organic & wellness
THE HOLIDAYS ARE HERE AND YOUR schedule is booked. The alarm goes off and you reach for the snooze button. Why do you feel so groggy in the morning? Do you ever feel like your “get up and go” pep is gone? Are you just going through the motions? Is it hard to find the purpose in your life anymore? Do you feel like you are getting sick all the time lately? The MediLexicon defines fatigue as a “state, following a period of mental or bodily activity, characterized by a lessened capacity or motivation for work and reduced efficiency of accomplishment, usually accompanied by a feeling of weariness, sleepiness, irritability or loss of ambition; may also supervene when, from any cause, energy expenditure outstrips restorative processes ...” While the feeling can be specifically physical or mental, the two often occur together. When the demands of life trigger the sympathetic nervous system (SNS—fight and flight) to help you function under stress, the body usually recovers with adequate sleep that triggers the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS—rest and digest), which allows you to wake refreshed. Emotional stress can prevent the restorative processes the body needs, resulting in a constant state of sympathetic activity that includes lowered immune function. The body is not given a chance to “reboot,” creating accumulated stress, fatigue and ultimately physical illness. While allopathic medicine does not recognize the term “emotional fatigue,” people with chronic stress report “low energy, the inability to enjoy aspects of living, feeling tired in the morning, lack of motivation, foggy thinking, anxiety and frequent illness.” Emotional fatigue is a state of chronic stress, or the inability to recover from a stressful situation that occurred in the past. Recommended therapies focus on boosting the immune system and calming the mind. Unless we are planning a silent retreat in the mountains over the holidays, we could all use some tools to manage our stress.
As a practitioner of Chinese medicine, I was taught to recognize the “three treasures” that constitute life: jing, the essence; qi, the life force; and shen, the spirit. Emotional fatigue can be explained in Chinese medicine as qi deficiency caused by shen disturbance. Simply put, qi is a metaphor for our energy levels. When the qi is deficient, we feel weak and fatigued. We easily get sick and have no defenses. The shen represents our mental health and function. Without adequate rest, the shen is disturbed, and we feel mental and emotional distress. Strengthening qi and calming the shen is the strategy to manage emotional fatigue with Chinese medicine.
Emotional stress can prevent the restorative processes the body needs, resulting in a constant state of sympathetic activity that includes lowered immune function.
Protect your wei qi Wei qi is the body’s first line of defense. It translates as “defensive qi,” and is also a metaphor for the body’s immune system. Wei qi flows through the skin and muscles, nourishing all outer tissues. Begin by warding off infections that enter through the skin and eyes. As therapists, we are trained to wash our hands between clients. Washing hands for at least 20 seconds with warm, soapy water is the most effective method to control cold and flu germs, and other infectious agents. If hand washing is not an option, sanitizers can be used. Several antibacterial hand sanitizers contain chemicals that many of us would rather avoid, not to mention the number they do on your skin. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recomcontinues
BY CHRISTINA M. CASADO
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