Anxiety: Herbal Tea & Meditation

By Karen Eckman, LMT

Herbal tea and meditation are two of the best natural fixes for anxiety. The drinking of beverages stimulates our digestion, which is associated with feeling grounded and secure. Two of the most recommended herbs for anxiety are Valerian and Kava Kava (be sure not to use Kava Kava if you have Liver disease). Both are very easy to find at the store. A favorite anxiety tea is chamomile, valerian and lemon zest, about a teaspoon total steeped in hot water for five minutes. Another blend is valerian, thyme, and lavender. These are meant to aid relaxation short term, so only use occasionally or for periods shorter than two months. Longer than that can increase anxiety, which is where meditation comes in.

Think of meditation as the quick fix you can do any time. Allow yourself the opportunity to turn away from outside stressors and focus on your inner calm. Take a moment to close your eyes and breathe. Notice if your breath is high in your chest. If it is, allow yourself to relax and move your breath to your belly. Now take a moment to take a mini vacation. Imagine you are on a beach somewhere warm. Use your five senses to bring you to your beach. You see bright sun, calm sparkling water, birds, and a long stretch of beach where you are all alone to relax. Feel the sand between your toes. Feel the wind caressing your skin. All you can here is the gentle waves, and the sounds of birds. Perhaps you can taste the salt on the air and the feeling of the warm air going in and out on your breath. You smell the sun and the salt and the clean fresh air. Take time to observe the crispness of the colors around you, especially the blue of the sky and the water. Whenever you are here at your private beach, everything is in its place and you don’t have any cares. You beach is just for you, private and safe. You can even imagine the perfect beach blanket or beach chair to relax on. Make this your private oasis for you to use anytime.

Also fun and very effective is to combine the two. Prepare your tea and make time, ten to fifteen minutes to sit, sip your tea, and spend some time at your own secluded place. Visualization has a wonderful effect on your physiology, and has the magic to take you any place you want to go. Even to a calmer peace of mind. “

Karen Eckman is a Licensed Massage Therapist and Herbal Apprentice at The Oriental Healing Arts Center. 907-279-0135

Anxiety & Tai Chi

By Lao Shih Clint Seyer

What is anxiety? Anxiety is an excess condition arising from our internal relationship with external affairs. Anxiety is the uneasiness caused by our acquired insecurity of the unknown based on past experiences. A pre-anxiety state is initiated when the mind focuses on unfavorable “What if...” outcomes of a future interaction, desire or event. The thought of “What if...” becomes “charged” with emotional distress from internalized emotional trauma of past experience. When a thought becomes emotionally “charged”, it inflames a sense of urgency to the “What if...” thought, making it appear more real. This charged reaction generates a sense of insecurity (threat). This mental/emotional “perception” signals the body to constrict into a hyper-alert survival mode (tension) resulting in the physical manifestations of anxiety. When these energetic psycho/emotional/biological elements fuse we experience a fully manifested state of anxiety (energetic excess).

Anxiety trademarks include: overall muscle tension and constriction, quick shallow breathing, stomach upset, “butterflies” or nausea, obsessive thought, hyper-sensitivity, headaches, high blood pressure, perspiration or cold sweats, nervousness, emotional withdrawal, irrationality or irritability and in extreme cases “panic attacks”. Simply put, a condition of anxiety is initiated when the mind focuses on what could happen and not what is happening. Over time, this pattern becomes our primary template of internal response to external interactions, desires and/or events. When this occurs, anxiety becomes a chronic disharmony that will diminish our quality of life. However, we have a choice of how we feel and respond. We can re-invent our response patterns through the time-proven oriental healing arts.

The tonic to prevent or alleviate anxiety lies in intervention, education, re-training internal patterns and mindful awareness. Intervention may include massage, herbal support, and counseling. Opportunities for understanding life’s energetic principles are available through workshops at the Oriental Healing Arts Center. Re-training of thought, emotional and lifestyle patterns can be learned through Tai Chi, Qigong and meditation classes. The community at the Oriental Healing Arts Center invites you to explore the many avenues for positive intervention, education and training available.

