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September Self-Healing Tips --Traditional Chinese Medicine

written by: Julie Festa, L.Ac.

September is a time considered in some schools of Chinese medical thought to be the fifth season, Late Summer, ruled by the Earth element.  Other theories designate the Earth element to the times between the seasons.  Whatever your perspective, two basic underlying ideas are similar.  One, this is a time of transition between summer and fall either way, and either way ruled by the Earth element.  Two, the Earth element offers an embracing of change, and its bounty can help us through transitions and transformations.

The organs of the Earth element are the Spleen and Stomach, the taste is sweet, and the psycho-emotional components are often simplified as ideation on the positive side and excessive worry on the negative.  I like to think of Earth also as stability, and the Chinese medical classics describe the Earth element as the ability to profoundly enjoy life and appreciate deeply all that we already have.  A healthy Earth element in the body gives us the ability to truly feel that there is always enough, no matter how little or how much it is, it is always enough.  I often work to support my Earth by simplifying.  A great teacher of mine once described the experience of a healthy Earth element as follows: “It is enough just to be on this amazing planet, spinning through the universe.”

Stomach 25, named Tian Shu, or Heavenly Pivot, is a powerful Earth point.  This point is about stability of the self, even in the midst of great external change.  It empowers dynamic movement in any direction without excessive confusion or thought.  It is all about flow – the kind of flow that comes from being centered, clear, and internally stable in an ever evolving and changing world.

To locate Stomach 25, find your belly button.  Move two inches directly to the side outward from your navel in each direction.  Press in and see if there’s any tenderness there.  As with all the points, you may need to explore the immediate vicinity to find the exact right point on your body today.

Take 5 minutes or so each day to massage gently these two points in circles – and as the tissues relax, allow your thumb or fingers to move deeper and deeper into your torso.  Be gentle!   According to the Chinese medical classics, your bowels should be moving after every meal (important for the Earth element!), and the evacuation should feel complete.  If this is not the case for you, or even if it is the case and you want to fortify your Earth, self-massage on Heavenly Pivot will benefit your overall wellness.

A sweet potato is actually a very distant cousin of what we normally consider when we think of a potato.  Sweet potatoes are full of vitamins A and C, and they also contain calcium and iron.  They are great for strengthening the Spleen, promoting Qi, detoxifying the body, building Kidney Yin.  They are cooling in nature and sweet in flavor.

I think a nice way to enjoy life and appreciate the earth’s bounty this September (while, of course, supporting your Earth and strengthening your Spleen) would be to bake you and your friends a sweet potato pie.  Here’s a very healthy recipe that’s easy to make (we don’t want to over-tax our Earth with too much complicated information!).  If you don’t like how healthy it is, I invite you to find and share your own recipe.  No matter what you do, enjoy!

Sweet Potato Pie (from Healing with Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford) – Ingredients: 4-6 Sweet Potatoes. ¼ tsp cardamom, ¼ tsp cinnamon, dash of nutmeg, ¼ cup raisins, 2 tbsp tahini, ½ tsp sea salt, 1 pie crust.  Method:  prepare pie crust.  Preheat oven to 350 deg.  Mash potatoes and mix all ingredients together.  Fill pie crust with potato mixture.  Bake 35-40 minutes.  Yields 1 pie.

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Yoga Naga Journal

written by: Yuko Miyahara

Hatha Yoga, Forest Yoga, Bikram Yoga, Power Yoga… You hear various yoga names all around you -- and then, Shakti’s Elements adds a new program called Yoga Naga Training, “Another yoga?”

At first, I was apprehensive about a new curriculum suddenly popping up at Shakti’s Elements. However, watching the students transform as they went through the program, I got inspired, and jumped into the second 6 week offering of this training. Now as I near the end of the Yoga Naga training, I decided to take an opportunity to share my experience with you – from a student’s perspective.

Yoga first: “It’s how we do things”
Master Zi explains “The reason this class is Yoga Naga and not Naga Yoga is because, the yoga comes first.” Yoga means “State of Union with the Divine.” It’s not about doing the movements dogmatically, but with each breath, being aware of ourselves. This has taught me to keep myself “checked in” in my daily life as well. “Am I just doing something? Or am I putting my spirit into it?”

Drill: Be fluid
A constant fundamental of the class is “drilling” the moves. This means repeating the same move over and over again…sometimes as many as 70 to 100 times. In the beginning, I felt like I was using muscles I had never used before, but after a while I found a “flow” in the movements; not muscling through the pose, but finding a balance in the body and the energy of each movement.

Anatomy and Meridians: Know your body
The first day I walked into class, I was greeted by a skeleton, a human spine model and large muscle and meridian charts. “Know your body” was almost like a mantra in the class. When some parts of the body are weak, other parts of the body will compensate for the deficiency. A dry topic of Anatomy came to life in the class when we examined each others’ body structures and movements. I was surprised to find that my lower back issue was caused by my weak upper body strength and poor balance.

Emotion: Feeling through the body
Did you know we store unreleased negative energy in our body? Often because of social and cultural conditioning, our body traps these energies in our muscles and chakras. As we open our body up in yoga poses, we enable the body to release this suppressed energy. Sometimes we don’t even know that there is anything trapped because it is ingrained in us so deeply.

Learning Sanskrit: Communication and vibration
When we get in touch with ancient language, we are getting reconnected to something timeless. Each word has a certain vibration and carries energy throughout it. As we incorporated Sanskrit into our yoga moves, I felt the effects of various sounds on my body. I started to think “ If these sounds can have this much effect on me, what about when I communicate to others?” Through the integration of voice in yoga, I have begun to awaken a new sense within in me, one of the connections between my body, spirit and spoken words.

The best way to describe Yoga Naga Traininig is “a comprehensive life toolbox”. All the knowledge and wisdom of Master Zi is packed in the training. Nisha has done a remarkable job of putting it all together into binder full of information.

It is not an easy training. But it is a rewarding one. As I head to my 6 am class, I look forward to what’s next – every day is full of discovery and growth. I encourage everyone to dive in.