by Andres Vergara, L.Ac., M.Ac. and Michele Collins, RH (AHG), MPH Qi gong is the living and breathing dance of Chinese medicine that everyone can learn and practice. It is a spiritual science that uses sound, slow movements, and meditation to potentiate subtle health processes in our body which ultimately lead to greater and more radiant health. This is why Dr. Oz says if you want to live to be 100, do qi gong. On the February 5th episode of Holistic Healing with Herbs and Chinese Medicine, Continue Reading
Spring Fever: How to Cope with the Emerging Spring Energy
February 4th, Monday marked the first day of Spring by the lunar calendar. This is the official Chinese New Year. February 10th marks the first day of Spring according to the solar calendar (the calendar we use in the West). This is a difference of measuring the Earth's journey around the Sun versus the Moon's journey around the Earth. Click here for an excellent explanation of the differences between these calendars. The differences in the lunar and solar calendar total up to Continue Reading
Herbal Baths as a Way to Experience Plants
Herbal baths are used to calm and soothe and even to restore pieces of oneself that may have withdrawn from the conscious mind and thought processes because of trauma, pain, or shock (due to an accident, the death of a loved one, abuse, etc.). I find it is a great way to directly and personally connect with a plant on an emotional and spiritual level. I learned about herbal baths several years ago in a workshop taught by herbalist and naturopathic doctor Rosita Arvigo Continue Reading
Qi Gong, the 5 Phases, and Being Present in Your Body
One of the things that I most love about Qi Gong and Taoist philosophy is the underlying belief that my intelligence, any single person’s intelligence is stored in the physical body, in 5 key organs to be precise. This immediately takes me out of my head and forces me to focus on what is going on inside my body. I have a lot of experience, which I come by honestly, of living disconnected from what was happening within my own body. Dissociation has its utility, in that it helped me Continue Reading
Finding Inner Sweetness
I recently decided to stop eating sugar. I had stopped eating refined, processed sugar but my last hold out was gummy worms that were sweetened with organic fruit juices and evaporated cane juice. I have comforted myself with the fact that it isn’t refined sugar, that these were actually healthy treats. In my defense, they did give me 100% of my daily required vitamin C. Plus, I really looked forward to my gummy worm snack. Which is why I decided to stop eating them and to limit my sugar Continue Reading
Coltsfoot – Tussilago Farfara – Kuan Dong Hua – Physical and Psychospiritual Properties
I love the town where I live. In my yard and in yards and grassy areas throughout the town, including the municipal park, there are the most luscious and vast array of medicinal plants. There is wild violet, dandelion, chickweed, privet, red clover, yellow dock, and plantain to mention a few I encounter regularly. Some would refer to these plants as weeds. I do appreciate the frustration that some may feel when they look out over their yard and find every spare space taken over with, say Continue Reading