Tai Chi and Qigong cultivate self-empowering practices we can use to defuse the spiraling cycles of anxiety. The anxiety cycle begins with a consciousness of uneasiness heightened by emotional distress, manifesting in physical tension that focuses the mind on the heightened uneasiness adding more emotional charge and creating more tension. While anxiety is a normal response to uncomfortable situations, unchecked it can become self destructive to one’s desired goals. Finding ways to manage anxiety through internal intervention offers many rewarding opportunities for enrichment, success and satisfaction in life. Tai Chi and Qigong cultivate the profound mental and physical skills to alleviate anxiety in the student.

The first intervention is awareness which is a primary benefit of learning Tai Chi and Qigong. We can not take action for self care if we do not realize we need self care. It is common to underestimate or ignore our stress levels. These practices effectively elevate the mind’s sensitivity to one’s state of relaxation or disharmony. Students cultivating awareness can intervene earlier and more effectively to defuse anxiety through acquired Tai Chi and Qigong relaxation techniques.

As anxiety’s internal tension manifests, the student is trained to respond with slow, deep, mindful breathing that is essential to the practices of Tai Chi and Qigong. The breathing techniques are not simply “taking a break”, but a specific, focused and intentional technique with a predictable outcome of relaxation. This occurs because the mind can only focus attention on a single conscious thought in any one moment. When the mind focuses internally on slowing and “lowering” the breath, the engaged mind quiets. This detaches the consciousness from the “external” distress and enhances biological events that encourage a state of relaxation. The spiraling energetic excesses of anxiety begin to reverse.

As the agitated mind/body state eases, the Taoist arts student has several options to further restore calm within. One option is mindful detached observation and release of mental/emotional/muscle tension. Another is Qigong; a discipline of coordinating mind, breath and simple movement and posture. Tai Chi provides a series of whole-body meditative movements in harmony with the breath. With these options, the mind calms, the body relaxes, and emotional charges subside. This allows one to observe difficult circumstances with a receptive, quiet mind rather than drown in escalating mind chatter. This ability to quiet the mind, invites clarity, inspiration and insight and with it; empowerment. With practice, students develop new, healthy stress-response patterns that bring calm, confidence and opportunity to personal challenges.

These mindful and empowering disciplines are mastered through Tai Chi and Qigong training. As the student internalizes these arts, life becomes easier, more fulfilling and harmonious. As successes grow with practice, the mind and body respond more easily and quickly because they work and have for millions over countless centuries. My tai chi/qigong students often comment on their increased sense of confidence, enjoyment and self reliance from their training. They cultivate skills that offer an alternative to stress, anxiety and crisis thinking. Learn to be comfortable in the uncomfortable and create opportunity over your anxiety.


Clint Seyer
ewolf@gci.net
907.333.7192

Anxiety & Massage Therapy

By Adam Butler, LMT

We live in a world of instant communications, express shipping, and drive- through everything. We can board a plane at dawn and be virtually anywhere in the world by the time the sun sets. Yet in this world of ever increasing speed, it seems that one thing we cannot escape is stress. Work, school, family, the economy; sometimes it seems that we are under a constant bombardment from all sides. All these constant pressures translate into stress which builds up in the body until the stress overloads the system.

Most people are aware of the physical manifestations of too much stress, knotted muscles and physical fatigue, but many people are unaware that too much stress also manifests mentally and emotionally. One of the most common psycho-emotional manifestations of stress is anxiety. Anxiety is an internal response to stress and includes symptoms of fear, apprehension, and worry as well as physical sensations such as palpitations, chest pain, sweating, and/or shortness of breath.

While it is normal for everyone to experience some degree of anxiety in their lives, more and more people are developing anxiety disorders and experience intense and prolonged periods of distress and uneasiness, often for no apparent reason. It is estimated that 1 in 10 people, including 40 million adult Americans, are affected by anxiety disorders and the World Health Organization predicts that by 2020 major depression, which includes anxiety disorders, will be second only to heart disease as the leading cause of disability worldwide.

