As we all try to negotiate the hussle of modern life, I know personally there has always been a little voice in my heart asking why, what is beneath and around all this striving and playing the game?  I can’t help feeling that what we are searching for is ourselves and a spiritual path that makes sense to our deepest cells of intuition.

In direct opposition to our modern culture where we look outward for validation and guidance and we care for our appearance in order to be accepted, in Taoism the exact opposite is true.  We look inside ourselves and we strive for a greater understanding of ourselves in order to understand the world and our place in it; the outer world is only known in relation to our inner point of view.

Self cultivation is the basis for knowing the Tao… Acupuncture, and the healing it enables, is a perfect place to begin this journey.  It is only by being in harmony with ourselves that our body can heal itself, which this is the basis of acupuncture.  The needles connect to our spirit opening up pathways to access our own well of understanding, knowing and healing.  When we truly connected to our spirit we are truly connected to the Tao…

I found it a challenge to disapear from the hussle and bustle of online life, and it challenged my ‘fomo’ hugely.  It challenged me to focus on what mattered for my personal growth and building up my sense of self worth without the affirmation of ‘likes’ and comments that can lift you on social media.  I feared being left behind while I saw so many other mothers continuing life online posting pics of their happy families, while keeping their toe in the ‘working’ world, however, I knew I needed silence and peace in order to grow and learn from this time.

18 months on and I am so happy now to be back seeing my patients and starting to treat children having finished my Paediatrics Acupuncture.  What better time to come back to life than at the beginning of spring!?

However, as we all know, today living mostly in cities, leading work driven lives with numerous responsibilities and pressures from all sides; friends, family, work, this is nearly impossible. We don’t have a culture of changing our lives in order to live more appropriately within the demands of a season – in the Winter our jobs still start and finish at the same time as the rest of the year and we might cut our social life down a little but in the main we tend to live a consistently busy life and all this can strain our kidneys leading to tiredness, thinning hair and nails, lack of drive and motivation and even mild depression

Apart from these obvious drains on our Kidneys we have another new robber of kidney energy; social media and smart phones.  While this obsession might seem quite innocent on the surface it is draining our kidneys with every adrenaline hit a post or a like, email, text, whats app message etc gives us.  Not only does this act as a constant drain on our Kidney energy in the form of overstimulation it also denies us any moments of peace to stare out the window and daydream accessing our deep innate wisdom that resides in our Kidneys.  We need that to nourish our spirit and have ideas and dreams that we can covert to reality in the Spring!

With this in mind here are a few tips as we near the end of the winter to boost your kidneys so you have enough energy to jump into Spring and start giving birth to all those projects you have been dreaming of during the winter!

Tips:

• Cut your social media use to specific times in the morning and evening so as to avoid mindless browsing
• Keep your phone in your pocket when on the bus using the time to daydream looking out the window – give your brain a rest!
• Eat warm foods; soups, stews and cut out ice and cold raw foods
• Make some black sesame tea – recipe here
• Look to include red and blue foods; blueberries, blackberries, beetroot etc
• BOOK IN FOR SOME ACUPUNCTURE!!!

There are many things that are good for the Kindneys health which you can read here, but a simply way to boost them is by drinking Black Sesame Tea:

• 1 cup black sesame seeds
• 2 soft dates – pitted
• 3 cups water
1 cup homemade almond milk or almond-sesame milk (see recipe below)

1. Boil the sesame seeds and dates in some water for 30 minutes

2. Add some homemade almond milk and continue to boil

3. Optional you can strain the liquid removing the sesame seeds and dates or you can whizz them all up together to make a thicker, frothy drink

4. Add honey to taste if the dates aren’t sweet enough for you

These new guidelines are not without wisdom; sugar and processed food is killing us – literally – however, I would like to look at how we approach this new way of looking at diet. Why do we eat? We eat in order to nourish ourselves, and if you want to take it a step further, to change our vibration making us happier, more vibrant, more deeply in touch with the passing seasons and all the wisdom they hold and as an act of love for ourselves.

The emotional body and mind we bring to the table is just as important as the physical body we bring to the table and what’s actually on the table (within reason!). If we constantly look at food in terms of being ‘good’ and ‘bad’ that creates huge amount of stress within us – in Chinese Medicine how you eat; in a hurry, while anxious, in a state of stress etc, is an actual ‘cause of disease’.

