How did you come to know and love tea?

I grew up with a mom who always created an herb garden wherever she has lived and helped me develop a taste for herbal brews early on starting with spearmint sun tea and catnip.I learned so much about tea in the town I lived for medical school – Portland, Oregon. They actually have tea shops and tea shops within Chinese gardens. My Chinese Medicine teachers always packed their traveling suitcases with tea and spices. The ah too true joke with them is that packaged teas that we drink in this country are the sweepings off the factory floors from their country. I choose bulk tea from high quality vendors and use a tea pot with strainer or french press.  I add hot water until the liquid is near to colorless. Any extra tea can be stored in the fridge for 3-4 days.

What is your favorite tea or tea blend for Winter?
My go to winter tea is chai or a spiced bone broth

Click to learn how to free the medicine in leaves, roots, barks and berries in this week’s Cultivating Wellness blog http://drsaritaelizabeth.com/brewing-teas-free-their-medi…/

Below is an easy Bone Broth preparation for you to enjoy.

Simple Slow Cooker Bone Broth

Crockpot, Pruning shears, Ladle, Skimmer, Mesh strainer, Freezer containers

Instructions

Fill crockpot ¾ of the way full with bones. Add dried spices/herbs. Add salt/seaweed. Add vinegar/lemon juice. Add just enough filtered water to cover the bones. Cook on low 18-72 hours

Add vegetables, skins/ends/stems at any time during the cooking process. Skim fat/gelatin and retain for later use. Fill containers with broth. Freeze for later use.

Soup = cooking liquid for gains, vegetable simmers, tea, gravy

Five Element Analysis

Soups, especially broths are Water Element nourishment. Each type bone directs the energy to more specific Elements

Pork, Deer, Turkey or Duck to Water to nourish the Kidney, Bladder & Adrenals

Chicken to Wood to nourish Liver & Gallbladder

Beef to Earth (and Water) to nourish Stomach, Spleen & Pancreas as well as Kidney, Bladder & Adrenals

Fill your bladder with blue-black light

Each of the five elements of has an associated color, direction, sound, taste, note, organ affinity, etc.

The color of water/winter is blue-black.  The associated organs of the bladder, kidney & adrenals are harmonized, nourished & balanced when we utilize blue-black for healing.

There are many effective means to heal with color.  In my clinic, I utilize color and sound healing with tuning forks and color shields as I was instructed by Fabian Maman of the Tama-Do Academy with children & with patients that are pain sensitive to needling. I painted the doors & walls  to correspond to the elemental direction (Feng Shui).  The doors on the north side of the building are midnight blue. Many people remark that Alberta Orchard Wellness feels healing as soon as you step into the building; this is part of the reason why it resonates peace and harmony.  I also change the curtains, artwork & rugs to align with the season.

Application of color ranges from gross to subtle, starting with the physical use of color on our bodies or in our environment to the visualization of color in our mind’s eye. Let’s explore some practical ways to help you find your own way to healing with seasonal colors of water/winter to restore the bladder, kindeys & adrenals.

• Wear blue-black (black, navy) layers of clothing to strengthen the organs 
• Style your home or office with Navy curtains, duvet, wool rugs, velvet curtains or throw pillows
• Bring in artwork depicting water, especially the ocean at night
• Run a screensaver of underwater life or a dark blue ocean on your computer, smart phone or TV
• In the north of your home or office, set a dark blue bowl, tablecloth, shawl or scarf in a featured area
• Keep a piece of labradorite stone in your pocket
• Drink from a dark blue handcrafted pottery cup
• Breath in shimmering, deep blue-black of the ocean for 5 count. Hold 5 count. Exhale 5 count. Hold 5 count. Repeat 5 times. 
• Place your hands over your bladder and visualize healing blue black light filling your organ 
• Begin and end your meditations with sweeping the body with glistening midnight blue color
• Connect with bubbling spring (KD1) on the bottom of the foot.  Allow deep blue black water to rise up from the earth, flow through your water channels into your bladder. Direct blue black light to fill then clear any imbalance or blockage. Allow the waters of life to nourish your organs.

To support your winter/water organs: kidney, bladder & adrenals, try this Lentil/Cilantro combination

For a complete reference to the soup cleanse: search the Cultivating Wellness Blog for Soup Cleanse

Enjoy these winter wisdom tips, to harmonize yourself into the season.

How can we develop healthy humility?
Passionate curiosity is a start.

In the asking, we engage the other and the ego is checked.

Service is a good middle.

How does it feel when we volunteer our best hours of the week, donate our most valuable items or fund a heart felt cause?

In the end, seek original origins.

Humilis is the Latin root meaning low.

By our own choice, consequence, or chance, true humility is often the outcome of experiencing great depth, deep troubles or profound sorrows.

Water, the element of winter, teaches us how to serve all, go underground and spring up when necessary, go deep and take many forms.

The water element paired organs that peak in winter are the Bladder and Kidney (plus adrenals).

The bladder meridian travels from the inner canthus of the eye across the head down the back side of the entire body exiting out the little toe. It traverses all of us.

Many of the point names indicate their function: bright eyes, supporting yang, supporting middle, celestial pillar, soul door, spirit hall, spiritual celestial connection, soul gate.

Acupuncture treats all levels of the human – mind, body, spirit.

Treating the bladder points can not only treat our organs like the bladder or the eyes, but it can also treat our spiritual sickness. It can help us see through the eyes of spirit. The dark clouds of our emotions and thinking can be cleared to see the bright blue skies of divine perfection.

Winter is Dreamtime.

Make the connection to your internal visionary this winter.

Dream it.

Envision it.

The critical first step in healing is accepting things as they actual are.

We live in a world where there is plenty that requires our resistance.

However, healing requires courageous honesty about ourself, our perceptions, our motivations, our circumstances and their cause.

I have doubled down on my commitment to live a life in alignment with my core values and the elemental.

My winter healing so far has looked like:

Living without liquid stress.
I had habituated a high quality jasmine green tea morning ritual. I would make one small pot of green tea then refresh the same leaves until noon. Occasionally, I would have one cup of coffee on special or social times. Even this small amount of caffeine masked my ability to feel my natural response of stress (cortisol surge) or ease (endorphin release).

Now I can actually feel my body’s feedback system and dig deeper into the root causes. From this understanding, I make better choices.

Living for today.
The last few years turned many of our lives upside down. I made plans from a place of fear. These plans are falling apart. I accepted a graduate teaching position with unethically low wages and promises of great job to come. I also spent a huge amount of time, energy and resources developing online classes that would bring in a consistent stream of income and continuity of care for patients and the opportunity to meet new ones -that project never gained traction. I have released these plans.

I have come back round to the real. I am offering real Wellness gatherings & Nature connects in real time during 2023.

Plans made in reaction to scary and unsettling situations are suspect. Maybe we just don’t know what is coming and can learn how to be okay with that.

I am living in winter. Studying how water moves, how it changes forms.

#water #winter #fear #healing #5elements