Peaceful Waves Healing Center

There are many things that we can incorporate into our lives that help us get better and stay healthy. Helping our bodies to detoxify is an important part of any wellness regime. Caring for our skin is one way we can stimulate the body’s natural mechanisms to detoxify.

Skin discharges impurities from our body by absorbing oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide and water vapor. Its surface is covered with pores, which act as a drainage system whereby blood, via perspiration, purifies itself of poisonous waste.

One way to accelerate the discharge of impurities within our body is with skin brushing.

Skin brushing is an ancient practice—from the Japanese using loofahs to the Cherokee Indians using dried corn cobs—which if practiced daily for a few months can not only improve body tone, enhance skin beauty and break down cellulite, but also support blood and lymph circulation, boost the immune system and open up the movement of Qi along the acupuncture meridians.

When you follow the skin-brushing protocol below, it is helpful to visualize your body being cleansed and purified, with the toxins being dumped into the lymphatic system and released into the colon.

Skin brushing protocol:

1. Starting from the feet, brush the soles and the top of the foot using a long-handled natural brush. Using long, sweeping strokes, brush up the legs, covering all of the skin’s surface area, concentrating on the thighs and buttocks.

2. Put one arm up in the air, allowing gravity to help drain the lymph to the armpit, and sweep down the arm with gentle strokes, drawing towards the armpit.

3. Brush the torso by brushing towards the heart. When brushing the lower abdomen, brush upwards along the right-hand side, just on the inside of the hip bone, and across the upper belly beneath the ribs and down the left-hand side, then gently across the pelvic area to complete the circle. Repeat.

4. When working near the breast area, brush over the top of the breast, always aiming for the armpit – and remember, be gentle over sensitive areas.

Skin brushing should be performed once a day, preferably first thing in the morning or prior to a bath or shower, and on a dry body. Rinse off in the shower after brushing your body. Try alternating temperatures in the shower from hot to cold to further invigorate the skin.  This will bring more blood to the outer layers of the skin and stimulate blood circulation.

This simple meditation suggests that you “smile” to all of your internal organs and glands. It is a way of saying “thank you” to your body for working 24 hours, 7 days a week!
Focusing your attention and smiling in this way can calm the autonomic nervous system, revitalize the internal organs, and increase the flow of blood and Qi.
Below is the Inner Smile Meditation for the main Meridian Organ Systems.
Choose a quiet spot and keep warm throughout the meditation. Sit comfortably at the edge of a chair, feet flat on the ground with your back straight. Breathe deeply and relax. Clasp your hands together, left hand on bottom and right hand on top, palms touching, and rest them in your lap.
Close your eyes and feel a connection between the soles of your feet and the ground. Focus on the midpoint between your eyebrows. Place the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth, just behind your front teeth. Put a smile on your face and journey down to the wonderfully amazing body that keeps you ALIVE, ALERT & ACTIVE!
Heart -See your heart as a vibrant red color. Focus the energy of “joy” into your heart. Feel it pulse with love. Breathe in and exhale with the sound of HAW.
Lungs – Radiate the feeling in your heart to your lungs. Picture your lungs as pure white. Focus on letting go of sadness and grief. Exhale with the sound of SSSSSS.
Liver – Keep the feeling spilling over into your liver, which is just under your ribs on the right side. Picture it as a vibrant grass-green. When exhaling, let go of anger and frustration with the sound of SHHHH.
Spleen – Continue to the left, under the ribs. Shine a vibrant yellow color into this organ. When you exhale, let go of over-thinking and worry, and use the sound of WHOO.
Kidney – Focus your attention on your lower back, just below and under your ribs. Imagine a deep blue-purple light. Breathe in courage and exhale fear. When you exhale, use the sound of WOOO.

It’s all right if you don’t know the exact locations of your organs. Just bringing awareness to your organs is benefit enough. Your body will love you just the same.

Perform each exercise 9 times, twice a day. These exercises can affect your body and mind, so it is advisable to consult with your healthcare provider before beginning any new exercise routines.

What do you think would happen if you kept your car in park and the engine revving as if it was traveling at 65 miles per hour?

You guessed it—after a short time your car would break down. If you were lucky, a simple tune-up would fix the problem. If not, the engine might need to be replaced entirely.

