Looking ahead, staying present

Last week, we had a team of wood splitters come out to our property to prepare several felled trees for our wood stove.

We heat our home almost exclusively with wood, and last year, we had some trees taken down to create a more serious defensible space for future fire seasons (a project we worked on with our local Soil and Water Conservation District and the NM Forestry Division ).

The team bucked and split the logs into standard stove-cut pieces, which amounted to more than 4 cords of wood once they were stacked (!) 🪵

As I looked out at the huge wood pile, a sense of relief washed over me. This familiar sense of calm contentedness is one I normally experience when I realize I am prepared.

I think there is a careful line we can draw that differentiates preparedness from hypervigilance.

On one side of this line - the prepared side - we move with a certain kind of purpose that is time-sensitive, yet not urgent. We do what we need to do and get what we need to get so that we are ready.

On the other side, well, there is an ongoing rush. We are constantly checking and double-checking. Our livers become tight and our blood pressure may be higher. We aren’t able to experience the wave of calm because we get stuck worrying about what we might have missed, rather than feeling good about how we set ourselves up for success.

Chinese medicine shows us how we can look ahead while also staying rooted in the present.

This medicine arose thousands of years ago from a deep connection with nature. Masters of the medicine spent so much time in nature, observing the natural world, the seasons, and the lifecycles of plants and animals. Translations of some of the earliest writings reveal this connection.

Seasonal observations were and are intrinsic to the medicine, and the teachings help us to see that we each have a whole world within that moves through seasons as well.

This seasonal relationship helps us prepare for what is ahead by engaging in subtle behavioral shifts that cooccur with external changes in the world.

Chinese medicine dietary theory teaches us to look one season ahead. Though we are still fairly distant from the heart of winter, the time to begin our subtle preparation is now.

For example, as the temperatures start to cool and that ever-so-slight briskness appears in the air, we know that cold weather is coming. We are moving toward it. This is the time that we can start to incorporate more warming foods and herbs. Wheat and seed spices, like cardamom and nutmeg, are examples of foods with warmer profiles. (Note: They are not hot, like chili peppers.) These warm energetic profiles introduce warm, ascending energy into our bodies.

This is also a time that we might begin to introduce more building foods into our lives as well. Animal proteins, like chicken, are warming and building. Starchy vegetables, like carrots and winter squash, also have a building quality.

No part of this is extreme or big. It is gentle and subtle. We are not overhauling our diets with these warming and building selections. We can look ahead while staying present by sending a message to our bodies through our diet. We tell our internal systems that a shift is coming. We’re getting ready. It can feel nice to be prepared. 😌

How are you preparing for the season ahead? You can send me a note if you have questions!

Warmly,

Artemisia

Clinical Herbalist | Chinese Medicine

innervillagehealth.com

@innervillagehealth