Posts Tagged ‘Chinese medicine’

Mindful Eating For Good Health

Monday, June 21st, 2010

As the farmer’s market begins to flourish with the fruits and vegetables of late spring and early summer, it becomes easier, and more convenient to eat a balanced and colorful diet, locally. During this seasonal shift into summer it is a nice idea to practice mindful eating to prepare our bodies for the steamy summer months ahead and to train our digestion for the dietary changes that come with this seasonal shift.

Mindful eating requires us to pay attention to, and notice what our body is asking for. This is not necessarily a craving, but rather, the food that the body requires for internal balance.

The summer months are a perfect time to cleanse with a more cooling diet. This may include adding more raw food and lighter cooking techniques to your summer menus. The idea is to get accustomed to what your particular body needs. Listen to it. If you tend to overheat, choose cooling foods like celery, cucumbers, watermelon, berries, and almost any raw vegetable. If you tend to feel heavy and lethargic, you may have a weaker digestion that gets overloaded with too much raw food, so use cooling herbs like mint and cilantro to toss into some lightly sautéed vegetables. Mindful eating is one of the best ways to tap into your body’s nutritional needs, by allowing you to uncover some long-term digestive imbalances, which will ultimately benefit your overall complexion.

You can use these basic guidelines to tap into your own digestive energy needs.

1. Pay attention to your digestion twenty minutes after you eat. If your body tends to feel heavy after a meal, or full and bloated, then you probably need to lightly cook your vegetables, eat smaller amounts, and add herbs that will aid your digestion (mint, ginger, cilantro) so that your stomach doesn’t have to overwork.

2. Eat slowly and chew your food. When we eat slower, we tend to enjoy the flavors, digest better, and get more nourishment from our food. This will also improve your digestion tremendously.

3. Eat until you are 2/3’s full. We have grown up in “fast food” culture, which has created a tremendous amount of digestive problems. When you eat to satisfy, rather then to fill up, you learn how to nourish your body in a balanced way. Stop eating before you feel fullness and you will digest better, about 20 minutes later, you will feel satisfied, not full.

4. Prepare your own food. Food is medicine, but cooking is where the healing begins.

Kale with Cilantro/Mint Pesto

1 cup fresh cilantro
½ cup fresh mint
2 handfuls of raw cashews
Limejuice from 1 Lime (about 1.5 tablespoons)
2 garlic cloves
1 bunch of kale, stems removed, rinsed and chopped
2-4 tablespoons olive oil
1 spring onion, chopped
Sea salt to taste
Orzo pasta (Optional)

In a food processor, pulse together cilantro, mint, cashews, limejuice, garlic and 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil. You should be able to get the consistency of a nice rich paste. Set aside. (If you don’t have a food processor, use a blender or chop everything as fine as you can).

In a medium pot, cook 3/4 cup of dry orzo until al dente, about 7 minutes, set aside.

In a large pot, add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 chopped spring onion, and sauté for 1 minute on medium high heat. Add in the kale and a pinch of sea salt and stir vigorously for 30 seconds. Add 1-2 tablespoons of water and cover, turn to simmer for 3-5 minutes or until greens are bright green and tender. Add 2 tablespoons of cilantro/mint pesto, orzo, and toss. Freeze the remaining paste for future use. Enjoy!

Laura Kauffmann and Beth Hooper are licensed acupuncurists and Chinese medicine specialists practicing in New York City.

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Spring Cleaning Chinese Medicine Style

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Spring marks the entry of the wood energy according to the five-element philosophy in Chinese medicine. Its natural expression is an upward and outward movement with a rootedness to the earth. This is clearly seen in the blossoming that has started in the northeast. Seasonal shifts are nice reminders to the body’s natural rhythm that a change in the routine is needed. The days start to get longer, the body begins to buzz with some extra energy and the digestion tends to crave a lighter variety of food.

As you say good-bye to winter, celebrate the changing of the seasons with a simple mind-body cleanse, Chinese medicine style, of course!

