A time to rest and digest!

In Chinese Medicine, encompassing the autumn equinox is associated with the Earth element and the stomach/spleen organs, two of the primary digestive organs of the body. That’s right, the spleen is a digestive organ in Chinese medicine.

It serves to transform and transport the food and drink in the body into energy and usable matter and it plays a key role in our immune system (like the biomedical spleen function), the condition of our digestion, the strength and tone of our muscles or the fleshy substance of our body and our general energy as well. When it’s out of balance we get sick easily, can have loose stools, gas and bloating, low muscle tone and definition and fatigue. Also, when out of balance, instead of digesting our thoughts (mental-emotional food) and moving forward we tend to ruminate and worry.

From the small bit of info that I just covered, we know tending our Earth element is important to our mental-emotional well being. Physically and mentally if we are weak at transforming our literal food and our thoughts into something usable we tend to just go in circles.

Doing things to nurture our body and be gentle with our digestion can be hugely important to nourishing our Earth energy. In Chinese medicine it is thought that cooking or fermenting our foods – particularly vegetables and fruit – makes them more digestible and less harsh on our digestion. Bland foods are also in harmony – think of the root vegetables that will be time to harvest and eat now. We can also take this metaphor into the mental realms where instead of responding in the moment to raw emotional/mental information, we get a little more intellectual about it and gather data and breathing room to process the information. Then the thoughts will also be more digestible and more transformable into something usable by our emotional body.

There are several ways we can support you through this change of season:

• Acupuncture: A space for you to slow down and rest and digest.
• Herbs: We have several herb formulas that can apply to your particular pattern of digestive distress (it isn’t a one size fits all!)
• Essential Oil Blends: We are loving the new-to-the-clinic Digest Ease essential oil blend from Snow Lotus. Great for rubbing on the belly if you are experiencing digestive discomfort. We also love any blend with geranium rose including Child Chiller, Calm Spirit and Sweet Dreams to ease that mental -digestive component that correlates to strong food cravings. We are happy to custom select a blend with a pair of acupoints to apply it to based on your specific needs.
• Movement and Qi Gong Exercises: Depending on what’s happening for you we can recommend different exercises to support your digestion. Sometimes it’s as simple as a self massage or a yoga pose. One of my favorites is a supported restorative yoga pose Supta Baddha Konasana (AKA butterfly or supine bound angle pose). There are many videos accessible on YouTube to see ways to do this. Let us know if you want specific video recommendations.

Laura Goff LAc, MSOM, RYT-200

Acupuncturist | Yoga, Qi Gong and Self Care Teacher 

Check out her profile here.