Healing, Yoga and Qigong

Tip One: Eat When the Fire is Hot One of the nice things about a Thanksgiving meal is that it is typically in the early afternoon , when the digestive fire burns hottest! According to Ayurveda, the digestion is the strongest in the afternoon and the best time to be filling the tank to capacity. So try not to have that big dinner at night when the cooks have gone home and your digestive fire is the weakest. Try this  Yoga practice to increase abdominal fire, reduce fat and purify the entire system of toxins  http://spirithealers.blogspot.com/2013/05/yoga-practice-to-increase-abdominal.html Tip Two: Chat and Chew It is not a bad idea to eat a light and balanced breakfast , so by the time the big meal comes you have fully digested breakfast and are ready to fill up. Be careful though, if you sit down to that table starving , you risk inhaling your food and after hours of preparation you are stuffed to the gills in under 10 minutes. The key here...

by  JOHN DOUILLARD  on  NOVEMBER 21, 2013   While research citing the many benefits of coffee has made headlines, there are still concerns as to whether excess caffeine is in our best interest. In my newsletter piece, “Coffee: The Good the Bad and the Ayurvedic Perspective,” I listed research on both sides of the caffeine and coffee aisle. http://lifespa.com/coffee-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ayurvedic-perspective/ Interestingly, the benefits of coffee were present in both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, suggesting the benefits are not attributable to the caffeine content, but to other properties of the plant itself. --> Many folks, myself included, are either wary of the effect of excess caffeine on the nervous system or just do not tolerate caffeine well. For those who like the taste of coffee but do not handle caffeine, they drink “decaf.” But is it safe? In this week’s article, find out if your decaf is, in fact, decaf; why it’s importa...

The Big Bear Turns from Side to Side Fifth Movement in the 8 Section Brocade Chi Kung This exercise reduces Qi in the heart (heart fire). Excess heart fire leads to heartburn, restlessness, lack of sleep,  mental uneasiness, colds, and hypertension. This exercise pushes the Qi from the middle dan tien, into the heart and lung  area, and out through any obstructions. NOTE: Inhale when you are in the beginning position and exhale when you bend forward. The mind moves the qi... Circulate the qi throughout the body, and direct it  without obstruction, so that it can easily follow  the mind. To become nimble the mind-intent and qi must  interchangeably respond to each other, and   achieve the most subtle pliability... The energy is issued from the spine... first in the  mind, then in the body... Constantly relax the abdomen... Seek to penetrate the qi into the bone... -- from Mental Elucidation of the Thirteen  Kinet...

I love Chocolate .   It’s sinfully delicious but also one of our most potent health foods.  Have you heard the story of how we figured out dark chocolate was so incredibly healthy? In the late 90’s researchers wondered why an island off the coast of Panama had so little heart disease (while Panama itself had lots of heart disease). They went to the island to find out and discovered that people there were drinking many cups of a beverage made out of the cacao plant. ( Cacao  is what is used to make chocolate.) They brought samples home to study and discovered that Cacao  was extremely high in flavanols and antioxidants, which protect against heart disease. Since then countless scientific studies have been conducted on cacao and chocolate and have shown that cacao can dramatically support heart health, improve athletic performance and can even slow dementia. Just to name a few! “ Study after study shows that cocoa flavanols can dis...