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Acupressure: The Traditional Chinese Medicine Practice

For more than two millennia, before there were doctors and allopathic medicine was born, traditional Chinese medicine was helping heal people. Compiled during and attributed to the mythical Yellow Emperor Huangdi, the Huangdi Neijing (or, Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor) contained two sections, Suwen (or Questions of Organic and Fundamental Nature) and Lingshu Jing (or, Divine Pivot), which covered what is now known as the canon of traditional Chinese medicine.

It is in Lingshu Jing that the methods of the topic of this article are birthed—acupressure. Here is a description of what acupressure is and how it can help fight pain and other ailments without medication.

What is Acupressure?

We all understand intuitively and naturally the power of trying to remedy pain through our sense of touch. After all, we feel pain through our sense of touch. For instance, we might massage pain in our shoulder with our hand. Or, we may apply pressure with fingers to the temples of our heads to abate the pain. These are forms of acupressure.

Acupressure is based on the same principles as acupuncture but without the use of needles and instead using pressure. It’s the use of light to firm finger pressure on acupoints (acupuncture/acupressure points) on the body to relieve pain and stimulate your qi (or, life energy) according to traditional Chinese medicine.

From the traditional Chinese medicine perspective, dis-ease and disease stem from living life out of balance, and the best medicine is preventative use of multiple modalities of care. So, acupressure would not be used without other forms of wellbeing practices. A frequent argument against ancient healing practices is that they don’t work in seclusion, and that’s because they were meant to be used in combination. The more research of making healthcare integrative the more we see complementary medicines like acupressure and acupuncture show substantive value in healthcare outcomes.

So, by applying pressure and temporarily suppressing blood flow to specific regions of the body, acupressure stimulates the body’s natural immune response to counteract imbalance from pain and illness.

How Can Acupressure Help?

It should be first understood that acupressure, like any traditional Chinese medicine, should not be used to replace effective care or to use as an excuse to avoid care. Acupressure is one tool in the integrative health treatment options available to you and should be used in conjunction with other care, which can include traditional Western medicine. That said, acupressure can be a great way to relieve both pain and stressors.

Pain

If you have ever had a headache, toothache or some other kind of acute pain, you may have used this technique before to alleviate the pain. You pinch the skin between the forefinger and thumb and the pain seems to dissipate into thin air. This is an easy and effective way to temporarily relieve pain without having to take over-the-counter drugs to achieve the same result.

As the video above suggests, by Michael Reed Gach, PhD, author of Acupressure’s Potent Points: A Guide to Self-Care for Common Ailments and founder of Acupressure.com, you can apply this acupressure technique several times a day to mitigate mild to severe pain you may be feeling.

Stress

Dr. Gach provides two foundational acupressure techniques in combination with breathing exercises to reduce stress. He has you press four fingers against the “Sea of Tranquility” point on your sternum (in between the grooves). If you breathe deeply and press into these acupoints, you will start to calm and relieve feelings of stress and anxiety, according to Dr. Gach.

As well, you use the yoga prayer hand post to apply pressure from the base of your thumbs against the same Sea of Tranquility point on your breastbone while breathing deeply. This useful technique can be done while seated in almost any environment to instantly transport you to a calming, stress-relieving space.

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As we discussed in our previous article, “Acupuncture: The Ancient Chinese Healing Practice” under the section entitled, “New Acupuncture Research Ushers It Into the Modern Medical Era,” we discussed the new efforts in scientific research to help us understand how these ancient Chinese healing practices of acupuncture and acupressure work to provide pain relief, balance and stress management to well and sick patients alike.

It will be through the continued integration of these ancient healing practices and study into their abilities complementing traditional Western medicine, that we will be able to fully understand how to prevent more sickness and take control of the healing process ourselves.

Our Evolving Healthcare System: From Part to Whole

Our healthcare system is ever evolving for numerous reasons. We are, as humans, constantly changing physically, adapting to our environmental changes and experiencing new illnesses. There are also new discoveries and interventions improving the possibilities of better health and there are new threats too such as viruses, weakened drug therapies and contamination such as hospital-acquired infection diseases.

MUPS: Who Do You Know with MUPS?

Many of us know of one or more people who have serious symptoms that the healthcare experts are unable to determine a diagnosis. These conditions are known as “medically unexplained physical symptoms” or MUPS. It is estimated that some 20 to 30% of active case loads in primary care patients are MUPS. And for specialty physicians, the report rates are as high as 66% of new visits. (Claassen-van Dessel’s a Patients’ perspectives on improvement of medically unexplained physical symptoms: a qualitative analysis. Ment Health Fam Med2015;11:42–5.)

This startling information requires all of us to rethink our personal health. For decades, patients have been willing to leave his or her health in the hands of the healthcare professionals. Going to a physician’s office and expecting to leave with a prescription that will cure all ailments within a few hours. Yet the times are changing.

Whole Person Care

Patient Partnership with Healthcare Team:

As our healthcare system evolves, patients are now becoming advocates for his or her own personal health. Patients are seeking answers to the symptoms that persist, often declining the use of prescription drugs and now seeking healthcare partners who will offer approaches from a holistic perspective or “whole person” care.

The whole person care concept has the patient as the primary expert and a team is built from there to help and assist. The patient has the most credible information about his or her situation. The patient knows his or her body better than anyone else. And importantly, the patient knows intuitively when things are going correctly or when things are a bit off.

