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.

How do you unplug?

In a world ruled by screens, drones, instant messaging, on demand everything, how do you unplug?

And for how long? 

Have you ever noticed yourself becoming less distracted, with a brightened mood, as your mind calms, and your breathing deepens and relaxes as you spend time with nature? A recent study shows positive affect, restoration, connectedness and mindfulness increase during a 2.5 hour forest tour. 

Maybe you’ve tried walking barefoot on the earth or the warm, salty ocean shore, sleeping grounded or oriented to the cardinal directions. There are health benefits to these.

Have you been charmed by a waterfall in the forest? We’ve studied that too!

Is deep breathing, music or guided imagery your go-to? Research concurs.

Do you take a vacation or, better yet, a meditation retreat? That works.

Can you turn off your cell phone for a day? 10 days? Maybe you should.

Do you swear by sunshine to relax and restore?

How about a nourishing winter soup cleanse?

You can find all the getting started tips here & search my Cultivating Wellness Blog “soup cleanse” all the posts.

Do you unplug your wi-fi at night? Yes, I do.

Given each of our unique life situations “unplugging” may look very different. 

The key is to find ways to down regulate our nervous systems and up regulate our natural feel good pharmacy D.O.S.E. (Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, Endorphin) for our best life.

After many years of healing myself with seasonal wisdom & the Element Wisdom Card deck in a location with four distinct meterological seasons, I am exploring winter residency in latitudes closer to the equator to further nourish and strengthen my constitutional Water Element.

I would love to teach you more about how to heal yourself through mind, body, spirit practices that harmonize you with the dynamic rhythm of the season.   Here we find our most wholesome & unique expression of our health. When we sync ourself with the macrocosmic expression of our external world, our internal microcosmic needs become clear.

I am  available for telemedicine consults now and

offer acupuncture services again January 29 – February 15. 

Special Reiki treatments are available while I am away.  Book all of those services here.

When we honor the stillness of winter, love settles.

Winter is the quiescent season.

The season to remember, accept, forgive and heal generational to generation.

This is all work to be done in the deep and quiet essence of spirit.

First we find self love.

Then we find love for the other, the beloved.

Next we expand our heart to those with which we have difficulties.

Finally we can honestly expand our circle of love to the greater community.

This is metta. This is the practice of loving kindness.

It will rock your world.

Invoke your innate intelligence.

We have never had more immediate access to information. We can acquire certificates and degrees from the comfort of our own home. Opinions on most anything is available 24/7. Agenda and propaganda masquerade as news while dissenting voices are censored.

Intelligence is the ability to acquire, filter, sort and apply information. There are many forms of intelligence: artificial, abstract, logical, emotional, social, creative, adaptive, self-aware, critical thinking, problem solving. Intelligence is not an agency.

The proper place for human beings is between heaven and earth. Our birthright is heavenly connection and earthly incarnation.

Our innate intelligence surpasses that of an entire network of supercomputers. The question is do you know how to tap into it?

The revelation is in the slipstream. You can’t purchase it because it is not for sale. It is free. Priceless. You won’t find it on the internet.

You can invite it as you observe the dynamic patterns of nature. You can invoke from the ageless, timeless depth of connection to all that is.

But you must still the businesses, quite the babel.

Claim agency over your innate intelligence.

Interested in rewilding yourself? 

Seasonal wisdom helps us cultivate a closer relationship to the dynamic rhythms and cycles of nature, which is essential to healing dis-ease and optimizing our health. 73 days of inspiration, wisdom, instructions, nature cure, inquiries are available in 5 seasonal decks in our Element Wisdom Cards.

Learn more & purchase the entire collection or a single deck here

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 kidneys store jing – our primal energy.

This essence is to be guarded, protected, treasured not squandered or frittered away.

It determines our fertility, growth, development, vitality and longevity.

It is one of the three treasures: jing, qi and shen.

The kidneys are the expression of the water element in our bodies.

Their energy peaks in winter offering harmonious opportunities for winter support and healing.

Fulfilling our destiny is healing.

The way of this deep healing summons and joins celestial jing with our terrestrial jing.

In other words, jing is our DNA. In this is all the knowing, the unfolding, the potential manifesting, the blueprint. It is our lifetime’s greatest job to connect with heavenly order.

Jing is the seed and the wellspring.

For 73 days of winter support, musings, inquiries, instructions purchase a winter/water element wisdom card deck.

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As the longest and most complex of all the cranial nerves, it starts at the stem of the brain, behind the ears before it meanders down the sides of the neck, through the chest, and eventually ends in the abdomen linking the brain to the heart, lungs, throat, and gut. It helps to regulate our heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, sweating, and speech.

When we are in parasympathetic dominance we are able to rest and heal.

Vagus Nerve Connects the Brain and Gut

The vagus nerve and it’s feedback are the sensory network that informs the brain of what’s going on in our organs, most specially the digestive tract (stomach and intestines), lungs and heart, spleen, liver, and kidneys.

People with good vagal tone can relax faster after a stress and are more capable of regulating blood glucose levels, reducing chances of diabetes, stroke and cardiovascular disease. Recent research presented by the European League Against Rheumatism indicate that vagus nerve stimulation significantly reduces symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.

Symptoms are messages from our body that something is wrong. Poor vagal tone can express as ongoing high levels of stress, anxiety, depression, overwhelm, an inability to focus or regulate emotions and inflammation. The nerve can become damaged express deeper dysfunction such as abnormal heart rate, blood pressure or glucose.  Digestion or speech may be become compromised.

It is essential to listen to our bodies. Winter is the perfect season to slow down and take notice of our capacity to reset, restore and recharge.

This study on loving kindness meditation improved healthy vagal tone in participants. Being present and acknowledging that everything in the moment is okay reduces anxiety.

Significant and important research has been making the news about a microbiota-gut-brain axis. Read up on this fascinating subject here. Also this article discusses the science behind gut microbiota, brain function and stress related disorders.