Category: Blog

ALLERGIES!
Forgive me for being so smug all these years.  I’ve lived in Austin since 1995 and have never felt a thing – not one wheeze or sneeze. Last week introduced me to the nasal congestion, lung irritation, foggy head, sneezy sleep fest that is Austin allergies. Here’s a quick breakdown of some of the lovely Chinese herbal remedies that will help you alleviate your acute symptoms, prevent congestion from developing further into infection, and balance your immune system so that you can avoid allergies altogether.

BI YAN PIAN – use for pollen & dust allergies characterized by sneezing, itchy/red/watery eyes, runny nose.
(Great basic airborne allergy formula when your key symptoms are sneezing & eye irritation)

PE MIN KAN WAN – use for acute and chronic sinus congestion/pain, headache, earache.
(Also great for allergies, but preferred over Bi Yan Pian if nasal congestion is your worst symptom)

JADE SCREEN & XANTHIUM FORMULA – use to both strengthen the immune system and address nasal/sinus symptoms.

YIN QIAO JIE DU PIAN – use for early stage common cold or flu with symptoms of sore throat, low grade fever, thirst, achy neck/shoulders, headache, swollen glands, or dry cough. (Use within the first 12-24 hours of sore throat and general aching to fight off infection and prevent the progression of disease)

GAN MAO LING – use for symptoms of common cold or flu, fever with chills, swollen lymph glands, headache, nasal discharge, muscle aches. (If you didn’t get to the Yin Qiao formula in time and your symptoms have progressed for longer than 24hours, Gan Mao Ling may be a more appropriate choice)

Let’s all get well & stay well!

I confess — I am plant obsessed. My tiny house is overgrown with green & it’s spilling over into the hallways of Central Family Practice. Poor Dr Trester can’t even fit his bike in the hallway anymore.

At least it’s helping our benzene & formaldehyde levels, Dr. T!

Click the plants below to read the full article.

My favorite Radiolab episode of all time explores one of the final frontiers of human health: the invisible ecosystem inside of us & how it influences our immunity to everything from disease to despair!

Fascinating! There’s a whole Universe inside your belly!

Click the image below to read the full article.

This is a good one – Enjoy!

httpsv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULe0Lr_cwH4

We’re already several months into the Year of the Water Dragon and I CAN FEEL IT! That’s the Chinese astrological name for 2012, the year in the 12-year cycle associated with change – deep revolutionary change.  The Dragon is the wind, the spark, the catalyst to dramatic transformation.  As Water is the element associated with contemplation, wisdom, and internal cultivation, the change of the Water Dragon Year involves something that you’ve been thinking about for years, wrestling with both consciously and subconsciously.

For example, you’ve always been a Francophile – in a regular year you might take some French classes but in a Water Dragon year you pick up & move to Paris!  There’s a lot of available energy to tap into for making big changes – getting married, starting a family, going back to school – energy to do the thing you’ve been dreaming of – for beginnings & endings.  It’s said that those who accept the Dragon’s invitation to transformation reap the benefits for the next cycle of 12 years and those who refuse suffer at the missed opportunity.

So far in this Water Dragon Year I have taken my Buddhist Refuge Vow (thought about it for 8 years first!), launched a new website, broken ground on my tiny dream garden, gone back to school, and am about to start a new business making herbal tinctures.  What are you doing?  Are there areas in your life you’ve been wanting to transform?  It might be the perfect time to take advantage of the Dragon’s energy and courage 🙂

I believe that meditation is the single most important piece of self care we can practice.  The benefits include relaxation, resilience, mental clarity, self-knowledge and emotional stability. It’s also absolutely free, it doesn’t require a lot of gear, and it can be practiced almost anywhere.

So why is it so hard to get ourselves to do it? Why do I sometimes resist sitting for meditation even though I find it pleasurable, I learn a lot about myself, and it makes me happy?

One thought is that our inherent misconceptions about the practice get in our way.  The idea that you’re supposed to sit down, instantly relax and start levitating on a cloud of pure bliss is a major stumbling block. It makes us feel like we’re “doing it wrong.”

Meditation is not about emptying the mind. It’s about making friends with yourself. It’s about carving out space to sit quietly and observe the mind’s patterns without judgment.

When we remove the subtle aggression inherent in self-improvement projects (the idea that there is something fundamentally unacceptable about us and if we could remedy that we’d be so much better), when we sit down with ourselves and listen like we might with a good friend, something starts to unfold naturally.  We don’t have to show up with a rigid agenda about what that shift needs to be.

Being able to move into emptiness is the same as being able to move into possibility. It takes effort, discipline, courage, and a good sense of humor, but then you get to be more fully yourself, not just who you think you are.