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Spring Cleansing

March 2010

Do you want to feel full of energy? To sleep deep and sound? Do you want to enjoy your life more with a sense of ease and peace? To have a better digestion and elimination? Spring is the time of renewal. It’s this constant renewal that ensures growth and health. Stagnation creates toxins that poison your body and your life.

It is common sense that we need to let go of the old to make space for the new. But sometimes it’s not always obvious what to let go of and how to let go. Are you feeling tired? Stressed out easily? Or anxious and depressed? Now is the time to take a good look at the house — your body — and see what clutter you need to get rid of for you to enjoy a healthier life.


In Chinese Medicine, each organ system has the job of taking in the fresh and letting go of the old. Organ systems work together to ensure that nutrition gets used and waste gets eliminated so the body is clean and healthy. The word ‘toxin’ has a broader meaning in Chinese Medicine than in the west. It means not only harmful chemicals, but any substance — material or energetic — that stagnates and impedes the normal function of the being. Say that you eat a huge steak. If your Stomach and Spleen system are not able to digest the whole meal, the residual substance will accumulate in your system. Over the time, the stagnant food in your digestive systems can turn into toxin. If you over load your digestive systems chronically, they will eventually be overwhelmed and not able to accomplish their task, leaving you with undigested food. The result is the same — you have toxins from the stagnant food, which lead to symptoms of low energy and dysfunctional digestion. Or suppose that you had a cold last winter, and you still have lingering cough and phlegm. This phlegm that your body is not able to get rid of can accumulate to become toxin to further disrupt the Lung function. Or let’s look at a different scenario: you are angry with your friend for something he’s done to you. You may not be comfortable with confrontation, so perhaps you don’t want to clear it up with him. If you let this anger get stuck inside of you, it will stagnate and becomes emotional poison that affects your whole being. This kind of toxin may become the trigger of your depression and anxiety.

Another important aspect that people who are enthusiastic about “cleansing” tend to overlook is that just as you may behave abnormally you are under the influence of some chemical toxins, your organ systems can become dysfunctional because of the toxins. And they produce more of the toxins when their functions are impeded over and over again. If you only focus on getting rid of toxins and not changing the dysfunctional pattern of the organs, your clean house may soon become cluttered again, like someone who has a garage sale but continues to be a compulsive shopper.

Therefore, proper and effective cleansing has to contain three aspects:

First, you need to find out what kind of toxins you have and clear them.

Second you need to find out which organ systems are compromised and churning out toxins. We then help restore the function of the deficient organ systems. Both acupuncture and herbal medicine work well to restore the smooth flow of Qi to ensure the clearing of the toxin and the strengthening of the weak organ systems.

Third, and also the most important one, you want to prevent toxin from entering or forming in your body. My husband and I moved into our new house at the end of the last year and we cleared away quite a lot of “stuff”. Now that the house looks so much emptier, I notice my impulse of “collecting” new things rise many times. I know that if I don’t change the habit of wanting to collect things that I don’t really need, I will have to do spring cleaning every year! So I have decided to be more conscious about my collecting impulse and to prevent cluttering. The same works for the body. If you become choosier about what you put in your body, if you become more aware of how your life habits promote the production of the toxins, then you are able to prevent the toxins from accumulating in the first place. Prevention is the best medicine.

Here are some simple tips that can help for your spring cleansing.

Want to know a cleansing method that works specifically for you? Please email or call to book an appointment.