Tag: Spring

We have a little over a month of Spring time, the season of new beginnings. Take full advantage of Spring  by accomplishing these five suggestions below from The Neijing and Marie Kondo. The Neijing is one of the most vital texts in Daoism (or Taoism) & considered one of the fundamental backbones of Chinese Medicine. It is written from the perspective of Huang Di, known as The Yellow Emperor who retired in the third millennium BCE. Marie Kondo is a famous Japanese professional organizational consultant.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀

1. Go to bed early & wake up early

2. Take walks to enjoy the fresh air

Huang Di said, “The three months of the spring season bring about the revitalization of all things in nature. It is the time of birth. This is when heaven and earth are reborn. During this season it is advisable to retire early, arise early also, and go walking in order to absorb the fresh, invigorating energy. Since this is the season in which the universal energy begins anew and rejuvenates, one should attempt to correspond to it directly by being open and unsuppressed, both physically and emotionally.”

If you are having trouble going to bed earlier here are some tips:

• Have an incentive to get into bed, such as a good book you are excited about reading.
• Light a candle or diffuse some essential oils scented with lavender which smells good and helps you relax
  
• Make you bed in the morning, that way your bed is more enticing to get into
• Get into bed and listen to a relaxing meditation. Insight Timer is a good app or Louise Hay on YouTube.

   3. Exercise more frequently (if you were hibernating in the winter)

   4. Wear loose fitting clothing ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

“On the physical level it is good to exercise more frequently and wear loose-fitting clothing. This is the time to do stretching exercises to loosen up the tendons and muscles. Emotionally, it is good to develop equanimity. This is because spring is the season of the liver, and indulgence in anger, frustration, depression, sadness, or any excess emotion can injure the liver”. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀

Spring is the beginning of things, when the energy should be kept open and fluid; summer opens up further into an exchange or communication between internal and external energies; in the fall it is important to conserve; finally, the winter is dominated by the storage of energy.”

      5. Get organized

If you haven’t done your spring cleaning yet, now is the time! Spring is all about new beginnings and is the perfect time to get organized and de-clutter your house/apartment which also helps to de-clutter your mind.

I read the book “The Lifechanging Magic of Tidying Up” by a professional Japanese Organizing Consultant, Marie Kondo. After I got rid of unused items and organized my items, I was inspired to get organized in other areas of my life. Ex: writing down to-do lists and being more consistent with calendar items. Writing to-do items seemed to make me less stressed without the pressure of having to remember so many things.

The idea behind Kondo’s method of tidying up is to only keep items that give us joy and toss items that do not genuinely give us joy. ⠀⠀⠀

It works! When I am in my bed about to go to sleep and my room is clean, clutter free and filled with items and clothes that I really like and respect, I feel calmer and happier. When I have items I am holding on to that I am not excited about having, it is like having extra baggage or weight added to my room, which I feel when I am around these objects.

Kondo recommends for people to go through this process by themselves in order to fully get a good feeling from the purge. I did feel a sense of relief when cleaning out my items. If you are not great at organizing, It is a good idea to go through your items on your own, as Kondo recommends and to get a professional to help organize. If you are in NYC or Long Island, check out Jamie Horderly. Below is an impressive before and after example of Jamie’s work.

              

  BEFORE

    AFTER