Stress is a revving engine that, if left unchecked, can wear out the body and mind. Stress in our professional, personal, financial and social lives can lead to a variety of signs and symptoms of poor health.

Stress increases our body’s production of cortisol and adrenaline. These body chemicals help activate the “fight or flight” response, a normal reaction that is designed to prepare the body to flee danger or fight an attacker.

Unfortunately, many modern stressors are chronic and end up activating the “fight or flight” response for weeks, months, or years at a time.  This long-term activation of the body’s stress-response system can wear down the body and mind, setting the stage for illness and disease.

The good news is that acupuncture and Chinese medicine can be extremely helpful in reducing the signs and symptoms associated with stress. Using special techniques, a skilled acupuncturist can reduce stress in a few ways:

1) A customized Chinese herbal prescription can help restore internal health and balance, thus “slowing the engine down.”

2) Safe, gentle and effective acupuncture treatments can help “turn off” the fight or flight response and can enable you to feel calmer and sleep more soundly.

3) Suggestions for a healthy lifestyle, including proper nutrition, meditation, rest and exercise will enable you to maintain a long term healthy lifestyle.

One of the unique attributes of Chinese medicine is its holistic approach to health and well-being. Instead of masking or addressing a few signs and symptoms related to stress, an acupuncturist cares for the whole person: body and mind.

Stop revving your engine! If you or someone you know is experiencing stress, feel free to give me a call. For five thousand years, acupuncture has helped millions of people cool their engines before they burned out!

The concept of gardening gives us an excellent illustration for the theories behind Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and acupuncture. Imagine you are a gardener whose job it is to help a garden thrive. To help nature along, you must provide necessities such as water and fertilizer.

You must make sure plants receive the right amount of sun, and you must weed out any undesirable elements. Gardening takes time and effort, but the reward is a beautiful, healthy garden, abundant with flowers and vegetables.

One of the philosophies underlying Chinese medicine is that we are not separate from nature. Nature’s constant motion – its flowing seasons and cycles – coincide with our body’s natural rhythms. When we engage in gardening, we strive to be in harmony with nature’s rhythms. This allows us to reap a bountiful harvest. Life flourishes when the elements of air, water, light and earth are balanced.

There are basic principles of gardening that you can apply to facilitating the health of your body:

Fertilize: Just like plants need fertilizers, we need food in order to re-energize our bodies. In general, a healthy, balanced diet is made up of unprocessed, organic foods such as grains, fruits and vegetables.

Water: Our bodies are made up of 70% water. We need its life-giving force to cleanse our bodies of toxins, to regulate body temperature and to aid digestion and circulation.

Sunshine: Just like plants, we also need sun’s energy to grow and thrive. Sun provides our bodies with Vitamin D, which promotes strong bones, supple muscles and a healthy immune system.

Weeding: Weeding your garden is vital to keeping the soil clean and properly oxygenated. Our body also needs cleansing. One of the easiest ways to cleanse our body is sweating through exercise.

Your goal is to learn how to cultivate and support your inner garden. Your acupuncturist’s goal is to help balance your inner ecosystem so that it can flourish—and you can enjoy health and harmony.

Your body is just like a garden, and you and your acupuncturist are the gardeners. He or she will work closely with you to strengthen and balance your internal garden. By taking your entire self into account, your practitioner can help identify—and weed out—any imbalances that could cause problems.

Acupuncture isn’t a “quick fix.” It does provide you with the tools and knowledge needed to nourish the garden from within. Your participation in the process is essential. After all, you wouldn’t simply plant seeds in the ground and expect them to bloom unattended. It’s the same with your health. Working with your acupuncturist and committing to long-term care can create positive changes for your overall health.

How Sweet it is………

Sucrose, or sugar as it is commonly known, is currently the most popular sweetener used in the food market today. On a daily basis, the average person obtains almost 20% of their calories from sugar alone. On average, that’s 150 pounds of sugar every year.

When ingested, sugar is broken down into compounds that provide quick energy for the body, affecting metabolism and appetite.

Sugar may seem like a “sweetie,” but it may be doing more harm than good. Sugar can be addictive, and too much can cause unhealthy weight gain and hasten tooth decay. It also affects the brain by offering a false rush of energy, and then lets you down, lower than where your energy levels were. Sugar can affect the spleen’s ability to release blood cells and platelets which can raise insulin levels resulting in diabetes, hypoglycemia, and even high blood pressure.

