One of the strong points of Chinese medicine is that the basis of health stems from balancing one’s internal environment with the external environment. With diet, it becomes important to eat appropriately to the change of season. This means selecting foods associated with the time of year they are harvested, as well as eating warming foods in the fall and winter and cooling foods in the spring and summer.
Winter is a very yin time of year and the body needs to adjust. Slow cooked foods and nourishing roots are what the body needs to maintain moisture and boost the yang energy in the body. We naturally gravitate toward a more sedentary lifestyle, but that doesn’t mean you have to quit exercising all together. This is a great time to introduce yin balancing exercises like Yoga and Qi Gong.
Chinese medicine practitioners have used Qi Gong, which means “Qi cultivation”, for centuries to boost the immune system. It is a simple effective system that only takes a few minutes a day. The following exercise, known as “Standing like a Tree” has been a favorite of ours for preventing illness during the winter months, as well as bolstering the immune system when you are feeling under the weather. It also happens to add a nice glow to your complexion!
Standing like a Tree Instruction:
Posture: Stand with your legs shoulder width apart. Knees should be slightly bent. Tuck your pelvis and your chin so that your spine becomes straight (imagine a straight line from the top of your head traveling down through the spine, through the anus to the floor). Shoulders are back and down. Most of your weight is on the balls of your feet, but the whole foot rests on the floor. Grip the floor with your toes. Imagine you are hugging a tree and lift your arms to the level of your navel.
Breath work: Breathe in and out naturally, filing the space between your navel and pubic bone. Your goal is to stand like this for 20 minutes. Begin with 5 minutes and build from there. You may notice that you sweat or your body shakes all of which are normal reactions. Doing this practice daily can boost your immune system and keep you healthy all year round.
Externally, we just need a deeper moisturizer that doesn’t contain a lot of water. Read your labels and choose something that contains one or more of the following ingredients:
Primrose oil: Loaded with Omega 3 fatty acids which have a yin balancing effect on the skin.
Carrot Root oil: Contains a high concentration of beta-carotenes, which are pre-cursors to vitamin A, a powerful antioxidant for the skin.
Rose Hip Oil: Deeply nourishing, high omega 3 and vitamin C content.
Shea Butter: Rich emollient butter that has a strong effect on severely cracked and dry skin.
Frankincense and Myrrh: Regenerate the skin and heal dry, cracked areas.
These are some of our favorite winter ingredients and you can find them in She Essential Beauty’s Night Serum and Sweet Lemongrass Body Butter, Herbal Lip Balm and Cuticle Butter. Our newest product, the Night Serum, contains a deeply nourishing blend of evening primrose, carrot root and rosehip oils, blended with the antioxidants from green tea seed oil, and the anti-inflammatory relief and skin healing power of frankincense, all packed into a rich, emollient, organic treatment: a beautiful night time ritual that heals and nourishes while you sleep.
Laura Kauffmann and Beth Hooper are licensed acupuncturists and Chinese medicine specialists with private practices in New York City. We have a passion for educating the general public about natural and organic skincare, so please send this link along to anyone who you think may be interested. You can visit our home page at www.sheessentialbeauty.com