Eastern Medicine

Exercise can be a great way to relax and unwind, but if you’re feeling self-conscious about going to the gym and bulking up, then perhaps Tai Chi is just what you need to get your body moving in the right direction.

Its gentle flowing movements are enough to work your muscles and mind but without adding to the strain of an already hectic lifestyle. Tai Chi can be done by the young and old alike, and you can adjust the pace to your body’s needs. Practicing Tai Chi regularly can help you de-stress while improving your balance and strength.

What is Tai Chi?

Tai Chi is often considered to be “meditation in motion” because it connects the mind to the body, promoting smooth and gentle motions rather than jerking and forcing the muscles to lift heavy weights. Each posture flows into the next, so you’re constantly moving and allowing your person Qi (chi) to flow. Depending on the style of Tai Chi, it can be fast enough to get your heart racing or slow enough to relax your body after a hard day at work.

There are over 100 possible movements and positions, and each of them requires a balance of inner peace and physical strength to promote an enhanced sense of wellbeing.

Health Benefits of Tai Chi

• Improves flexibility, balance, and muscle strength
• Reduces blood pressure and cholesterol
• Improves sleep quality
• Lessens anxiety and depression
• Reduces chronic pain
• Increases endurance, energy, and agility

How to Get Started

There are a wide variety of books and videos available to help beginners control their breathing and introduce them to the basic forms and movements. Tai Chi is meant to be gentle, but forcing your body into an awkward position can result in serious injury. To ensure that you don’t strain your body by doing a form incorrectly, it is best to start off with a live trainer or instructor to teach you how to practice Tai Chi safely.

Check out your local senior center, YMCA, YWCA, Health Club or wellness facility to see if Tai Chi classes are available so you can get started. Be aware, however, that Tai Chi instructors don’t have to be licensed, so make sure that your trainer has plenty of experience and recommendations before following their instruction. Through continued practice, you may eventually feel comfortable doing Tai Chi on your own.

Have you ever noticed that it’s much easier to work in a clean environment? That your thoughts are somehow clearer and your fingers move just a little faster?

Or on the flip side, do you find yourself twitching with irritation at the site of a crooked painting or wanting to straighten that leaning tower of pizza boxes?

Humans are inexplicably connected with their environment, and changing your environment can help stimulate productivity for the better.

Interestingly, the Chinese belief of Feng Shui centers on the principal that you can absorb energy from your surroundings, and with the right balance of cleanliness and organization, you can create an environment that will not only improve your energy levels, but enhance your mood, increase your mental acuity, and boost your immunity.

What is Qi?

Qi, pronounced “chi,” is the universal energy, or life force, that flows around and through every one of us. Although we can’t see it, we can feel its effects, making it important to maintain a positive flow throughout our lives.

How does Qi influence our lives?

Take a moment to reflect how your environment influences you. When you’re in a massive library, surrounded by ancient books, are you more likely to listen to head-banging music or talk in whispers while pursuing thoughtful study? When you’re attending a favorite sport event, are you more likely to dress in funeral black or wear bold winning colors while screaming your support?

The energy that flows from our environment can be somber or stimulating, and according to belief, when that energy becomes blocked or stuck, it can cause an imbalance with everything in its path. This imbalance can cause feelings of unease, discomfort, and even result in depression, irritability, lethargy, and even difficulty focusing or sleeping. The longer we remain in such an environment, the more you put your health at risk.

On the flip side, if that energy is free to flow throughout the room, qi can invite a positive spirit of confidence, motivation, and good will.

What Blocks Qi?

• Clutter: As any good housewife can testify, clutter is the surest way to turn a happy home into one filled with anger and irritability. Chances are likely, if you’re tripping over a stack of dirty laundry, then your qi is tripping over it too. Qi is can become stuck and stale when a room is congested with needless clutter. This feeling of being cramped or confused can influence the way we work, increasing stress levels and even resulting in poor health.

• Wrong Colors: What we see can influence the way we think, and colors carry powerful signals to the brain. A room with electric orange paint on the wall may make for a vibrant atmosphere, but it can also make it difficult to sleep in. Deep blues and somber grays may produce a calming effect, or it may cause feelings of loneliness and depression. Be aware that colors can change the spirit of a room for good or for bad depending on its use.

• Poorly Arranged Furniture: Although many people mock feng shui as nothing more than excuse to arrange furniture, there is a reasoning behind the method. If you can’t get past the couch in order to get to your bedroom, then you might find it an irritating inconvenience every night when you wish to go to sleep. Like you, qi needs to be able to flow smoothly from one room to the next.

Making a Change for the Better

Interestingly, as we adapt to our environment, we can also change our environment to suit our needs. Feng Shui can help you manipulate the energy in your room to create a positive and uplifting environment. These Feng Shui Tips can help you get started on the path to a healthier life:

1. Pick up your Shoes: A stray sneaker can lead to a stubbed toe.

2. Keep the TV out of the bedroom: the bedroom needs to be a place of peace and relaxation, and the unnatural light from the television is too stimulating to promote a good night’s rest.

3. Put your bed against the wall: A solid wall offers a sense of security and protection, enabling you to go into a deeper and more restful sleep. Similarly, avoid having the bed in direct line with the door – the possibility of an intruder coming keeps sleep light and easily interrupted.

