February Self-Healing Tips

If there were one medicinal item I could take with me anywhere anytime and only one it would be some form of ginger.  Fresh ginger, Sheng Jiang to the Chinese, is a true phenomenon.  Warming, clearing, soothing, grounding, harmonizing – what else can you ask for from a medicinal food? 

Ginger is both sweet and spicy – like a good friend who’s always fun to have around – loyal, wise, and never a boor.  Medicinally, ginger helps with travel sickness – air, land, and sea.  Ginger also helps with any kind of nausea – from flu symptoms to morning sickness to side effects of chemotherapy; it treats diarrhea, congestion, cough, cold, flu, allergies, reduced appetite, inflammation, arthritic pain, lowers cholesterol, and helps prevent and treat heart disease.  With ginger, you get all of these good healthy benefits in an easily accessible, entirely affordable root that you can pick up at any Vons, Whole Foods, or farmer’s market.  

So what to do with this ginger root once you get it?  Well, you can cut it into ¼ inch slices, boil it for about 10 minutes on the stove, and drink it in the morning as a stimulating health benefiting tool for prevention.  You can also cook up a pot on a cold evening or at the very first signs of a cold.  Not into the tea thing?  Just wash and grate up some fresh ginger root and add it into any stir fry recipe, or grate on top of a bowl of soup to spice it up a bit. 

It’s important in these Winter months to keep the body’s warming faculties supported.  That’s why ginger is such a good friend in the Winter.  Another tool for supporting one’s health is to give oneself warming acupressure.  Last month we looked at the point Yong Quan, Kidney 1.  This month we will work with the same point, but take the medicinal practice one step further.  To review, Kidney 1, or Rushing Spring, is located on the sole of the foot, 1/3 of the way down the length of the sole, on the line drawn from between the second and third toes toward the center of the heel.  It may be tender, soft feeling, or in some, very tense and sensitive. 

This month, as we embrace the heart of Winter, take a few minutes to search for some 2-4’ smooth stones – on the beach, from the garden – wherever you find them.  Bring them home, wash them off, and place them in a pot of water to boil on the stove.  Once the boiling water has heated the stones, drain the water and allow the stones to cool down to a temperature that is completely bearable.  Then sit on the edge of a chair or the couch and place your feet on the floor with the stones located beneath both Kidney 1 points.  Repeat for up to ½ hour of Kidney 1 – warming hot stone treatments.  Soothing and relaxing, nourishing and nerve-calming, this treatment is just what an urban body craves in the Winter to promote deep wellness and restoration.