Determining Your Personal Team:

The patient then considers what feels best to them moving forward. The person still has a medical doctor, usually an integrative medicine doctor. They work in collaboration with their team and determine who they want to support their health with guidance for the physician. Among the possibilities include:

Integrative medical doctors;
Naturopathic doctors;
Holistic nurses;
Acupuncturist;
Nutritionist;
Integrative psychiatrists;
Holistic dentists;
Biofield therapies such as Reiki, healing touch, Qigong and polarity therapy;
Massage therapists;
Yoga practitioners;
Spiritual directors;
Hypnotherapists;
And more.

The goal is for the individual to help optimize their health and well being as a whole person. This means not just considering the physical implications but rather the mental, emotional and spiritual – in whatever way the person wishes to define “spiritual.”

Identifying Your Personal Team:

“In your quest to become as healthy as possible, may I suggest that you secure the best team of physicians that you can find; keep abreast of all new research related to your illness; find a yoga or meditation teacher to help you learn to balance and center yourself; explore and examine any and all spiritual issues related to healing (such as forgiveness, anger, letting go, fears, change, etc.); and, perhaps most importantly, do not blame yourself for your illness.”

– Carolyn Myss

Who is your team? What experts are working with you to support your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects? Whether to support you through an illness or chronic condition or to support your wellness, its important to take time now to develop a team. For additional information on integrative healthcare, visit GW Center for Integrative Medicine.

Sound Advice for Sound Healing

Human song is as old as time. Before mankind knew how to speak words, singing was likely mimicry of the sounds of nature and eventually developed into spoken word languages, according to scholars on the subject. The depth of music in our global cultures runs to our cores, and it’s why sound is so powerful to our well-being.

Have you ever been moved by listening to a song? Think about your favorite song right now. You can likely summon it instantaneously, and it transports you to that time and place in your memory of how that song affected you. If it’s a happy memory, you’ll feel jubilation. If it was a sadder memory, you’ll feel that instead.

The power of music is demonstrated over and over again in many aspects of life. If you watch the video above, you can see how one solo singer can move an entire audience with his passion, skills and talent. But, it’s not discussed frequently how powerful music, or sound, can be used in healing. The qualitative and quantitative scientific research available today speaks volumes about the veracity of sound therapy (also known as music therapy). Even in modern medicine, we use ultrasound imaging and lithotripsy (using ultrasound to pulverize stones in the bladder and kidneys until small enough for the body to naturally pass them through). In this article, I detail several ways in which sound healing can be achieved in your everyday life.

Mantras, Meditation and Your Own Voice for Healing | Sound Healing

You may have experienced a yoga class where the yoga instructor begins with chant, like “OM!” Or, she plays a Tibetan or crystal bowl(s) and the room fills sonorously. You may keep your eyes open or close them. You start to feel a relaxing response to the sound.

The use of your own vocal chords, lungs and mind to focus sound is a powerful tool in sound healing. This is most often called mantra meditation, and it’s the use of Om or other mantras (sounds or short phrases that are repeated over and over) to elicit a connection between mind, body and spirit. Mantra meditation has many benefits, including developing your focus to stop rumination, reducing anxiety, stress and other symptoms of depression, and deepening oneness with the self.

From chanting and meditating on our own voice, we move forward in this discussion of sound healing with listening to external sounds.

Music Therapy and Binaural Beats | Sound Healing

In Dr. Kathleen M. Howland’s enlightening TEDxBerkleeValencia talk (above), she discusses the power of ancient healing practices that have informed our modern understanding of music therapy as sound healing our bodies and minds. Sound has the power to help infants overcome speech impairments and physically disabled patients regain motor faculties when music is present.

The author of The Healing Power of Sound: Recovery from Life-Threatening Illness Using Sound, Voice, and Music, the late Dr. Mitchell L. Gaynor, came to study sound healing therapies when a Tibetan cancer patient introduced him to his culture’s use of sound (Tibetan bowls, gongs and more) to create healing sounds. After seeing the veracity of these interventions with his patient, Dr. Gaynor, renowned for his pioneering work in the field of integrative oncology, lead the charge with bringing integrative medicine to his cancer patients. He found through extensive research that his oncology patients recovered more, faster and for longer periods when treatments incorporated sound healing.

As Dr. Gaynor learned and educated thousands on this topic, our brains communicate through electrical impulses passing back and forth throughout itself. These brainwaves are measured in the frequency known as Hertz (Hz) (as well as amplitude). And, not coincidentally, that’s also the same measurement of sound. When the brain is in low frequencies, you get drowsy and drift off into sleep (Theta and Delta waves). When your brain is highly active and focused or in light meditation, you are in higher frequencies (Beta and Alpha waves).

If you want to get a small glimpse of the power of music therapy, you can use a psychological response our brains have to sound frequencies. Our brain frequencies tend to mimic ambient sound frequencies. We can do this using a tool called a binaural beats generator; Brain.fm is the most powerful and research-backed software available today. These are sound files that play two different beats in our ears (usually wearing headphones to isolate each set of beats to a hemisphere) to bring your brainwaves into focus, relaxation and even sleep states. Try it out and see the benefits of sound therapy for yourself!

