Spring, Starting Anew and the Wood Element – Navigating This Challenging Energy and Chronic Pain

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Spring’s Emergence: Embracing the Wood Element and New Beginnings

Spring arrives not with a single announcement, but with a thousand small declarations. A bud swells on a bare branch. A crocus pushes through cold soil. The light shifts, ever so slightly, and suddenly the world remembers how to grow.

Cherry blossoms emerging in spring. A symbol of the wood energy in Traditional Chinese Medicine

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, spring corresponds to the Wood element—a time of expansion, growth, and dynamic movement after winter’s stillness. The Wood element governs our liver and gallbladder, organs associated with planning, decision-making, and the smooth flow of qi (energy) throughout our bodies. Just as a tree’s roots anchor deep while its branches reach skyward, the Wood element gives us both vision and the capacity to act on that vision.

Spring is yang energy awakening, life force surging upward and outward with irrepressible momentum. This is the season of beginnings, of potential transforming into action, of dreams taking root in reality.

 

ThePacific Northwest Spring: A Complicated Beginning

But here in the Pacific Northwest, spring doesn’t arrive in a neat package tied with sunshine. It comes sideways, in rain squalls. It arrives on a Tuesday in February when the cherry blossoms explode into bloom, then retreats on Wednesday when hail batters those same blossoms to the ground. It shows up in the persistent drizzle, the sudden unexpected warmth, the return of the rain, the daffodils nodding bravely in the downpour.

Our spring is variable, uncertain, changeable. One day you’re peeling off layers in unexpected warmth; the next you’re back in your rain jacket, wondering if winter might reconsider its departure. The weather can’t make up its mind. Should it storm or shine? Freeze or thaw? Rain or… no, definitely rain.

And perhaps there’s wisdom in that.

Because real growth—the kind that lasts—is rarely straightforward. It doesn’t happen in a perfect, linear progression. It happens in fits and starts, in two steps forward and one step back, in the messy, muddy, complicated reality of pushing through resistance.

The Wood element understands this. Trees don’t grow smoothly; they grow in response to conditions, adding rings in abundant years and narrow bands in difficult ones. They bend in storms. They adapt to their circumstances while still reaching persistently toward the light.

The Challenge of Beginnings

Spring asks us to begin. To start. To initiate. To take the dreams we visioned in winter’s darkness and give them form in the world.

This can feel overwhelming. Perhaps you’ve spent the winter months imagining new possibilities—a career shift, a creative project, a relationship change, a commitment to your health. Now spring arrives and whispers: So? What are you going to do about it?

The Wood element governs our capacity to plan and make decisions, but when the liver qi becomes stagnant—stuck, blocked, unable to flow smoothly—we experience frustration, irritability, indecision, and that particular form of paralysis that comes from seeing too many options and feeling unable to choose any of them.

Does this sound familiar? The restless feeling of wanting to move forward but not knowing how? The tension of holding creative energy that has nowhere to go? The snappishness that comes when life feels constricted?

Spring’s variable weather mirrors this internal experience. We want clarity, a straight path, guaranteed sunshine. Instead we get uncertainty, changing conditions, the need to adapt moment by moment.

When Chronic Pain Complicates Spring’s Energy

If you live with chronic pain, spring’s push toward growth and expansion can feel particularly complex. The season urges you forward while your body may be asking you to slow down. The cultural narrative of spring as rebirth and renewal can feel invalidating when your daily reality includes managing pain levels, navigating flare-ups, and dealing with the way our variable Pacific Northwest weather affects your symptoms.

Barometric pressure changes—so common in our spring weather—can trigger increased pain, stiffness, and inflammation. The dampness can settle into joints and tissues. One day you might feel capable and energized; the next day your body might demand rest and gentleness. This variability can create its own form of stagnation: the frustration of not being able to plan, the grief of cancelled activities, the anger at a body that won’t cooperate with your intentions.

This frustration is itself a manifestation of stuck liver qi. When we want to move forward and feel blocked—whether by external circumstances or by our body’s limitations—the Wood element becomes constrained. That constraint often amplifies pain, creating a difficult cycle: pain causes frustration, frustration causes tension and qi stagnation, stagnation intensifies pain.

A Different Kind of Beginning

If you live with chronic pain, spring’s invitation to begin might need to look different—and that’s not a failure. It’s wisdom.

