Our fast paced, performance focused society is Yin deficient, and it’s taking your Yin down with it. While hot flashes, anxiety, forgetfulness, irritability, and night sweats are often associated with menopause; they can show up in anyone who depletes their Yin.
What is Yin? As our consulting herbalist Marco describes, “Yin is the water in your radiator. When you don’t have enough water, your car overheats.” It’s not always that you actually have too much heat [Yang] , but rather you’re overheating because you don’t have enough water [Yin].
You are not a car, so for you, Yin deficiency looks like irritability, forgetfulness, anxiety, hot flashes, trouble sleeping, and more. All of these generally suck, and we can feel that at any age while leading our stressful, busy lives.
You want to get your Yin back, so you order a box of Chica Chill to help you. You enjoy your Chica Chill, but you don’t notice all of your hot flashes and irritability going away. Does Chica Chill work? Yes, Chica Chill works. However, it can take a long time to restore Yin in your system.
The good news is you can adopt easy practices throughout your day to help boost your Yin building. The fastest way to see Chica Chill work would be to take your Chica Chill along on a phone-free, relaxing vacation. While that may not be realistic, below are practices that will help bring this relaxation into your daily life.
Eat Chica Chill
Chica Chill is packed with Yin nourishing herbs that help you feel more cool, calm, and collected. Eating Chica Chill daily is the first step in Yin nourishment, and all of these practices can be added to help you feel your Yin return faster.
Meditate
Meditation is hyped up a lot, but honestly for a great reason! Sitting for even just five minutes every day is enough to calm your nervous system, and help you not be as stressed throughout your day.
Meditation can be very intimidating because it appears to come with a lot of rules, however those rules don’t need to exist.
All you have to do is find a comfortable place to sit, close your eyes, and breathe. It’s ok to have thoughts, you just observe them and don’t follow them. They will pass.
Drink More Water & Less Coffee
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Yin is associated with fluid, and drinking water is an effective way to support your Yin. Yes, we know drinking water is recommended all the time, but no matter how many times we’ve heard it, we still don’t drink enough water.
Now, we need to talk about our other favorite fluid – coffee. I know it’s difficult to hear, but coffee often does more harm than good. Coffee can actually make you feel more stressed and anxious, while also throwing off your hormones, keeping you from the deep sleep you deserve, and draining your Yin.
If you don’t feel like you can quit caffeine cold turkey, start by limiting yourself to one cup of coffee a day. Then, instead of reaching for that afternoon cup, find other ways to energize your system (which can include drinking a hot cup of energy boosting herbs!). Now, that you understand how to boost your energy, you can actually cut out your daily caffeine entirely, or switch to tea.
Enjoy Slow Mornings
Now that you’ve stopped drinking coffee, do you still want to be running out of the house at 8am? Maybe not. If you’re someone who feels the need to get your day started right away, even on days when you don’t have to, give yourself a slow morning once a week. Wake up naturally, stretch, enjoy making your breakfast, and then do whatever you want.
Spend Time Outside
We all have some awareness that spending time outside is good for us, but we will repeat, it is really, really good for you. In TCM, time in nature is believed to increase the flow of your Qi (your life force) and blood, along with calming your nervous system. In studies, time outside is shown to lower Cortisol, your stress hormone, and boost immunity. All of these benefits can support your mental and emotional wellbeing, and nourish your Yin behind the scenes. What’s the one catch? You can’t be on your phone while you’re outside! 😜
It’s important to continue to nourish your Yin throughout your life. Many women experience a difficult menopause, because it is around this time that their Yin starts to hit rock bottom. The trouble is their lives aren’t winding down anytime soon. The sooner we adopt the practice of chilling out, the sooner we can begin to feel the benefits in our lives, and our nervous system will thank us.
