Whenever I hear a person say “I’m old or getting old”, I always rebuttal “age is relative and souls are timeless”.
Most of the time people say this about themselves, they start talking about their fine lines and wrinkles. I can completely understand the pressures of getting older and I also invite my clients to consider…what’s more important than wrinkles? For me, it radical self-acceptance, self-love, celebrating being in your body, loving your skin, timeless beauty and aging gracefully.
When I think about beauty being timeless, to me, this is about legacy. What will you be known for? How will people remember you?
People will remember you not for what you look like. They will remember you by how they experience your essence.
Jing is a powerful substance that forms the essence of who and what we are. It is the primal energy of our life. Jing is the deep foundational energy reserves of the body and it is this energy that determines one’s ultimate vitality and the quantity and quality of one’s lifespan. Jing is precious and has long been recognized as a “treasure” that needs to be nourished, protected and preserved.
Jing is our material body, cellular density, energy stores, our reproductive potential, our DNA and our seed.
A Jing deficiency can manifest as back pain, knee pain, signs of premature ageing – grey hair, wearing of the teeth and joints, weight gain, poor eyesight, and loss of memory and concentration, infertility, chronic miscarriage, low quality sperm count, impotence and low libido. These signs can tell us that we are burning the candle at both ends.
Jing is consumed in the following ways:
- Being over busy, burning the candle at both ends
- Recovery from accident or serious illness
- Excessive sexual activity in men
- Menstruation and pregnancy in women
Things that cause imbalance:
• Dehydration, not enough water. Make sure to get 8 glasses of H2O each day!
• Anything in excess, including food, alcohol, drugs, sex, and yes even too much exercise.
• Too much salt.
• Stress, which can be harmful anytime, is particularly damaging during winter, especially if it’s prolonged.
Ways to restore and maintain balance:
• Practice slow, yin yoga.
• Take long, slow-to-medium–paced walks.
• Develop a daily meditation practice. Practice an inner quietness amidst any external busyness that happens in your life.
• Practice Tai Chi or Qiqong.
• Get more sleep than you typically do.
• Eat supportive foods like:
- Eggs of birds e.g. chickens or ducks
- Fish eggs or roe
- Seeds and nuts
- Pollen
- Bone marrow
- Bone broths
- Hearty soups
- Brains
- Kidneys
- Oysters, delivery of nutrients to sperm-manufacturing cells
- Seaweed and algae, includes trace elements for production of gametes and related hormones
- Artichoke leaf
- Nettles
- Oats, amaranth and quinoa
- Raw Milk
- Royal jelly
- Roasted nuts
- Root vegetables (sweet potatoes, cranberries, blueberries)
- Dark beans (black, kidney)
- Ginger
- Dark leafy greens (cabbage, celery, asparagus, watercress, wheatgrass, endive, turnips, micro-algae like chlorella and spirulina)
Chinese herbal medicine can also nourish Jing and acupuncture can reduce leakages of Jing that occurs with daily living. Dragon Herbs is a good resource I love that has many formulas that support Jing (www.dragonherbs.com).
We came to this planet to experience life. We are creators and we have been gifted resources. Living a life worth living involves being intentional, which requires being laser-focused about how we spend our resources and how we protect our gifts. How will you protect this treasure, your Jing? And what do you want to leave behind as an expression of your essence?
Commit to one of the ways to restore and maintain balance. This is crucial for preserving your essence, beauty and legacy.
xo, Marianne