Your beginning might be:

  • Redefining what growth means when your energy and capacity fluctuate daily
  • Making peace with a non-linear path that includes rest days, flare-ups, and recalibration
  • Finding creative expression that adapts to your current capacity rather than demanding you meet a fixed standard
  • Advocating for your needs in relationships and work situations
  • Exploring new pain management approaches, including acupuncture
  • Connecting with others who understand the reality of living with chronic pain
  • Grieving what you wish were different while still moving forward with what is

The Wood element teaches flexibility and adaptation. A tree doesn’t grow straight up if there’s an obstacle; it grows around it, over it, through it. It continues to reach toward light while working with the reality of its circumstances.

Your growth can honor both your aspirations and your limitations. These aren’t contradictions—they’re the soil in which a more sustainable, more authentic path can take root.

Working With Spring Energy

The gift of the Wood element is flexibility paired with direction. Think of bamboo in the wind—rooted, yet bending. Committed to its upward growth, yet responsive to conditions.

Spring invites us to:

  • Start before we’re ready. The seedling doesn’t wait for perfect conditions; it pushes through soil when the time is right enough.
  • Make decisions, even small ones. Each choice creates momentum. Each action generates the next possibility.
  • Move our bodies in whatever way is accessible. Stretching, walking, dancing, gentle movement—anything that gets qi flowing and prevents stagnation, adapted to your current capacity.
  • Channel frustration into creative action. That irritable, restless energy is growth energy looking for expression.
  • Be flexible with our plans. Like the Pacific Northwest weather, our path forward may require constant adjustment.
  • Honor the process, not just the destination. Growth happens in the muddy middle, not just in the triumphant arrival.

For those with chronic pain: be radically honest about what your body needs today, not what you wish it needed. This honesty is not defeat—it’s the foundation of sustainable growth.

When Spring Energy Gets Stuck

In our region, the persistent rain and variable weather can sometimes make it harder to access spring’s expansive energy. We may feel soggy, heavy, stuck. The dampness seeps into our joints and our mood. We want to burst forth, but we’re still half-hibernating in our rain gear.

This is where acupuncture becomes a powerful ally.

Acupuncture for Smooth Flow, Pain Management, and New Beginnings

Acupuncture during spring focuses on supporting the Wood element and ensuring the smooth flow of qi throughout your body. When energy moves freely, you feel energized, clear-minded, and capable of making decisions. When it’s stuck, everything feels harder than it should be.

For those managing chronic pain, acupuncture offers particular support during spring’s variable weather. Treatment addresses both the physical manifestations of pain and the emotional and energetic impacts of living with a chronic condition.

Spring acupuncture treatments can help you:

  • Move stagnant liver qi so you feel less frustrated, irritable, and stuck—particularly important when pain limits your activities and creates emotional tension
  • Manage pain levels and reduce inflammation that can intensify with barometric pressure changes and dampness
  • Address the specific areas of pain in your body while also treating the underlying patterns that contribute to chronic pain
  • Release tension that accumulates in shoulders, neck, jaw, and other areas where you unconsciously hold pain-related stress
  • Counteract the dampness of our Pacific Northwest spring, which can settle into joints and soft tissues and exacerbate pain conditions
  • Support healthy decision-making and planning by clearing mental fog and indecision—helping you navigate what activities are sustainable and what needs to be modified
  • Balance emotions including the grief, anger, and frustration that often accompany chronic pain
  • Improve sleep quality which is often disrupted by pain and is essential for pain management
  • Address seasonal allergies that come with spring pollens and dampness
  • Generate momentum by unblocking the pathways that allow your energy and creativity to flow, even when physical limitations are present

Points along the Liver and Gallbladder meridians are especially important now, helping your body’s energy rise and expand in harmony with the season rather than in conflict with it. Additional points specific to your pain pattern help reduce inflammation, improve circulation, and calm the nervous system’s pain response.

Many people with chronic pain find that spring treatments help them feel more resilient—better able to manage flare-ups, less emotionally overwhelmed by their condition, more capable of adapting their plans to their current capacity. Regular acupuncture doesn’t make pain magically disappear, but it can reduce its intensity, improve your ability to cope, and help prevent the energetic stagnation that makes everything feel harder.

Beginning Where You Are

You don’t need perfect weather to begin. You don’t need absolute clarity or a detailed ten-year plan. You don’t need to wait until you feel completely ready. And you certainly don’t need to wait until your body is pain-free to start moving toward what matters to you.

