I will keep this email on the shorter side - I know we're all being inundated by emails right now! In this email, you'll find:

• A few clinic and schedule updates
• Info on Winter Wellness, the Water element, and its correspondences
• An introduction to my new self-paced, online Winter Wellness class!

I'll be back in January with more info on new services! I hope everyone has a good holiday season - make sure to take some time to recharge, too.

Take care,

Kate Thomas, LAc

P.S. If you've been to the clinic recently, I'd really appreciate it if you took a few minutes to leave a Google review! Google reviews make a huge difference for small businesses - it helps businesses show up when someone searches. If you've already left a review, thank you so much!

Clinic Updates

Winter Wellness Online Class

I created a self-paced online class on Winter Wellness! The course covers practices to help you nurture the Water element for year-round health. The class has over an hour and a half of recorded videos, 6+ handouts, and many resources for further learning. You can complete the course at your own pace and rewatch as many times as you'd like! I packed it full of all the info I wish I could share with patients during their appointments. 😊

In the class, I cover:

• The Water element and the organs associated with it - the Kidney and Urinary Bladder - and their meridians;
• Winter wellness practices to help nourish your Winter health, including acupressure, moxa, food therapy, and more!

(For more details on everything covered in the course, click here!)

The class is $35! Newsletter subscribers can get $10 off through December 9, 2024, with code WINTER. If you sign up soon, you can submit questions for the recorded Q&A session - submit your questions by December 20th!

​Learn more and sign up for the class here!​

Winter Wellness

As always, here are some of the correspondences for the Winter season:

Element: Water​
Organs: Kidney, Urinary Bladder
​Color: black, dark blue, purple
​Emotion: fear (phobias, primal fears - not worries)
​Virtue: Wisdom
​Spirit: Zhi (steadfastness, will, intention)
​Sense: hearing
​Flavor: salty (as in the ocean, not just table salt)
​Body areas: ears, bones, head hair

Themes: unknown, intuition, stillness, rest, steadiness, quiet, memory, wisdom, reflection, wu wei 無為 (non-effort, going with the flow of life)

Winter/Water foods:

• Cornmeal, millet, oats, wheat
• Adzuki beans, black soybeans, lentils
• Chestnuts, chia seeds, pistachios, poppy seeds, sesame seeds (black, white, unhulled/brown), tahini, walnuts
• Dark berries (blueberries, blackberries, etc.), burdock root (gobo) and other root vegetables, chives/green onions, leeks, all mushrooms
• All seaweeds (especially dulse, hijiki & arame, kombu, nori, wakame)
• Duck, lamb, clams, eel, mussels, prawns, shrimp, squid
• Miso, basil, caraway seeds, citrus zest, dill, parsley, rosemary, sage, smoked paprika, thyme
• All teas, but especially black (red) and oolong

Foods should be cooked and warm; slow cooking, roasting, and other methods of cooking food longer are ideal this time of year. Warm or hot drinks are also recommended! Avoiding iced food and cold/raw foods is very important during the winter.

One of my favorite ways to work with the themes of this season is to embrace contemplative practices, like Qi Gong, meditation, and journaling. You could add 10 minutes of meditation a few times a week into your routine, start (or re-start!) a journal, do a year-end review, try Qi Gong, or practice some other something else that helps you lean into the reflection and stillness of this season!

I go over all of this information in more depth, as well as offer more specific suggestions for practicing acupressure, moxa, and more, in the Winter wellness class! If you enjoy learning about how to live a bit more in tune with the seasons, click here to sign up for the class! (Don't forget the discount code WINTER for $10 off through December 9!)