Neurological Music Therapy (NMT) | Sound Healing

As neuroscience and technology continues to develop, we are able to bring sound healing to new levels. One such area is in neurological music therapy (NMT) (also known as Brain Music Therapy (BMT)). Galina Mindlin, MD, PhD, is the founder and clinical director of the Brain Music Therapy Center, and associate professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, uses the power of brain scanning technology, EEG (or, electroencephalograms) to see the brainwave frequencies of your mind and then she creates music tailored to modify your brain frequencies to correct problems in the brain and enhance performance.

As she writes in Your Playlist Can Change Your Life: 10 Proven Ways Your Favorite Music Can Revolutionize Your Health, Memory, Organization, Alertness and More, with her co-authors, Don DuRousseau, MBA, and Joseph Cardillo, PhD, you don’t need a fancy EEG and customized music files from her center to get the benefits of BMT. You can create available music to tailor playlists for your health and vitality. You know the songs that make you happy, excited, motivated, and those that relax and calm you when you’re stressed and upset. Assemble these playlists and you can use sound healing in fun and varied ways.

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Music allows us to create and remember meaning, induce relaxation and excitation, and find motivation. Sound healing is bringing this general understanding to the healthcare arena so that more people have access to noninvasive, powerful and ancient healing practices. Have you tried sound healing, music therapy or other sound practices before? Let me know in the comments!

Acupuncture: The Ancient Chinese Healing Practice

Have you ever had a headache? How about joint pain? Or, lower back pain? And, what if I told you there is a 2,000-year-old-plus Chinese healing practice called acupuncture that has been shown to help with those and many more medical issues?

In this week’s article, I am going to introduce you to acupuncture, as it may sound painful and mysterious, and therefore, sorely misunderstood. I’ll then give a bit of history of acupuncture so you can understand how it developed into what it is today. And, finally, I will cover some of the latest research that sheds new light of the benefits of acupuncture married into modern medicine.

What Is Acupuncture?

According to the National Institutes of Health, “[a]cupuncture is a technique in which practitioners stimulate specific points on the body—most often by inserting thin needles through the skin.”

The goal of acupuncture, like all other Chinese ancient healing practices, is to engage the body in its own healing process. By stimulating surrounding nerves, acupuncture excites the brain to release endorphins related to those acupoints (i.e., acupuncture points), connecting the body’s organs and systems, increases blood flow, and many other collateral benefits to the affected areas.

If you want to go deep into how acupuncture works, watch the video below from California-based acupuncturist, Lloyd G. Wright, LAc, DNBAO. He does a wonderful job of explaining the Law of Five Elements and how acupuncture fits into this paradigm for internal and external ailments.

And, as you can see in the next video, Oprah isn’t quite the biggest fan of getting these fine needles put in her hand and foot. However, she’s a good sport for the audience, even though you can tell she’s scared of them. But, remarkably, she feels just the slightest sensation as the needles go in. (After all, acupuncture needles are between 38 and 32 gauge; that’s not much thicker than a strand of hair.) That’s how thin they are, as Dr. Oz explains.

History of Acupuncture

To truly understand acupuncture, you must understand its history and the greater context of Chinese ancient healing practices. If you haven’t read our article on the history of Qigong, it’s definitely a good, related read.

While developed between 2,000 to 5,000 years ago, as the trial-and-error practice of the ancient art of acupuncture became better and more refined, acupuncture is borne out of the theory of the five elements (as explained by Dr. Wright above) and meridians (those lines connecting acupoints from earlier). And, the actual process of using these fine needles to invigorate these nerve areas was probably used closer to circa 500 BCE.

Fast forward to the 20th century, and hundreds of millions of Asians throughout the world practice some form of acupuncture daily. While the tools are more refined, and even electrical stimulus is now an added feature in many Indian acupuncture practices, acupuncture has remained fundamentally the same.

Remarkably, acupuncture came to the popular attention of medical professionals of the Western World through President Nixon’s visit to China in 1972. James Reston, The New York Times reporter, had an appendectomy and experienced the benefits of acupuncture, and reported back to Americans, which sparked international interest.

New Acupuncture Research Ushers It Into the Modern Medical Era

Acupuncture, like many ancient healing practices, have provided a challenge to scientific research unable to measure things like qi. So, skepticism abounds in medical communities unfamiliar with its history and rigorous testing throughout the Eastern medical world. Most people dismissing it as placebo effect.

However, we are seeing medical practitioners pairing acupuncture more and more with traditional medical procedures from findings showing its benefits of pain relief for chronic issues (like arthritis) and acute conditions (such as cancer treatments).

After six years of in-depth study, in 2012, The New York Times reported about the findings of “Dr. Andrew J. Vickers, attending research methodologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and the lead author of the study.” What was the research teams’ conclusion? “The researchers, who published their results in Archives of Internal Medicine, found that acupuncture outperformed sham treatments and standard care when used by people suffering from osteoarthritis, migraines and chronic back, neck and shoulder pain.”

This finding accumulated the raw data from 29 studies around the world and involved 30 to 40 global researchers. With this kind of robust evidence about acupunctures’ pain relief benefits, I am sure we will see more studies performed to see about additional benefits provided by acupuncture.

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For anyone looking for treatment from any ailment, all options should be on the table. Many times it’s a combination of treatments that solve a gnarly medical problem. And, acupuncture should definitely be a consideration if you have concerns about synthetic pain-relieving drugs’ side effects. While it’s imperative that a competent acupuncturist with clean instruments works on you, acupuncture has shown little to no adverse effects.

Have you ever had acupuncture performed on you? What was your experience with acupuncture? Let us know in the comments!

