Beets for Breakfast

Ahhh, a morning alone. If you’re a mom, you will appreciate the quiet luxury of this rare moment. Peering into the refrigerator for something that I like – rather than something we’ll all like – this morning is just for me. I see beautiful baby golden beets with lush green leaves, and thick whole wheat toast.

I pop on one of my favorite CD’s of all times – Eros by Chris Spheeris. Romantic Spanish/Mediterranean guitar to cook by. This day is starting out perfect!

1. Chop the beet green tops. Notice the bright green color and imagine how much my blood is going to love them.

2. Peel the beets and chop into small pieces. The topaz golden hue is like warm sunshine mixed with sunflowers and rich honey.

3. Warm the pan, then add some organic Olive Oil from this little farm in California plus a smidgen of butter because beets cooked in butter taste SOOOO GOOOOD.

4. When the oil is hot, add the beet tops and chopped beets. Stir it around and pop that thick whole grain bread into the toaster oven where it belongs.

5. After about 3-4 minutes, add a dash of red wine vinegar to the beets, sprinkling it on like spring rain. Stir everything around and turn off the heat.

6. When the crunchy toast is ready, put it on a plate, add the scrumptious beets and a dash of pepper, dance over to the table (you have to dance to Chris’s deeply emotional guitar music), and savor every bite.

Cynthia McMullen is the instructor of the Taoist Five Element Nutrition Class.  She loves to passionately enjoy her organic food!

Essential Oil Certification Course - Need Your Input!

As many of you know I have been working hard on putting together an Essential Oil Certification Course for our school. In the initial planning stage, I am asking for your feedback – input – ideas, from a student point of view, as to what is really important for you to get out of a course like this. I would also love your ideas for naming the course!

My main goal is to provide solid (and fun!) information in a well-organized manner, and make sure that students don't just read a book - they have to really use the oils and play with the information.  I want someone to be knowledgeable, confident, and effective when they complete the course.  This is what I want, but I want to know what YOU want also.

Here’s my general draft outline and course setup:

Length of course: 1 year (or 12 parts that must be completed within a 24-month period max)

Textbooks/required reading: To be determined, but will definantly include information by Kathryn Sharp and Kurt Schnaubelt

Class meets one day each month for 3-4 hours. Each class will be videotaped so that distance learning is an option.

In class, we will discuss the topic for that month, be given a reading assignment for the next month, and go over hands-on techniques.

For each month/topic, students will be responsible for:

• completing the reading assignment
• providing a written outline to demonstrate satisfactory understanding of the material
• purchasing assigned essential oils (approximately 4 per month) – there is no specific brand required. Students may use essential oils of their choice provided that they are of adequate quality.
• completing and documenting case study assignments using the essential oils

 12 Monthly Topics, with applications to adults and children:

1. Introduction, history, methods of extraction, general safety guidelines, connecting with the spirit of the plant

2. How to research each essential oil, variations of plant species, importance of where an oil is grown, basic chemistry – what it means and how to apply this information to acquire desired results

3. Topical methods of application, carrier oils

4. Diffusion methods

5. Internal/oral methods

6. Suppositories, dental care, using essential oils with pets

7. Making blends

8. Flower essences (I really want to include a section on this because so many people have asked for it.)

9. Hydrosols

10. Making beauty products

11. Boosting the immune system

12. Treating colds and flu

I am also looking at doing a future Advanced Certification specifically in Chinese Medical Aromatherapy, which will be much shorter in length, and will have the minimum pre-requisites of the following courses currently taught at our school. Basically, someone will need to have an understanding of Oriental medicine and herbs in order to understand and use the information in the Advanced Course:

• Essential Oil Certification (above)
• Theory of Oriental Medicine
• Meridians & Points
• Taoist Herbology
• Preferably, but not required: Acupressure & Meridian Massage Lab and/or Medical QiGong Practitioner
  
  UPDATE: The super popular Essential Oil Certification Class is now available On-Line. The Chinese Medical Aromatherapy classes are being taught live at Alaska Institute of Oriental Medicine and will be available on-line in the future.
  

