Warm Winter Wisdom
As a person who loves to think about the many ways in which humans are interconnected, seeing topical patterns emerge week-to-week and season-to-season in our treatment chats feels pretty macrocosmically affirming. Sometimes it’ll be a bit predictable, like reverberations of shared anxiety and insomnia during election season, and other times I find myself dreaming up theories of how all the cases of heartburn I’ve seen during a particular week must be related to those well-timed (or rather, well-calculated) seamless discount emails causing a collective late night delivery binge in the neighborhood. These last few weeks, many people are just saying it straight-out: “I am not looking forward to winter, what do I do to prepare?”
Sometimes it makes things easier to learn a bit more about what we don’t like, in order to discover what it is that makes us feel that way and how we can come to better terms with it. Let’s start with some foundational info from the perspective of TCM to become a little more cozy with the idea of winter.
The element associated with the winter months is Water, which is aptly affiliated with the Kidney and Bladder systems (note that the capitalization helps us distinguish the channel/system from the organ itself). The Kidney has a wide variety of functions in TCM, including regulating water metabolism, providing warmth for digestive processes to occur, and sourcing all Yin and Yang throughout the body. The Kidney is also considered to house the essence or “Jing”, which is thought of as the basis of all aspects of organic life. Essence is both inherited from our parents, defining our basic constitution, and acquired through nutrition, providing useful material for all processes in the body. Essentially, Jing is the foundational energy that is intimately connected with all aspects of growth and maturation throughout our lives.
Naturally, this energy decreases as we age, but stress and overindulgence contribute further to Jing depletion, which is a hard thing to hear for us chronically overworked and overstimulated New Yorkers. Additionally, the Kidney’s yin and yang aspects can also be considered as analogous to the parasympathetic and sympathetic aspects of our autonomic nervous system; the ANS has a direct role in physical response to stressors, so treating our Kidney system to some down time this winter is super important for stress reduction and cellular regeneration.
You’re probably starting to see how winter can be a little tough for folks because it forces us to slow down; just as water is reflective and calm, we too must follow nature in becoming a little more quiet, inward, and dormant, in order to preserve resources through the colder months. Now is the time to contemplate, read, take lots of baths, sleep early and deeply, allow for and accept lower energy activities, nurture your home space, practice gentle fluid movements, and go inward (I know, it feels like we’ve had enough of “going inward” this year for a lifetime, but the seasons continue to turn and so must we in accordance!).
To keep Kidney energy healthy, it is also important to stay well-hydrated and warm. Have you heard the expression of “feeling the cold in your bones”? This speaks to Water energy needing a little boost; since bones are associated with the Kidney, getting some extra warmth in is super helpful for reducing achiness associated with the cold and supporting skeletal health. It’s a great time to eat lots of warm foods too, so start cooking those delicious root veggies, make lots of soups and stews, and use warming spices like ginger and garlic. As for specific foods, there are all sorts of color/flavor/shape associations with the water element that are good to consider when making meals so here are some ideas for your shopping list:
Salty foods, especially ones from the water: seaweed, seafood, fish, tamari, miso
Foods that are naturally black or blue: black sesame seeds, plums, eggplant, blackberries, blueberries
Foods that look like kidneys: beans!
Nuts & Seeds (think fertility and growth): all kinds, especially sesame, walnuts, chestnuts
Bone marrow broths and soups
Other Kidney tonics: goji berries, Chinese yam, cinnamon
Keep in mind that having just a moderate amount of these kinds of foods is best - too much of anything can be just as unbalanced as too little. It’s also a great idea to be mindful of too much caffeine and sugar intake in order to give the adrenals (also related to the Kidney!) some rest.
A lot of folks seem to really dislike the cold and lack of light, so it might be a good idea to invest in a nice hot water bottle or heated blanket, as well as a sun lamp and some vitamin D to brighten up your dark days. In addition to regular baths, foot soaks are especially helpful now; the first point of the Kidney channel is on the bottom of the foot, and is well able to absorb tonifying energy to be disseminated throughout the body through warm soaks and warm socks . Do be thoughtful of the anatomical area where the kidneys themselves are by keeping the abdomen and low back warm as well.
The emotion associated with the Kidney that comes up most during winter is fear, especially fear of not having what it takes to make it through the winter, or to meet the challenges that lie ahead. Rest assured that all you need to make it through is both already with you, and right nearby; please feel free to reach out if you need direction towards any community resources this winter, and we will try our best to connect you. And remember, if you find yourself feeling a bit down about the lack of activity this winter, know that our future ideas and plans cannot be carried out to their fullest potential if our energy is prematurely dispersed, or totally drained. Allow the incubation process to play out at its own pace, and be present with the magic of slow growth and potentiality.
Warmly ;)
Dr. Stephanie Dixon
