Autumn brings beautiful foliage, crisper temperatures, and thoughts of harvest meals, but can also bring a tendency to catch colds and flu more easily. When you’re starting to feel run down, there are at least 8 things you do right away to ensure that the illness doesn’t get any worse.
1. Clean food Eating clean is essential for helping your body to clear pathogens that cause colds and flu. Lightly steamed vegetables, vegetable broths (pho, anyone), and rice noodles or rice congee are highly recommended for anyone coming down with an illness. Steamed broccoli, bok choy, carrots, dulse, tofu, garlic, scallions, galangal, lemon/lime juice, and aromatic spices such as mint, thyme, rosemary, cinnamon, cayenne, and ginger will help to lift/clear pathogens out of the body. Mint is preferred for Wind-Heat, while thyme, rosemary, cinnamon, cayenne, and ginger are best for Wind-Cold illnesses. Ginger congee is also very soothing for easy digestion and is especially good for nausea due to cold. Chlorella should also be part of any clean eating program, as it is intensely nourishing and detoxifying, as well as easy to digest. Avoid heavy foods such as nut butters, fried foods, meats and animal products, breads, and pasta. Avoid processed foods, as they contain chemicals and additives that distract your body from focusing on clearing your illness, even further taxing your system. If you’re needing more protein than tofu alone, try light protein sources like hemp or sesame seeds, or the slightly-heavier-but-still-light pumpkin or sunflower seeds. Also, tofu is very cooling, so if you’re experiencing Wind-Cold, you may want to avoid tofu and use lots of cinnamon, cayenne, and ginger instead.
steaming pot of soup image
2. REST through yin yoga, restorative yoga, and/or yoga nidra, and meditation. The key concept here is REST. Lying still in different positions allows the body to gently detoxify and restore, building defenses while quietly providing pressure are the perfect ways to restore a body that is beginning to show signs of illness. Often stress and overwork are the cause of illness, allowing the body’s defenses to weaken. Your body is asking you to slow down. I recommend yin yoga if you are just a little run down, but still have enough energy for or desire slightly more movement/sensation. The longer holds (5-10 or even 20 minutes per pose) of yin yoga get deep into the connective tissue, the body’s communication system, freeing the channels/nadis/cellular communication pathways for faster healing. I recommend restorative yoga if you are feeling tired but still feel the need to breathe with your body in different positions. Restorative yoga involves the use of blocks and bolsters to support the body. Heart openers, twists, and inversions are common positions that allow the body to heal. Doing chest/heart-openers helps the lungs to function optimally and release any cold or flu that may have lodged in that tissue, twists help facilitate intestinal function and the release of pathogens through the stool. Legs up the wall helps lymph to circulate for increased healing throughout the body. And these positions are done in stillness with attention to the exhale, which helps release pathogens and relax sore, tired, achy muscles. I recommend yoga nidra if you are just too spent to even think about any of these and just plain need rest right now. It is sleep yoga with awareness, essentially resting guided meditation. All yoga can be transformative, but yoga nidra accesses the subconscious in an exceptionally healing way that translates to the conscious and the physical. A short practice like this gets deep into the body’s nervous system, leaving you rejuvenated and restored ~ or ready for a good night’s sleep. Qigong has a similar effect on the body, building natural immunity, quieting the sympathetic nervous system, and creating softness in the body - particularly in the joints. When the joints are held too tightly or rigidly, disease can get held in the various channels, networks, and tissues of the body. All of these forms allow the parasympathetic nervous system, the rest, restore, and renew part of the nervous system, to do its magic. When the body and mind are quiet, healing can happen. If the body is left in a sympathetic- dominant state, healing from a cold or flu is like dumping water out of a sinking rowboat with a cup.
cartoon image of person in restorative yoga legs-up-the-wall pose, with lit chakras
3. Acupuncture/Acupressure Get acupuncture (including cupping and/or moxa) as soon as you can when you’re starting to feel run down. Ask your acupuncturist to teach you acupressure points for colds and flu. There are certain points that Clear Wind, including Wind-Cold and Wind-Heat. Basic points for treating colds and flu include Gallbladder-20, Lung-7, Large Intestine-4, Spleen-6, and Stomach-36. Large-Intestine-11 may also be added. Stomach-36 and Large Intestine-10 are good for building immunity before illness sets in. Regular acupuncture is key so that you are continually building your reserves; your acupuncturist can often feel an oncoming illness in your pulses or see the signs of it on your tongue and treat these before the illness even becomes an issue. If you’re wondering how often in general to get acupuncture, I recommend once/week. If this is unattainable, do your best to get them every other week or even once/month. Some frequency is better than none!
hand inserting perpendicular acupuncture needles
4. Shiatsu massage If needles aren’t your thing, or even if they are, shiatsu massage is a great alternative or a great complement to acupuncture. Shiatsu involves finger pressure along shiatsu meridians and is deeply relaxing, restorative, and healing. For anyone with sore, achy muscles from a cold or flu, this treatment will help open the channels and lines of communication in your body for faster healing. Your shiatsu practitioner is trained to detect imbalances in your hara and to treat the meridians so that they are all functionally optimally, bringing yourself into alignment with health and well-being and shielding you from potential illness. The same frequency as acupuncture is recommended ~ once/week, but if not attainable, every other week, or at least once/month.
