Driving into my Dublin clinic on a beautiful sunny, April morning, I was struck by the cacophony of vibrant colours coming at me from my adopted garden county of Wicklow. I was so impressed that all my daily concerns seemed to disappear as my eyes tried to take in as much detail as possible.

I could feel my pupils dilate at the luscious variety of yellows, browns and greens of nature blended with the blooming blues of the Irish Sea and the skyline. My retinas were bombarded with various colour wavelengths that made me immerse myself in this incredible sense of vision.

I decided that today I was going to be mindful of my visual sense, I was determined that every pixel of light would be valued and appreciated for what it was. Driving over the Wicklow mountains (these would have been called the Dublin Mountains, if I were still living there!) I couldn’t help but be grounded as the saffron yellow of the Gorse flowers mixed with the new leaf green of the trees pierced my eyes, with every photon of light I felt a little lighter as my stress began to erode.

As if this was not impressive enough I rounded a corner to be greeted by the most incredible juvenile yellow of a field of rapeseed in early flower. I was levelled and felt a great sense of being a very small part of a universal picture. Just imagine this picture topped off with a blue sky with little wisps of white cloud (in Ireland….in April…..WOW). Driving in to the city I am greeted by the silk like petals of the cherry blossom trees, pinks and whites……….Lovely.

So today would be my appreciation of all things visual, my eyes are focused the window to my soul is open and I will be mindful of the greater picture. I am determined that today when the normal stresses of life intrude, I will see the luscious colours rather than the dog shite on the ground, I will not elude myself that everything is rosy, I will chose to see the beauty, rather than the horror. I welcome this day.

If you are travelling on this bank holiday weekend and traffic slows and you are tempted to get into the road rage mode, take a moment and observe the beauty surrounding you, allow every pixel of light enter your eyes and stimulate the Liver energy (the eyes are mainly influenced by the liver in Chinese medicine), use these colours to keep your liver energy flowing, thus avoiding “liver qi stagnation”, which can result in all kinds of health issues, including, headaches, PMT, anger, irritability, heartburn, depression etc., etc. If you let the frustration to manifest it will most likely result in a bad start to what should be a great weekend. Appreciate the green colours, green is the colour associated with liver energy. (Think of the old saying about anger / envy the green giant or “s/he was green with envy”).

If you tend towards worry a lot over think and are prone to digestive problems with loose stools, crave sweet foods, bruise easily and wake up with a muzzy head, focus more on the yellows surrounding you, this is the colour of the stomach and spleen, which are the main digestive organs in Chinese medicine.

Whatever the case have a stress free bank holiday. Remember all these conditions mentioned above are treated very effectively with acupuncture, particularly abdominal acupuncture, if you would like to find out more please contact me at [email protected]

Happy may bank holiday and may all your sights be a reminder of the beauty out there and diffuse any underlying stresses of life! Tomorrow be mindful of the smells or sounds around you and breath through your nose it will help reduce anxiety!