According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, spring is the season of the liver. The liver rules irritation, frustration, and anger. Think of all the deer in rut that are aggravated and itchy. They're getting ready to find mates - testosterone is at an all time high. The liver is what helps us process hormones, and testosterone is the hardest hormone of all to break down. The waters of the wintery kidney season are starting to flow in spring: the sap, the streams, the melt. Those waters hold the stagnation and inactivity of winter. The liver comes in to help us clean things out.
What do we do about it? Our are livers in trouble? Do we need to cleanse? No. They're amazing, toxin handling machines. But even the best of machines can get overwhelmed. We can offer support. Matthew Wood is a proponent of "nudgeopathy;" we can "nudge" the liver into a less overloaded state.
This is time for bitters. Think about it; when we taste something bitter, it makes out body give a little shake. Bitters help us shake things up and move the sludge out.
Bitters can be found in many places. Cocktails. Aperitifs. Spring greens. Dandelion roots. And one of my new favorites, Chamomile.
But we don't want to take bitters because, well.. they're challenging. So I've been working on an herbal honey with German Chamomile. It's a beautiful yellow color. Yellow is the color of that is associated with the liver. Think about someone that has the liver condition of jaundice. Sometimes, we say someone is bilious, which is the liver emotion of anger and is associated with the yellowish color of bile.
I learned how to make an herbal honey from Lori Rose, PhD and Natural Health Practitioner. I used a mortar and pestle to make the herb more powder-like. I used half a jar of herb and the rest of the jar was filled with honey. It's a little messy, but a good process. I'll let it sit for about 4 weeks, when it will reach fuller potency. Since the herb is ground up, I don't plan on straining it. Then, I can take a teaspoon a day as liver tonic. If that's too much, I can add a teaspoon to a cup of hot water and have an instant Chamomile tea and honey.