Combatting Anxiety and Depression

Mental and emotional health are similar to physical health. There are illnesses that aren’t readily apparent but can wreak havoc on our systems if left alone to fester. Just as you might feel a toothache and ignore that for some time, only to find out that you need a root canal. There’s a level of mental and emotional awareness and maintenance we must do to stay healthy.

As we come upon National Anxiety and Depression Awareness Week, it’s incumbent upon us all to check in with ourselves to see how we’re doing regarding mind, emotion, body and spirit. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), it is “estimated [that] 19.1% of U.S. adults had any anxiety disorder in the past year,” as shown in Figure 1 below from the NIMH website.

Source: Figure 1

Prevalence is even higher among adolescents with an “estimated 31.9% of adolescents [having] had any anxiety disorder” in the past year, shown in Figure 3 below from the NIMH website. If you’re a parent or guardian, or work with young people, it’s even more important for you to pay close attention to them to see signs that they may not be able to identify for themselves. Anxiety is the most common mental illness in the United States today, so we should learn the telltale attributes for quick action.

Source: Figure 3

Furthermore, the numbers are pretty stark for major depressive episodes (which debilitate life activities) with nearly 7% of US adults and 9% of adolescents suffering from major depression.

But, while things may feel hopeless for the individual suffering, they are usually far from that. By tuning your emotional hygiene, you can notice the coming waves of an anxiety or depressive episode. And, there are techniques, apps and resources available to you, now more than ever before, to fight back against these pernicious emotional phases of life.

Noticing Signs of Anxiety and Depression

Of course, if you have any indication of onset or relapse, you should seek out a qualified mental health provider. As stated above, if you realize you had a severe tooth pain, you’d seek out your dentist to remedy the matter. So, it stands that if you feel that kind of emotional pain, you should seek out medical attention for that as well. Below are ways to notice when you are suffering.

Our thoughts and feelings cause physiological responses, which eventually cause physical ailments. The simplest way we can identify anxiety and depression is that we feel physically uncomfortable because of something going on emotionally. Do you notice any sensation, feeling or thought that is unpleasant or a feeling of being “off” about yourself lately?

For many people, when you feel the sensations in your chest, or discomfort in your stomach, (and they’re not heartburn or another digestive problem from spicy tacos for dinner!) it’s a good time to check in with yourself. You might decide to journal about what’s making you feel this way.

A good exercise when you feel stuck, anxious or low mood, is to think about the person, place or thing that is coming to mind when you feel these ways. Close your eyes and put yourself in a room with that person or thing, or in that place, and describe to yourself what you see. Try to identify how you feel about that circumstances. As therapist Susan Heitler describes in her TEDxWilmington talk, Lift Depression With These 3 Prescriptions- Without-Pills, a clear sign that you’ve identified your issue is that you feel smaller than the instigating factor for your anxiety or depression.

Once you’ve identified your issue, it’s much easier to combat the anxiety or depressive episode.

Ways to Combat Anxiety and Depression

Stephen S. Llardi, PhD, writes in his 2009 book, The Depression Cure: The 6-Step Program to Beat Depression without Drugs, about a six-step program for combatting depression. From the book description, Dr. Llardi notes that, “[i]n the past decade, depression rates have skyrocketed, and one in four Americans will suffer from major depression at some point in their lives. Where have we gone wrong? …Dr. Ilardi prescribes an easy-to-follow, clinically proven program that harks back to what our bodies were originally made for and what they continue to need.” Remarkably, managing anxiety and depression both can be helped by this program.

Here are the basics of The Depression Cure Program steps outlined:

Get physical activity (and he recommends 30 minutes of walking per day, three times per week);
Eat your recommended daily portion of foods with Omega-3 fatty acids (or take a supplement);
Expose your skin to just 10 minutes of sunlight for Vitamin D per day;
Work on good sleep hygiene (i.e., devices off a few hours before bedtime, no caffeine in the afternoon, use beds for sleep and sex only, and get approximately 7-8 hours per night);
Engage in activities that keep you from ruminating; and
Seek out social connection.

Here’s Dr. Llardi explaining his theory on the cause of depression, anxiety and other ailments and his research that has borne these principles and techniques, in his 2014 TEDx Emory talk below.

The best part of Llardi’s work is that you don’t need to be depressed or battling with an anxiety disorder to benefit from following the six steps he provides. These simple self-care practices can help stave off anxiety and depressive symptoms and episodes.

If you want to cope with your anxiety specifically, Olivia Remes, a researcher at University of Cambridge, outlines several coping skills for managing anxiety. Watch the TEDx talk above and see which of the anxiety-coping skills resonates with you, or check out some of the resources and app below for further self-help with anxiety and depression.

Apps and Resources for Help with Anxiety and Depression

There are so many new apps coming onto the market that can help with anxiety and depression, that it’s tough to select the wheat from the chaff. Here are some of the best options, and why:

Talkspace – This is a next-level counseling and therapy mobile app, available on iOS and Android. You answer a few questions and are paired with a liaison who helps match you with the right counselor or therapist with the specialties you need to treat your issue. They offer chat and video-based services, for one affordable weekly or monthly fee.
Self-Help Anxiety Management (SAM) – Available for Android and iOS also, this is also a mobile app but it facilitates behavioral interventions (psychology-speak for activities and exercises) to help you counteract the symptoms you’re facing with anxiety.
IntelliCare suite of apps – According to its website, “[t]hese apps are part of a nationwide research study funded by the National Institutes of Health,” and each one provides a specific remedy to anxiety and depression-related symptoms. (Currently only available for Android.)
University of Michigan Depression Center’s Depression Toolkit – This Depression Toolkit is a project of “the professionals at the University of Michigan Depression Center, the nation’s first ever multidisciplinary center dedicated to depressive and bipolar illnesses.” It contains 12 sections of strategies for managing depression. It’s comprehensive and written in language that’s very accessible.

