Today is the first day of the solar term 雨水 yǔshuǐ, Rain Water. When the weather is cold and damp, it’s important to keep warm and take extra good care of your TCM Stomach, since the digestion doesn’t work as well when damp.

For this solar term at the beginning of the Year of the Fire Horse, I bring to you three recipes from Dr Hao Liu for the transition between winter and spring.

I rolled my right ankle Monday morning while hiking the Lower Jordan Fire Trail in the Berkeley hills in the misty not quite rain. I was able to limp back to the car, leaning on my partner…

What I do for sleep is as follows:​

​- Try to exercise daily, but not right before bed.

- Stop eating after 8pm.​

- Stop using screens after 8pm.

- Go camping.

- Be outside 10-15 minutes every day.

- Avoid caffeine.

- Cuddle my cat.

excerpt from an email to a patient sent February 21, 2016 at 9:35am:

You can work on slow breathing. I mean really slow, smooth, and relaxed, like you're sipping sweet air through a straw that's the very back of your airways to fill up your lungs from the bottom to the top.

Yunnan Baiyao herbal powder and capsules used for wound care

I hit myself in the face with a bungee cord while trying to untangle it from the spokes of my new bicycle today. It cut the bridge of my nose and bruised my left eyebrow.