Energetics of Smiling Heart QiGong

Turn To Accept the Moon Qi

Preparation: The focus of this Qigong form is to bring your heart into a state of happiness and gratitude. This promotes an experience of heart congruency which is an essential part of mind-body-spirit growth and harmonization.


1. Rippling Pond
Feel your heart center energy expand outwards. Lightly ripple your fingertips through the energy to create pond-like ripples, spreading your heart qi around.

2. Gathering Sunlight
Open your arms and imagine drawing the warmth of the sun directly into your heart, warming you and also making your heart feel warm to others.


3. Bending the Rainbow
Feel a ball of energy between your raised hands. As you stretch it, imagine that each finger has a rainbow color of energy. Try to maintain the feeling of qi connection between your hands. This exercise builds and refines sensitivity to feeling qi.


4. Bathe in Earth Energy
Gather yellow energy from the Earth. Draw it up through yourself, then surround yourself with it while circling back down. This exercise strengthens the primal connection between you and the Earth mother who provides everything you need to be nurtured and cared for.

5. Share Smiling Heart
As the front hand holds your heart qi, your back hand moves and pushes it, sending your heart qi out of your fingers like rays of the sun, to share with everyone.


6. Rowing on the Lake
Embody the feeling of being on vacation, the sun and sky are perfect, you are lazily rowing a boat on the lake, you haven’t a care in the world. Feeling this sense of ultimate relaxation at the same time you loosen your shoulder girdle lets your body release the most common area of tension (upper shoulders and neck) to let Yang qi from above flow into your body with ease.


7. Toss the Ball
You feel so happy and so good, if there is anything in your being (dan tian) that is negative or toxic, toss it to the wind – you don’t need it. It often helps to actually say in your mind what you are releasing, such as “I toss away pain. I toss away frustration. I toss away disease, etc.”


8. Push Palm
The push forward emphasizes stretching the heart meridian, and focuses on the Heart-7 (Shen Men, Spirit Gate) acupoint in the wrist area. The push/pull of the opposite arms stretches open the heart center.

9. Turn to Accept the Moon Qi
Imagine drawing the light of the moon into your raised hands, then drawing it down and placing it in your dan tian. This move is strongly Yin in nature, which helps to balance the overall Yang focus of the QiGong form.


10. Wave Hands Like Clouds
The legs are strong, solid, yin. The hands are light, airy, yang. This is a classic movement for harmonizing the Yin/Yang of the whole body.


11. Reaching Into Yin & Yang
12. Push the Ocean Wave
13. Fly Like a Dove
The first 2 of these movements together stimulate the Wood Element (Liver qi) through the free and easy flow, the physical stimulation of the liver meridian in the big toe and legs, and the focus of bringing the ocean wave hands up to the eyes. Wood feeds Fire, so the last movement – Fly Like a Dove – emphasizes very softly expanding and contracting the energy of the heart center.


14. Turtle Pokes Out Its Head
The extended hand is stretching the Small Intestine meridian, and you should feel it from your shoulder blade area to your hand. The legs are being strengthened in the pumping movement. Strong legs are very important to strong qi flow throughout the entire body.


15. Fly Like Wild Geese
Like wild geese, honor the Way of Nature, where everything happens exactly when it is supposed to. This is freedom.


16. Painting the World
Circling 3 times to the left honors the Yin energy of the 3 dan tians. Circling 3 times to the right honors the Yang energy of the 3 dan tians. The extended open hands stretch and tonify the Perciardium meridian.


17. Bouncing the Ball
The Green Dragon of the wood element is on the left side. The White Tiger of the metal element is on the right side. Both sides should be strong and stable to show balance between these 2 powerful energies.


18. Press Palms to Settle the Breath
Promotes connection and harmonization within the central meridian (Taiji Pole) which includes the lower dan tian, the heart center, and the 3rd eye. Settles the breath back to the dan tian, the foundation. Provides a sense of calming closure.