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While anxiety and depression are heavy and complicated topics, there are things each and every one of us can do to help. From bringing compassion and information to those suffering, to noticing we’re experiencing anxiety or depression and ferreting out the cause so we can take back control, we all have the power to move the needle in a positive direction when it comes to anxiety and depression. Hopefully these strategies and resources help you bring a little more harmony and peace of mind to your life and the life of your loved ones.

Celebrating the Hawaiian Lei on May Day

In Hаwаіі, thе ѕауіng gоеѕ thаt Mау Day (May 1st) іѕ Lеі Day. Ruth and “Red” Hawk write in their song аbоut thіѕ сuѕtоm back from 1927, аnd thе ѕоng іѕ often performed аѕ a hula dance in present day. But, there іѕ much more tо Lеі Dау than thе ѕоng thаt is so familiar to Hаwаііаnѕ.

The lеі іѕ mоrе thаn juѕt flowers ѕtrung together. It іѕ a рhуѕісаl ѕуmbоl оf thе аlоhа spirit that can bе ѕееn, tоuсhed аnd smelled. It hаѕ been саrеfullу dеѕіgnеd tо bе thе perfect rерrеѕеntаtіоn of this spirit аnd to hаvе fun wіth оthеrѕ. Thе lei is also a rерrеѕеntаtіоn of thе rеlаtіоnѕhір between thе person who gіvеs and the receiver of thе lеі. And, this parallels huna, the ancient healing practices of the Hawaiian peoples, formalized into its own system by Max Freedom Long in the late 1930s and 1940s. But, before we get to huna, let’s have a bit of fun.

How to Build a Lei

Mаkіng a lei can be an enjoyable асtіvіtу fоr a fаmіlу, оr a grоuр оf frіеndѕ tо together. Fоr Hаwаіі, it іѕ a соmmоn activity оf stringing leaves and flоwеrѕ оr other mаtеrіаlѕ together, such as ѕіlvеr оr candy for сеrtаіn occasions. Wеddіngѕ, graduations and birthdays are орроrtunities for ѕоmе оf thеѕе ѕресіаl leis. Sеlесtеd mаtеrіаlѕ mаkе a bіg dіffеrеnсе іn the арреаrаnсе аnd the wау іt is put together. But, for your purposes, just have fun with it.

Preparing a Lei for Lei Day

If you’re looking to have a bit of fun and show your crafty skills, think about making a Lei for the holiday today. You’ll need to mаkе sure you have еnоugh flоwеrѕ tо mаkе wrap around your neck. Thе gеnеrаl rulе іѕ that it takes аbоut 1.25 flowers реr inch of the lei. Sо, іf you want уоur lei to be 40 inches lоng, you nееd approximately 50 flоwеrѕ. See the video below to learn more about how to make your lei. Take a photo and tag @MaraBennerFDW (Twitter) or @4DirectionsWellness (Instagram) if you post it to Social Media.

Symbolism of Giving a Lei

Gіvіng a lеі іѕ a great wау tо ѕhоw frіеndѕhір, love, сеlеbrаtе, оr hоnоr someone. It іѕ аlѕо a precious gift fоr grееtіng ѕоmеоnе wаrmlу. It ѕуmbоlіzеѕ thе spirit of аlоhа and hоw thіѕ grееtіng drаwѕ you іn аnd makes уоu wеlсоmе. If you аrе walking on an island in Hаwаіі, уоu can ѕее how many leis are uѕеd by thоѕе who live thеrе. Leis аrе common at graduations and for сеlеbrаtіоnѕ аnd parties. Sсhооl dаnсеѕ and weddings аrе the perfect tіmеѕ fоr leis, аnd lеіѕ аrе even in uѕе іn thе оffісе to hоnоr ѕоmеоnе аnd celebrate achievements.

As you can see here, leis are being given to graduating students from a university in Hawaii.

For Hаwаііаnѕ, аnу оссаѕіоn can mаkе іt more special by thе giving оf lеі. Thеу are a сhеrіѕhеd ѕуmbоl of the islands and their people. Aссоrdіng tо thе legend, a visitor lеаvіng the islands whо tоѕѕеѕ thеіr lеі іntо thе water and has it float on the current tо thе ѕhоrе will ѕоmеdау return tо Hаwаii. To еxреrіеnсе this lei giving-receiving ceremony, one dіѕсоvеrs the spirit оf aloha.

Components of Huna

Just as the the lei’s symbolism, ritual and history are precious to the Hawaiian peoples, so too is huna. As the video above describes, huna provides the Hawaiians with ancient healing practices that are restorative and passed along from generation to generation.

According to Long’s research and formulation of huna, it has seven principles:

IKE – The world is what you think it is.
KALA – There are no limits, everything is possible.
MAKIA – Energy flows where attention goes.
MANAWA – Now is the moment of power.
ALOHA – To love is to be happy with.
MANA – All power comes from within.
PONO – Effectiveness is the measure of truth.