Waking Up The Body

There is no question that a plant-based diet is better for our bodies, but maintaining it can sometimes feel tiresome. Much of the time, the body just needs a push to initiate its own natural ability to cleanse, so a dietary change is often the thing we need most. Moving into spring requires lightening up the diet and changing some of the food preparations that we use in the winter months. Now is the time to switch from slow roasting to stir-frying, and trading heavy meats for lighter poultry and fish. Be sure to include plenty of whole grains, fruit and spring vegetables, which stimulate the cleansing action of the intestines, helping the body to eliminate toxins that build up over the winter months.

Here are two great recipes that will add some zing to your spring menu:

Asparagus Stir Fry

One bunch of organic green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 bunch of organic asparagus, cut into one-inch pieces
1 cup purified water
2 cups of organic sugar snap pears, cut into pieces
6 organic radishes, sliced
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon fresh tarragon

Rinse and chop vegetables. In a large sauce pan, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sauté onions for about a minute, add peas, asparagus and water and simmer for about 2-3 minutes until asparagus is tender, stir in mustard and tarragon and serve.

Sautéed Greens With Cashew, Lime And Cilantro

1 1/2 cups organic cilantro, chopped
2 handfuls of raw cashews
Limejuice from 1 lime (about 1.5 tablespoons)
2 garlic cloves
4 cups of organic greens, chopped and rinsed well (Kale, chicory, collards, Swiss chard, broccoli…etc)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 scallion, chopped

In a food processor, pulse together cilantro, cashews, limejuice, garlic, and one tablespoon of olive oil. You should be able to get the consistency of a nice rich paste. Set aside.

In a large pot, add one tablespoon of olive oil and one chopped scallion and sauté for 1 minute on medium high heat. Add in the rinsed greens and a pinch of sea salt and stir vigorously for 30 seconds. Add 1-2 tablespoons of water and cover, turn to simmer for 3 minutes or until greens are bright green and tender. Add 2 tablespoons of cashew/cilantro paste to greens and toss. Freeze the remaining paste for future use.

Waking Up The Mind

The mind wakes up in spring from the deep slumber of winter. A great way to enhance this natural process is to create an exercise routine that activates your mind-body connection. We always like to pick something that requires a bit of focus and balance. Using your intention, or Yi, as we call it in Chinese medicine, is all about making that mind-body connection stronger. What better way to do this then with a basic yoga standing pose.

Standing poses, whether they arise from yoga, qi gong or a martial art practice all require the same thing…intention. With out it, you cannot retain a strong posture and therefore don’t get the added benefit of waking up the mind. Our favorite stance for spring is Tree Pose, or Vrikshasana. Not only does it symbolize upward growth, it also focuses on the importance of rooting one’s energy into the ground.

• Standing with your feet shoulder width apart, weight evenly distributed in both feet, take your weight onto your left leg. Bend your right knee up, placing it on the upper thigh of the left leg with the toes pointing down. To get the foot higher, hold the ankle with your right hand and move the foot up. Allow the bent knee to press the heel in against the thigh, while the thigh is strong in return against the foot.

• Keep the standing leg strong and straight. When balancing, feel the vertical action of gravity drawing you straighter over your supporting leg. If the balance is difficult, place your hand on the back of a chair.

• Drop your weight down through your tailbone while lengthening your spine up to the crown of your head.

• Place the palms of your hands together in the prayer position a few inches from your chest. If you feel ready, raise your arms above your head. Spread your hands apart and visualize them as branches. Don’t be afraid to sway a little: trees sway. Let your breath move in and out easily.

• After holding the pose for a few moments, lower your arms and foot and repeat the pose standing on the opposite leg.

Create your own ritual this spring or celebrate with tree pose and spring vegetables. Whatever you choose, we wish you a happy, healthy, refreshing seasonal change!!

Laura and Beth

Laura Kauffmann and Beth Hooper are licensed acupuncturists and Chinese medicine specialists with private practices in New York City. We have a passion for educating the general public about natural and organic skincare, so please send this link along to anyone who you think may be interested. You can visit our home page at www.sheessentialbeauty.com

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Winter Rituals for Mind and Body

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

One of the strong points of Chinese medicine is that the basis of health stems from balancing one’s internal environment with the external environment. With diet, it becomes important to eat appropriately to the change of season. This means selecting foods associated with the time of year they are harvested, as well as eating warming foods in the fall and winter and cooling foods in the spring and summer.

