Second Spring AKA Menopause

Ah, menopause, that anticipated (or dreaded) milestone for women. It often begins around 45 - 55 of age, marking the finale of reproductive years. It's a natural process as ovaries start to take a break, churning out fewer hormones and leading to the end of our menstruation years. But, let's face it, it's not a walk in the park for most. Menopause can bring physical and emotional challenges. Excitingly, Chinese Medicine presents a range of intriguing methods to support this transformative period, perceiving it as an opportunity for renewal and transformation commonly referred to as the

'Second Spring'.

Intrigued and looking for more insight? TCM Dr Zhao refers to this stage in her book Reflections of the Moon on Water.

Navigating Menopause: Acupuncture as Your Bestie

If you or someone you know is facing the challenging symptoms of menopause, acupuncture may be helpful. Whether the symptoms are mild or mighty, acupuncture could be a sweet additional tool to a potentially smoother transition. TCM Wisdom for Menopause: Finding Balance and Harmony

Menopause, from a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective, marks a shift from Yin (fertility) to Yang (inner wisdom).

During this phase, TCM gives some TLC on Kidney Qi, the vitality source that naturally wanes with age. TCM could help to enhance Qi and blood flow to ease symptoms.

But TCM isn't just about the body; it links emotions and physical health with the added practices of meditation and qigong to facilitate in a smoother menopausal transition.

Balancing Yin and Yang is TCM's wellness goal. How Does Acupuncture Benefit Menopausal Women?

• Acupuncture may offer hormone-balancing effects, contributing to the mitigation of hot flashes and mood swings.

• It could aid in regulating the body's temperature control systems, potentially providing relief from hot flashes and nocturnal perspiration.

• Acupuncture could promote relaxation, potentially ameliorating emotional symptoms.

• It may improve sleep quality.

• Acupuncture might also be effective in addressing accompanying concerns, such as weight management, skin conditions, digestive issues, and joint discomfort.

There is plenty of fantastic research out there!

Is Acupuncture a Good Choice for Menopause?

So, you're wondering if acupuncture could be your go-to move for tackling menopause symptoms, right? Here's the deal: acupuncture is generally pretty safe and well-tolerated. But before you go getting needles poked into you, it's crucial to connect with a licensed acupuncturist who is professional at dealing with women's health and menopausal challenges. From here, they'll whip up a personalised plan based on what's bugging you the most. But hey, don't expect instant results. Acupuncture isn't a one-and-done deal. You'll need a series of sessions to hopefully really feel the benefits. Chinese medicine is widely regarded as safe; however, like all healthcare interventions, it may, on rare occasions, lead to potential adverse reactions in specific individuals, so even more reason to make sure you’re in good hands.

Wánchéng (to finish), although Western medicine views menopause as a time of aging, your Eastern TCM friends would like to remind you that it is your body's way of recalibrating towards balance as we age. And… as the Chinese saying goes,

'Women in their thirties are wolves, forties are tigers, and fifties are dragons.'

Wei Qi (defensive Qi)

Wei Qi
A Chinese medicine concept that has been inspiring me recently.

Your Wei Qi is similar to your immune system, building up this healthy defence system. But it is also so much more than that. The Wei Qi not only assists in the protection of our physical body, it also guards us energetically.

The Wei Qi exists on the surface of the body, and within the tendons and muscles. In Medical Qigong Theory, it is thought that the Wei Qi field extends beyond the surface of our bodies, encompassing the auric and subtle energies associated with our emotional and spiritual body.  Kewl.

Things that harm Wei Qi:
- Extreme weather conditions like dampness, wind, heat, or cold
- Consuming toxic or contaminated food or water
- Not having a nutritious diet
- Being in energetically and emotionally toxic environments or relationships
- Suppressing emotions such as anger and grief resulting from emotional traumas
- Engaging in behaviours that go against one's values, like lying or gossiping, which actually is said to create holes in the Wei Qi field.

On the other hand, there are ways to strengthen the Wei Qi:
- Eating a healthy seasonal diet and incorporating herbs if necessary, as this supports the production of Wei Qi and the physical field.
- Practicing Qigong, Yin or Yoga, which help regulate and train the channels, making them "thicker" with Qi and supporting the protective layer. There are specific Qigong exercises that focus on strengthening the Wei Qi, such as exercises for the lungs, spleen, kidneys, and extraordinary vessels. One of my teachers @stephanienosco has a vast collection of short practices and so much more inspo on her feed.
- Engaging in breath work, which can strengthen the lungs and improve the circulation of Wei Qi.

Big Love

Heavenly Waters

‘Bao Gong’ meaning palace of child or what we formally know as the uterus is considered this extraordinary organ ‘this palace’ in Chinese Medicine.
I remember the day I got introduced to this uterus of mine. I was age 15 at High school on a casual clothes day where I was excitingly wearing a tight baby blue good old supre skirt. I was sitting in the sick room contemplating both the immense pain I was experiencing and on the other hand having to contact an available parent to come and rescue me from what was once my blue skirt to now a violent red including the 90’s retro fabric chair I was sitting on. I felt like I just been run over by a truck. Safe to say first impressions of my period, sucked.
When connecting with my mother on this somewhat new rite of passage, to look for comfort in this new chapter I received words like “you poor thing, the pain is a curse you have inherited our family genes, periods are awful, sucks to be a woman” and from there the body shaming intensified well into my teens because of this view.
From there I joined my fellow girlfriends every month in the pain, hate towards my body, tampons, pads, hot water bottles, nurofen, sickness and shaming of my dear heavenly waters (the eastern name for your cycle).
Eventually the body shaming took a turn and I lost the ability to healthily regulate my menstrual cycle. I then jumped on the band wagon of suffering fertility issues alongside once again my fellow girlfriends blaming this confused body, suffering miscarriages and unfortunately the immense grief I endured of losing two of my children to stillbirth.
My relationship to these phases and my cycle in particular became something I needed to control, at the same time knowing the future holds ultimately a lack of control as one day I will have to endure the way society labels it as the ‘dreaded menopause.’

