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