My Guide to Treating the Common Cold and Flu

Hey there :-)

How are you doing? For real! Do you feel like your world has collapsed?  Are you enjoying this introverted time? Do you feel like you're slowly dying? Are you sad? Do you feel angry? Do you feel stuck?  Are you physically or mentally sick?

I am not working as a Registered Acupuncturist at the moment, due to government regulations around COVID-19. I have however, been voluntold to take on some new responsibilities quite suddenly, like many of you, one being an unpaid elementary teacher to a 9 & 12 year old :-) And so while I am not working outside the home currently, my time has certainly been filled up with kids home 24/7!

I am still struggling a bit to get into a groove with everything, achieving small gains once in a while. Things just feel a bit scattered, but spring time can often create this sense at the best of times so I think it’s pretty normal.?

I have also been trying to figure out how I can be of service even though I am not working with people directly. I’ve had a lot of clients reach out with questions and concerns around the symptoms they are experiencing at this time, specifically stress and also immune related symptoms.

Because it is still technically cold and flu season, the coronavirus is still lurking around and now with allergy season here, not to mention the stress that is currently omnipresent, our immune systems are legitimately compromised making us more vulnerable to catching viruses.

God forbid we sneeze or cough, have a headache, a runny nose and especially be running hot. Talk about a recipe to be alienated even longer than we already have been!?

When we fall ill with a cold or flu typically we are told that the virus has to run its course, which means we are left to suffer its effects or mask our symptoms with cold and flu medication.

Antibiotics are of no use because they can't kill viruses!

Do we just settle for being sick for the next 10 days to two weeks or a month or sometimes even up to six weeks or do we try tackling and treating this with things that are within our control and treat this as an opportunity to offer a little TLC to ourselves or a close loved one and get better more quickly???

Sick and tired of being sick and tired?

Let me share my 4 tried-and-true tools that I have used for years in nursing the body back to good health.

Be sure to read through until the end to see how I go about addressing your symptoms and the contributing factors that are likely involved with why you are sick in the first place.

Let's promote your body’s innate healing systems to speed up your recovery!

Let's start by addressing what is within our control.

The 1st tool I talk about is FOOD because it is our fuel, it’s what we put into our body at least 3X per day.

I don't go about this in the typical, “eat healthy foods”, kind of way but rather, in Chinese medicine, we look at food from many perspectives.

One perspective being its FLAVOR - is it pungent, sweet, bitter, sour, or salty? Certain flavours perform certain actions in the body which I will go over very shortly.

AFTER you eat and digest a certain food, what TEMPERATURE is created from that food? Is it more cooling or more warming?

For example, garlic, while it is very healthy, AFTER it has been digested, it creates warmth in the body.

Certain foods also induce certain movements in the body once they have been digested.  While some emphasize an upward and outward movement, others emphasize downward and inward movement.

The DIRECTION of where the energy goes after digestion is very important.

For example, pungent and sweet foods create an upward and outward movement of energy in the body so it would be wise to stay away from these foods if you have something like a cough where the energy is already going up and out.

What else rises? Heat rises, correct?

So naturally warming foods, which include pungent, sweet, as well as spicy foods, all encourage our energy to rise and move up and out.

Bitter, sour and salty flavours create a downward and inward movement of energy in the body so might be a better choice for when you have a cough and are also helpful for clearing mucus, stimulating the appetite, and even for good for nausea and or vomiting.

Cooling foods, which include bitter, sour, and salty foods, all encourage our energy to descend and move inward.

 4 other factors that determine whether food will be warm or cool include:

1) Plants that take longer to grow, like root vegetables, tend to be more warming than fast growing foods, like lettuce.

When food is chemically fertilized and therefore forced to grow more quickly, it tends to be more cooling than their naturally grown counterparts.

2) Foods with higher water content, like melons and cucumber, tend to be more cooling.

3) Dried foods are more warming than their fresh counterparts.

4) The cooking and preparation method of food also influences whether food is going to be more warming or cooling.

For example, raw or boiled food with higher water content and shorter cooking times will be more cooling than food that is cooked longer, like slow cooked or roasted foods.

So why does this all matter and how does it apply?

Well, as another simple example, if you have a fever you might want to choose to eat more cooling foods and cook your food for a shorter period of time whereas if you are chilled and cold, you should eat more warming foods and cook it for a longer period of time.

With all these considerations in mind, I have done the hard work and have put together food recommendations in a free guide for you to download from my website, in order to address your cold or flu sx’s through the means of food :-) Get your hands on it if you haven’t already done so!

Food is the 1st tool I go through in this Guide.

The 2nd tool I use to treat the common cold or flu is ESSENTIAL OILS. Specifically ones that have antiseptic, antispasmodic, anti-microbial, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-inflammatory properties.

The 5 essential oils that I have in my medicine cabinet at all times are: eucalyptus, peppermint, lavender, thyme, and rosemary.

Some of which I bathe in, rub on my body, or simply just use in the diffuser.

Don’t worry, I have this all concisely detailed in the free guide for you to download from my website and have at your fingertips so be sure to check out how to use them safely and reap their therapeutic benefits.

The 3rd big tool in treating a cold or flu is using ACUPRESSURE to change your energy and support your entire being by helping to open your chest, clear heat and inflammation, and remove any factors negatively influencing your body.

Firm pressure is applied to acupoints along meridians, or energy pathways, that run along your body.

In case you are wondering, the only difference between acupressure and acupuncture is that acupuncture is performed by a licensed or registered acupuncturist using hair thin disposable needles to stimulate acupoints as opposed to firm pressure.

Again, download my free guide to see pictures of the acupressure points that I have suggested using and a description of their location.

I will also be creating a video soon showing and describing in person how to locate these points accurately, so on my website be sure to sign up to receive notification of my videos as they are posted :-)

Another important factor that is within our control at all times is our attitude and the way we think and speak and behave towards ourselves and others.

If we can agree that our mind greatly influences our reality, we certainly cannot overlook our mental thought patterns at a time when we are ill.

This is why my 4th important tool in treating a cold or flu is incorporating AFFIRMATIONS into the treatment plan.

I will be going into greater detail on this area in an upcoming blog because it is so important to acknowledge and adjust our thought patterns to attain a positive state of health.

In any treatment plan that I create for myself, my family or my clients and friends I always include affirmations as part of the treatment plan and really feel that it's not a complete treatment plan without them.

Again in the free guide I put together for you on my website, I have given you affirmations that I have used for myself for more than 30 years and use them with my family and clients especially when down and out with a cold or flu.

Be sure to check them out and incorporate them and definitely watch out for my detailed video on affirmations in the near future to understand the 3 necessary ingredients to making them really work and be effective for you.

Finally on top of the 4 tools I have suggested, that are all nicely detailed in my free tried and true Guide to treating the common cold and flu, found on my website, there are some fundamentals I also included to employ when you're sick with a cold or flu.

Some may seem like common sense but if there is one thing I have learned in my life, it is that common sense is not always common practice !!!!

There you have it :-)

Be sure to download your free guide from my home page and under the video section of my website, sign up to be notified of my upcoming videos that will go more in-depth on each tool I recommend using to help shorten the course of your cold or flu.

Once you have this information you have it for life!

Trust me, you do not need to suffer long with this.

You are worth it, make health your 1st priority!

XoXo

This article is for informational purposes only. This article is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment and should never be relied upon for specific medical advice.