Always end your QiGong with several moments of silence and experience how you feel. Shaking all over or tapping your meridians at the end is appropriate to release any stagnant qi and obtain optimal flow.

See the video of Smiling Heart QiGong movements here: http://youtu.be/nJeb6FRwvns

If you are interested in QiGong, you may also like our DVD of Taoist Temple Seated QiGong, available at: http://www.akinstitute.com/store or watch it on YouTube  http://youtu.be/5xOrivB5tBQ

Please Help My Scraggly Bird!

Chicken Boo

My sister has 2 cockatiels.  Over the past 18 months, Chicken Boo had become itchy and was losing patches of feathers.  She went to several local vets who prescribed topical sprays, vitamin supplements, and made dietary suggestions.  None of this helped and Chicken Boo continued to get worse.  She was looking pretty scraggly and wasn't her normal vocal self.

This is often the point when my friends and family will ask, "Cynthia - can you help me?"  If you're human, of course I can help you!  If you're a bird, hmmmm......  I'll see what I can do.

I look at the poor scraggly bird, close my eyes, and breathe.  Meditation is so wonderful at clearing the mind and opening the door to Nothing, where the answers to Everything lie.

When finding the answer in the realm of Nothing, if I think it, that's not it.  I have to feel it.  First I feel it in my heart, then it hits my mind and I know it's right when I understand the feeling - not the logical details.  I want to mention that whenever I do this, I always research the logical details before moving forward.

So I felt in my heart "Sea Buckthorn Berry", a new essential oil I've recently been playing around with.  It's ingestible and packed with a huge number of vitamins, minerals, and other great things.  Looking at a picture, it's a beautiful orange berry - it makes me feel happy!  Yes!  This is what I want to use.  The essential oil I have is small organic farmed, pure & genuine, therapeutic quality.

I made up a very mild dosage: 
  1 oz. dropper bottle of filtered water
  several drops of vegetable glycerin as a preservative
  1 drop of Sea Buckthorn Berry essential oil
   Shake it 100 times

I had my sister add 1 drop of this highly diluted blend to the birds water each day, 6 days a week with 1 day off.  I figured it couldn't make the bird any worse than it already was.

Chicken Boo started to improve immediately.  Within 2 weeks she has full, lush feathers again, and is happily singing and hopping around all over the place!  She looks great.

I'll make sure she's stable, then we'll gradually decrease the dosage to find a good minimal maintenance dose.

Little Shaolin - Taoist Teaching & Healing Clinic

Back in 2002 I was on my second educational tour to China. The group I was with was visiting Wudang – well known for being the birth place of Tai Chi. This was a 22 hour train ride from Beijing, followed by a walk through a small village, followed by a long bus ride way up into the jungle-like mountains.


Wudang was beautiful, peaceful, and in the middle of nowhere. No computers, some electricity, and hot water turned on only at specific times of the day. The hotel had concrete block walls with holes left out for windows, no screen. Down below, the neighbors caught a chicken or goat each night and slaughtered it on the back porch for dinner. I remember having a zucchini-like squash cooked in a delicious variety of ways for almost every meal, since it was the most abundant locally grown food, and locally grown was all that was available.


We were there to study Tai Chi and QiGong and there wasn’t much to distract us from this incredible journey of self-cultivation.


One day, we took a trip to a nearby Taoist monastery where we had been invited to meet the monks that lived off the land and watch them perform Tai Chi. The monastery was ancient looking and had the feeling of many, many lives being lived there. This day was pure blue sky sunny and about 108 degrees F. No fans, no air conditioning, just cool water to drink and a little shade.


Standing in the hot sun, we were watching the monks do Tai Chi, when all of a sudden a man in our group turned very pale and collapsed. No doctors, no hospital, no telephone or anything else one usually thinks of in an emergency situation.

The monks immediately sprang into action. They carried him through a doorway behind us and laid him on the floor. A monk ran up and showed me a small glass vial with purple liquid inside (Chinese herbs), the look on his face obviously asking if it was ok to administer the liquid. I shook my head “yes” and he lifted our friend’s head and poured it into his mouth.