Originally, though, huna was called Ho’omana, which translates from Hawaiian to “to make life energy.” Mana (life energy) is similar to many other ancient practices, as we’ve discussed before about Taiqi and Qigong, that speak of a life force or energy (e.g., qi in the former two practices). Huna is about empowering your mind, body, emotions and spirit, and so is very much in line with Four Directions Wellness’ core mission.

By focusing your mana on optimizing your health, you don’t avoid dis-ease or disease, you live as well as you are able to. Huna promotes positive behaviors according to the principles above, to improve health. This is a distinct divergence from traditional Western medical approaches, although we see more and more allopathic health care approaches warming to a holistic health approach today.

Traditions of huna live on today, passed down from a lineage of shamans to laypersons and now holistic practitioners worldwide. And, so does the ceremonial and symbolic use of the lei in Hawaiian culture. Both represent a kind of beauty–beauty of bringing out the health in you, and beauty in giving and receiving the lei on special occasions. These complementary cultural artefacts show the warmth and great capacity for openness and acceptance that Hawaiian culture continues as an example for the rest of the world.

May we all emulate a bit of huna and aloha spirit today and every day!

What Are the Universal Truths?

We are all living in an unprecedented time where we are seeking the Truth. What are the real facts of a situation? How do we learn what is truthful about a particular scenario? It can feel daunting to determine what is the best resource to find the facts, to discern what’s real and to believe what is being told to us.

If your Truth is at polar opposites to my Truth, how do we reconcile our differences? This question raised my curiosity over the weekend on how to look beyond the situation or scenario to what are the greater Truths of the life that we live. With two years of seminary behind me, you would have thought that I would know how to easily locate the Universal Truths that guide and direct humanity. Yet, ironically, I found that discovering the Universal Truths was not as easy as simply doing a Google search.

The Golden Rule:

For a society that is garnered by laws and requirements and whose founding fathers held to higher vision for our country, it would seem that we would also all agree to Higher Truths. And while locating agreed-upon Truths was not easily obtained, there are similarities in all spiritual practices that seem to point to the larger context. For example, all religions and spiritual traditions seem to agree on “The Golden Rule” of basically “do unto others as you would have do unto you.”

In Judaism, the wording is “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah: all of the rest is commentary.”

In Islam, the wording is “Not one of your truly believes until you wish for others what you wish for yourself.”

In Hinduism, it is described as “This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you.”

And the Buddhist state, “Treat not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”

All religions and spiritual practices agree with The Golden Rule. Yet do all religions and spiritual practices agree on other core absolutes? In searching, I came across conceptual philosophies or rules such as: the Ten Commandments, the Buddhist Eightfold Path, the four yogas of Hinduism and the Islamic Five Pillars. All are full of wisdom on how best to live your life with integrity and truthfulness. Yet, I was seeking something even grander to stretch my consideration and that’s when I came across the Seven Great Hermetic Principles.

Hermetic Principles

The seven Hermetic Principles is thought to have been compiled in a book titled “The Kybalion” around the 1900s but is attributed back to the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece. Here is an overview of each of the principles.

Seven Great Hermetic Principles:

1. The Principle of Mentalism: This principle suggests that everything in the Universe is created by thought or mind. As we now enter into an energetic realm,(remember you send pictures, video and information through the Internet), we must consider if it is all energy, then our thoughts, words and beliefs truly do matter.

2. The Principle of Correspondence: The phrasing of “as above, so below” and vice versa are related to this principle. The other correspondence aspect is that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. This principle though also suggests that as we belief so will we manifest in the world around us.

3. The Principle of Vibration: If we and all things are energy, this principle suggests that every atom and molecule is vibrating at a certain frequency and rate. That combination then determines what the object becomes due to its frequency and rate of speed.

4. The Principle of Polarity: This principle suggests that everything has an opposite. And further this principle suggests that all opposites are identical in nature but have degrees to them. Think about some opposites: light and dark; day and night; positive and negative and so on. You may be able to detect the common themes with each and it is only a matter of degree that separates them. If you placed on a spectrum light and dark, it would only be a matter of degree to get from one aspect to its opposite.

5. The Principle of Rhythm: Literally, this principle is about life’s ups and downs. It states that everything has a flow and swings back and forth. As humans, we often notice the ups and downs of life and emotionally may become tied to those flows. The key is to understand that everything that goes up, must come down and find your centeredness through the changes.

6. The Principle of Cause and Effect: Everything happens for a reason. There are no accidents. If you wish to live in this principle, the practice requires witnessing the story lines developed by the mind, emotions and earth-plane wishes. And then, it requires releasing these to co-create with the Universe.

7. The Principle of Gender: Everything in life has a masculine and feminine aspect. Think for a moment about the various aspects within you that represent the masculine. And now the feminine. Each of us has both within our composition. The masculine and feminine requires a balance of both and its full integration.

So what do you think? I sent this to my sister to get her reaction and her response was “my head hurts!” So you too might think “what is all of this!?!” Yet, I believe that we are all being challenged to seriously consider what are the higher Truths. With the latest in science recognizing the world of energy, is it possible that ancient Egypt and Greece philosophers grasped the larger concepts at play?

What do you think? How would you define the Universal Truths? Let me know as I would love to hear your thoughts.

