Another Chinese New Year
What Do You Say When No One is Listening?
What is the conversation in your head when you are alone? Is it a friendly relationship? Do you like the things you say about yourself? How does it feel when you observe yourself in an act of random unkindness... with you?
The main reason we get sick is because we don't love and cherish ourselves. So say the ancients. To cherish yourself is to be interested in the feeling of you. Make it good. Enjoy being who you are. There truly is no one like you in the universe. Never was. Never will.
Today, February 5, 2019 marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year, but the celebration is not just the purview of the Chinese. The lunar new year is acknowledged in many cultures throughout the world and employs scientific measurements of planetary position to predict the most prosperous and harmonious path for the year ahead. It also gives us a cleaver picture of what to expect from life and how to respond to it.
Want to know more about how Chinese predictions work? This link will fascinate you with the science behind the mystique:
Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate!
FINALLY!!
We love it! And it's great for our energetic hearts!
Every organ in Chinese Medicine has a taste associated with it. The taste of the heart is bitter. And pure cocao - before we add sugar, vanilla, coconut, and so on - is quite bitter.
Chocolate's bitterness drains the heart of sorrow and makes room for joy to emerge. It gives us a feeling of peace. It alters our chemistry to produce feelings of self-love and deep ease with being.
So, enjoy your chocolate - AND SKIP THE REFINED SUGAR with Hu Kitchen's exquisitely yummy chocolate bars. With flavors like almond butter and puffed quinoa, you will become obsessed with their paleo, gluten-free and refined sugar free succulence. You can find it online at Amazon or in Whole Foods.
Rose Essential Oil
Can't fall asleep or stay asleep? Are you waking to visit the loo at night? If this is happening, it means your heart qi is out of order. As it turns out, rose is THE ultimate heart qi oil.
Add a little rose and lavender essential oil to your pillow case or diffuser to quiet your mind and soothe the heart fire (read: cortisol levels) that wakes you up at 3am.
Can't Sleep? It's Time to Try CBD for Your Busy Mind
If your busy mind wakes you at 2, 3 or 4 your cortisol levels are too high. Your system is acidic. Your emotions are running too hot for your body to remain cool enough to allow for slumber. Your heart qi is disturbed.
CBD oil quiets the mind and heart to produce deep rest - without the side effects or chemicals associated with pharmaceutical or over-the-counter sleep aids.
Mel Baker-Thompson is a New York State licensed Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine with over 3,000 hours of clinical and didactic training in Eastern and Western medical modalities. She has developed the Whole Life Integration Method to take natural functional medicine to the next level - incorporating the role of the mind in the optimization of authentic health. Over the last 20 years she has treated physicians, therapists, Rockettes, even an Olympic-qualifying athlete. From infants to grandparents, she has crafted an approach to health cultivation that combines the wisdom, skill, and acumen of Chinese Medicine with nutrition therapy, manual therapy, essential oils, and insight meditation to remove health disruptors in the body and mind.