hands on person's back, giving shiatsu 5. Herbs I keep a strong decoction of Get Well Tea, based on a Rosemary Gladstar recipe, frozen so that when I’m starting to feel run down I don’t have to expend energy to make some. No lag time is key ~ take this right away at first signs of cold or flu. This formula is a strong antiviral. If your condition is a mild respiratory issue, consider Respiratory Goddess Tea. Consider combining fresh warm lemon juice with your tea and perhaps a dash of honey. Cayenne and ginger can be added for Wind-Cold. Just as effective if taken in the correct time frame for the correct pattern presentation are Chinese herbs. (Not to be taken at the same time as Get Well Tea, but in most cases should be okay with Respiratory Goddess Tea.) The most famous classical formulas are Gui Zhi Tang, designed for resolving Wind-Cold, and Yin Qiao San, designed for clearing Wind-Heat. I prefer Golden Flower Chinese Herbs, but also recommend Cold Quell, a Blue Poppy formula based on Yin Qiao San. These must be taken within the first few hours to day of becoming run down to be effective. Other popular formulas for clearing Wind-Heat include Gan Mao Ling (similar to Yin Qiao San), Sang Ju Yin (Wind-Heat with dry lungs), and Ge Gen Tang (Wind-heat with headache). For sinus congestion, Bi Yan Pian (Wind-Heat) and Cang Er Zi San (Wind-Heat or Wind-Cold) are essentials. All of these formulas are basics for your herbal medicine cabinet. Please seek the guidance of a trained acupuncturist/herbalist who can teach you what signs and symptoms go with each. Write these on the bottles for ease in remembering. Consult your doctor if pregnant, breastfeeding, or taking medications before taking western herbs such as Get Well Tea or Chinese herbs, as herb-drug interactions can occur and some herbs are not safe for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
Gui Zhi Tang
6. Neti pot. Clean your sinuses to wash away bacteria or viruses that may be lingering there! Use warm water with neti salt in a ceramic (no plastic!) neti pot. Do this once or twice/day for three days while you have an oncoming cold or flu. Also great for use during allergy season to wash away pollen that may be irritating your sinuses and to clear any congestion preventing clear breathing. This practice is cleansing and soothing.
ceramic neti pot, salt, and wooden scoop image
7. Epsom salt baths I highly recommend soothing sore, achy muscles with an epsom salt bath, with or without essential oils. Epsom salt soothes sore muscles and helps to release illnesses from the muscle-layer of the body. Once your bath is ready, consider using essential oils such as peppermint or eucalyptus to soothe sore muscles even more, to clear sinuses and ease respiration, and to calm the spirit.
claw-foot ceramic tub with brass knobs and clean towel image
8. Heated stone mat Heated stone mats such as inframat or biomat warm body tissues and reduce pain and inflammation, and help the body heal from illness, through the use of far infrared rays, pulse electromagnetic field (PEMF) technology, negative ions, and heat. They align with the body’s natural healing processes, vibrating on the same frequencies needed for optimal cellular and tissue functioning and repair.
heated stone mat image
Putting it all together
Pre-planning, slow and easy multi-tasking, and time management will help your mind and body relax into healing right away. To start, I recommend boiling some hot water on the stove for your neti pot. Use the scoop to pour salt into the pot, and once the water is hot-but-not-quite-boiling, pour into the neti and allow it to dissolve the salt and to cool while you run a bath. Start thawing some Get Well Tea right now too by grabbing it out of the freezer and setting the frozen container in another pot of warm water or by running warm water over it. (Alternatively, have your acupuncturist order you a custom bulk herbal formula to decoct, or use pre-purchased tablets or tincture drops at this time.) Once your bath is drawn, the neti pot water should be the perfect temperature and your Get Well Tea should be partially melted, maybe even enough to pour the melted portions and frozen chunk into a stainless steel pot and set on lowest possible heat. Set a timer to remind yourself it’s there! Now luxuriate in your soothing epsom salt bath, perhaps giving your leg and foot Spleen meridian some self-shiatsu pressure. Your tea should be melted by now ~ have a cup, sipping slowly and intentionally! Cuddling with your favorite pet and blanket is highly recommended. And if you have the energy, now that your muscles are relaxed and perhaps not as sore, try your choice of yin, restorative, or yoga nidra. I encourage you to heat your heated stone mat in preparation for an ex-tennn-ded savasana. You might consider trying some acupressure points before sinking into full stillness.
image of three tea-light candles
Now that you have done some major self-care, consider calling your acupuncturist or shiatsu practitioner to make an appointment at the next earliest availability. Or maybe you smartly already had appointments scheduled the next two months out, or thought to call while you were boiling the water! Order veggie pho soup or steam some veggies to eat with rice congee, continue cuddling with your favorite pet in your most cozy blanket, and then take a nap or go to bed early.
Be compassionate with yourself if your flow or sequence doesn’t work the way you had hoped. Find a flow of self-care and healing that works for you and make it your own. There is no one right way to approach healing, and it’s most important that your tools work for you. Compassion is healing while being too hard on yourself contributes to illness and disease.
These are not luxuries; they are part of a healing lifestyle. Self-healing is radical, powerful, and you are 100% worth it.
Audrey Lorde quote: "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare."
written by Kelly A. Ilseman, M.Ac.O.M., M.S., M.Ed. October 12, 2022
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