Another monk showed me an acupuncture needle – his big needle, only one, looked about 200 years old and not washed often. Again the questioning look of “can I do acupuncture on him?” “Yes” I motioned back. What else do you do in this situation?


The monk quickly visually scanned our friend’s body, then knelt beside him and stuck the needle in, pulled it out fast. He did this to about 9 different acupoints, then stepped back to do another visual scan. (In my travel diary I noted all the points used.)


Our friend opened his eyes, sat up a little, and said “I feel ok – thank you! Xie Xie!”


The monks brought him lots of cool water and were happy to see him doing much better. He left a large cash donation in gratitude for their emergency service.

In watching all of this, I was so impressed by how calm everyone was, and how they knew exactly what to do on the spot to take care of the situation. I thought, “This is what I want our school to be like one day! People can walk in and no matter what they have going on, we’ll know how to care for them using these wonderful and very old healing methods.”


This was the seed planted that has now sprouted into the Little Shaolin Clinic. I hope we make our monk friends, so far away, proud of what they inspired.  And thanks to our own Shifu for instilling the depth of cultivation involved in the strong foundation we have to work with.

See:  http://www.touchoftao.com/LittleShaolin.htm


~Cynthia McMullen, School Instructor, Master Massage Therapist & Oriental Bodyworker, Medical QiGong Therapist. Relieving pain and harmonizing symptoms since 1999.

Herbal Medicine Carrier Oils for Essential Oil Blends

Essential oils are most commonly used by the drop, added to another carrier oil such as Sweet Almond, Jojoba, or even Olive oil. Sometimes certain oils may be used “neat”, or undiluted, on the skin, but this is usually reserved for specific therapeutic purposes, and some essential oils can be irritating to the skin when undiluted.

Essential oils are extremely concentrated herbal medicines. For example, one drop of essential oil is equivalent to 30-50 bags of herbal tea. Energetically, the essential oils are tightly contained within each drop. Upon adding a drop of essential oil to carrier oil, the energy will burst open, released, freed to expand and unfold the ultimate experience of its essence for us!

As a general rule of thumb, if you use an essential oil straight out of the bottle, undiluted, you will commonly experience a very physical result. This is great for trauma, injuries, and acute symptoms.

When the essential oils are released into a carrier oil, the experience will travel into the physical, emotional, and spiritual realms, providing a much different result. This is perfect for providing life enhancing insights, changing moods, and working with chronic and deep levels of our mindbodyspirit.

Many carrier oils can be used – any that are appropriate for massage, plus most cooking oils. You do want to avoid carrier oils that contain petroleum jelly or mineral oil in any form as these substances create a barrier and don’t allow the essential oil to penetrate the skin.

However, we can use very specific carrier oils to enhance the therapeutic properties of the essential oil blend we are using. When we apply the carrier oil AND essential oil characteristics to the Five Element Method in Chinese medicine, we can work with Element Energy and Element Relationships in an exciting and highly effective way. Remember that Chinese medicine is mindbodyspirit based – there is no separation between these aspects.

For example, as a massage therapist/Oriental medicine bodyworker, lets say I have a client come in presenting the chief complaint of low back pain. The health history intake shows a pattern of fatigue, unusual hair loss, unfulfilled creativity issues, and occasional anxiety attacks. I might identify that the Water Element is out of balance and it’s affecting the Fire Element.

Here, I can choose an essential oil blend to tonify Water – maybe Ginger, Juniper, and Frankincense. Then I want the carrier oil to be nurturing – Earth, with a touch of passion – Fire. I might mix Sesame and Safflower together as the base carrier oil.

I have the choice of blending the oil for a full body massage (2% dilution) or maybe a little stronger for a spot low back treatment, rubbing it only into the lower back and applying acupressure to the Bladder-23 Kidney Shu points. I might also apply it with acupressure to Kidney – 1 Yong Quan at the feet, Pericardium – 6 Nei Guan at the wrist, and combining Governing Vessel 20 - Bai Hui at the crown of the head while energetically holding Kidney 27 – Shu Mansion points at the top of the chest.

