April is here and it is a very appropriate time to highlight Stress Awareness Month!

We’ve just had the spring equinox, Easter, Ramadan, Eid and the Solar Eclipse (a time of movement and metamorphosis). In traditional Chinese medicine, springtime is governed by the liver meridian and the Wood element, it’s also a time of change, the liver energy is all about smooth and even flow…..or trying to achieve this the best we can!  This is why, in many different cultures and religions, it’s a time of some sort of fasting, or a good time to do a general liver cleanse, to get that frustrated ‘liverish’ energy out.  The liver is where we store the stress emotions of anger, bitterness and resentment, so an unbalanced liver means stagnant Qi energy, which stresses and strains us mentally and physically. A healthy liver means that we can set clear boundaries and have positive organised motivation.

Gentle Liver cleanse tips

1) Sipping on warm water with lemon juice first thing in the morning thins excess mucus and stimulates gastric juices. Lemon juice is very similar in composition to the digestive juices that we have already, which means they can help break down food and help stimulate that natural detoxification process by taking the load off the liver and the gallbladder.

2) There is a bright and cheery ‘superherb’ that folk-healers and doctors have prescribed for liver health for centuries. It’s the strong and hardy weed that pops up all over our lawns at this time of year, yes the dandelion, which is an incredible detoxifier for liver health. Try swapping your morning cortisol inducing coffee with some ‘dandelion coffee’. It helps to maintain the proper flow of bile while stimulating the liver, this promotes proper digestion, decreasing the chance of constipation, leading to a lower chance of developing more serious gastrointestinal problems. (You can get this from a good health food store or online, I have recently personally been using Aquasol instant dandelion coffee).

3) At the clinic we have some great herbal formulas such as ‘Xiao Yao Wan’, translated as ‘Free and Easy Wanderer’. By helping to regulate the liver it can help in reducing both frustration and stress.

We’re all aware that our modern industrialised lives are moving at a lot faster rate than our body and spirit can yet cope with. Stress comes from a threat of danger, we used to perceive a threat as something like a lion chasing us where our adrenals would pump cortisol and we would have a fight or flight response to get out of the immediate impact of danger. However, we don’t have that physical threat of a lion chasing us anymore, it’s those never ending emails, crashing computers, deadlines, exams, family, etc. that still pursues us with the same perceived sense of attack as that lion!

It’s estimated that stress accounts for 75-90% of doctors visits and up to 90% of disease! However, there are many effective ways to address stress and to support our physical, emotional and energetic bodies. In terms of specific health issues, stress has been linked to serious health conditions, including high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, headaches, arthritis, asthma, depression and much more.

At Touch Tuina we have many treatment modalities and herbs that can help relieve these physical and emotional stressors, so if you’re feeling overcome with stress just book an appointment at one of the clinics for a consulation and treatment.

I’d also like to share a simple emotional stress release technique

‘ESR’ technique is a very quick easy and simple technique that helps to relieve almost any emotional stress, for example if you’re worried about a job interview, exam, feeling overwhelmed or having trouble thinking clearly. It also can help with memory and performing tasks and it’s actually something we already intuitively do to help us try to think better!

This technique is very useful in that it balances the energy flow in the head. It helps bring blood to your ‘front brain’, which is all about creative problem-solving, thinking logically and helping you to feel calm and clear, whereas what often happens at times when we are feeling stressed is that we default to ‘back brain’ thinking, which is all about survival and reacting to situations based on past experiences even, though that may not have been the best thing to do.

When you’re feeling stressed you can stick your fingers and hold them across the side of your forehead, or hold your whole hand across the forehead, and think of something in your life you’re feeling stressed about, close your eyes and just hold there and breathe. Notice where that feeling sits with you, for example, is it tension in your shoulders, is your breath tight or shallow or is it a sick feeling in your stomach? When you have a sense of how that sits in your body, I want you to take three sets of breath in and out, gradually extending your exhale until it gets twice as long as your inhale to activate your parasympathetic nervous system.

You can carry on breathing like this with your hand on your forehead for longer then your three sets if you wish without putting strain on your arms if they are not supported.

Following on from this is the next technique, the Crown Pull

This technique creates space in your skull. Energy, blood and lymph are all meant to flow through your head and give you space to help you think better.

1. Start with your thumbs on the temples, with your fingertips resting on the middle of your forehead apply pressure and slowly pull your fingers apart, stretching the skin. Breathe deeply in through the nose and out through the mouth.
2. Place your fingertips at your hairline and repeat the stretch, applied with some pressure from the middle of the head.
3. Repeat this pattern starting at the top, centre, and back of the head. Continue this movement down the back of your neck, finish by resting both your hands on top of your shoulders and inhale deeply and press in. Drag your hands down and place them over your heart centre as you exhale.

You can take a  minute now coming back to the event of the situation that was causing you stress, I want you to think and explore the question ‘do I feel different now’? ‘Do I feel a bit calmer about it’? ‘Is there a new solution that I can see that I couldn’t see before the…’ Hopefully if nothing else, you’re feeling a little more relaxed, a little calmer and more clear 💜

Mariana Arando