We always want the best start to our day as that prepares us for a great rest of the day. A question I get from a lot of people regards what are healthy habits to have upon waking. A friend of mine recently told me that someone recommended her to drink a glass of warm water with cayenne, honey and a tsp of apple cider vinegar in the morning because it benefited them. After a doing this for a week, my friend began to have bowel issues throughout the day and a rash on her skin, which can be attributed to the body trying to rid itself of excess heat. This story illustrates a very good point that we strive to maintain in Chinese medicine: We are all unique ecosystems that are in delicate balance and no two systems are the exactly same. What might work for one person does not work for another because we each have unique constitutions. If you generally feel warm and have no cold extremities, taking cayenne pepper might add too much warmth, but if someone has cold extremities and prefers to always be warm, this cayenne is going to provide them with internal heat. This is why TV personalties that tout miracles cures and say "Everyone needs to start taking ______ to be healthy!" should be proceeded with caution. Today, I'm going to discuss some neutral ideas to start your day, their benefits and explain why these can be incorporated safely.I can say from personal experience that the best way to wake up fresh in the morning is to not go to bed on a full stomach. Especially in western culture, we like to have a big meal just before bed and pass out. This leaves us feeling groggy and stumbling in the morning because while you were sleeping, instead of resting, regenerating, repairing and rebuilding, you body had to focus on digesting and assimilating. It's better to eat about four hours before bed and to plan that.
Upon waking, be gentle to your body. Begin to take slow, deep breaths through your nose and begin the movement of qi through your lungs. Just a few nice breaths will do and this illustrates the relationship between Lung/Large Intestine, a yin/yang pair in Chinese medicine. Soon after your breathing and walking around, you should find that you need to make a bowel movement. If you are waking around 5am - 7am, this is the time of the Large Intestine which means the qi is flowing most strongly there at that time, so this is a good time to have a bowel movement. Having a glass of warm, filtered water is a very gentle way to wake up the Spleen and Stomach. It's kind of like waking up in the morning and racking the coals to prepare for a fire. If your Stomach is the cauldron and your Spleen the fire, you wouldn't want to throw in a piece of uncooked food or something cold in the pot- the fire is not strong enough yet to cook. Adding a little bit of fresh ginger (sheng jiang), not dry (gan jiang), to your water is good for the Spleen/Stomach as well because this is warm in nature.
Breakfast can take some navigating for some people. A lot of the times in our school clinic, people either don't have breakfast, eat a gigantic, heavy breakfast or their breakfast is comprised of yogurt, granola, fruit and basically a lot of sugar.
Breakfast is such an important meal that when a person tells me they don't like to have breakfast, I have to wonder why. Is it from eating too much before bed and they're basically still digesting when they wake up (often) or is it because they feel nauseous when they eat first thing in the morning? Either way, it's something to be looked at.
A large breakfast first thing in the morning is how a lot of people get in the cycle of overconsumption of coffee. They eat too much, feel tired because the body is now sending all its energy to digest food so they consume coffee. I'm going to discuss coffee in a moment. The key to a proper portion of food is to eat until 2/3 full. They say you should not eat until you are full. This takes some practice and we have to become more attuned to our bodies to begin to recognize that. Make it an experiment and see how you feel after eating just enough vs. eating until full. Chewing slowly, up to 30-50 times each bite will also help on many different levels.
Coffee consumption is such a touchy subject for some people and I get it! The aroma of coffee is beautiful- there's just something special about it. The problem is the effect it has on the body. I know there are many conflicting reports that will say 'Coffee is good for you!' one week and the next week 'Coffee could be bad for you!'. That's just how media works, but I'll present to you a Chinese and Ayurvedic view point on coffee for you to consider because ultimately, the choice is yours.
Coffee in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine is seen to deplete the Jing or your essence. When we consume caffeine, energy is coming from deep reserves in your body vs. when you get your energy from food where the energy is coming from the qi of the food. If you're interested in further information, I can discuss this in an upcoming blog. I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from drinking coffee but I do want its effects on the body to be considered because they are strong. If you are interested in maintaining your health throughout time, lowering your coffee consumption and switching to a black tea is a good start.
Finally, my most recommended tip before entering the world to begin your day is to have a quiet moment for yourself. The world can be a hairy situation and if we enter unprepared mentally, we miss opportunities and make mistakes. Taking a moment for yourself can be a check-in where you sit on your bed after everything is done and ask 'How am I right now?', it can be a quick 10 minute qi gong practice, a time to pray and give thanks or a simple mindful meditation. I personally practice a very simple qi gong routine daily and it has benefited me on so many levels. I've included the video in case you're interested.
Tell me about your morning routine that works for you and prepares you for greatness! As a student of Chinese medicine, I welcome any and all questions. Thank you- Collin
Five Element Qi Gong video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Y8QSVyYhM
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