Its worth pausing on that last sentence – how we eat can be a cause of disease…

Its huge… When we are deciding what to eat we have to make sure that the decision process in itself isn’t negating the amazing healing potential of the food we are eating as stress within causes our whole digestion process to shut down.

Make sure your choices really do come from a place of wanting to nourish and love yourself, be calm when you eat – and if you do decide to pick up that ‘treat’ enjoy every mouthful of it and feel it nourishing you – emotionally or/and physically.

Be calm and breath… then shine and spread the gooood vibes by just being you!

How many people are suffering out there with constant chronic headaches? Do you have a dull, foggy headache that won’t shift, won’t let you concentrate? Or maybe a feeling that your head is empty, you can’t focus and by the end of the day you genuinely wonder if there still is a brain in the cavity of your skull?! Or are you the most unfortunate migraine sufferer; enduring migraines that rob you of several days a month causing excruciating pain and exhaustion?  If so read on…

If any of these sound like you – or you suffer from any other type of headache – I urge you to consider acupuncture. There has been extensive research in the field of migraines and acupuncture and in 2008 Duke University even came out with this statement:

“Acupuncture is more effective than medication in reducing the severity and frequency of chronic headaches, according to a new analysis conducted by Duke University Medical Center researchers.”

Although I am personally wary of stating that this is always the case I feel confident in saying that if you are suffering from headaches and/or migraines that are having a constant perverse effect on your life then just think about acupuncture as an option. While it won’t work like a pill (you will need to commit to a series of treatments depending on your case), medical research is showing it can help and presents an alternative solution to taking prescription drugs with potential side effects.

Headaches and migraines manifest differently from person to person because we are all individuals which is why acupuncture can be so effective for some as we are looking at treating the individual case and consequently each treatment is slightly different depending on your personal history, lifestyle and character.

Life is too short to live it in pain so if you are interested, please don’t hesitate to contact me for a chat about your personal case on 07801813385

x

After an equally un-relaxing Christmas and countless messages from obscure sources urging me to calm down, I am finally acting and consciously listening to my knowledge of Chinese Medicine and meditation in terms of honoring the tides of the seasons, which prompted me to write this post as I know I am not alone in getting caught up in the whirlwind that surrounds us.

Winter especially calls for us to turn our attention inwards, to nurture ourselves and to face the darkness rather than keeping on searching out the light, i.e distraction of being busy. I always feel its no coincidence many people suffer from melancholy at this time of year; we are running away from ourselves and from the true energy of the season – we are running against the tide, which is never easy or comfortable. Its easy and common to fear turning inwards to face our deepest selves and our potential darkness, so we continue to accept invitations to socialize and are attracted towards the light of distraction in all its seductive forms to take us from listening to what is going on inside.

True peace and happiness is found when we dare to switch off, create silence and listen to the voices within and create stillness that reflects the inertia and hibernation of winter.

In January we are given the most wonderful opportunity to slow down, to rest, and to listen to our inner intuition, however, this in itself takes discipline. Just as nature has frozen in time and has stopped we should do the same – surrendering to the seasons is the most powerful way to keep healthy and in touch with the tides that makes most sense to our being.

Take heed and look within, don’t be afraid – nurture yourself with meditation, self-acceptance and silence.

“SILENCE IS THE SOURCE OF GREAT STRENGTH” LAO TZE

My keys to creating peace and happiness in the winter:

Sleep. The power of rest should never be underestimated but least of all now – we need to recuperate from the previous year and create fertile ground, i.e. stillness of mind for the germination of new ideas that will grow in the spring.

Eat warm nurturing foods: Gone are the crisp salads and cold juices of the summer, keep warm with nourishing soups and stews so that the digestive system has to do as little work as possible.

Meditate: sit for 10-20 minutes in the morning and in the evening to give your whole system, body, mind and spirit an intended break, creating space and stillness from where true power comes.

Evenings in with candles and books: My all time favorite thing has to be lighting a candle and settling down to read a good book! Treat your evenings this January as mini retreats – turn off all electrical devices and the TV, create a clean and tidy space, light a candle and settle down with a book, relishing in the silence and peace. This can’t help but to restore, inspire and calm…