Spring is here. Pay attention

Jefferson Breland

(3/2025) The days are longer. Trees are budding. Crocuses and bluebells are popping up out of the ground. The birds are singing. The sunlight seems brighter. The world seems to be waking up.

Ahhhh, at last, Spring is here. Be very careful.

Until mid-May: Wear a hat, especially if you have less than a full head of hair (I am talking to myself here). Keep your neck covered. Keep your feet and ankles warm. Don’t wear shorts or skirts that expose your lower legs to the air. Wear a bit more clothing than you think you should. Keep your hands warm. If you must go running or walking outside, wear an extra layer of clothing.

I sound like your grandmother, don’t I?

According to various calendars from other cultures, Spring sprang at the beginning of February. These calendars choose the beginning of February to mark the beginning of Spring because according to their cultural/historical beliefs that is when the energy of the Earth begins to rise, thus ending the stillness of Winter. It is when seeds begin their first stirrings beneath the ground and the shifting of sap in tree roots begins to move upwards unseen.

This is all based on the energies of nature. We do not see these stirrings because they are not yet visible. While these are unseen, we begin to see the effect of this rising Spring energy in other ways. Our pets may begin to be more active. We see birds migrating. We see our first robins, a classic harbinger of Spring.

One of the main reasons to keep covered and wear a more clothing than you have in past Springs, is temperature.

Temperature is not just the temperature of the air. The temperature of the Earth stays colder much longer than the air. This makes sense, right? According to TCM, the Earth’s surface stays colder until about mid-May.

According to modern science, when our body is exposed to temperatures of 64 degrees or colder, we lose heat faster than we can generate it. Our bodies then begin to divert blood flow from the extremities and the head to the torso to maintain core temperature.

If exposed to these temperatures for even a few hours, it is actually possible to develop symptoms of mild hypothermia. Older people and children are more vulnerable to the cooler temperatures.

According to a variety of Western medical sources, these symptoms include shivering and chattering teeth, exhaustion, clumsiness, slow movements and reactions, sleepiness, weak pulse, fast heart rate (tachycardia), rapid breathing (tachypnea), pale skin color, confusion and poor judgment/loss of awareness, excessive urination, trouble speaking.

According to TCM, colder temperatures cause joint pain, painful menses, a decrease in the flow of energy or Qi throughout the body, and generally makes our bodies more vulnerable to respiratory illnesses, in addition to the signs and symptoms listed above.

Colder temperatures are no joke. They can affect our health in the present moment and in the months and possibly years to come.

Temperature is a funny thing. It is relative. In the Spring, when the temperatures fluctuate between nighttime temperatures in the 30s and daytime temperatures in the 40s and 50s, the air feels downright balmy.

We feel the world opening up after being bundled up and hunkered down for the past three or four months. We want to run around and enjoy the warmer temperatures.

Aye, here’s the rub. While our minds and bodies tell us it is warm enough to run around in t-shirts and shorts when the sun is out and the temperatures are in the 50s ands 60s, the Earth, the ground we walk on, is still cold from the Winter.

So, it is this colder Earth which contains the essence of cold that can seep into our bodies and become health challenges over the coming months.

Not only that, an effect of the rising energy of Spring is wind. The presence of wind cools things down, hence the term Wind Chill Factor.

When the wind blows, the temperature of the air feels cooler on our skin, and thus, we loose body temperature faster. If we are out and about doing the fun things we have been longing to do since Autumn, like hiking, bicycling, jogging, playing racquet sports, golf, etc. we may not be as aware of the effects of the wind and cool temperatures because we are focused on our activity.

If we are cycling, or jogging we are increasing the wind chill effect on our body and because of our elevated body temperature from the exercise we are even less aware of the impact of the external temperature on our body. This is especially true of joint and muscular pain. We often think of it purely as a result of our increased activity. According to TCM, the increased or unexpected joint and muscular pain is attributable to the cold and wind.

In past Complementary Corners, I have written about the invisible being more powerful than the visible. In those articles, I focused on the invisible beliefs which influence how we choose to live our lives. In relationship to the natural world, wind is a great example of the invisible being more powerful than the visible on both the physical and energetic levels.

What do I mean by visible? The visible, that which we can see, is limited because it has a distinct shape, size, etc. You can touch it. It is what it is. What you see is what you get.

The invisible is everything we can’t see. That is a lot of stuff. Generally speaking, we can only see five percent of the Universe. That is what scientists say; only five percent. Who am I to argue with science except when I disagree with it?

On Earth, the percentage of visible stuff seems much higher. I see things all around me all the time, yet there is plenty that is invisible. We can’t see odor, taste, sound, or temperature. With the possible exception of looking directly at the sun (Do not do this, you will damage your eyes), we don’t see light itself. Even looking at the sun (I repeat, DO NOT do this!), the light you see has travelled roughly 92.624 million miles over 8.33 minutes and passed through the atmosphere and bounced off lots of tiny bits of things like water vapor, particulates, etc. We only see light that is reflected off of stuff, so generally speaking, even light is invisible. Curious, right?

While the ancients who discovered TCM may not have had concepts about the composition of sunlight and thermodynamics, they were astute observers of the natural world. This makes sense since they didn’t have distractions like cable television, cell phones, light bulbs, and social media.

These ancient observers made correlations between the seasons and how the natural world shifted according to these seasons. These correlations form the foundation of Chinese Medicine and how we look at the human body.

Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to observe nature. In the springtime, daylight gets longer, plants and animals behave differently, there are spring breaks from school, baby animals are born, and baseball season starts.

Too often in our modern times we have lost or decreased our connection to nature. As a result, we have generally lost our ability to observe the subtle signs nature. Farmers and ranchers may be the sole exceptions to our modern nature disconnect.

We often view nature only as the weather, or the background of our vacations, a destination away from where we live.

In fact, nature is us, our bodies. Nature is wherever we are. Nature is all around us offering us clues to take better care of ourselves and those around us.

Please pay attention. Your healthy life depends on it.

Jefferson Breland is a board-certified acupuncturists licensed in Pennsylvania and Maryland with offices in Gettysburg and Towson, respectively.
He can be reached at 410-336-5876.

Read past editions of Complementy Corner