How to Beat the Winter Blues with Acupuncture!

Right about the time mid-January comes around, the ‘winter blues’ seem to settle in, and there are many ways in which this can come into effect.  Maybe it becomes harder for you to emerge each morning from your warm bed and get ready for the day in the cold and darkness.  Maybe coming home to lie down on the couch with your recent Netflix obsession after the work day becomes the preferred choice over going to the gym or taking some sort of fitness class.  Perhaps you notice yourself more fatigued than usual as you go throughout your day, no matter how much caffeine you consume.  Maybe you just feel unmotivated and sleeping the day away sounds like a better idea than anything else…

However it is that your ‘winter blues’ may be taking over, here at Body Awareness Center, we invite you to remedy with traditional Chinese acupuncture to help get you up and over that winter slump! Rather than turning to over the counter solutions or giving in to the couch as a means to beat or suppress your winter slump, maybe trying something new this year will be the difference in your feeling better.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), everything is made up of opposing forces known as yin and yang.  Yang includes brightness, warmth and activity.  Yin includes darkness, cold and inactivity or rest.   In TCM, each season is either more yin or more yang and each season corresponds with one of the major organs in our bodies.  The winter season is yin and corresponds to the Kidney.  In winter we naturally feel the need to curl up, stay warm and get lots of rest.  Our Kidney system is responsible for providing us with our vital qi, or energy.  Our bodies work very hard and use lots of energy to keep us nice and warm, but that leaves us lacking in energy for all the other things we still need to get done each day. 

In these long winter months, it is especially important to work to boost our qi and keep it moving.  In the case of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or depression (or the ‘winter blues’) our qi is not in balance.  Most often, we are experiencing a deficiency of qi that may result in low energy, fatigue, appetite changes and a number of other issues.  Studies have shown that acupuncture is beneficial in the treatment of depression¹.  In TCM, each patient is treated based on his or her individual pattern rather than simply a symptom(s).  Acupuncture treatments and herbal therapies for the treatment of SAD are specific to each patient, but would most likely be focused on increasing a persons’ vital qi while at the same time ensuring the body’s qi is balanced and flowing smoothly throughout the body.  It can also be really helpful to do gentle exercises and eat warming and nourishing foods in order to help the body remain in balance.  

Consider that Body Awareness Center’s purpose is to help others find optimal health, balance and vitality.  The onset of the ‘winter blues’ is a certainly a disruption in our own health, balance and vitality.  We offer many services to help you on your journey to your own body awareness.  Our acupuncturist is here to help you develop a treatment plan to bring balance back into your life, or maybe find it for the very first time.

Notes

1. Pedersen, T (2013) Acupuncture Works Just as Well as Counseling for Depression;

  http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/09/28/acupuncture-works-just-as-well-as-psychotherapy-for-depression/60043.html

Body Awareness Center – Changing the Paradigm on Massage and Bodywork as Health Care

Wouldn’t it be great if massage therapy was covered by insurance?  Do you hesitate to book massage or bodywork because you fear you can’t cover the costs?  Imagine if you saw a massage therapist as regularly as you might like to.  Massage therapy treatment needs to be regular in order to be effective.  Coming to see your therapist once every two months or so isn’t going to benefit you in the long run.  Sure, you feel great after leaving your massage, but how long does that great feeling last?  How long until you notice your body is in the exact same place it was before?  Just like any exercise or fitness regimen, massage therapy needs to be repeated regularly in order to reap the results. 

Here at Body Awareness Center we see ourselves as healthcare professionals.  All of the wellness employees we have on staff are experts in their fields. We do our very best to make our top of the line healthcare available to you at a reasonable price. Wondering about our policy on tipping? Well, we’d prefer if you’d save those extra ten dollars or so for your next massage visit.  Try to think of our center as a place of health care, and not just a spa.  Just as you probably wouldn’t even consider tipping a chiropractor, a physical therapist, or your dentist, consider the same ideas when you come into Body Awareness Center for massage, bodywork or detoxification.  

Emerging evidence continues to show that massage therapy is an effective method to treat a number of medical conditions.  An increasing number of substance abuse and rehabilitation centers are including massage therapy as part of their recovery regimen. Children with symptoms of ADHD are being treated with massage therapy to help reinforce muscular stimulation, as a common cause of the development of ADHD is a prolonged period of confinement during infancy or early childhood. Research has also shown that massage therapy can boost immune function in women with breast cancer, improves symptoms in children with asthma and can help premature babies gain weight.  These are just a few of the many medical and healthcare related benefits to massage therapy.  More money is being put towards medical research involving the benefits of massage therapy, as doctors are continuing to recommend their patients to massage therapists because of the limitations these traditional doctors have in treating the symptoms of pain.  The increase of medical research on massage therapy will hopefully lead to insurance coverage of massage treatments.  

So, considering all of these ideas and factual evidence, try to look at massage therapy in a new light, one of healthcare, and encourage your friends and family to see that same light.  With your help, we can change the paradigm of massage therapy being commonly viewed as a luxurious spa treatment, and more like an effective form of health care. 

Sources (cnn.com, foxnews.com, amta.com)