Sugar disrupts the delicate balance of minerals in the body, such as magnesium and zinc, and can block the absorption of calcium, leading to stiff, “arthritic” joints. Also, a high sugar diet can cause the body to become a breeding ground for bacteria that thrive on sugary foods.
A sugar-free diet doesn’t mean that you will never be able to eat sweets again.
There are alternatives to sugar. Here is a list to start with:

Molasses – Has more calcium ounce for ounce than milk, more iron than eggs, and more potassium than any other food. It’s also rich in other vitamins and minerals.

Honey – All natural, made with the goodness of bees. Honey has antiseptic and antibiotic properties.

Sucanat – Made from dried and granulated cane juice.

Date Sugar – Made from dried, ground dates.

Stevia – A natural sweetener made from the stevia rebaudiana leaf. Tests have shown that stevia regulates blood sugar and lowers high blood pressure. In South America, people who suffer from hypoglycemia and diabetes have used it with great success. It’s also said that stevia can aid in mental alertness, improve digestion and even inhibit tooth decay.

Barley Malt or Brown Rice Syrup – Made from cultured rice and water and barley sprouts.

The world is still a sweet place. Now you have healthier choices.

How Sweet it is………

Sucrose, or sugar as it is commonly known, is currently the most popular sweetener used in the food market today. On a daily basis, the average person obtains almost 20% of their calories from sugar alone. On average, that’s 150 pounds of sugar every year.

When ingested, sugar is broken down into compounds that provide quick energy for the body, affecting metabolism and appetite.

Sugar may seem like a “sweetie,” but it may be doing more harm than good. Sugar can be addictive, and too much can cause unhealthy weight gain and hasten tooth decay. It also affects the brain by offering a false rush of energy, and then lets you down, lower than where your energy levels were. Sugar can affect the spleen’s ability to release blood cells and platelets which can raise insulin levels resulting in diabetes, hypoglycemia, and even high blood pressure.

Sugar disrupts the delicate balance of minerals in the body, such as magnesium and zinc, and can block the absorption of calcium, leading to stiff, “arthritic” joints. Also, a high sugar diet can cause the body to become a breeding ground for bacteria that thrive on sugary foods.
A sugar-free diet doesn’t mean that you will never be able to eat sweets again.
There are alternatives to sugar. Here is a list to start with:

Molasses – Has more calcium ounce for ounce than milk, more iron than eggs, and more potassium than any other food. It’s also rich in other vitamins and minerals.

Honey – All natural, made with the goodness of bees. Honey has antiseptic and antibiotic properties.

Sucanat – Made from dried and granulated cane juice.

Date Sugar – Made from dried, ground dates.

Stevia – A natural sweetener made from the stevia rebaudiana leaf. Tests have shown that stevia regulates blood sugar and lowers high blood pressure. In South America, people who suffer from hypoglycemia and diabetes have used it with great success. It’s also said that stevia can aid in mental alertness, improve digestion and even inhibit tooth decay.

Barley Malt or Brown Rice Syrup – Made from cultured rice and water and barley sprouts.

The world is still a sweet place. Now you have healthier choices.

Now is the time of year when we want to soak in the sun. Although tempting to bathe in the warmth of our giant star, there are a few precautions to take.

The skin is the largest organ of the body. It reflects our health and age. Today, there’s much concern about sun bathing leading to an increase in skin damage and skin cancer.

Excessive exposure to ultraviolet rays can increase the production of free radicals that can adversely affect the integrity of collagen in the skin. Over time, our skin becomes wrinkled, cracked, aged, and brittle. For smokers, the effects are multiplied.
Research suggests that skin cancer is cumulative over a lifetime. It begins with over exposure and serious sunburns during childhood.

We can’t live without the sun. Our bodies require sunlight in order to manufacture Vitamin D needed for calcium absorption, amongst other things. So, we shouldn’t hide from our shining star. Here are a few helpful tips and precautions to take when you’re soaking in the summertime sun:

Use sunscreen – Choose a sunscreen with a high SPF number that protects against UVA and UVB rays, for greater protection. Apply it onto your skin fifteen minutes before you go outside. Don’t forget your nose, ears, and neck.
Time is key – Avoid sun exposure when the sun is at its highest peak in the sky, typically from about 11:00 am – 4:00 pm.

