This Winter Solstice meditation is a guided, relaxing mindfulness practice that will help you rest in the Winter darkness and renew your being with light on all levels. It’s also an opportunity to let go of what is no longer serving you, allowing space for focused New Year intention, and a rebirth of ideas to achieve your life goals.

Meditation Preparation

To set up, you’ll want to find a place that is dark and quiet.  You may want to light a candle to represent the light inside of you, that creative spark that we’ll be stoking.

Essential oils can help calm your mind and create more focus.  For this meditation I’m using Frankincense and Lemongrass.  Frankincense helps lessen depressed and anxious feelings which tend to be more pronounced this time of year, prompted by the darkness.  Lemongrass helps to clear negativity and uplift your mood.  You can place 1 drop of each in your hands with a dollop of carrier oil and anoint your temples, heart space, and soles of the feet.

Have a pen and paper or a journal nearby where you can write down any insight that comes as we sit.

Also, you can briefly use the acupressure points in my free self-acupressure guide to help you relax. As you release tension, you’ll be better able to focus on the meditation process. You can download the guide below.

Winter Solstice Meditation Instruction

Center Your Attention

Come into a comfortable seated position on the floor or on a chair.  If you’re using a chair, make sure your feet are fully planted on the ground.

Closing your eyes, take several deep breaths, consciously focusing your mind on the present moment.

Exhale out through the mouth to let go of physical tension.  Once you’re feeling settled, allow the mouth to stay closed.

Center your attention by following the movement of the breath. Inhale through the nose. Feel the breath moving through the trachea, filling the lungs, and feel the diaphragm pressing down toward the pelvis, grounding you.  Stay energetically grounded as you exhale and feel the breath moving up and out through the nose.  Watch the ebb and flow of the breath.

Now see if you can make each part of the breath deeper, and longer.  Lengthen the spaces in between breaths, noticing any emotions that come up in the stillness.  It’s common to feel fear when empty, the same feeling that many people have in Winter.

We are microcosms of nature and energetic beings animated by breath.  Consider this, each breath is keeping you alive.  We need both the inhalation AND the exhalation, the life giving breath and the clearing release which creates more space for the next breath.

What Can You Release in Order to Create?

Now as you continue to breath deeply, let’s see how we can relate to the other aspects of ourselves.  What can we let go of?  What can we let rest in the darkness or even die away in order to make space for something more new, more healthy, or even more exciting?

Feel the full volume of the body pulsing with breath.  Feel it’s fullness, emptiness, and the flow in between.  Consider the health of your body and as you ask this question, see what comes up in this space:

“What habits can I let go of that will help my body be more healthy and vibrant?”

Sense the answer in your body.

Now connect in with your heart, your capacity to love and relate to others.  Some relationships served a purpose in the past, but are no longer helpful. Ask yourself the following, or change the wording to fit what you would like to create in your heart instead:

“What relationships can I let go of in order to feel more emotionally spacious and loving.” 

Watch the movement of the mind…

The mind can be the most challenging to shift. Many people are wired for self-criticism and negativity that their belief systems are very limited. Once your open to changing your beliefs, you have the greatest potential to create more happiness in your life. Ask yourself:

“What habits or beliefs can I let go of, can I let die, in order to experience more clarity of mind?”

Give yourself some time to let any thoughts bubble to the surface in answer to this question.

Letting go of the previous attachments in the body, heart, and mind may get you closer to spiritual connection. To explore further, you can ask yourself:

“What can I let go of to experience a deeper sense of myself, to connect with spirit”

Feel into your wholeness.  Notice the warmth inside you, imagining a spark of hope in the heart that grows to a flame, and then to beams of light radiating out of your body in every direction.

Remember that this light sprung from darkness. We needed to let go and experience a symbolic death to some aspects of our lives in order to rebirth new experiences. We needed to visit the past and make peace with it in order to imagine new possibilities for the future.

Slowly Widen Your Awareness

Return your awareness to the breath moving through the central channel of the body.

Open up your ears to what you hear, notice what you’re tasting, smelling, and feeling against your skin.  Finally, gently open your eyes.

