Three Golden Opportunities
I learned recently of a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) concept of “Three Golden Opportunities.” Nancy Lucina, one of my teachers in my class on hormones briefly mentioned this phrase and I was so intrigued I had to dig in and do some more research.
What I found was a philosophy, and a way of being, more than a prescriptive method. Which I really feel aligned with!
This concept of the three golden opportunities is a way of approaching wellness that is focused on the macro perspective and on preventative and nourishing self-care, instead of focusing only on alleviating one symptom after it has already been well-established in the body.
The three opportunities are actually three incredibly intense transitions within a woman’s life: menarche (when girls begin to have their monthly cycles), birth/postpartum, and peri-menopause.
This concept of viewing them as golden opportunities for wellness stems from the idea that during these very powerful transition phases of life, we lose some of (or a lot of) our jing (our very ESSENCE of our being-ness).
The idea is that by doing what we can in these opportune moments to restore and replenish our jing, we will have not only a longer life but acquire less sickness/dis-ease in our later life, as well.
And the opposite is also true: if we fail to replenish our jing that is lost during this transition moments of life, we age more quickly and experience more troubling symptoms in life.
Preserving jing is critical to enhancing the quality and length of our lives. Ancient TCM texts describe sages and advanced beings who lived according to the natural cycles and enjoyed vitality and reproductive ability beyond 100 years! This is health optimization (modernly referred to as “biohacking”) to the extreme!
We can’t really afford to not exert conscious effort into our wellness practices these days, in my opinion.
So, what does it look like during these three golden opportunities with regards to losing jing?
When we bleed each month, because of the incredible amount of jing that is required to produce an egg and then release the build up of blood (that is the foundation for potential life each month) that our uterus has acquired, we can lose jing.
Women’s bodies treat every ovulation as a potential offspring! Most of the time, fertilization does not occur and the amassed resources of blood, fluids, and jing are flushed from the uterus as we bleed each month.
When we carry a pregnancy (either full term or miscarriage or anything in between), our body exerts and uses up an extraordinary amount of jing to sustain the life of the baby, then give birth (and bleed a lot), and then nourish the baby with our breastmilk.
A woman’s body gives preference to nourishing the baby, even if that means the woman experience tooth decay as a result.
Postpartum is time of depletion as well, and the need to restore the jing we lose in the form of sustaining a pregnancy, bleeding after birth, and then using our blood to make breastmilk for the baby is imperative for health down the line for women who go through childbearing. Otherwise our body starts pulling at our reserves and so many health issues can pop up, all because we haven’t honored the transition we have just made and rested and restored our vital essence that was lost in these processes.
Peri-menopause begins (according to TCM) at age 35 (in TCM they measure life in 7 year cycles, so the beginning of our 5th cycle of life marks peri-menopause), and at this point our hormones begin declining and our body — in order to compensate — begins pulling on our reserves of jing/kidneys/adrenals. This can manifest as poor sleep, hot flashes, irregular periods, decreased libido, vaginal issues, mood swings, and more, once we get nearer to menopause.
So, what can be done in order to replenish jing and balance the depletion during these three golden opportunities?
There is a many-pronged approach to this question, but the main foundational idea is to balance yin vs yang, rest vs activity, heart vs head.
We can no longer live unbalanced lifestyles without consequences.
In a practical sense, this looks like taking the time to sleep as much as we really need, rest in bed or at home during our bleeding times (including postpartum), eating with the seasons of our cycle and our life on a bigger picture level, and in general balancing the very “go-go-go” energy of modern life with deep rest and rejuvenation.
During monthly bleeding
This looks like not expecting yourself (or your daughters) to keep up the same pace of life during your monthly bleed. Eating warming foods that promote blood flow (like ginger, eggs, and black sesame oil) during your monthly bleeding time (and avoiding cold foods like raw fruits and veggies, iced drinks and ice cream, etc..), making sure you are very warm from head to toe during your bleeding, not working out in a strenuous way, and correcting anything that is not ideal with your reproductive organs or your cycle with energy work, acupuncture, and/or herbs are all great ways to conserve and protect your jing.
During pregnancy and postpartum
This also looks like not expecting yourself to “get back to normal” as soon as possible after pregnancy and birth. There is an IMMENSE amount of energy and life force that is used during pregnancy, birth, and the months following birth. Most traditional cultures have a period of “lying in” after giving birth that ranges from 14-40 days OF JUST STAYING IN BED. With your baby.
This period of rejuvenation, rest, and re-embodiment following birth is one of the single MOST important practices for a woman’s long term health (and also increases the vitality of the baby!). Resting in the postpartum time, keeping your body warm from head to toe, massaging your womb space and then binding your belly, and eating nourishing/easy-to-digest warming foods (again, like ginger and black sesame seed oil) are all aspects of care that traditional cultures around the world “enforce” in the postpartum period of the month or so after birth.
All of these things are not just “self-care,” but are intrinsically connected to the prevention of health issues and dis-ease in motherhood and later in life, including the prevention of organ prolapse, diastasis recti (the somewhat permanent separation of the abdominal muscles along the vertical midline), and the prevention of loss of milk supply or quality. Often I see sore joints in mothers in the postpartum as the first sign that they are not incorporating enough rest and warmth into their lives after baby was born.
During perimenopause
This also looks like not pushing yourself too hard once you hit age 35 and using this cyclical nature of life to heed the signal that life can be more about conservation of energy and building of reserves than about always expending them. Although our society has changed massively in the past 2500 years, the natural cycles that govern life and our bodies have not.
Many women refuse to acknowledge the transition out of the mother archetype and into the maga or sorceress archetype (aka menopausal years) until their monthly bleeding stops being regular and their symptoms (like hot flashes, heavy periods, etc) are much more firmly entrenched in their bodies. Imbalances which manifest at this time tend to accurately tell us the true state of a woman’s health and act as a foretelling for health in older age.
If a woman begins jing-rejuvenation practices at age 35, she can delay menopausal symptoms and minimize their severity. She can be less reliant or not reliant at all on hormone replacement therapy, birth control, or cosmetic procedures to maintain her physical wellness, her youthfulness and her appearance.
Jing replenishment
In Chinese medicine, they recommend foods like yams, black sesame seeds, goji berries, and longan berries be incorporated in the regular diets of women beginning at age 35 for this reason. In general protein, dark leafy vegetables, bone broth, black sesame oil and seeds, seaweeds, ales, walnuts can be increased at this time as well. Ginseng (up to 1 gram per day) is also highly recommended.
On a day to day level, incorporating healthy whole food diet and healthy relaxation practices like gentle yoga, meditation, qigong, tai chi, or similar will help balance some calmness and stillness against the often frenetic pace of modern life. This will replenish jing.
The biological imperative to continue the species is a powerful force that can be harnessed to increase our wellbeing (or else bring us to ruin). Practicing the cultivation and circulation of sexual energy throughout your body also replenishes jing and is balancing to the hormones. This looks like only practicing sex when your body, mind, and heart are in 100% alignment, practicing breast massage, vaginal strengthening/activation (like a yoni/jade egg practice), ovarian massage.
Ancient practices for these modern times, and the keys to vibrancy in life
I really feel (know) there is this whole expanse of ancient wisdom about how to live an amazingly vibrant life on this planet, that we are all slowly tapping into in remembrance.
We are all capable of living an amazing life if we just have the tools and knowledge and space to do so. I understand this is challenging for some folks, but hopefully this little foray into the Three Golden Opportunities gives you some motivations and some ideas on how to incorporate wellness into your life, especially during these three pivotal moments of transformation and initiation!
Please comment below or reach out via email if you have any questions or comments!