Gear up – Wear a hat with a wide brim, t-shirt, and sunglasses that filter ultraviolet rays.

Drink it up – By keeping your body hydrated you can avoid dehydration and provide moisture for the skin to prevent dryness, cracking, and aging.

Pop a pill – Vitamins such as A, E, and some antioxidants help prevent skin damage. Cod Liver oil and Flax Seed oil have also been used to support skin health.

Brush it off – Before you take a shower, use a dry skin brush. This can open pores and slough off dead skin, allowing your skin to breathe easily and work more efficiently.

Keep healthy – Some medications we take may have adverse reactions and side effects when we’re exposed to sunlight. Acupuncture may be able to provide an alternative to these medications, keeping you healthy, safely and naturally.

If you want to have fun now, and not worry later, practice good sun sense. You and your skin deserve it.

Fitness is one of the largest growing industries today. When choosing which program best fits your life and your desired outcome, it is important to look at these four aspects of a fitness routine:

Endurance:

These activities are designed to increase your heart rate and breathing for extended periods. Gradually build up endurance exercises over a period of time, initially starting out with as little as 5 minutes. Examples of endurance exercises include briskly walking, cycling, long-distance running, aerobics, and may even include mopping or scrubbing a floor, and mowing or raking the lawn.

Strength training:

Increasing your strength can improve and maintain your mobility, control your weight and sculpt a muscular body. Lifting weights is one of the easiest and fastest ways to build muscle. Martial arts are another form of strength training exercises.

Flexibility:

Increasing your flexibility will help “loosen” you up and allow you to move more freely. One great way to prevent injury and aid performance is to do stretching exercises before and after endurance and strength training. Yoga and gentle stretching fall within this category.

Balance:

More and more, people are seeking balance exercises to reduce stress and harmonize body, mind and spirit. Tai Chi, Qi Gong and certain forms of yoga are exercises designed to maintain balance in the body while cultivating Qi energy that can keep you strong and healthy.

Talk to a qualified professional before you start an exercise routine to best determine what exercises will be most effective in reaching your desired outcome of a healthy, balanced body.

Consider acupuncture for: Performance enhancement; identifying the underlying conditions that may predispose an individual to injuries; and for treating sport-related injuries effectively. Remember, acupuncture can be introduced at any phase of a treatment regimen for an injury. It is safe, effective and natural.

Fitness is one of the largest growing industries today. When choosing which program best fits your life and your desired outcome, it is important to look at these four aspects of a fitness routine:

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF RELIEF-BASED CARE

We are probably all familiar with a yo-yo dieter.  This is someone who needs to shed a few pounds, so they instill changes in their diet and lifestyle designed to quickly bring about results.  As long as they stick to a healthy plan the weight will start to come off.  At the first sign of weight loss, however, they begin to grow content and abandon the very strategy that helped them in the first place.  At this point their weight balloons up again and the whole cycle starts over.

What these people fail to realize is that healthy living is not an event, but rather a lifestyle.  Until they make a lasting commitment to finally follow through with and maintain a program of healthy eating and exercise, they will always bounce up and down like a yo-yo.

People who utilize acupuncture merely for symptom relief are much like yo-yo dieters.  At the first sign that their symptoms are gone they back off their care, only to find themselves with the same painful problem a short while later.  They then go back to the acupuncturist, feel better, slack off on their care, and start the same vicious cycle all over again.

Not only is this ineffective from a corrective standpoint, but the full benefits of acupuncture are never realized.  In addition, the longer a condition is left to fester just under the surface, the more potential it has to develop into something more serious.  It is typical to find that each time the problem resurfaces it is a little more severe than the previous incident, until finally, a more comprehensive schedule of care is no longer an option, but a necessity.

Lasting results, whether in acupuncture, weight loss, or any other of life’s endeavors, come from committing to a set of long-term goals and then having the discipline to follow through.

