and make each one count towards your greater goals.- Art of Wellness Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)11704 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 295, Los Angeles, CA, 90025
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Chinese Medicine
2017 Year of the Fire Rooster
by 
Qineng Tan, L.Ac., Ph.D
The Chinese calendar welcomes the New Year on January 27, 2017: the Year of the Fire Rooster.
It will probably come as no surprise that one of the Rooster’s outstanding characteristics is punctuality. The rooster crows to get us all up and moving and ready to face the day. Smart, confident, not afraid to speak up, the Rooster has lots of energy and self-discipline. The Rooster is raring to go, with lots of ideas, and doesn’t want to have to wait for others to catch up. This is the year of the Fire Rooster, which specifically points to trustworthiness and a knack for handling money. So, all of us should take note – this is the year to start a beneficial morning routine and keep our finances well-organized.
The Rooster takes pride in his fine feathers and has been known to strut around, showing off and being overtly flirtatious. He might tend to lecture a bit too much and be a little bit too certain that he is always right, but make no mistake – he is paying attention and noticing everything about others, too. Roosters are a great communicators who enjoys giving gifts and creating a welcoming environment. They don’t hide or keep secrets; they put themselves out there, just as they are.
Roosters can be impatient and tend toward perfectionism, so they are bound to feel high levels of stress at times. For everyone this year, the challenge is to find time and ways to channel the energy – cardiovascular exercise like running and swimming are beneficial – and relax – by spending time outdoors and travelling. Make a point of eating regularly and healthfully, no matter how busy you are, and keep up with preventative health measures like getting acupuncture treatment.
We wish you and your loved ones the very best in health and happiness in the coming year. From all of us at Art of Wellness, Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Here are some ideas for creating a morning routine inspired by the Rooster:
- Rise with the sun.
- Drink a cup of warm water with sliced lemon, then wait 30 minutes before eating.
- Take time to meditate and set your intentions for the day. Get some fresh air and do some breathing exercises before you start checking your emails and the news.
- Eat a breakfast of whole grains.
Making the Most of Good Intentions
It’s the new year, and we start it with plans for the creation of new, positive habits. But, we all know it is easy to become frustrated and abandon our attempts before we’ve begun to feel the benefits. Here are some tips for setting intentions and making changes that will last, not just for through this year, but for a lifetime.
- Make sure it’s coming from the right place. – We are inundated with advice and information every day, from our friends, relatives and doctors, and from outside media. But on a moment-to-moment basis, only we can make decisions and take actions for ourselves. Really think about the small choices you make,
and make each one count towards your greater goals.
- Be specific, but not too specific. – We’re human, and we want tangible rewards. A vague sense that we “should eat better” is going to come into conflict right away with our desires for convenience and satisfaction. However, a too-narrowly defined goal, such as, “I’m going to lose 10 lbs. for my trip in April” is dangerous, too. Likely, once the trip has come and gone, so have those healthy new habits. Achieving better health is an ongoing transition, with no real endpoint.
- Set one over-arching intention. – Reflect deeply upon your true needs and desires, and set a goal that resonates. “I am going to listen to my body, and give it both the activity and the rest it needs.” “I am going to make my physical and mental health my top priority.” Intentions like these speak to a real self-love that goes beneath the surface.
- Break it down into steps. – Now all the daily decisions can be made within the context of the greater goal, so that planning head, setting the alarm for a morning workout, and getting together a healthy lunch are not just punitive chores to be checked off a to-do list.
When we live our lives in accordance with our positive intentions, every action becomes an expression and validation of our selves and our power to achieve our goals.
New Year’s Cleaning & Detox
By Xiaomei Cai, L.Ac., Ph.D.
The New Year is traditionally a time to re-focus our attention and energies. For many of us, this includes a renewed interest in our physical health. Taking the time and effort to “do a cleanse” may have become a trendy idea in recent years, but it is actually an age-old practice with many benefits.
Every day we are bombarded by toxins through processed foods, environmental pollution, chemical-based products, cell phones and devices, emotional and mental stress. All these toxic phenomena put tremendous pressure on the body. Toxins can cause us to feel foggy and fatigued, cause memory loss, anxiety, hair loss, weight gain, insomnia, constipation, hormone imbalance, rapid aging, and can even be one of the root causes of cancer and other diseases. It is so important to take time to detoxify the organ systems and get a fresh start. The Art of Wellness One-Week Detox program is an excellent way to cleanse the body and clear the mind.
Our Detox is not, like many store-bought products, just a colon cleanse. Following our program will release toxins from the deep tissues of the body, boost the functioning of the immune and liver systems, and strengthen Qi. The program works on several levels, using acupuncture, cupping, herbs (used internally and externally), nutrition and exercise.
The acupuncture portion of the program is designed to open up blocked pathways in the body, reestablishing connections between the organ systems. The herbal teas and patches will stimulate the kidney system and improve the functioning of the immune and reproductive . Herbal baths, aromatic and relaxing, also help to utilize one of the body’s most important excretory organs—the skin. Cupping treatments “vacuum” toxins from the lung, kidney and liver systems, while Tui Na and Qi Gong exercises massage the internal organs.
