Spring is the season in which we can feel most inspired and purposeful. On the other hand, we can often fall into old patterns that bring up feelings of anger, frustration, and lack of direction in life.

Foods that are important for Spring are barley, tempeh, white radish, cabbage, leafy greens, lentils, lemon, pickles, umeboshi plums, and light salty miso soup.

These foods nourish and cleanse the liver and gall bladder, reduce cholesterol, dissolve fat and mucus, and can help relieve hay fever and premenstrual symptoms.

By adding these foods to your diet, you’ll feel lighter, full of vigour, more patient and open to new directions.

With the seasonal change from winter to spring, we tend towards lighter cooking methods. These include boiling, steaming, and stir frying.

Less oil and seasoning are used as this brings us into harmony with the rising energy of Spring.
Vegetables are cut into smaller pieces for quicker cooking and in pressed salads.

Gomasio and miso condiments can be used in small amounts while barley and wheat are the grains most appropriate at this time.

If you are living in the northern hemisphere, Autumn foods and cooking styles are available free online in the Macrobiotic Handbook for All Seasons.

• 11/2 packets of udon noodles (about 400g)
• 1/2 packet of tofu (about 350 g)
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 clove of garlic
• 11/2 cups water
• 1 cup onions cut
• 1 bunch English spinach or bok choy
• 1/2 cup walnuts roasted
• 1/2 cup cut parsley
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Stir fry the onions, add the spinach or bok choy cut fine, and stir them quickly until soft. Meanwhile, boil some water in a saucepan and put the noodles in it and let them simmer until cooked.

In a blender, mix the tofu cut into pieces, the cup of water, rice vinegar, tahini, and garlic. Mix into the vegetables, then add the roasted walnuts cut into pieces and the parsley.

Put the noodles in an oven dish and spread the tofu cream and vegetables on top. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes at 200C (350F).

Serves 4.

More recipes are available free online
in the Macrobiotic Handbook for All Seasons.

Rescue remedy is a combination of five Bach Flower remedies - Star of Bethlehem, Rock Rose, Impatiens, Cherry Plum and Clematis. It is a wonderful first-aid remedy in the case of an accident or sudden illness.

By supporting the energetic system, Rescue Remedy calms the body and spirit enabling one's natural healing processes to kick in.

Situations in which we are in mental turmoil or in an environment where we are under permanent stress can be alleviated by using Rescue Remedy. Nervousness prior to an important occasion or event, such as a court case, divorce, wedding, job interview, and operation can be reduced with Rescue Remedy.

General dosage is 4 - 5 drops under the tongue at least 3 times a day, or whenever we feel nervous, anxious, fearful, or in shock.

Gall Bladder Meridian Meditation

Close your eyes and start to breathe deeply. Make the exhalation longer than the inhalation. Imagine your arms spread palms open to receive whatever the Universe may have to offer you.

As you breathe in, imagine the energy entering your body between your eyebrows. Feel as though there is a doorway in your third eye. Breathe in the energy through this doorway allowing it fill you up. Then breathe out andfeel the energy flow effortlessly and without strain back into the world.

Continue breathing in and out, feeling the energy becoming stronger. Smile to yourself as you realise that that everything is unfolding in perfect order and in perfect timing. Feel any tension and need for control leaving your body with the outbreath, and bright green light entering with the inhalation. Let this light travel throughout your body like the first scent of spring. Feel it energising all parts of your body, releasing the coldness and stiffness of winter.

Allow yourself to feel the anticipation of the new season and the new challenges and purpose it brings. Feel things starting to grow around you and understand that you too are growing as part of Nature and the cycle of life. Feel yourself rising up from the ground as you become as light as a feather. Enjoy the freedom of flight.

Let this feeling dissolve any inflexibility, frustration, and anger. Then allow yourself to slowly come back into your body.

On the Fence

Love is giving somebody something

they never knew they were missing.

