Tips for a healthy spring

These simple practices nurture and support the uprising of energy of Spring (called pran). They also support the liver, which is needing some TLC in the spring, and balances any sluggishness (Kapha) that might be accumulating in the body.

Spring is the time of rebirth.  After a long, quiet, cold winter, spring is the time we feel our inner stirrings, our inner enthusiasm start to rise.  If you don't feel it in yourself, just look at all of the twitterpatting wildlife all around! They are overflowing with it.

Just like the tiny buds and sprouts emerging, we want to encourage and ease our own transition into spring time so that we too can be twitterpatting with life too.  To do that, we support ourselves through diet, herbs and exercise.  

Here are some helpful spring time tips to stay in harmony with the season.:

• Eat lighter to help stimulate the digestive system,
• Add fresh, bright, bitter greens to your smoothies, salads and daily diet,
• Exercise – find a new daily routine that gets you excited.  Some ideas include jogging, tennis, team sports, jump roping and dancing,
• Wake up earlier, 
• Incorporate backbends into your morning stretching/yoga routine,
•  Get outside and enjoy the sun (but protect yourself from the wind), and
• Get creative – springtime is a great time to let your creative juices flow.

Because we want to support our body, brain and heart and NOT just our looks, I also recommend avoiding any magazine, email, or facebook post promising a bikini body or any different body in 21 days. After all we are so much more than just the vehicle of this physical form, which can't be photoshopped like all of those magazines.  Instead, remember you body is beautiful as it is, even as you may be working towards a specific goal.

We live in a world of modern convenience, mostly disconnected from the natural world.  Yet our bodies evolved in that natural world and continue to be most healthy when we stay in harmony with it.  So go back to your roots, eat some wild greens, get out in the sunshine and do some creative work, welcome this exciting rebirth of spring into your home, heart and life.  And enjoy all of the delights of spring.

Jackie Dobrinska is a nutritional coach, yoga instructor and herbalist.  She writes for SE Wise Women and Red Moon Herbs.  Find out more at www.TheAlchemyofTransformation.com