Three Things To Do This Earth Day

While the 1970s brought us a host of interesting cultural artefacts, among them bell-bottoms, platform shoes, the Vietnam War, and roller rinks, the “Me” decade brought with it one notable event. In 1969, John McConnell, a peace activist, proposed to the National UNESCO Conference a global day of celebration of our planet’s beauty and to foster peace on Earth. Earth Day was born and the first celebration occurred on March 21, 1970.

Nearly 50 years have passed since that premier Earth Day and there’s so much more that each of us can do today and every day to steward the planet on which we live. However, there are easy (and might I even say fun!) actions you can take to make the planet cleaner and safer for you and the next seven generations.

The Three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

While the history of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is murky, it’s clear that the practice has worked to become a mainstay in the American psyche. People young and old know the phrase born out of the Seventies also, but most don’t practice all three R’s. So, let’s start practicing what we say each Earth Day with the first R–reduce.

One simple act you can take to reduce every time you go shopping at the store is, do you really need that plastic or paper bag? Many times, we go to a retail store and purchase one or two items and walk out with two or more bags. Some retailers have a practice of double-bagging items that simply don’t need to be and bagging items separately when one or less bags are needed.

Another straightforward option is to bring your own shopping bag wherever you go. There are two options here: you can buy your own reusable shopping bag to take with you wherever you go, or don’t use a bag. If you purchase a gallon of milk, do you really need a bag to carry that to the car, and then from the car to your home? If you do, then by bringing your own bag for it, you’re saving the planet one bag at a time.

If you want to geek out and learn how recycling works, check out this great explanatory video from SciShow below.

Use a Glass Bottle for Water

As Annie Leonard illuminates in the Story of Bottled Water video above, bottled water costs approximately 2000 times that of tap water, loses consumer taste test after taste test, and is less regulated than tap water. (Oftentimes, bottled water companies simply take tap water, add some minerals for taste and then, you guessed it, they bottle it and sell it to you for exorbitant prices at retail.)

For your wallet and your health, pick up a reusable, glass water (or BPA-free plastic) bottle from your local retailer. By carrying around your own water and refilling it at the tap at the office or home, you will save significant amounts over what you’d normally pay for bottled water, and you’ll be drinking cleaner water. The added benefit is to the environment. Drinking from your own glass bottle means bottled water doesn’t need to use oil to manufacturing and delivery, and plastic bottles don’t end up in landfills around the globe (since about 77% of plastic bottles don’t get recycled).

Even better, take time to install a water filter in your home and request the same at your office. A new trend is self-serve water bottle filling stations in the community, allowing you to easily refill your glass bottles. The National Park Service has sought to adopt as well. The Grand Canyon National Park is one excellent example of how the park service is seeking to transition from plastic water bottles to reusable, glass bottles. Recently, the Administration has rescinded the directive to implement the transition but several national parks had already implemented the self-serve water bottle filling stations.

Change your Light Bulbs to LED

Back to your wallet, it’s estimated that Americans use about $330 per year in electricity costs for lighting. And, with incandescent light bulbs, that means we’re replacing them roughly every year at a cost of a dollar or two per bulb, or about $30 per year. The price of this has changed over time as compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) bulbs have become more popular and consume about half the electricity as incandescent bulbs.

At twice the price, and them lasting more than six times the lifespan of incandescents, it is an easy cost-benefit analysis to switch to CFLs. But, CFLs contain mercury, a highly toxic element to your health and our environment. So, as engineers realized this, the lighting industry and government regulators continue to advance CFLs even though they aren’t the best for us or the planet.

Well, the times are changing and technology has garnered a new option for upgrading your lighting at home while saving the environment this Earth Day. With new light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs, you can get a bulb that can last six times that of CFLs, cost one-half of the electricity, and has no toxic elements.

With an investment in getting your light bulbs changed this Earth Day, you may not need to change many of your light bulbs for decades, and you’ll be contributing to helping your environment at the same time.

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Keep in mind that while others are unaware of the impact of their actions on the planet, every year more and more generations are being raised to understand the importance of protecting our environment. With small actions, taken consistently in your everyday life, we can turn the tide of polluting the Earth to one of stewarding it for many generations to come.

Meditating to Reduce Stress and Anxiety

In the early to mid-1970’s, Dr. Herbert Benson, Harvard Medical School professor of mind/body medicine, founder of the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital, writes in his book, The Relaxation Response, about a simple practice of counteracting the flight-or-flight response. The Relaxation Response practice in the book outlines nine steps, but the essential elements are the use of a mantra and passive attitude.

By the mid-1980’s, Dr. Benson’s book was the number one best-seller recommended by psychologists to patients. This tells us something powerful about stress and its related ills–we can combat it using simple practices. While Dr. Benson promoted transcendental meditation (or, TM) in his book, there are many types of meditation practices to reduce stress and anxiety available today. As we start National Stress Awareness Month, let’s discuss how meditation can help diffuse stress and anxiety for greater health and productivity.

Does Meditation Reduce Stress and Anxiety? | Meditation Exercises for Reducing Stress and Anxiety

Curiously, Dr. Benson, when discussing The Relaxation Response, states that his work is not claiming any new insight into meditation exercises for reducing stress and anxiety. He is purely confirming the practices known for millennia with modern scientific research.