It’s pretty clear that this is significant problem that is greatly affecting the lives of many people. So, what can massage do to help? One of the major ways massage helps to relieve anxiety is by relieving the stress that is often an underlying cause for the anxiety. Massage has been used for this purpose since ancient times by every culture on Earth. While this is significant in and of itself, research has shown that the benefits of massage extend beyond just stress relief. Numerous studies have demonstrated that massage decreases depressed moods, anxiety levels, and stress hormones and a study comparing massage to other relaxation techniques showed that while all the techniques studied resulted in lower anxiety levels, the group receiving massage additionally showed changes in behavior and stress hormone levels.

So for anyone suffering under the burden of an anxiety disorder, or for anyone who feels the pace of life is leaving them behind, remember there is something safe and natural to be done. The gentle, comforting, nurturing touch of a massage therapist can help you shed your unease. A caring touch is just a phone call away.

Adam Butler is available by appointment for Massage Therapy at 907-279-0135.

An Energy Experience

Sometimes when I'm doing my Tai Chi and the energy flow feels really good, I get small beads of sweat on the tips of my fingers. Up until now, Tai Chi is the only time this has happened.

Last night in our advanced Medical QiGong class, we were trading out with a partner on an Energy Tonification Pattern. It's a fairly intense treatment that starts with doing an hour of Tai Chi and QiGong as a warm up, then ending with the energy treatment.

I gave the treatment to my partner first - it is done in standing meditation Wu Ji posture. This consists of basically using a Tai Chi sung technique to get the person into a relaxed state, tapping up and down the meridian pathways to stimulate the Qi, energetically guiding the Qi through the meridian pathways, then emitting Qi to the 3 dan tians ending with Bai Hui at the crown of the head. As I was giving the treatment I had very strong energetic sensations in my hands.

When it was my turn to receive the treatment, I experienced the initial energetic connection as a hum that eventually turned into a full-body vibration. The vibration was so strong that I felt an incredible urge to let it move me, but that would have been inappropriate in the class so I suppressed the urge. The vibration was hot, and I could feel the beads of sweat forming on my fingertips which then intensified the energetic sensations in my hands.

It felt like swirls of energy were coming down from above my head and cascading all the way around me into the Earth. The swirls seemed to envelop the vibration and keep me wrapped in it. I felt GREAT!

I love this work!!!

Medical acupuncture

A little about medical acupuncture.

The pathway of information was from China to France, then to the US. It got modified and reorganized in France, and adapted to the American mind and environment.
The major concept is that of the body as a series of circuits. They are of course (in the sequential order within the circuit):
1. Shao Yin/Tai Yang -> Kidney, Heart, Small Intestine, Bladder, which is responsible for structure and foundation.
2. Jue Yin/Shao Yang -> Liver, Pericardium, Triple Burner, Gall Bladder, which is reponsible for movement.
3. Tai Yin/Yang Ming -> Spleen/Pancreas, Lung, Large Intestine, Stomach, which is reponsible for replenishment.
4. Curious meridians are viewed as circuits as well and are plugged into the whole structure as needed

Others:
5. Direct meridians is term given to the braches that go directly to the Yin/Yang organs, and a specific program is used for those
6. Tendinomuscular meridians are activated separately
7. Five-Element theory is incorporated as a separate entity
8. Reflex areas taught more often are: ear, scalp, hand

Treatment is based on the 12 personalities corresponding to the 12 organs as well. Interview, pulse, and tongue used as well as medical diagnoses.

Diagnosis and energy movement are done along these circuits by creating a directed energetic imbalance towards Yin or Yang in appropriate circuits. Frequently, electricity is used to augment the effect, especially for more dense material problems. Lower frequencies being tonifying, middle moving, and higher purging.

There are additional techniques, such as periosteal stimulation, scar injections or trigger point therapy that are often used along with the more traditional modalities, such as moxa (or just infrared heat).

Most of the time, although thought process is slightly different, point selection is similar to more traditional acupuncture techniques.