Take some time here to make sure your attention is balanced, inside and out.  Write down anything that came up for you during this meditation.  This is a special time for reflection, but of course this is appropriate to do anytime of the year, not just the Winter Solstice. You can repeat this simple meditation practice whenever you’re feeling stuck and that you need to make a major shift in one layer of your being. When we meditate, we’re tapping into our innate wisdom that’s beyond the mind’s comprehension. It’s this place where we receive the most helpful guidance for living a joyful life.

Did you enjoy this meditation? Do you already meditate? Is it for relaxation or to receive guidance or other motivation? I’d love to know about it in the comments!

Summer is the season we associate with fun, relaxation, and carefree living. Our days are less structured, so our kids tend to stay up and sleep in later. We often become more lax with our diets too, as restaurants visited on family vacations don’t always have the best quality food. To stay well in summer, it’s important not to fall into unhealthy habits. Learn how to stay healthy in summer with these simple guidelines, so you can enjoy this season to the fullest!

How to Stay Healthy This Summer with TCM

1. Adjust Your Activity Level

The Yang energy of the sun reaches its maximum at the summer solstice on June 21. From there it starts a gradual decline until the winter Solstice in December.

What does that mean?

Since Yang is decreasing, Yin energy is increasing; we need to adjust our activity to become more Yin as well. Being “more Yin” means to embrace quiet, stillness, and our calm, receptive feminine nature.

I know, it doesn’t sound like summer. It’s supposed to be exciting!

Remember, this is a gradual change we’re adjusting to over the season. We can be lively in June and then start to ramp it down. By the end of August, hopefully we’re all grounded enough that kids can adjust well to the new school year and we can easily commit to our work life again.

If we ignore the cues from nature and go full force in the Summer Heat, we’re likely to burn out. This is bad new for our health in Fall, as we may get sick quickly and often without the restorative energy of Summer.

2. Get Some Morning Sun and Finish Activities Early

Part of adjusting your activity level is to also adjust the timing of your activities. If you live in a really hot climate, you already know how to do this well:

Get your workouts, errands, gardening, and other outdoor obligations done early.

You’ll need to resist the temptation to start the days slow. Trust me, you’ll be feeling great after absorbing that morning sun. It will elevate your mood and give you the energy you need to be productive. Then you can rest in the afternoon (which will become the hottest part of the day as summer progresses) completely guilt-free.

3. Eat These Foods to Stay Healthy in Summer

Summer is packed full of opportunities to eat out – restaurants, ballparks, amusement parks, family BBQs, etc. Since you may not always have control over these meals, it’s extra important to eat well at home.

Our digestion is stronger in summer. We’re now able to eat raw and cooling foods without gas and bloating.

These are the best foods to balance summer heat (from The Tao of Nutrition):

 

 

Everyone should do their best to refrain from these foods which may increase heat in the body and cause inflammation, dryness, constipation, and headaches.

• processed sugar
• alcohol
• deep fried foods
• caffeine (not too much chocolate either!)
• hot, spicy foods

You may want to revisit: Have a Sweet Summer Without Excess Sugar

4. Be Cool and Refrain From Anger & Overexcitement

Anger and mania cause heat to rise internally according to Chinese Medicine philosophy. Accumulation of heat internally over a long period of time can cause disease. Anger and excitement are normal human emotions, of course, but it’s important to be mindful of what is causing them so we’re not caught up in these emotions continuously.

Meditation helps us become less reactive, and is a great practice to remain calm, cool, and level-headed. If you’re not ready to meditate, you can try to process your emotions through journaling or talking with a dear friend.

Chinese Medicine helps us to see the connection between us and nature. Living in harmony with the rhythm of nature and preventing disease is the basis of it’s philosophy. If you adhere to these guidelines, or at least try returning to them whenever you get off track with summer (& sometimes unhealthy) fun, then you’ll find that you maintain wellness longer.

If you enjoyed this article, please share with your friends!  Let me know what you think of these summer health tips in the comments.  Well wishes to you…

According to Taoism and Chinese Medicine, humans are actually microcosms of nature. Summer is related to the element of fire and to the Heart and Small Intestine organs in the human body, as well as the Pericardium & Triple Burner (which do not exist as functional organs in Western anatomy). When the energetic channels that connect to these organs are out of balance, we could experience more heat in the body which may manifest as headaches, high fever, high blood pressure, mania, delirium, anger, constipation/dry stools, rashes, sleep disturbances, and more.

