The River of Your Breath, Creating Rhythms

The magnificence of spring.

There’s still space left in my spring restorative yoga workshop Friday 4/10 from 7-8:30pm at Studio 34 Yoga in West Philly. You don’t need any yoga experience to attend, and we will spend the majority of our time together close to the ground, gathering our energy and being with the current of our breath. This is a great opportunity for those of us struggling with sleep, anxiety, or emotional regulation to smooth the breath and the body. Register here. 

The new cycle of the year that begins in spring can invite us to revisit with new eyes what we think we know, and to really revisit the basics. It’s a beautiful time to recommit to foundational practices of selfcare–eating well, sleeping, regulating our energy and attention. Once these practices are patterned in, we can add in more refined and personalized expressions of self-care practices. 

Breathing in a sustained and regulated fashion, which we will practice together Friday 4/10 at my workshop “Revitalize and Renew”, can help us set the rhythms for proper flow and harmony in our body systems as the lung sets the rhythm for the entire body in Chinese Medicine theory.

While the lung is associated with autumn in most systems of Chinese Medicine thinking, there are other systems that associate the lung with springtime, as the lung’s place on the Chinese clock is daybreak, 3:00-5:00am.

The beauty of Chinese Medicine theory is that it allows for relationships to emerge that might appear contradictory but which have their own relational logic and thereby do not need to cancel each other out. 

This can be true, and that can also be true. 

Acupuncture works by balancing the relationships between different channels and organs, which in turn creates the conditions for the most efficient and effortless flow in the body, mind and heart. This effortlessness warms and nourishes the tissues of the body and allows us to function with grace and with ease.

Some of you who have had an appointment with me recently might notice that I’m spending more time palpating the acupuncture channels to assess the flow and energy of each channel. The palpation gives me new information that I can layer in with signs and symptoms, pulse, and tongue to create a more accurate picture of how I can help you most. 

I attended the most beautiful acupuncture channel palpation workshop a few weekends ago in New York. We experienced the channels as rivers and checked with our thumbs for the depth of each channel’s energetic river, the flow of the river (is it gushing or trickling), any sticks or sand in the river (is there a nodule or blockage?), and the quality of the banks and the bed of the river (does it feel muddy, gravely, or smooth). 

Though I’ve been in practice for 12 years now, I’ve been revisiting the Chinese Medicine classics and Chinese Medicine physiology and am just generally enjoying rebuilding my knowledge base from the ground up. I’m even re-reading some introductory texts and appreciating nuances that eluded me 15 years ago when I was in school. 

The spring season, the wood element or wood phase of the year, is the growth phase, the wild unfettered blossoming stage of the life cycle. And the wood phase is birthed from the depths of the water element or water phase–winter. 

Water literally nourishes wood and allows new life to spring forth. Winter is the season of dark contraction, of mystery, and from that mystery emerges new life and new light.

May we learn together to open our eyes to the beauty and the unbounded potential both within us and all around us this spring.

Prefer a cozy home practice? My next at-home restorative yoga online is Thursday April 23rd at 7:30pm. Come in your pjs if you please.