My studies of Chinese medicine, and having the gift to carry life has been such a big eye opener for me and being a woman.
I have learnt that we as palace walkers, uterus holders, mothers, women, goddesses & girls that we need to nourish this body deeply, these phases and this rite of passage is OUR GIFT!
Each phase of wombanhood should be a blessing. How to nourish our bodies during our heavenly waters, to plant the seed (if desired) for fertility, to grow a child fully nourished mind, body, spirit and the second spring as we invite the innate wisdom of wombanhood into our transition of menopause this should all be dealt with such reverence and a deep tone of love.
Inspired by my wisdom, my teachings and my gained knowledge into these phases, how to nourish, how to heal, how to embrace your palace.

#ladiesletsgo

Wu Wei

Wu Wei. 🍃
It’s a concept that often gets translated to “effortless effort or the act of non-doing.”
If you think it sounds lazy, it isn’t!
It’s more like when you’re totally at one with what you’re doing, in a state of profound concentration yet considerably in a state of flow—integrity with softness. Think, like the amount of effort it takes to watch the sunset.
You begin walking with your inner nature and with the natural laws working around you.
You sync with nature and start flowing with minimal effort.
The birds don’t get the wrong time to rise and go to sleep at night. The trees still grow and flourish as best they can. The rivers fill after rain, and when standing over scenery that takes your breath away, you keep breathing.
The natural world follows this principle, and it flows with minimal effort. Mistakes are made or even imagined by humans. Or perhaps it’s not a mistake? It’s just a separation from the natural laws.
You are a part of nature.
So choose to drift, let yourself follow the way.

Digestion Baby

The Stomach and Spleen channel is about receiving nourishment on all levels. It is also said that our ideas and intentions (called Yi) are stored in the yin organ of the Spleen.

For most of us it seems to be that centre of ourselves that always needs all the love and nourishment.
You can imagine these energetics as a fertile soil to which you take care, tend too, nurture to ultimately set the foundations to build a bountiful harvest 🌱Strong healthy soil = deep roots.

Over worried? Over analyzing? These can be patterns of lack of Spleen and Stomach Qi. And to be honest we all do it! Essentially, these ruminating thoughts are just spinning thoughts without action!

So a few tips from me to you:
- Bring action to your intentions.
- Don’t bite of more than you can chew. Small tasks and bask in the accomplishments
- Eat warm nourishing earthy foods. Think of root vegetables and warm soups, stews and a little bit of el natural sweet (like dates or figs)
- Avoid cold foods
- Take such good care of you, small rituals make a huge difference
- Screen off and study breaks more often.
- Be mindful of everything you’re digesting from your experiences to your plate.
- Take time to assimilate, to digest.
- Acupuncture, massage, yin yoga (something that feels like it is creating a warm cosy nest for you)

BIG love, B.

In-motion E-motion

In Chinese Medicine, the emotions are perceived as movements of Qi and each emotion increases a particular quality of that Qi. Liver has the role in creating a smooth flow of energy throughout the body, including the smooth flow of our emotions. In particular, the Liver is related to the emotion of anger. It is quite common to see clinically that most excess or repressed emotions can be observed in the Liver Qi.

When we experience frustration, anger or agitation, and when it lingers in our mind and body for a bit too long, we call this Qi Stagnation. This creates a bit of a block of us. We can further experience these agitated emotions manifest in the body, showing up as tension headaches, shoulder tension, face tension. The Liver tries its best to move the stagnation. This can sometimes generate a heat in the body which could lead to something like a snap in the middle of a traffic jam or an argument with a partner. That snap is where the anger finally shifts and wants to move out! This is a very normal human reaction.

You are not a bad person because you get angry. And we could even dive in to a topic of how anger is an extension of fear and the emotion of anger is always a byproduct of a deeper truth (but let’s leave that big topic for now). Our reaction to something depends on our natural disposition, and on our individual nature. The nature of the reaction tells whether the desire in the heart is turned towards the development of life or towards what it is in conflict with it.

The push of emotion from the Liver is what gives us this epic ability to move through these emotion. To change and to grow. It is the aspect of our self which is the visionary and sees what needs to be done.

Think of an individual with the compassionate virtue like an activist or a mother protecting their child or a passionate lover. Beautiful expressions of the redirection of this energy.


Some antidotes to when you can feel that liver Qi rising a bit too much:

- Move it! Dance, exercise, shake it out

- Qigong, yin yoga, meditation- reset the nervous system big belly breaths here

- Check in with your heart.

- Redirect the energy- get passionate about something!

- A walk in nature where there is loads of green or wood.

- Fly a kite (or admire something from far away). Metaphorically as well, see things that distant as if they were close and close things as if they are distant. (Shifting the perspective)

Hope this helps,

BIG love, B.