Spring teaches us that growth happens in imperfect conditions. The seeds don’t wait for guaranteed sunshine—they push through cold, wet soil toward light they haven’t even seen yet. They begin in darkness, in uncertainty, in faith that the upward movement itself will lead somewhere worth going.

What small beginning is calling to you? What one decision could you make? What single action could generate momentum that honors both your aspirations and your current reality?

Maybe it’s:

  • Finally scheduling that first acupuncture consultation for pain management you’ve been considering
  • Taking the first step toward a creative project that adapts to your fluctuating energy levels
  • Having the conversation about what you need, rather than pretending you’re fine
  • Finding a gentle movement practice that works with your body instead of against it
  • Connecting with others who live with chronic pain
  • Simply allowing yourself one day to rest without guilt, knowing that rest is its own form of growth
  • Redefining success in a way that makes room for your reality

Spring doesn’t ask for perfection. It asks for movement, for the willingness to push through resistance, for the courage to begin before you’re certain of the outcome—and for the wisdom to know that sometimes growth means adapting the destination rather than forcing yourself down an unsustainable path.

A Final Thought

The Pacific Northwest spring, with all its rain and variability, teaches us something important: growth doesn’t require perfect conditions. It requires persistence, flexibility, and the willingness to keep reaching toward the light even when the weather keeps changing.

Your beginnings don’t need to be grand or dramatic. They need to be genuine. They need to honor the vision you cultivated in winter while accepting the imperfect, messy, complicated reality of actually bringing something new into being—including the reality of what your body needs and can sustain.

So make the plan. Take the action. Bend with the changing conditions. Let your energy flow. And if chronic pain is part of your landscape, let your plan include that truth rather than deny it. The tree that grows around the obstacle is no less magnificent than the one that grew in open ground—it’s simply more interesting, more adaptive, more real.

And if you feel stuck, if the dampness has settled into your bones and spirit, if frustration has become your constant companion, if pain is dominating your experience—remember that acupuncture can help clear the way. Sometimes we all need support to unstick what’s stuck, to move what’s stagnant, to find our natural flow again, and to manage the physical realities that make growth more challenging.

Spring is here, rain and all. Your season of growth has arrived, exactly as you are.

What are you ready to begin?

Winter’s Wisdom: Honoring the Water Element in Uncertain Times

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Winter invites us inward. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, this season corresponds to the Water element—a time of deep rest, reflection, and the quiet germination of seeds that will bloom in seasons to come. The Water element governs our kidneys and bladder, organs associated with our deepest reserves of energy, our willpower, and our capacity to store vital essence for future growth.

Just as rivers slow and lakes freeze over, winter asks us to move at a different pace. This is the season of yin energy, when darkness outweighs light and nature demonstrates the profound productivity of stillness. Trees stand bare, animals hibernate, and beneath the frozen ground, life waits in potential.

When the Season Loses Its Way

But what happens when winter forgets itself?

This year has been warmer than usual, and the natural world is showing signs of confusion. Here in my neighborhood, nasturtiums are blooming—bright orange and yellow faces turned hopefully toward the December sun. These cheerful flowers should have surrendered to frost weeks ago, yet here they are, defying the calendar, uncertain whether to rest or grow.

If the plants are confused, what about our bodies?

We are not separate from nature’s rhythms, even when we live in climate-controlled homes and work under artificial lights. When winter temperatures climb into unseasonable ranges, our bodies receive mixed signals. We may feel an urge to keep producing, to maintain the busy pace of autumn’s harvest energy, to push forward when we most need to pull back.

The warmth tricks us into forgetting that rest is not optional—it is essential. It is the fertile void from which all future growth emerges.

The Wisdom of Winter Rest

In acupuncture and Chinese medicine, winter is the time to nourish the Water element within us. This means protecting our deepest resources, avoiding burnout, and allowing ourselves periods of genuine rest—not just physical sleep, but mental and emotional quiet.

This is the season for:

  • Going to bed earlier and rising with the light
  • Eating warm, nourishing foods that build our reserves
  • Engaging in gentle, restorative movement rather than intense exercise
  • Saying no to excessive obligations
  • Turning inward through meditation, journaling, or simple stillness

Most importantly, winter is the season for visioning.

Dreaming into the Future

When we honor winter’s call to slow down, we create space for something essential: the capacity to dream. Not the busy planning of our daylight minds, but the deeper visioning that emerges from stillness. This is when we can sense into our true desires, untangle ourselves from external expectations, and feel into the shape of the life we want to create.

