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We're coming up on the halfway point of liver season and I promise I'll start talking about something else with the next blog post. But understanding the elements of Classical Chinese medicine is crucial to recognizing patterns of imbalance in yourself.

Finding your Flow: Balancing liver disharmonies with Classical Chinese Medicine

We’re coming up on the halfway point of liver season and I promise I’ll start talking about something else with the next blog post. But understanding the elements of Classical Chinese medicine is crucial to recognizing patterns of imbalance in yourself.

That’s why this year my focus is on teaching you the foundations, so that you can bring seasonal living together with learning what your body needs, and what season your body is in. Because while we are part of the world, we are not always in synch with it.

This blog post is about imbalances in the liver system and what it looks like when our qi isn’t flowing optimally.

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By Jessica Gustafson, ago
Spring seems like it's a long way off in Minnesota. Just last month we hit a record for snow fall in February. But cold and snow notwithstanding, the wood energy of spring is still flowing. Now that I've covered how to live in accordance to each season, I thought it would be a good time to move to talking about the elements in Chinese medicine. Just like the elements of the periodic table, the elements of Chinese medicine represent the basic components. You'll recognize a lot of the movement and terminology in this post from thespring living blog, but this one will take it to another level.

The Wood Element: Raising Yang

Spring seems like it’s a long way off in Minnesota. Just last month we hit a record for snow fall in February. But cold and snow notwithstanding, the wood energy of spring is still flowing.

Now that I’ve covered how to live in accordance to each season, I thought it would be a good time to move to talking about the elements in Chinese medicine.

Just like the elements of the periodic table, the elements of Chinese medicine represent the basic components. You’ll recognize a lot of the movement and terminology in this post from the spring living blog, but this one will take it to another level.

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By Jessica Gustafson, ago
The best detox diet is the most simple one of all - whole foods. A cleanse or a detox can set you further back on your health journey. Click to read more.

Why Your Pinterest Cleanse Won’t Work

The Complementary Care Police are probably going to come and take my holistic health practitioner card away for saying this, but: I really don’t like detoxes.

I know that they’re all the rage and for good reason – the good ones, when done right, are great! But there are a ton of bad ones out there, and they’re usually done incorrectly or at a time that’s harmful to patients. It’s time that we, as a holistic community, have a chat about that.

The best detox diet is the most simple one of all - whole foods. A cleanse or a detox can set you further back on your health journey. Click to read more.
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By Jessica Gustafson, ago
Menopause is a rite all menstruating women go through, but it can be an easy journey

Menopause: The Time of the Wise Woman

Spring carries the energy of the maiden – the prepubescent girl with her whole life ahead over her. Summer is the young mother, pregnant or having just given birth. Autumn is the experienced mother, still guiding her children, but watching them make their own decisions.

Winter is the time of the crone.

If you look at the definitions of crone online you find:

an old woman who is thin and ugly.

Or that she’s cruel, malicious or sinister.

But if you dig into the archetype of the crone or listen to the stories women tell each other about old women you see something different. You see a wise woman who uses the lessons she’s learned in life to guide those younger than her to the right path.

The crone teaches us that death cycles are inevitable. Winter always comes, age marches on and one day, we too will be grandmothers. And that scares us. It scares us in the way the nadir of death cycles always scares us. We don’t like cold, we don’t like darkness and we don’t like endings.

But every woman who menstruates will one day go through menopause. That process will mark the end of her reproductive days. As an ending, that’s scary. As a process, it can be frustrating.

This post has two purposes: to give you a guide through menopause to make the transition from mother to crone (or Wise Woman, or Grandmother) go more smoothly and also to show you that as part of a cycle it may be an ending, but it is not the End.

Menopause is a rite all menstruating women go through, but it can be an easy journey
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By Jessica Gustafson, ago
Menstruation is a source of shame, concern and pain for many women but it doesn't need to be that way

Taming the Red Dragon: Menstruation in Chinese Medicine

Last week I introduced the concept of death cycles on the Instagram feed. In a nutshell, a life cycle is a cycle an organism follows from birth to the point they reproduce and their offspring begin their own life cycle. A death cycle follows an organism through all the processes of birth, life, death and potential rebirth.

The handy thing about death cycles is that since the year is its own death cycle we can use it as a guide. Spring is birth, summer is growth, fall is decline and winter is death. The unique thing about winter is that it’s the season that contains all the things we, as a society, fear, are ashamed of, or hate.

Cold, darkness, old age, labor, and menstruation.

When you work with the seasons and death cycles, you learn that decline is a part of life and it’s usually a healthy part of the process. Trees wouldn’t flourish in the summer if they didn’t rest in the winter, the day doesn’t happen without the night and we wouldn’t continue our reproductive cycle without healthy menstruation.

Have you been told your entire life that your period is gross, something you shouldn’t talk about, something shameful or even, sinful?

What would happen if you saw it has a healthy sign of ovulation and embraced it as a time of rest? My bet is that it would be life changing and if you’re interested you should definitely read on.

Menstruation is a source of shame, concern and pain for many women but it doesn't need to be that way
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By Jessica Gustafson, ago
The Outer Shu are a way to treat psychological, emotional and even spiritual conditions from the outside in

The Outer Shu: A Natural Approach to Mental Health

Emotions are complicated. Psychology is complicated. Humans, well, we’re complicated.

This season we’ve been diving deeply into emotional and psychological disorders on the blog. We started on Halloween with Sun Si Miao’s ghost points, the ancient treatment for conditions like addiction, bipolar, depression and anxiety.

Last week we talked about the shen, or how we understand spirit and consciousness in Chinese medicine.

But this week I thought we would get back to acupuncture and discuss an interesting group of points – the outer shu points – and tie them back to their impact on the shen.

The Outer Shu are a way to treat psychological, emotional and even spiritual conditions from the outside in
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By Jessica Gustafson, ago
Understanding shen is critical to understanding how it helps treat pain, anxiety, depression, addiction and more. It's more than spirit - it's psychology.

Shen: Discovering Spirit in the Season of Stillness

Now that the quiet of winter has descended, many of us are finding ourselves contemplating life’s mysteries over a mug of tea. It’s only natural; winter is a time of rest and meditation. It’s the season to stare off into the middle distance and let the snowflakes fall out of focus as our mind takes us to far off fantasies or deep into our core.  In honor of this deeply spiritual time of the year, let’s dive into the concept of shen.

A patient’s spirituality is, frankly, none of my business. But I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the spiritual roots of Chinese medicine or address it more deeply than I have in the past. Shen is a huge concept, and treating the shen is important for pain management, anxiety and depression, labor induction, fertility and more.

Understanding the concept of shen will help you understand why.

Understanding shen is critical to understanding how it helps treat pain, anxiety, depression, addiction and more. It's more than spirit - it's psychology.
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By Jessica Gustafson, ago
Are you feeling resistant to the coming winter? Living seasonally helps you settle into the rhythm of the year and autumn helps you prepare for winter properly

Autumn: Living with nature in the season of harvest

Leaves crunch under footsteps. Pumpkins spring up in doorways and along sidewalks. And the smell of woodsmoke lies just under the smells of spice and frost. Oh yes, autumn is here.

Autumn is the season of harvest – the season for us to look back at what we’ve made, keep the things that serve us, and release the things that don’t. The season of soups and chilis. And the season of preparation.

Learning to live seasonally is the ultimate preventative medicine. It’s a lifestyle that follows the rhythms of nature around you to prepare you for the pitfalls of the season ahead.

Are you feeling resistant to the coming winter? Living seasonally helps you settle into the rhythm of the year and autumn helps you prepare for winter properly
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By Jessica Gustafson, ago