4. Open a Window: Air (and qi) that sits too long in the same room becomes stale and uncomfortable. Cracking open a window invites fresh air to circulate throughout the home.

5. Have several levels of lighting: Whether you have a dimmer switch installed or decide to light a few candles for a romantic evening, having various levels of lighting is important for a healthy home. During the day, be sure to use plenty of natural light to maintain a positive atmosphere. At night, tone it down with bedside lamps.

“A mantra is a powerful word. It vibrates like music does, only not on this plane but on other planes of reality. It creates a powerful force.” – Anonymous

Many people ride off mantras as nothing more than a superstitious belief, but for those doubters in the world, evidence has shown there is a power in sound. It can make the impossible, possible.

Strength and renewed determination can result from repeating words aloud. Vows, promises, and beliefs gain substance when given a voice. It is often said that the sound of the mantra can aid the believer in achieving enlightenment, lifting him or her toward a higher sense of self.

History of the Mantra

Words are revered means of communication, whether you’re discussing politics with a friend or pouring out your heart in prayer. All throughout history various cultures have believed in the sacred power of words or sounds. The English word “spell”, for example, can mean the simple array of letters to form words, as well as mean the power to manipulate nature to do the speaker’s bidding.

“It is believed that if you knew the true names of the gods, then you could call upon them and compel them to do your bidding.”

Although it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact date of its emergence, the mantra originated in ancient India, passed down from Vedic texts that constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and scripture. Nearly every mantra in Vedas, Upanishad, and various religious traditions such as the sampradayas, begin with the primordial sound Om or Aum – the words for the beginning and the end, and the first sound said to have caused the creation of the cosmos.

”In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”

The Strength of Sound

Just as a loud trumpet can call to action or a soft humming can lull to sleep, different sounds can influence the human psyche. It can sooth jar or soothe nerves. Cause us to weep with pain or with joy. Sounds can affect us both physically and mentally.

Speaking from personal experience, I was had a teacher who assembled a team of the biggest, bulkiest, most-muscular men in the classroom. Each of these guys could easily star on a football or basketball team and all of them were well known for being capable athletes.

Our skinny, nerdy professor then asked them to hold out their arms as an experiment for the class. He then tried his best to push their arms back to their sides, using every ounce of leverage and strength he could possibly muster. He couldn’t, of course.
If they had wanted to, any of these young men could pick the professor up and throw him over their shoulders. He was just that small. The class giggled and laughed as he practically threw his weight against the outstretched arms and failed to make them budge an inch.

Next, as part of the experiment, he played thirty 30 seconds of hardcore, ear-bleeding death metal “music” at its highest possible volume. I’m not sure where he found the album and still can’t figure out if what he did was permitted by school standards, but it lasted for less than a minute. Everyone sat for several seconds, shell-shocked and horrified.

Then, one by one. He pushed down the outstretched arms of his athletic students. No effort. No strain. It was as if the sound had sapped them of their strength. Many of the boys stared at him with wide-eyed wonder. They couldn’t believe that a teacher half their size, who had struggled to make them move so much as an inch only moments before, could push them around so easily.

To prove his point, he then played Bach’s Ode to Joy for 30 seconds and repeated the experiment. The effect was immediate – he couldn’t budge them an inch.

Although many students left the classroom thinking that the professor was simply trying to hype up his lesson on musical theory, a few students came away with the realization that there truly is strength in sound.

Mantra for Medicine

Despite recent advances in medical technology, there is a wide call for alternative forms of medicine, and because sound has such a unique effect on the human body, Mantras are quickly gaining popularity. According to Ashley-Farrand, mantras energize prana (a form of life energy that can be transferred between individuals). By reciting a mantra while visualizing healing, many believe that the otherworldly combination of sound and concentration can act as effective remedy for a wide variety of ailments.

However, a mantra chanted carelessly without conviction, or chosen thoughtlessly will not achieve the desired result. It is only through faith and strong will that Mantras can achieve one’s goals. Although this may just be a unique twist on the power of positive thinking, mantras have helped countless individuals for thousands of individuals searching for answers and strength – and it may even work for you.

As physicians branch out into alternative forms of medicine, Acupuncture is beginning to gain more popularly for its ability to relieve back pain, headaches, and similar ailments.

However, can this prickly treatment provide relief to those suffering from Parkinson’s disease?

A little more about Parkinson’s

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, “Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the brain that leads to shaking (tremors) and difficulty with walking, movement, and coordination.” Although the disease is most common to those after the age of 50, Parkinson’s disease can change the lives of everyone involved, both men and women, old and young.

Initially, symptoms of the disease may be mild, such as a slight tremor in the hand or one foot may feel stiff and dragging. However, as the disorder progresses, symptoms may include a few of the following:

• Impaired balance and walking
• Difficulty swallowing
• Lack of facial expression
• Rigid or stiff muscles
• Confusion or dementia
• Fatigue

How Acupuncture May Help

For those suffering from Parkinson’s disease, Acupuncture may be to provide temporary relive from the chronic exhaustion.
Dr. Benzi Kluger, assistant professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Colorado Hospital points out, ” People with Parkinson’s disease still have fatigue even when their sleep problems are treated,” and alternative methods for the disease may provide potential solution.