Detox participants will be given a food plan to follow for the week. This diet is not a fast; it consists of plenty of grains, greens and proteins, so it is both nourishing and filling. As Dr. Tan says, “hunger is not a solution.” The goal is to eat lots of clean, wholesome foods to strengthen the body during detoxification.
We recommend that everyone tries practicing a detox every six months for optimal health. Please call our office to get started on your New Year Detox Program to start a new, healthier year. We offer you our best wishes for your peace and wellness.
Who’s Pushing Your Buttons?
By Qineng Tan, L.Ac., Ph.D.
Everybody wants to be happy. But, who is in control of your feelings? You? Somebody else? Life itself?
Once, I had just flown back to L.A. After waiting in a long line, I managed to get a taxi.
When I got in, the driver asked, “Where to, sir?” He sounded nervous.
“Santa Monica.”
“OK! That’s better,” he said, pleased.
“Why?” I asked.
“This morning, I’ve been driving around and around the airport. Finally I had one customer. I asked him where he was going, and he says, ‘Manchester.’ That was it! It made me so sad.”
I was laughing. “Oh, I see. So you have two buttons in your heart? One is for happy, and one is for sad? The passenger who goes to Manchester pushes the sad button, which makes you unhappy, then the one who goes to Santa Monica pushes the happy button and makes you happy for the rest of the day?”
The driver smiled. “Yeah! Isn’t that interesting?”
Just like the cab driver, most people allow their emotions to be controlled by people and events outside themselves. They go through life being very careful not to let anybody touch their sad buttons. When the button is pushed–the boss gets angry, the kids won’t listen, or the traffic is terrible–there seems to be no choice but to react negatively.
This reminds me of a story. A monk who loved Chinese Orchids had planted one in a pot and raised it for many years. When he had to go on a trip, he asked one of his students to take care of the plant. The day before the monk returned, the student, who had been caring faithfully for the flower, accidentally dropped the pot, and the orchid died. The student felt awful and approached the monk fearfully to apologize.
But the monk said, “I raised the orchid because it gave me joy. Why would I be sad or angry now that it is gone? Why turn all my happiness to sorrow?”
TCM for Cold and Flu Season
by Qineng Tan, L.Ac., Ph.D.
TCM has a history of treating illness going back thousands of years. One particularly famous doctor of the Ming dynasty (6th Century A.D.), named Sun Simiao, wrote a 30-volume encyclopedia called “Prescriptions for Emergencies Worth a Thousand Gold.” This work not only described herbal formulas (although it did detail over 4000 of them), but treatments for all types of conditions, including entire volumes on the care of women and children.
Sun Simiao was practicing during a time of widespread infectious disease in China, and he developed herbal treatments for all types of illnesses, including what he would have called “blood fever.” His pioneering work is the basis for treatments we still use today for treating viruses.
You have probably heard the stories about how, in the olden days, acupuncturists and herbalists did not charge their patients when they were sick–because it was their job to keep them healthy in the first place.
This is because we have known for a very long time that the best offense is a good defense. The best way to stay healthy and keep your loved ones healthy, whether it’s just another wintertime “cold and flu” season, or a global pandemic, is to be well-informed about prevention, how contagion spreads, and first steps to take when someone around you falls ill.
First, pay close attention to the changing of the seasons and how your body is affected. Dress appropriately for the cooler temperatures and brisk winds of the fall season. Don’t try to fight the early dying of the light each day. Instead, be gentle with yourself, and find seasonal routines that involve turning in early and rising with the sun. As always, drink tea for good health!
Regular acupuncture treatments help keep your entire body, especially the immune system, functioning at peak efficiency, so that when you come into contact with pathogens, your body is ready to fight them off quickly.
Here are some other things you can do to keep your immune system at the ready:
1. Get adequate rest.
2. Maintain a healthy diet, with as little processed/GMO food as possible.
3. Drink lots of clean water with good mineral content.
4. Avoid chemical medications that suppress your body’s natural functioning to overcome illness in the guise of “helping symptoms.”
5. Get plenty of exercise, fresh air, and sunlight–Vitamin D is very important.
To help stop contagious illness from spreading, you should, of course, wash your hands thoroughly and often. Pay attention to your sensations and intuition. If you start to feel run-down, weak, head-achey, or feverish, don’t dismiss it and try to push through your day. Slow down, and take it easy. Make an extra effort to avoid eating any junk food or consuming alcohol. Don’t drink caffeine, either, even if you think you need to keep your energy up. Caffeine produces false feelings of energy that can cause you to overexert yourself, when you should try to rest.
At this point in time, Western Medicine has no methods for treating viral infections. Most medicinal preparations are aimed at making the patient more comfortable, but none of them act as a cure, or even help the body’s own resistance. TCM herbal formulae, on the other hand, not only help reduce suffering from uncomfortable symptoms; they offer proven efficacy in helping to stave off and slow down the spread of pathogens in the body. They can also help for speedier and more thorough recovery from illness.