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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…
]]>We are often swayed by the physical embodiment of healthy; thin, big muscles, glossy hair, clear skin and these can, of course, be evidence of being physically healthy but I am not convinced that these in themselves denote all round health.
In Chinese Medicine health is described as being “embodied to the degree that we accurately perceive life, and illness is embodied to the degree that our interpretations deviate from reality.” (Lonny Jarrett). This means that our health is directly related to our ability to see what is really going on in our life, enabling us to respond accordingly, rather than react based on our perception, which is always tainted by our life experiences, beliefs and attitudes.
When we are living in accordance with the Dao it is said we are therefore able to live spontaneously, by which, I don’t mean impulsively and according to our desires, but rather in a fashion that is not rigid and governed by our subconscious.
By living in accordance with the Dao we live correctly in each season; resting in winter, being more active and sleeping less in the summer, eating cooked seasonal vegetables in the autumn and raw cooler foods in the summer. In doing this we don’t follow one dietary rule all year round regardless of the season but instead, adapt to our surroundings. In the same way, emotionally, when living spontaneously, we respond to life rather than reacting to it; the latter being driven by our subconscious and rarely positive or productive for that very reason.
These examples illustrate two interpretations of the Chinese understanding of health and I can’t help thinking that is it is a fascinating concept to look at and keep in mind when we are trying to evaluate our health and when we are looking for solutions. Health is not simply going to the gym every day and eating salads all year round regardless of how we feel and what season it is. It is far more subtle and dynamic; rather than prescriptive, it is personal and demands conscious thought and action.
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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:
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. 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
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If any of these scenarios sound familiar, then try acupuncture! With our increasingly stressful and demanding 21st Century life sleep disorders are becoming more and more common. A wide range of issues can disrupt sleep patterns, but when sleep becomes an issue it is usually hard to break out of it and get back to a healthy sleep pattern alone.
Acupuncture works to calm our whole system down while nourishing our energy, which, in turn helps us to sleep. If you have ever had acupuncture you will know what I am talking about – patients regularly leave my treatment room feeling as if they have been on a mini holiday! Not only do I see the evidence on a regular basis in my clinic, there are many studies that show that acupuncture does indeed help with sleep issues.
Along with acupuncture treatment there are various other ways that you can help yourself such as:
If you are interested in booking in a consultation to see how I can help with your sleep patterns then please contact me and I look forward to hearing from you!
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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
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]]>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…
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I have been reading all of this from the point of view of Western Medicine and the research that has been done in this field; however, my personal interest comes from linking it to the Chinese Medical understanding of overconsumption of sugar.
The Chinese have known for a long time that the overconsumption of sweet food does, what they term as ‘injuring the Spleen’, which essentially means it damages our digestion and then goes on to cause ‘Damp’ which we can roughly translate as ‘mucous’. Mucous in the system slows everything down; our systems become bog like, sluggish and heavy. On top of this when there is a slowing down of the internal flow stagnation occurs and sometimes heat – if we imagine a part of a river that has been cut off from the flow we see the water becomes thicker, it starts to smell and is generally pretty revolting! Well that is what sugar is doing to us – on a very basic level, which is why we feel so sluggish, lethargic and apathetic when we over indulge…after a possible high – of more below.
Chinese Medicine also understandssugar to have ‘heating’ qualities. Its at this point that I have to admit that I fell off the wagon yesterday! (It was a special occasion although I know that doesn’t mitigate the fact I essentially have cheated – sorry!!) I ate a piece of cake and a little chocolate in the evening at a dinner party when my willpower was at an all time low due to tiredness, and the most fascinating thing happened. After I had eaten the cake and chocolate my face started to burn up – I went bright red and felt as if someone had just turned my internal thermostat up by 10 degrees! As well as this I felt an incredible ‘rush’ – a speeding up of everything, vague mania and a lessened ability to concentrate – which if we think of heat and fire is totally understandable.
I saw first hand what the Chinese talk about when they say that sugar causes “damp heat” – I was boiling hot and I have woken up this morning extremely sluggish, almost as if I have a hang over – the damp.
While one evening isn’t going to cause lasting damage or disease it is easy to see how continual consumption can cause Damp, Heat and Stagnation all of which stop the happy flow of our internal organs and therefore over time result in serious disease.
I am now back ‘on the wagon’ again, and am realizing just how addictive sugar – - wow we have to keep vigilant at first if we are to succeed in packing it in for good!
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Autumn is drawing to a close bringing us closer and closer to winter, the Water Element, so it is important to embrace the final weeks of this season as it is now we can consciously let go of old patterns/ideas/thoughts/attachments and create space to nurture during the winter creating space for real creation come the spring… We are in effect sowing the seeds now, in clean soil for all we want to create come spring.
We hold on to so much mentally; old ideas, old behavior patterns, grudges and beliefs – our reluctancy to let go makes us literally, mentally constipated (let alone the other type of constipation!). As we know what we think tends to come to physical fruition and I have no difficulty believing this – our unwillingness to let go of attachment on a physical level is causing our bodies to become clogged up and stagnant as well as our minds.
By accepting life as it is, and bringing in the basic tenants of mindfulness into our lives we become more capable of releasing old, rigid ideas that can hinder our growth and development in all areas and consequently more able to see and receive new ideas and inspiration!
I invite you to look at the areas of your life where you are clinging on too tightly creating stagnation; an old resentment, a regime that no longer serves you, an idea of how you ‘should’ be/do things etc and see what it feels like if you let it go.
Move into the deep stillness of the Winter clearer and with less attachment minimizing stagnation over the coming months when everything slows down, the temperature drops and we move into a more reflective time of year…
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