I love Spring. The renewal of life, energy, and all it brings is breath taking to me every year.
Today is March 5th. As I walked in the woods with my dog, I can feel the pull of the sun. It is getting warmer, brighter, stronger... another winter survived! I can smell scents that were not there even 2 days ago; scents of the coming Spring.
I even found a Great White Pine whose south side's snow was already melted away. I sat my butt, right in the pine needles, and pressed my spine up along this mighty pine's trunk. The sun was in my face and the pine needles under me were fragrant in the sun's warmth.
The earth I sat on.
The Great White Pine, looking up her trunk, as I sat in the sun.
Spring motivates movement: sap rising, buds opening, shoots sprouting, doors and window being moved up and open, people getting out of their homes, and on & on.
I want to encourage you to move this Spring. Get outside and reap the benefits of moving your body, being exposed to natural light, and breathing in the fresh air.
Movement of the body is a natural, sacred, and healing thing. People moved constantly to complete the tasks of daily living and food gathering (as I sit here click click clicking!) before modern technology and labor saving devices.
- digging
- gathering
- hoeing
- walking
- chopping
- on & on the movement went!
We have traded daily, steady and slow going movement for either next to no movement or run-run-run and get high intensity exercise into an hour movement. It is like we have to fit the whole day's movement, pre-tech, into 1 hour. From a functional medicine perspective, slow and steady is better. Slow and steady does not create the free radicals and inflammation of high intensity, high metabolism exercise. Slow and steady: walks, yoga, tai chi, qi gong, canoe, kayak, hike, bike, mt. climb, moderate weight lifting, push ups... movement for low impact and longevity.
Embrace the Spring the renewed energy of the sun, and more movement this season.
Things I do during my day of client support and education, business work, and blog / newsletter writing:
- get up and do a yoga pose or two or three every half hour holding the pose for 7 long, deep belly breaths
- stop to do the dishes while dancing at the kitchen sink
- walk around my house, up & down the stairs and toss in some push ups for good measure
- throw in a load of wash, I hang all of my wash so the bending to get clothes out of the basket and lifting arms to hang is a good motion to break up the sitting habit
- go out for a walk around my home and maybe do a hand stand or two up against the red pine or the stone wall
- resist the call of the Great White Pines in my back woods... or not and wander off to commune with the White Pines, sit with my back to her trunks, and gather some life force energy while enjoying the peace - solitude - and earthy scents of the woods (then it is back to work for me)
My requests of you:
1. Comment below and share what you do to move more as the Winter breaks into Spring.
Also, I have a request for you natural remedy peoples out there. The sacred, great white pine spot in the pictures above is a favorite spot of mine. Sitting with my back to the trunk, my face is towards the southerly sky and the sun. I am looking over a sweet little body of water. The problem is: when spring rolls on the poison ivy grows there.
2. Does anyone have a natural way of getting rid of poison ivy? Please comment below.
My idea is to use my hand clippers and start clipping it back when the shoots are just popping up out of Mother Earth. If I keep doing this every few days, my logic is this clipping will starve the roots of nourishment (no sun on the new shoots means no photosynthesis keeping the roots nourished) and eventually kill off the roots and plants.
I have never had poison ivy and walk through it frequently. Yes, I now avoid touching the plants as I have become older and wiser. As a kid, I did not care and never got more that 1 - 2 tiny blisters on my bare feed from trodding through poison ivy patches for the reward of a swim in the St. Regis River.
Happy Spring Equinox! Happy Spring Moving! Cheers.
PS I know the season's names are not proper nouns, require no capitalization, but I cannot help but believe they deserve to be honored with capitol letters. The seasons are sacred; nature is sacred, you are sacred (you are nature).
Gluten Free Bread Recipe:
http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/gluten-free-bread/