winter survival

i feel like i have been perpetually sick since the whether turned cold. in december, i came down with pneumonia. i spent most of the month entirely in bed- aching, coughing, feeling a little bit sorry for myself and watching many many episodes of the office. if you are looking for a way to get out of all those pesky holiday obligations, sleep more than you can remember sleeping in the last 5 years AND loose a couple pounds in the process, pneumonia is your jam! the downside being that you get absolutely zero things done, which is kind of a stressful bummer right before christmas.

i knew that all this sickness was absolutely my body telling me things. it's been trying to tell me a lot of things these last few months, but taking care of myself was the message i kept ignoring, and one i am now hearing loud and clear.

so, last week i saw a doctor of Chinese medicine. (here is her website in case you are local and looking for someone absolutely incredible. i cant say enought good things!) amongst other things, she mentioned that we tend to hold much of our sadness and grief in our lungs and chest. coughing is our bodies way of expelling and clearing some of that energy, so we should not fight off or suppress colds and coughs, especially after a period of grief or hardship. it was a definite 'ah-ha' moment for me. her explanation made sense of the bouts of sickness i have struggled through since august, but also made it feel like they weren't all for nothing.

slowly but surely, my body is doing what it needs to do to heal.