Are You Ready to Thrive?

We've all seen the news articles out there telling us how our chronically stressful lives are making us heavier as a nation. We're too busy to exercise. We're too busy to eat right. Stress increases cortisol, a hormone associated with our fight or flight responses. When we're stressed out we crave salty, fatty and sugary foods. All of these things are a part of the picture.

According to Chinese medicine, weight gain leads back to the Spleen. The Spleen is in charge of metabolizing our food and water intake. When our Spleen is weakened, it is easily overwhelmed by all the food and water coming in and isn't able to use it properly. To bring the stress into the picture - there is a special relationship between the Liver and the Spleen. Think of the Liver as the big brother, and the Spleen as the little brother. If the Liver gets riled up because of stress, he'll take it out on the Spleen - damaging the Spleen. When the Spleen is damaged, he's unable to properly metabolize our food and water, and so it gets stored in the form of fat deposits.

Remember that episode of "I Love Lucy" where she's working in the chocolate factory and she gets a little more behind with each passing moment? She's not sure what to do with all the candies, but knows she has to do SOMETHING with them, so she and Ethel start stuffing them in their mouths. This is similar to what happens when our Spleen gets overwhelmed and damaged by the Liver. It starts stuffing things anywhere it can.

Chinese medicine can be a great boost to your weight loss plan. I'm sorry, it can't do the work for you. You still need to make the necessary diet and exercise changes, but it can help speed the process along. Acupuncture and Chinese herbal formulas can be used to set things straight between the Liver and Spleen to reduce stress levels and help heal the Spleen so that it can do its job properly.

If you're ready to get serious about losing some weight, or you've plateaued in your weight loss progress, consider talking to your acupuncturist. They can help your body remember how to be thin and healthy!

I've done a lot of hiking. When I was in acupuncture school, a friend of mine and I used to go hiking in the Columbia River Gorge whenever we had a long enough break between classes. Sure, all of our classmates thought we were slacking off. We let them think that. What they didn't know was that we had found the ultimate way to de-stress and allow our energy to flow smoothly so that we could study more efficiently.

What we found was that there was an interesting exchange taking place between us and the trees. Much like the exchange of carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen (O2) that occurs between animals and plants, we discovered the existence of an energy exchange.

In Chinese medicine, the Liver is the main organ that is involved when we feel "stressed out." Stress causes our energy to clump together so that it doesn't move properly. One of the Liver's jobs is to assist in the smooth flow of Qi. In order to compensate for our energy not moving correctly, our Liver beefs itself up to try to handle the bigger load. What we end up with is too much Liver energy, creating an imbalance. The Liver is associated with the element of wood, and so a stressed-out person may be described as "having too much wood energy."

What we found is that when we went hiking, our stress simply disappeared. The trees, because they ARE wood, were taking all of our extra wood energy and using it to become bigger and stronger trees. They need that wood energy, we need to get rid of any extra wood energy. Pretty neat, huh?

So the next time you're feeling stressed out, go for a walk in a wooded area. And if no one's around, or if you're like me and don't care what other people think, give a tree a hug. You'll both feel better for it!