The Water element governs our willpower—not the forceful, pushing kind, but the deep knowing of our path, the quiet certainty that guides our direction even when we cannot yet see the destination.

So even as the weather confuses the nasturtiums and tempts us toward perpetual productivity, remember: you are allowed to rest. You are supposed to rest.

Take time this winter—this very week, this very day—to slow down. Pour yourself tea. Sit in stillness. Let your mind wander into the territory of dreams and possibilities.

Ask yourself:

  • How do I want my life to blossom in the coming year?
  • Where do I want to be in five years? In ten?
  • What seeds am I planting this spring? We often want to jump ahead and get to the planting but now is a time for visioning in the darkness, it is this vision that will eventually break through into light?

These aren’t questions to answer with your busy, planning mind. They are questions to sit with, to feel into, to allow to germinate in the quiet depths of your being.

Building Your Yin: Acupuncture for Deep Rest and Dreams

If you find yourself struggling to slow down, consider supporting your Water element through acupuncture. Our modern lives are often excessively yang—bright, busy, outward-focused, constantly doing. Winter is the time to rebuild our yin, the cooling, nourishing, restorative energy that allows us to rest deeply and dream vividly.

Acupuncture during winter can help you:

  • Build and nourish your yin when it has been depleted by stress, overwork, or simply living in a culture that doesn’t value rest
  • Encourage deeper, more restorative dream time by calming the spirit and allowing your subconscious mind to process, integrate, and vision
  • Improve sleep quality so you wake feeling genuinely refreshed rather than just marginally less exhausted
  • Restore depleted energy reserves in the kidneys, your body’s deep battery
  • Calm an overactive nervous system that has forgotten how to downshift
  • Reconnect you with your body’s natural rhythms and the wisdom of the seasons

Winter treatments often focus on points along the Kidney and Bladder meridians, as well as points that specifically nourish yin and calm the shen (spirit). When your yin is strong and your spirit is settled, sleep comes more easily, dreams become more vivid and meaningful, and you naturally create the spaciousness needed for true visioning.

Many people report that after winter acupuncture treatments, they not only sleep better but dream more—and remember their dreams. This is your psyche doing its deepest work, processing what needs to be released and illuminating what wants to emerge. In Chinese medicine, this dream time is not frivolous; it is essential communication from your deeper self.

A Final Thought

The blooming nasturtiums are beautiful, but they’re expending energy at the wrong time. They’ll have less resilience when true cold arrives. They’re missing the essential pause that makes spring’s explosion of growth possible.

Don’t let the confusion of an unseasonal climate rob you of winter’s gifts. Your future self—the one who will live in the year ahead, five years ahead, ten years ahead—is counting on the rest and visioning you do now.

Winter is not a problem to solve. It is a season to surrender to, a teacher to learn from, a darkness that makes all future light possible.

So rest. Dream. Vision. Let yourself be unproductive in the most productive way possible.

Your spring is coming. But first, honor your winter.

The Earth Element and the Fall – A Traditional Chinese Medicine Perspective

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Supporting Your Earth Element This Fall: An Acupuncture Perspective

As autumn leaves begin their descent and the air carries a crisp new edge, Traditional Chinese Medicine reminds us that seasonal transitions affect more than just our wardrobes. According to Five Elements theory, each season corresponds to specific organ systems and emotional states in our bodies, creating unique opportunities for healing and balance.

The Five Elements From A TCM Perspective

Five Elements theory forms one of the foundational pillars of Traditional Chinese Medicine. This ancient system recognizes five elemental energies—Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water—that govern different aspects of our physical and emotional well-being. Each element corresponds to specific organs, emotions, seasons, and natural cycles.

Wood governs spring and relates to the liver and gallbladder, supporting growth and flexibility. Fire rules summer, connecting to the heart and small intestine, fostering joy and circulation. Metal dominates autumn, governing the lungs and large intestine while promoting letting go and refinement. Water commands winter, relating to the kidneys and bladder, providing deep reserves and wisdom.

Earth holds a special position in this system. Rather than ruling a single season, Earth energy governs the transitional periods between seasons—those brief weeks when one season yields to the next. Late summer traditionally belongs to Earth, but these transition times occur throughout the year, including the shift from summer into autumn.

