Welcome Spring by Moving Liver Qi

Learn about qualities of the Wood Element of Chinese medicine, including movement practices for spring, the Chinese herbal formula Xiao Yao San 逍遙散, and some western herbs too!

(Scroll below for the article, or visit https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/spring-tcm-formula-for-moving-liver-qi )

Visit JilingLin.com for clinic info and upcoming events!

Jiling's March news

 

Happy Spring Equinox!

Elderflowers are budding, baby Sycamore leaves are popping out of their winter coats, our tomato plants inch taller everyday, and bees and hummingbirds swarm incandescent aromatic blue Rosemary flowers.

What plants are growing around you right now?

Spring is associated with the element of Wood, in Chinese medicine. Wood governs the Liver and Gallbladder meridians, anger, compassion, dreams, vision, wind, goals, decisions, and aligned forward momentum.

What does spring feel like in your body?

Eat fresh wild spring greens, such as baby dandelion, plantain, dock, chickweed, chives, mallow, and garlic mustard.

Move your body. Release stagnant qi/ energy from sheltering in place. Enjoy a nourishing regular movement practice, such as simple walking, and/or breath- integrated practices like yoga, qigong, and dance.

What are your greatest visions?

Nourish life, or 養生 (yang shen), through healthy rest, movement, connection, nutrition, and creative expression. And of course, come in for acupuncture + herbs! 😍

How are you actively moving your dreams into reality, every single day?

Contents

Enjoy these FREE offerings to inspire your spring:

🍃 Embodying Elements: Spring Equinox

🍃 Interplay info session

🍃 Insight Timer meditations

🍃 Community Resources

🌸Embodying Elements: Spring Equinox🌸

Move your dreams into reality with the Wood element of Chinese Medicine. Align your visions and actions through improvisational movement, sound, and storytelling. Join us for this FREE Spring Equinox Interplay journey, on Saturday, March 20 at 1 PM PST! Register here:

EMBODY SPRING

🍃 InterPlay Programs

Embody somatic skills + learn creative tools for optimized joyful living! Join our free session on March 6 at 4 PM PST to learn more about us. Email me to sign up!

• Secrets of Interplay retreat, April 8- 11
• Interplay Life Practice Program, April to June

INTERPLAY

🍃 Insight Timer meditations

Enjoy these free meditations, and join me for upcoming weekly donation- based yoga/ meditation classes through Insight Timer!

MEDITATE

🍃 Community Resources

• Get your vaccine + check Covid updates at VenturaCountyRecovers.org
• Plant your spring herb garden with Strictly Medicinal Seeds
• Free monthly retreat for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) through Sounds True
• Writing Medicine: Free weekly reflective writing sessions for healthcare workers

Lokha samastha sukhino bhavantu

May all beings be happy.

Happy spring!

Jiling

Jiling Lin, L.Ac. 林基玲

acupuncture . herbs . yoga

​JilingLin.com | 575.342.1050

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Making Flower Essences

It’s spring. Flowers are blossoming everywhere. Pollinators buzz around, intoxicated in their fragrance. What to do, with all these lovely flowers?

Time to make flower essences!

It’s best to make flower essences when the flower is at the peak of its blossoming, or right before the peak. Go out in the morning with clippers, undistilled spring water, and a glass bowl or jar. Approach the flower or plant that you wish to make an essence of. Ask for permission to extract its essence, in whatever way feels the best to you. I like to make a prayer of gratitude, and sit with the plant for a while, before doing anything. Maybe I’ll observe the plant, draw it, photograph it, or just meditate with it. Do whatever feels the best for you, but it’s integral to establish a healthy relationship with the plant, before you try and make medicine with it. And, do not physically touch the plant that you are planning to make medicine with.

Once you are both ready for the next step, you can fill your glass bowl with water. Once again, make sure that you do not touch the plant with your hands, through this entire process. If you do touch the plant, your own energy may affect the flower essence. You can either clip the flower directly into the water, or you can just place the flower head into the water. I like to move around the flowers with tweezers. The traditional method is to clip the flowers directly into water, and cover the surface of the water with the flowers. Do what feels the best for you, in the moment. You can even experiment with both methods, and see how the different medicines feel.

Let the flowers sit in the water, in the sunlight, uncovered in a safe and lovely spot, for 4-6 hours. This amount of time depends upon your personal preferences, belief system, and the plant itself. Herbalist Mimi Kamp suggests leaving the flower in the water until the energetic feeling of the flower essence is stronger than the energetic feeling of the plant itself. She tests this by placing her hand over the plant and feeling its energy, then placing her hand over the essence and feeling that energy. Sometimes, people can be energetically sensitive and feel these subtle differences. Sometimes, this is difficult to experience. Do what feels best for you. The one rule with making flower essences is that there is no real rule. It’s an energetic medicine, and an intuitive art.

Once your essence is ready, carefully remove the flowers from the essence. Return them back to the Earth, giving thanks for their gifts. Dilute the water essence 1:1 with brandy, or 40% alcohol. (This can be substituted with vinegar too, but alcohol lasts longer.) Now, you have your mother essence!

Bottle and label your mother essence. Preserved in alcohol, she should last for a long time, if not indefinitely. Make sure you share! We tend to make too much flower essences, for a little goes a long way.

When you are ready to use your flower essence, fill a 1 ounce tincture bottle with 1:1 spring water to brandy. Add 10-30 drops of the mother essence to your bottle. Now, you have your stock essence. This is what is usually sold in the store.

Do the same thing again to make your dosage bottle. Fill a 1 ounce tincture bottle with 1:1 spring water to brandy. This time, just add 1 drop of the stock essence into this bottle. This is the final product. This is what you will carry around in your pocket, and take 4 drops 4 times a day, or as needed.

To effect long-lasting subtle change, take 4 drops of your dosage bottle flower essence, 4 times a day. It is like a constant subtle reminder to your self, to effect long-lasting change. Flower essences can also just be taken one drop at a time, for an experience, or to help relieve acute symptoms.

Flowers are the reproductive part of a plant, carrying all the genetic material for a new plant to grow. These seed stories are thus infused into the flower essence, and energetically intaked into your body to continue gestating, as you ingest them. It’s still new, a mystery to me. You can easily buy flower essences, at ridiculous prices, in the store. I’d much rather enjoy the experience of getting to know the plants, making the medicines, and experimenting. Do as you choose. This medicine is so dilute, that it is very safe to use. 

Enjoy your explorations, and please share your discoveries!

Flower Essence Supplier Resources

Bach Essences

http://www.bachflower.com/

Mimi Kamp: Essence of the Desert

https://essenceofthedesert.wordpress.com/

Flower Essence Services

http://www.fesflowers.com/