A shiatsu gift voucher is a wonderful gift to give and receive. Contact Issi: issi@self-healing.com.au tel: (02) 9558 8111

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The Gall Bladder assists the Liver in maintaining the standards the Liver sets for the body. It can be likened to the executive officer whose responsibility is to implement the general’s orders.

Order, flexibility and control are keywords for the Gall Bladder meridian.

When the Gall Bladder meridian is not functioning well there can be an excessive tendency to control things and people. Little things that go amiss can turn into major catastrophes because we're so tightly strung. Is it a surprise then that we get frustrated and angry and experience tight shoulders, anxiety, headaches and stress?

When the meridian is functioning well, we can move efficiently through the day as everything unfolds in perfect timing. Everything is in its place and flows effortlessly.

Treatment

Using your forefingers, apply pressure until you feel the soreness in the point.

Taking deep breaths and maintaining the pressure, breathe slowly in and out of the point until you feel the tension and pain disappear.

Chair Pose works the muscles of the arms and legs and also stimulates the diaphragm and heart.

Inhale and raise your arms perpendicular to the floor. Either keep the arms parallel, palms facing inward, or join the palms.

Exhale and bend your knees, trying to take the thighs as nearly parallel to the floor as possible. The knees will project out over the feet, and the torso will lean slightly forward over the thighs until the front torso forms approximately a right angle with the tops of the thighs. Keep the inner thighs parallel to each other and press the heads of the thigh bones down toward the heels.

Firm your shoulder blades against the back. Take your tailbone down toward the floor and in toward your pubis to keep the lower back long.

Stay for 30 seconds to a minute. To come out of this pose straighten your knees with an inhalation, lifting strongly through the arms. Exhale and release your arms to your sides.

Text and picture courtesy of www.yogajournal.com

What is Craniosacral Therapy?

Craniosacral Therapy is a hands-on therapy, where you lie on a treatment table and experience the very light touch of the therapist's hands.

Findings show that every cell in a healthy body expresses a rhythmic movement which is fundamental to life. This has been termed craniosacral motion.

At the core of the body, the cerebrospinal fluid, which bathes and cushions the brain and spinal cord, expresses this motion in a tide like ebb and flow, while the bones, organs, and other structures in the body each follow their own particular pattern of movement. This motion is so subtle that it is barely measurable with instruments. However the hands of a trained craniosacral therapist are able to perceive it.

How does Craniosacral Therapy work?

In response to physical knocks or emotional stress, the body's tissues contract. If the shock is severe, the tissues can stay contracted.

Any stresses, strains, tensions or trauma, which have been stored in the body in this way will restrict the body's functioning and may give rise to problems over the years. The effects may be both physical, such as back pain, migraine or digestive orders, or emotional such as anxiety or depression.

Restrictions in the body's functioning show up in the way that craniosacral motion is expressed. This enables a trained therapist to identify the location of congestion and restriction and the possible origin a problem.

Using the hands to reflect back to the body the pattern it is holding, the therapist provides an opportunity for the body to let go of its restrictive pattern and return to an easier mode of functioning.

As well as releasing the body's tensions. this releases the energy which the body was using to hold itself in contraction. So one of the benefits of craniosacral therapy is an increase in the level of energy available.

Is Craniosacral Therapy suitable for me?

Craniosacral therapy is so gentle that it is safe and suitable for people of all ages including babies and the elderly.

It can be used in fragile and acute situations often when other therapies are may be inappropriate such as during pregnancy, after an operation or accident.

As a whole body therapy, Craniosacral Therapy may assist people with conditions such as:

But you don't have to be ill or have any particular symptoms to benefit from Craniosacral Therapy. The alleviation of life's stresses, and the increased sense of vitality and well-being are welcome to us at any time.

Links of the Season

PureCalma Online Wellbeing Magazine

PureCalma collates a broad range of knowledge in the holistic, fitness and wellbeing field presenting it in an easy to understand and personal format.

yellowpostie.com.au