The Spring equinox in the Northern hemisphere falls on March 20th at 12.57pm EDT. Spring is a remarkable season. Coming out of the depth of Winter, emerging from the dark nights, we see light, growth and signs of activity. Flowers start to bloom, and the birds begin to chirp. There is a birthing of new life within nature.The Five elements within nature have their corresponding seasons, the Wood Element corresponds to the season of Spring. The Spring equinox signals the beginning of nature’s renewal.

At the end of my garden is a tree, I often use the tree as my guide to the seasons. Purely from a visual basis it reminds me of how we should act in the relevant season, in Winter there was no growth, just stillness. For some strange reason, this year I have been more aware of how Spring is represented in the Element of Wood. Wood reminds me of flexibility, branches bending in the wind, able to move in any direction. There is an inherent flexibility built within Wood.

You can see from the pictures that tiny shoots are looking to burst out, vibrant and ready to grow. This is the birthing phase of the seasons, and although there is much growth, there is also a sense of containment, of one being controlled in the growth phase.

In Chinese medicine we have seven emotions, the emotion that is related to the Wood element is Anger

The Character NU (above) is representative of Anger, but anger is often misunderstood, We talk about anger, and automatically we create images that are often uneasy to deal with. We may label anger as an unhealthy emotion. Assertion, birthing, forward upward movement are more precisely the words that are meant by the use of the emotion anger.

Assertion is reminiscent of the flying fish in the great oceans, exiting from the depths of the waters, rising into the air. This has a level of ‘Anger’ violence or assertion, it is with this force that movement of rising begins.

‘One meaning of Anger (nu) might be the effort made to raise something from the earth’s gravity . Here NU is not anger but this kind of violence proper to all beginnings’   C Laure & ER de la Valle

In the birthing of life, the generating of life, a pregnant woman is giving birth. We see the whole aspect of force being used to allow this natural process to happen, so from another dimension to give birth to something will require a level of force or assertion.

Prevent Spring Sports Injuries

Often people say to me, Spring is a seasons to kick start projects, getting more energy means they can do more. In my acupuncture clinic this is one of the Seasons that I often see more people, some use this time to get fit and fall prey to problems such as sports injuries, they often skip the warm up as the climate is much warmer, the danger is that skipping a warm up and going at full speed will often cause may tendon related injuries.

Don’t skip and run, warm up and run, it will dramatically improve your ability to run for longer without injuries.

Use the force of Anger wisely ...