QiGong for Weight Loss

An explanation of the philosophy of Weight Loss from a Taoist and Holistic point of view:

NO DIETING!!!
From a natural point of view, weight loss is largely based on taking in excellent nutrition, assimilating the nutrients efficiently, and assuring there is appropriate mind-body exercise. Let's briefly explore these below:

First, what are you taking into yourself? This includes food, drink, medications, herbs, vitamins, and anything else going into your mouth. It is generally agreed that overeating and having a sweet tooth are responsible for weight gain. HOWEVER... both overeating and having a sweet tooth are actually your body's cry for good nutrition. You want to eat more because you're not getting enough nutrients in the food you are eating. And if you have ever been to a farm or eaten very fresh fruits and vegetables, notice that even the vegetables have an incredibly delicious natural sweet flavor. THIS is the sweet that your body is truly craving. When you don't get enough proper nutrition to begin with, of course your body is going to tell you to eat more! And when you crave sweet and you eat sugar you aren't getting the natural sweetness found in farm fresh produce, so of course your body keeps craving sweet!

Second, is your digestive system strong enough to assimilate and use the nutrients you are taking in? Answer the following questions:

1. Do you have between 1 to 3 daily bowel movements? If you do not have at least 1 daily bowel movement your intestines are moving too slowly and you are constipated. If you have more than 3 daily bowel movements your intestines may be moving too quickly and need to be strengthened.

2. Is your stool well-formed, or is it muddy, loose, or watery? If it is not well-formed and easy to release, you need to strengthen your digestive system.

3. Does your stool have a very strong and offensive odor? (not that poop smells good, but an especially offensive smell can indicate issues that need to be resolved.)

4. After you eat is your digestive process comfortable or do you experience bloating, belching, gas, discomfort, or "noises"?

5. Do you have any problems with acid reflux or heartburn?

6. Do you have food allergies or intolerances (other than shellfish)? If so, your digestive system may be so overworked that it can't handle anything that takes an effort to break down. Once you strengthen it back up these allergies will disappear.

Third, are you getting enough appropriate physical movement? Lack of movement encourages internal stagnation, and stagnation is a breeding ground for disease. Our bodies REQUIRE movement as much as we require air and water. From a Taoist point of view, appropriate movement provides a mind-body connection. This type of exercise includes QiGong, Tai Chi, Yoga, and most martial arts. In contrast, inappropriate movement is anything done where your body is doing one thing and your mind is doing something else. For example, if you are jogging on the treadmill and watching TV at the same time, this is a mind-body disconnect. Interestingly enough, several studies have shown that people who practice the above mind-body exercises tend to take very good care of themselves and cultivate lifestyle and eating habits that are very healthy.

I have to add something about reduced calorie diets and excess exercise. According to Chinese medicine, a major reason for excess weight is due to an underlying deficiency in the Water Element. In basic terms, your body doesn't have enough energy to process what you are taking in. Reduced calorie diets provide even less energy and nutrition to someone already in a deficient state - not a good situation to be in. On the same line, someone with an underlying energy deficiency that tries to exercise too much will eventually burn out. Here I am talking about harsh physical exercise like going to the gym, not mind-body exercise. Appropriate exercise should leave you feeling alive, refreshed, and wonderfully strong. If this is not the case, it may not be approrpriate to your situation.

For an inspiring workshop that includes Dragon QiGong & Acupressure for Weight Loss, see

QiGong for Weight Loss
Sat. 1/17/09
7:30-9:00pm
$35, dress comfortably for gentle movement
Register on-line, www.touchoftao.com or at the door

Winter Teas and Tisanes

Come join us for an evening of winter warmers!

Come discover new ways of warming yourself from the inside out! We will take a surprising and delightful exploration into the rich history of herbal teas and tisanes. Come touch, taste, and smell new ways of harmonizing with our unique winter weather!
Saturday January 10th
730-900 pm $35.00
At the Oriental Healing Arts Center


Let us satisfy your tea curiosity!
Call today to register!
Or register online @ touchoftao.com
The Oriental Healing Arts Center
2636 Spenard Road
Anchorage Alaska
907.279.0135