We can go even deeper into this method by using herbal infused oils as a portion of the base carrier oil. An herbal infused oil is made by steeping packed plant material in a carrier oil, like Olive oil, leaving it in the sun to infuse for a few weeks, and straining the resulting oil out. To make a base carrier oil with this, use 20% herbal infused oil and 80% carrier oil.

Some examples of common herbal infused oils are: Rosemary, Plantain, Peppermint, and Calendula. Mountain Rose Herbs http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/ is a good source for quality organic pre-made herbal infused oils, or you can experiment with making your own. I prefer to infuse my oils with the spirits of local plants, but not everything grows well in Alaska so I order what I can’t grow.

Again, the characteristics of the herbal infused oils are associated with Five Element Method, and this becomes part of the relationship that the essential oil blend will work out of.

You can blend Ginger essential oil in Sweet Almond carrier oil because you always use Sweet Almond for massage, or you can blend Ginger essential oil in Sesame carrier with 20% Rosemary herbal infusion because you want to warm the lungs and stimulate the Wei Qi energy.  It’s a beautiful art!

Learn tons of great information - including using carrier oils according to 5-Element Theory - from my On-Line Essential Oils Course series.  You can study here at our school in Alaska from anywhere in the world!

Herbs as Teachers

Purple Morning Glories, Plant Teachers

Want to listen to this post? Now you can on our Podcast Channel:



In the Taoist healing practices (and also other tribal and traditional customs), medicinal herbs are used in a very special way. We don’t just take them and expect our symptoms to go away, like a pill. We take them into us as if they are our friends, guardians, and teachers.

“My plant brother, will you teach me why my leg keeps swelling? I want to learn from you and will pay attention to what you tell me.” Plants communicate easily with sincere intention from your heart. They will understand and they love to fulfill their destiny by assisting us.

When I give someone an herbal formula or a special essential oil blend I have already asked the plants if they will help this person, and I know they will. Now it is up to the person taking them to experience and learn from changes in their life as they use the herbs.

For example, ask some of the following questions as you are using herbs (in any form – tea, tincture, decoction, topical):

• Does your desire for food change?
• Do you dream differently?
• How does your breathing change?
• Any shift in attitudes or emotions?
• Any changes in the people around you that you relate with on a regular basis?
• Is sleep different?
• Is there anything you normally do that you have less of a desire to do?
• Is there anything you don’t usually do that you suddenly have a desire to do?
• Any unusual thoughts that keep popping into your mind?
• Any changes in digestion or elimination?
• What physical symptoms change?
• Do you feel anything different about your purpose in life?

When you answer the questions and notice changes, stop and look at what they are teaching you. For example:

  

You normally eat pasta 3 times a week out of habit. Since taking the herbs you just don’t feel like eating it as much, and instead you would rather have a lighter rice dish. You may be learning that the way you eat is done out of habit rather than by listening to your body, and other foods will help to balance out what is either missing or you are using in excess, and your symptoms will normalize.

Or someone else may go to work, sit down at their desk, and turn on the computer. As they look at their schedule for the day their breath subtly changes and becomes constricted in the mid-chest and shallow. As the day goes on and they continue breathing this way, the energy of their body is getting stuck rather than flowing easily throughout, and they end up with their normal and almost daily afternoon headache. Using herbs, all of a sudden there is an awareness of the tight constriction in their chest, and pondering this, the person has an idea – “What if I breathe deeper? Yes, that feels much better.” There is a moment of beautiful peace and calm as they learn that their breathing was greatly contributing to their symptoms.

This might sound very simple, but it is an extremely profound experience to have. There is no one answer for everyone. It will be unique for you and your circumstances. When you know the herbs are teachers and you listen to them, you will learn amazing things about yourself and how you live your life.

Next time you decide to use herbs, remember this. Open your heart to them, ask them to teach you, and always thank them for what they share with you.

Please remember to consult a qualified and certified herbalist who can ensure you are using herbs appropriate for you, and who will refer you to your medical doctor for any advice on prescribed medications.