The Importance of Your Kidneys in Self-Empowerment

Did you know that your kidneys are fundamentally the batteries of your body? Aside from being key in preventing burnout, it's hard to create a connection if there's no charge in your batteries.

According to Chinese medicine, the amount of charge in your kidneys determines the amount of life force (aka prana or qi) your body can draw in from what you ingest and your surroundings.

When our batteries are depleted, we lose connection with ourselves and others on many levels.

For those of us who tend to be over-givers, overgiving of our time, resources and energy levels to our family, friends, workplace, etc, it is vitally important to balance this out with re-filling our own cups with self-nourishing self-care.

Living in a society which is all about doing, doing, doing, more, more, more and faster, faster, faster, many of us tend to make no time for authentic self-care and instead revert to pushing ourselves further with the help of common workplace stimulants such as coffee and sugar.

I myself used to drink about 6 cups of coffee a day just to make it through the day as I worked 8+ hours a day in my corporate function and then pushed myself to take teach a mostly high energy class of yoga in the evenings on demand. It always felt like there was never enough time in the day and so I would stay up late every night.

Little did I realise at the time that like many others, I was living on a "false yang", an imbalanced masculine energy that was superficial and non-sustainable, depleting my adrenals and kidneys in the process.

Symptoms of kidney depletion may include: hormonal imbalances, impaired hearing, stiff or painful joints, fatigue, back pain, impaired short-term memory, fear, lack of libido and/or creativity and/or initiative, weak knees, incontinence and hypersensitivity to noises.

For women going through menopause, additional symptoms due to hormonal imbalances may include: accelerated aging, night sweats, osteoporosis and dizziness.

Women in particular tend to be great over-givers and big spenders who love pleasing others. However, as the list of symptoms suggest, it is of vital importance for us to regularly engage in yin-nourishing practices such as conscious resting, self-care, stillness and simply BE-ing (rather than Do-ing) to empower ourselves and balance the yang.

What are some of the ways we can do this? Surrounding ourselves with beauty and things that inspire us, drinking floral teas such as rose and chamomile, receiving massages and other spa treatments, soaking in a hot bath with essential oils (I like to add rose petals and candle light), listening to relaxing music like Solfeggio frequencies or soothing nature sounds such as flowing water, getting to bed before midnight, engaging in gentle yoga practices, meditation, Qi Gong or Tai Chi...

All these ways can be further enhanced simply by being quiet, closing our eyes and allowing the dark yin to nourish us, conscious and deep belly breathing, tuning in and becoming aware of bodily sensations and receiving pleasure.

Even for those of us with busy schedules, some of these ways can be easily integrated throughout the day by taking just 5 to 10 minutes throughout the day to create some alone time to close our eyes, relax our muscles and consciously focusing on our breath.

Blessings and Gratitude x