Make the commitment to maintenance acupuncture care and a preventative wellness program, and avoid the painful ups and downs of the yo-yo syndrome. yo

If you are like most people, you probably tend to measure your level of health by whether or not you are sick.  In other words, if you are sick or have obvious symptoms, you consider yourself unhealthy.  Once you have rid yourself of an illness and you are symptom-free, your pendulum swings back toward healthy again.  This is the model of health that most of us were raised on.  The media creates images of the family physician on house call, rushing to the ailing patient’s bedside, black bag in tow and magic elixir at the ready. It’s larger than life. It’s nostalgic. And it’s flawed.

First of all, contrary to what you may have been taught, symptoms are not meant to be used as a barometer of health.  When a roast burns in the oven, you don’t smell the smoke until after the meat has been charred.  In other words, the illness occurred first, creating damage before the symptoms even showed up.  There are billions of dollars spent every year in this country on drugs or products designed to take away our symptoms, implying that this is the equivalent of being healthy.  In actuality, this is like using a fan to divert the smoke out of the kitchen window while the roast continues to be reduced to charcoal.  Sure you might feel better, but your health remains in shambles.

Secondly, while the way you feel might change from day to day, your underlying level of health, albeit changing itself, is considerably more stable.  So it is erroneous to think that you can go from healthy to unhealthy and back again in a few days time, based simply on the symptoms expressed by your body.

Finally, it is unrealistic to describe health as black and white, sick or not sick.  According to this logic, as soon as the scales barely tip to the symptom-free side you are as healthy as you can be.  What an immense letdown life would be if reaching the pinnacle of health meant barely treading above the waters of sickness!

So what does it mean to be healthy?  Health is a state of optimum physical functioning, spiritual enlightenment, social well-being, and mental aptitude.  True health is so much more than settling for mediocrity.  It’s not about living life just barely above the doldrums, or hoping against hope that you won’t get sick or that you’ll finally feel better.

Understand that your body was designed to be healthy and in balance.  This is your natural state.  If you are struggling with your health, you have most likely, throughout the course of living, allowed your body to get out of balance. Taking medicine to treat a symptom will never create balance within the body.  Acupuncture works with the body to return it to its natural state of balance so that it can heal from the inside out.  Don’t divert the smoke, put out the fire!

If you are like most people, you probably tend to measure your level of health by whether or not you are sick.  In other words, if you are sick or have obvious symptoms, you consider yourself unhealthy.  Once you have rid yourself of an illness and you are symptom-free, your pendulum swings back toward healthy again.  This is the model of health that most of us were raised on.  The media creates images of the family physician on house call, rushing to the ailing patient’s bedside, black bag in tow and magic elixir at the ready. It’s larger than life. It’s nostalgic. And it’s flawed.

First of all, contrary to what you may have been taught, symptoms are not meant to be used as a barometer of health.  When a roast burns in the oven, you don’t smell the smoke until after the meat has been charred.  In other words, the illness occurred first, creating damage before the symptoms even showed up.  There are billions of dollars spent every year in this country on drugs or products designed to take away our symptoms, implying that this is the equivalent of being healthy.  In actuality, this is like using a fan to divert the smoke out of the kitchen window while the roast continues to be reduced to charcoal.  Sure you might feel better, but your health remains in shambles.

Secondly, while the way you feel might change from day to day, your underlying level of health, albeit changing itself, is considerably more stable.  So it is erroneous to think that you can go from healthy to unhealthy and back again in a few days time, based simply on the symptoms expressed by your body.

Finally, it is unrealistic to describe health as black and white, sick or not sick.  According to this logic, as soon as the scales barely tip to the symptom-free side you are as healthy as you can be.  What an immense letdown life would be if reaching the pinnacle of health meant barely treading above the waters of sickness!

So what does it mean to be healthy?  Health is a state of optimum physical functioning, spiritual enlightenment, social well-being, and mental aptitude.  True health is so much more than settling for mediocrity.  It’s not about living life just barely above the doldrums, or hoping against hope that you won’t get sick or that you’ll finally feel better.

Understand that your body was designed to be healthy and in balance.  This is your natural state.  If you are struggling with your health, you have most likely, throughout the course of living, allowed your body to get out of balance. Taking medicine to treat a symptom will never create balance within the body.  Acupuncture works with the body to return it to its natural state of balance so that it can heal from the inside out.  Don’t divert the smoke, put out the fire!