Winter is a very yin time of year and the body needs to adjust. Slow cooked foods and nourishing roots are what the body needs to maintain moisture and boost the yang energy in the body. We naturally gravitate toward a more sedentary lifestyle, but that doesn’t mean you have to quit exercising all together. This is a great time to introduce yin balancing exercises like Yoga and Qi Gong.

Chinese medicine practitioners have used Qi Gong, which means “Qi cultivation”, for centuries to boost the immune system. It is a simple effective system that only takes a few minutes a day. The following exercise, known as “Standing like a Tree” has been a favorite of ours for preventing illness during the winter months, as well as bolstering the immune system when you are feeling under the weather. It also happens to add a nice glow to your complexion!

Standing like a Tree Instruction:

Posture: Stand with your legs shoulder width apart. Knees should be slightly bent. Tuck your pelvis and your chin so that your spine becomes straight (imagine a straight line from the top of your head traveling down through the spine, through the anus to the floor). Shoulders are back and down. Most of your weight is on the balls of your feet, but the whole foot rests on the floor. Grip the floor with your toes. Imagine you are hugging a tree and lift your arms to the level of your navel.

Breath work: Breathe in and out naturally, filing the space between your navel and pubic bone. Your goal is to stand like this for 20 minutes. Begin with 5 minutes and build from there. You may notice that you sweat or your body shakes all of which are normal reactions. Doing this practice daily can boost your immune system and keep you healthy all year round.

Externally, we just need a deeper moisturizer that doesn’t contain a lot of water. Read your labels and choose something that contains one or more of the following ingredients:

Primrose oil: Loaded with Omega 3 fatty acids which have a yin balancing effect on the skin.

Carrot Root oil: Contains a high concentration of beta-carotenes, which are pre-cursors to vitamin A, a powerful antioxidant for the skin.

Rose Hip Oil: Deeply nourishing, high omega 3 and vitamin C content.

Shea Butter: Rich emollient butter that has a strong effect on severely cracked and dry skin.

Frankincense and Myrrh: Regenerate the skin and heal dry, cracked areas.

These are some of our favorite winter ingredients and you can find them in She Essential Beauty’s Night Serum and Sweet Lemongrass Body Butter, Herbal Lip Balm and Cuticle Butter. Our newest product, the Night Serum, contains a deeply nourishing blend of evening primrose, carrot root and rosehip oils, blended with the antioxidants from green tea seed oil, and the anti-inflammatory relief and skin healing power of frankincense, all packed into a rich, emollient, organic treatment: a beautiful night time ritual that heals and nourishes while you sleep.

Laura Kauffmann and Beth Hooper are licensed acupuncturists and Chinese medicine specialists with private practices in New York City. We have a passion for educating the general public about natural and organic skincare, so please send this link along to anyone who you think may be interested. You can visit our home page at www.sheessentialbeauty.com

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Emotional Beauty

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

Beauty and Wrinkles Truly Come From Within

You’ve earned your smile lines, but what can you do about those frown lines? As it turns out, you actually can have an effect on your wrinkles by practicing some good ol’ positive thinking. This is not a quick fix, but over time, you will have a glow (inside and out) that you know, you and only you, are responsible for.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the face is a map to the body and the window to emotional expression. The sensory portals (eyes, ears, nose, mouth) are related to various internal organs (liver, kidneys, lungs, spleen/stomach) and will show signs of the emotions they relate to. For instance, anger shows up in the crows feet, frustration causes furrows between the eyes, grief and sadness are portrayed by downward lines forming from the corners of the eyes, while long term anxiety may give rise to cheek wrinkles –yikes. What to do…

Topical Versus Internal Treatment of Wrinkles

There is no doubt that topical application of creams and oils are going to help smooth fine lines and wrinkles (we of course recommend our facial serum), but when it comes to combating wrinkles holistically, you HAVE to take a look at what’s going on inside your head. The face needs a psychological lift as much as it needs a physical one, so whether you like it or not, you’ve got to deal with your emotions to have a longer lasting, natural effect on your skin.

