with the seasons, here in the northern hemisphere the season of the new year is midwinter which feels more like the time for rest, stillness, presence, and inward reflection, not making grand resolutions, future planning, or major goal setting. Everything is organically a little more contracted so it’s not time to go crazy with exploding out into the world.  It’s ok to be cozy, take some time to reflect, and say no to the requests that don’t feel nourishing to you.

Seed Tending and Nourishing Deep Resources

A Question To Help You Design Your Own Experiment For Aligning With The Rhythm Of Winter

In Chinese Medicine winter is the time for going within to gather and nourish deep resources to restore your body and spirit after a year’s worth of activity.  It’s also seed tending season which means you tend to the seeds of what you want to grow in the coming year.  It’s time to take stock, see what needs to be put to rest, what is worth growing, and what resources you can replenish to support the seeds of your heart’s desires.

To get aligned with the winter rhythm, I invite you to ask yourself:  “What is one seed I can tend to right now to support feeling deeply resourced for my heart’s desires?”

It helps to give the question some time to percolate.  If you aren’t quite clear on your heart’s desire, it helps to picture how you want to feel over the next year.   Do you want to feel ease, fun, energetic, connected, creative, peaceful, accomplished?  What’s one seed you can tend to now to support that feeling growing throughout the year?

Design your own experiment: Commit to tending to that seed for a week to see how you feel.  Tending to a seed is less like following a rule and more like conducting an experiment.  Weed this out, add some fertilizer, move the pot to someplace sunnier and see how it goes.  If you feel more nourished and resourced, you can keep tending that seed and see what sprouts.

I asked myself this question last weekend and I waited to hear what percolated up.   The answer was: Go to sleep without delay and wake up without delay.  I am naturally a night owl and so even when I start to feel tired I can keep going to the point where I’m ignoring what my body needs.  And I’m not a morning person so I can overindulge in a slow start to the day to the point where it is not enjoyable because I end up rushing.  I’m enjoying tending to this tiny seed and curious to see how it effects me now and as the rhythm of the season changes.

By honoring the energy of the season, things start to align and flow better.  While not outwardly showy, seed tending and nourishing deep resources is important work.  It sets the stage for the year to come.  I’d love to know what percolates up for you about one seed you can tend to right now to help you feel more resourced.

If you’re feeling depleted after a momentous year or an extra action holiday season and you’d like some help nourishing your deep resources or quieting your mind so you can hear what seeds need to be tended, get in touch for an acupuncture tune up series and some Chinese herbs.  As we work together, we will come up with the best ways you can live in harmony with the season to support your health and heart’s desires.

Schedule Updates

We made some overall minor updates to our patient treatment schedule because not only do we deliver Chinese Medicine, we practice it too.  The schedule had morphed over time and wasn’t working for us.  And so I followed the advice I would have given you and took a fresh look to reimagine a schedule that would feel nourishing to me, the admin staff, and the patients.  Our vision for maximizing innate health and wellbeing in our community includes all of us.

Without going into the details of how our online booking system works, the main changes that patients may notice is that 1) our middle of the day break is different and 2) both existing and new patients can make appointments online. The end result should be that it’s easier for patients to get appointments and we will all feel more nourished.

If you have a favorite appointment time it’s never a bad idea to book yourself out through our Online Booking System. It’s a bit of a mishmash of old and new through January since we already had patients on the schedule. The new schedule is clear starting February 1.

We’re excited about the change and think it will serve patients and us better.  If you have any questions let us know.

What We’re Treating In The Clinic

Perimenopause & Menopause
When patients have a lot of imbalances at the same time I always ask them what they think is going on.  They are the ones living in their body and I give their insight a lot of credit.  Lately so many women have been saying they think all these seemingly “unrelated things” are due to hormonal changes.  Other times it’s hard to see it yourself and I point out that the reason it feels like things are falling apart in all departments is because of hormonal changes.

The good news is that there is all natural help for things like:

• hot flashes
• fatigue
• irritability (this is not a character flaw, it’s a symptom)
• insomnia
• fatigue
• brain fog
• irregular menstrual cycles
• low libido
• night sweats
• joint pain

I love that Chinese Medicine thinks that menopause doesn’t have to be difficult.  In fact it views perimenopause and menopause as the shift towards wisdom. They call it the second spring.  I’ll take that!

We work with patients wherever they are on their hormonal journey–whether you decide to do an integrative approach with HRT, or you want to take an all-natural route. We help bring your body into balance so the road through perimenopause and menopause is more smooth sailing and less of a rollercoaster.  The most common thing patients say is “I feel like myself again!”

If you want support treating Perimenopause & Menopause: you can make an appointment through our online booking site or get in touch.

Immune Support

It’s still cold and flu season so it’s still a great time to stock up so you can be prepared with herbs and supplements in case you or those around you get sick.
“Christina, I just have to tell you that your magic herbs are the real deal!  I started to get sick, and remembered I had squirreled away herbs to take if and when that ever started to happen.  I rarely get sick, so it had been awhile.  So I went to the box, got them out, took them as recommended and WOW, the next day I was no longer ill!  I have no idea what’s in those but they really worked for me.  Thanks for the recommendation that I should always have them available –  and for knowing about them.  You are the best!”

–J.G.
Check out our updated recommendations we’ve been sharing for the past 2+ years called “The Golden Window For Treating Viruses” and let us know if you want help creating a plan that will work for you:

Here’s to seed tending and nourishing our deep resources,
Christina and Team Thrive