How Fall Affects Your Earth Element

The Earth element encompasses your digestive system, including the stomach and spleen in Chinese medicine terms. These organs do more than process food—they transform experiences into nourishment, create stable energy, and maintain your body’s center of gravity, both physically and emotionally.

During autumn’s transition, your Earth element faces particular challenges. The shift from summer’s expansive heat to fall’s contractive coolness can disrupt your digestive fire, leaving you feeling unsettled or ungrounded. Many people notice changes in their appetite, energy levels, or emotional stability during this time.

Common signs that your Earth element needs support include digestive irregularities, excessive worry or overthinking, difficulty making decisions, feeling scattered or unfocused, craving sweets or comfort foods, and experiencing fatigue after meals. You might also notice increased sensitivity to damp or humid weather, as the Earth element governs your body’s relationship with moisture.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, you might also notice a particular difficulty with the quickly changing daylight hours. I noticed that today, we lost 7 minutes of daylight. While 7 minutes may not seem like much, it adds up quickly and can have a strong effect on your Earch element.

The autumn harvest season can intensify Earth imbalances. While abundance surrounds us, the approaching winter can trigger anxiety about having “enough”—whether that means food, warmth, security, or emotional support. This worry depletes Earth energy, creating a cycle where digestive function weakens and anxiety increases.

Supporting Your Earth Element This Fall

Strengthening your Earth element during autumn requires attention to both physical nourishment and emotional grounding. These recommendations work together to restore balance and prepare your system for winter.

Eat warming, cooked foods. Raw salads and cold smoothies may have sustained you through summer, but fall calls for gentle, warming meals. Slow-cooked stews, roasted vegetables, and warm soups support digestive function while providing steady energy. Root vegetables like sweet potatoes, carrots, and beets particularly nourish the Earth element. Dr. Holly Brocklebank in Canberra, Australia has many excellent suggestions for supporting your Earth element through nutrition.

Establish regular meal times. Your Earth element thrives on routine. Eating at consistent times helps regulate digestive enzymes and stabilizes blood sugar throughout the day. This simple change can significantly impact your energy levels and emotional equilibrium.

Practice mindful eating. Slow down during meals. Chew thoroughly and avoid distractions like phones or television. This allows your digestive system to function optimally while helping you recognize true hunger and satiety cues.

Incorporate gentle spices. Warming spices like ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and fennel support digestive fire without creating excess heat. These additions help your stomach process food more efficiently while satisfying cravings for complex flavors.

Limit cold drinks and raw foods. Ice water and raw vegetables require extra energy to process, potentially weakening digestive function. Choose room temperature or warm beverages, and lightly steam or sauté vegetables to make them easier to digest.

Create grounding routines. Earth energy responds well to stability and predictability. Establish morning and evening routines that anchor your day. This might include gentle stretching, journaling, or simply sitting quietly with a cup of warm tea.

Address worry and overthinking. The Earth element governs contemplation, but excessive worry depletes this system. When you notice your mind cycling through concerns, try redirecting attention to physical sensations or immediate surroundings. Deep breathing exercises can quickly shift you from mental spinning to bodily awareness.

Walking in the fall. Supporting your earth element.

Add gentle exercise.  One of the effects of the changing light and slowing down is that we often exercise less as we move into the fall.  To maintain our energy and keep our balance, we need to keep moving in a gentle manner.  Going for walks has been shown to be hugely beneficial and one can see the changes that are happening in our neighborhoods as we walk.  Just remember to wear reflective gear as it is getting darker earlier and drivers might not be as alert to folks stepping into crosswalks.

Seek acupuncture treatment. Regular acupuncture sessions during seasonal transitions help smooth the shift between elemental energies. Specific point combinations can strengthen digestion, calm excessive thinking, and support overall balance during this vulnerable time.

Prioritize adequate rest. Earth element restoration happens during sleep and quiet moments. Ensure you’re getting sufficient rest, and consider adding short periods of stillness to your day—even five minutes of sitting quietly can help reset your system.

Fall’s transition offers a natural opportunity to cultivate the stability and nourishment that Earth energy provides. By supporting your digestive health and addressing the tendency toward worry, you create a strong foundation for winter’s deeper, more introspective season ahead.

Your Earth element serves as your body’s center, transforming not just food but all of life’s experiences into usable energy. Tending to this system during autumn’s shift honors both the season’s wisdom and your body’s innate intelligence, creating space for the clarity and rest that the coming months will provide.