While you might think meditation would be known and practiced throughout the United States, it is still far from practiced by the general populace, notwithstanding the vast amount of research bearing forth its benefits. As Dr. James Lake writes in the article, “Meditation Reduces Anxiety,” for Psychology Today, “Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an integrative approach pioneered by [Dr. Jon] Kabat-Zinn that has been validated as highly effective for reducing the physical, emotional and mental consequences of chronic stress.” Further, he says,

Research findings show that the regular practice of mindfulness meditation, in which the individual practices detached self-observation, significantly reduces generalized anxiety and other anxiety symptoms. Almost 100% of individuals who started a 10-week MBSR program successfully completed it, and the majority reported significantly decreased physical and emotional distress, improved quality of life, a greater sense of general well-being, increased optimism and increased feelings of control.

Meditation works well to reduce stress and anxiety, and all it takes are a few, easy skills and a willingness to try consistently.

How Do I Meditate to Reduce Stress and Anxiety? | Meditation Exercises for Reducing Stress and Anxiety

A most important step in reducing stress and anxiety is to become aware when you are experiencing either emotion. It’s all too easy in our workaday, hyperactive worlds that emotions and our responses are suppressed or ignored in furtherance of short-term productivity gains. Of course, these lead to long-term productivity losses when stress and anxiety build up, coming back to haunt us. One frequent recommendation is to keep a journal where you can note briefly the triggers throughout your weeks when you feel stress and anxiety. Over the course of a few weeks, you start to learn when stress and anxiety are happening.

Next, you can determine when you can meditate to buffer yourself and restore your equilibrium from these stress- and anxiety-inducing events. This is determined by how much time you make to meditate daily or weekly, and what types of meditation practices you choose to try.

While there are a wide variety of meditation exercises for reducing stress and anxiety stemming from religious antiquity in the Eastern World, for your purposes, there are three main categories of meditation today: physical postures to control attention, mindfulness, and mind-silencing (or known also as Sahaja Yoga Meditation). What meditation practices you choose ultimately is based on its effectiveness when you try them earnestly and see which is best for your circumstances and lifestyle. Of all the different meditation techniques, breathing, body-scan, loving-kindness and observing-thought meditation techniques are the most popular that people choose.

As this five-minute video describes, a basic breathing meditation practice for beginners is fairly easy to incorporate into our daily lives, even though there are more complex ways to meditate. The hard part is consistently coming back to your meditation practice.

Finally, it is important to meditate regularly to build up your mind-focusing abilities. The best way to manifest this is to build it into your daily routine. This helps you redirect your attention from stress and anxiety to reframe and choose more positive angles on any given situation. As well, you can meditate (sometimes for as little as a minute or two) in response to a stressful or anxiety-ridden event so that you can productively move forward in your day.

Additional Resources for Stress and Anxiety-Reducing Meditation | Meditation Exercises for Reducing Stress and Anxiety

Kaiser Permanente has provided some really great resources for using meditation and other breathing exercises for a variety of issues, including this great video below (explaining the paced breathing, diaphragmatic breathing and the research behind it) and these podcasts.

Meditation techniques are not the only stress and anxiety reduction tools available to you. There are Reiki, massage, yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong, and many more available to you. But, meditation is one of those ancient healing practices that is undeniably powerful if used regularly.

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Returning to Dr. Benson, he is quoted as saying, “The mind and body communicate constantly. What the mind thinks, perceives, and experiences is sent from our brain to the rest of the body.” So, as important as good nutrition and sleep is to our body, so is mental and emotional hygiene to our body.

America’s Best Playgrounds

I am often asked to speak to various groups and organizations on wellness, ancient healing approaches and on self-care techniques. During the presentation, I will pause to ask those in attendance how they find their centeredness or balance. Do you know the audience’s number one response? Invariably, their response is “being out in nature.”

It’s my favorite place as well! Being in nature helps release me from the day’s “busy-ness” and provides an inner state of calmness. And while you can take your kids to the indoor rock climbing walls, water parks or playgrounds, some of the most challenging and exciting playgrounds are right next to you in America’s National Parks!

Acadia National Park

As a child growing up, my family loved to vacation in Acadia National Park. Spending a week in the great outdoors with amazing scenery including blue oceans, rocky shorelines, large pine trees and endless opportunities to hike, bike, swim and more was every child’s (and honestly adult’s) dream. One day spent in the park helped each of us physically, mentally and spiritually. It’s benefits included the good-kind-of exhaustion, the feeling of restored balance and a broadened perspective on life overall.

Redwood National Park

In the United States, there are 58 National Parks. Each one unique with its particular awe-inspiring views and incredible history. The National Park Service provides a comprehensive map to locate the National Park closest to you. You can also make plans to visit one of them during your vacation this year. The choices are both endless and diverse. Here is just a few examples to explore…

: Canyonlands National Park

: Everglades National Park

: Yellowstone National Park

And during the month of April, many are joining together to celebrate “Keep America Beautiful Month.” The Keep America Beautiful organization offers the following ways that we can participate in cleaning up our local communities and our state and national parks.

Participate in the Great American Cleanup with more than 20,000 communities participating across the country;
Organize an event in your neighborhood; #cleanYOURblock
Explore National Planting Day, a fall initiative of the Great American Cleanup; and
Consider donating to the National Park Service or check out all of their upcoming initiatives and major campaigns!

Your efforts not only help restore our environment but by being out in nature, you know you are helping yourself too! Enjoy! I would love to hear where you went and what events you participated in for Keep America Beautiful Month.

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