What You Don’t Express Can Age You

In TCM there are 7 emotions: anger, joy, worry, pensiveness, sadness, fear, and shock. They are inherent to life and necessary for a full experience. However, disharmony with one or more can wreck everything. This is why we preach balance. Seek it, find it, feel it. As Chinese medicine practitioners, we are trained to look at the emotional state of each individual as a means of getting a full understanding of a patient’s overall makeup. Any over-expression or under-expression can actually have a negative effect on your face and your overall health. Remember when your mom used to warn you that if you scowl too much your face may actually stay like that? Well, as it turns out, over time this is true.

Natural Beauty Meditation and Qi Gong for the Face

It takes less than 10 minutes, relaxes your mind, settles your emotions, and over time, quite possibly keeps you looking younger.

Sit comfortably on a chair with your hands placed naturally on your knees. With your eyes closed, sit for about 3 minutes. On each exhale direct the mind to relax the entire body, one section at a time. Begin with your head (eyes, ears, nose mouth, etc.) and pay special attention to the area between your eyebrows. Relax your face, your chest, your abdomen, thighs, and down to the tops of your feet.

Then relax the back of your head, your back, waist, hips, backs of thighs and the bottoms of your feet. Repeat this exercise a few times until you feel light, relaxed and comfortable.

Next, simply take your hands and perform an energetic washing of your face. Hold your hands in front of your face without touching it. Start at the chin and move upward and outward about 5 or 6 times until you feel warmth. Around the areas where you notice wrinkles forming, make tiny circles (about 20-30 reps) without touching the face, generating heat (your Qi) to those areas.

Finish by bringing your right hand over your lower abdomen, just below your naval and placing your left hand on top. Finally, take one long inhale, hold for 4 seconds, and exhale slowly.

Open your eyes and I bet you’ll have a better day.

Check back next month for a list of our favorite fall beauty foods and a recipe you can’t live without: The Anti-Aging Beauty Soup.

Seek Peace ~ Find Beauty,

Laura and Beth

Laura Kauffmann and Beth Hooper are licensed acupuncturists and certified Chinese herbalists practicing in New York City. Co-Founders of Shē Essential Beauty, a natural and organic skincare line based on the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

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The Beauty of Transition

Friday, September 11th, 2009

In Chinese medicine the end of each season marks a time of transformation and there is no season where this is more prevalent than at the end of summer. This time is always associated with the “earth” element which represents our center and is linked to our digestive function. This is an important time to shift the diet to more nourishing foods likes roots and tubers, slow cooked meats, roasted vegetables and baked fruits. The Qi needs to be grounded and moving inward, and a warming diet helps to guide it inside.

To ensure the regulation of Qi and to prepare the body for the transformation that comes with the change of this season, we always recommend doing things to strengthen our center, like yoga, meditation, endurance exercise, and as we discussed in “Eating For Beauty Inside and Out”, including organic and locally grown foods.

Thinking about this transition as “back to school” time can be equally effective on preparing the mind and body for this seasonal change. No matter how long someone is away from the school year calendar, it is difficult to not feel the energetic shift that happens in September. As the lazy, dog days of summer come to an end and summer vacations wrap up, there is a shift towards getting organized at home and back to work, by discarding what you don’t need and storing what can be re-used.

From a health and beauty standpoint, it is a great time of year to re-evaluate our diet and exercise regimes, and take a look at all of our skin care products, updating where necessary. Fall and winter are notorious for drying us out, requiring us to use products that moisture deeply. Choose oils and serums over lotions. They have no water and therefore, get right to work!

This is also the time to exfoliate more regularly to clear away the dead skin and help the natural detoxification process that comes with activating the lymph system.

Another important thing to think about when looking at skin care products is how long you’ve had them. Anything that has been unused in your medicine cabinet for more than 6 months is something you should consider pitching. Freshness improves efficacy and there is less opportunity for bacterial contamination if you’ve had a product for less than six months.

By harnessing the transformative energy that is abundant this time of year, you can easily be prepared to fall into fall with a calm mind and beautiful skin.

Seek Peace ~ Find Beauty,

Laura and Beth

Laura Kauffmann and Beth Hooper are licensed acupuncturists and certified Chinese herbalists practicing in New York City. Co-Founders of Shē Essential Beauty, a natural and organic skincare line based on the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

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