The Magic Tree

Spring! Season of rising sap, life-force moving up and out. I talk about my favorite methods of getting aligned with the season here. Includes twisting, stretching the inner leg-line and hugging trees.

As a little kid, one of my favorite ever gifts was a Magic Sakura Tree. It was a small cardboard tree that you stood in water when you went to bed, and when you woke up, blossom had sprouted all over it. I have no idea what chemicals were in it to make this happen, but I was amazed.

As I get older, it's spring—the real deal—that really does it for me. These first weeks of spring have a special magic to them, with new life announcing itself everywhere; buds in various stages of emergence even on the same tree, some beginning to unfurl, others like love letters opening themselves up to reveal their shiny green messages. It is exciting!

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the spring is a yang season, meaning its energy is all about up and out. It even sounds that way: YANG! And it’s the opposite of winter's inward-looking, slow, reflective yin energy. As such, the transition between the two states can be a little bumpy.

You can see with your eyes and feel in your bones that the sap, the life force, in trees is rising; moving up the trunk and exploding in the form of acid green leaves and soft bundles of blossom.

At the Brooklyn Botanic gardens this weekend I put my arms around a tree by the lake to see if I could feel that surging current of energy and let my own body align with it. This may be perceived as an eccentric gesture but to my mind it's just an expression of what we humans need to do in the spring (and indeed in any season), which is to work with nature's energy. It’s a dance like this, every season.

So let's go into a little bit more detail about what this entails for us in day to day life. In his excellent book, Healing With Whole Foods, Paul Pitchford recommends taking brisk walks early in the morning in spring, and I have friends who swear by this. Personally, I find that if you live in a big city this can be a lot of information to take in, first thing; so I prefer to practice yoga on my patio. Either way, getting outside is key. Making your physical practice more vigorous also helps you join this season of waking up.

Physically, TCM tells us we’re working with the liver in spring. In terms of the body’s meridians—its energetic highways, if you like—the liver meridian runs along the inner legline, up around the shoulders and neck and travels to the eyes. It’s a major detoxifying organ, and the emotion we associate with the liver when it’s out of balance is anger. So, as the liver starts processing the accumulated sludge of winter and working through undigested emotions, it’s more than likely you’ll feel some sparks of irritation and frustration. If your liver is overloaded with toxins, you may notice rashes on the skin or acidic digestion.

Other signs of liver imbalance can include neck and shoulder tightness, eye problems (hello, twitchy eyes!), restlessness and tight tendons. You can ease tension in the body by practicing yoga poses which open up the liver meridian, such as Trikonasana (triangle pose), Uppavistakonasa (wide leg forward bend) and Badakonasana (bound angle pose). Twists will also help to flush out the organs via what B.K.S. Iyengar called the “squeeze and soak” principle—meaning you compress the organs during the twist, pushing out stagnant blood and toxins, and then fresh blood rushes in as you release the twist.

I also love balancing poses like Vrksasana (tree pose) and Ardha chandrasana (half moon pose), which open up that legline. It’s so important to find balance in the spring; on the one hand, we want to meet its rising energy, and on the other, we need to give ourselves quiet time to process what we’re seeing and feeling, otherwise it’s all too much.

Taking time to meditate in the morning and before bed can help. One of my teachers, Leigh Evans, recommends making a daily “to do” list and then taking two things off it, as well as “padding” daily activities with an extra 15 minutes. Simplifying your day is great, and a social media detox can work wonders if you’re feeling agitated; often when we feel overwhelmed, we feel a compulsion to manically “check” everything.

It’s lovely to enjoy the excitement of spring and maintain a gentleness at the same time; letting things unfurl rather than yanking or forcing. We need a bit of oomph to get our momentum going after winter, but it’s equally important to make room for what needs to emerge and clear quiet space for what needs to be heard.

Like this, it’s easier to really open our eyes and see that we’re surrounded by real life magic trees, and—whisper it—that we are magic trees ourselves. Happy spring.