Through yin yoga, we can increase the flow through the Heart, Small Intestine, Pericardium, and Triple Burner channels. The slow, mindful approach is cooling in nature and is the perfect solution to the problems mentioned above. By cooling and grounding in the heat of summer, we can also maintain inner harmony. Try this Summer Yin Yoga sequence to stay cool & balanced!

Cool Down With Summer Yin Yoga 

This Yin Yoga sequence dilates the Heart, Small Intestine, Pericardium, and Triple Burner energetic channels (in addition to all the others that reside in the upper body). Hold each posture for 2-5 minutes while releasing with gravity. As you let go in the muscles, the stretch will move deeper into the connective tissue, which is where the energetic channels reside. Stretching the connective tissue is perfectly safe as long as you’re not moving quickly in and out of the shape.

You’ll experience more space and freedom in the chest, arms, upper back, neck, and around the scapula in addition to finding equanimity in the heart and a wider perspective in the mind.

Eagle arms forward bend

Stand with your feet hip joint width apart or slightly wider. Reach your arms out in front and cross them over your chest at the upper arms. If you have the flexibility, continues winding around the forearms and joining up the palms. Let your knees bend as you fold forward at the hips. Allow your arms and head to be heavy to release around the scapula, upper back, and neck where the Small Intestine channels traverse. After holding for 1-2 minutes, unwind the arms, allowing them to hang. Repeat on the other side.

 

 

Prone Arm Cross

Lay on your belly and start with your arms out to the side. Sweep them forward as you lift your torso away from the ground and cross deeply at the upper arms. Reach the fingers away from each other. Once at your maximum stretch, relax your weight down onto the arms. When ready to exit, engage your core muscles to lift the torso and gently unwind the arms. Rest in neutral, prone, until ready to cross the arms the other way.

 

 

1/4 Downward Dog

From hands and knees, place one forearm to the ground under the shoulders perpendicular to the spine. Reach the other arm straight out in front. Relax your chest down and forearm down. You may want to stretch in cat pose before going to the other side.

Prone Twist

Come down onto your belly again for a deep chest/front shoulder stretch. Bring one arm out to the side with the elbow bent and palm down (this position creates a deeper stretch than with the arm straight and palm turned up). Use your other hand to tip your body over to the side. Place your legs in a position that helps you stay sideways for the appropriate amount of time. Rest on your belly in neutral, then go to the other side.

 

 

Fish in Reclined Bound Angle

Sit up with the soles of your feet together and your knees opening out to the sides from your hips. Place your hands under your buttocks. Lift your chest, reclining onto your forearms. If it feels safe, slowly bring your head to the ground.

 

 

Reclined Twist

Lay on your back with your feet on the ground, knees bent. Lift one leg, crossing it deeply at the upper thighs. Continue bringing the knees over into the direction of the cross. Open your chest to the other side, letting your arm move over head or out to the side to open the chest. Turn your head in the direction that feels best for your neck.

 

 

Be sure that you’re moving out of the Yin postures just as slowly as you’re moving into them. In between postures, give yourself some time in stillness to observe the energy circulating through your body into the places that need it. End in Savasana or a seated meditation.

Let me know what you think of this sequence after trying it! How does it make you feel?

As the weather begins to warm, cute fluffy animals are not the only forest inhabitants to awaken, but also the disgust-provoking ticks that like to feed off of them. People fear ticks not just for their blood-sucking nature, but also because they can occasionally transmit Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Fever.  It’s best to prepare yourself with these natural tick repellents to help avoid these pesky parasites and the diseases they carry.

You don’t need to boycott nature just to avoid ticks. Your heart and soul would be very deprived, as nature is so healing! It’s best to just be prepared. You can repel them safely and effectively with therapeutic grade essential oils. Yes, there are heavy-duty N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET)-containing tick repellents on the market. However, families like you are becoming more concerned about the side effects of these poisons not just on our health, but on the environment too. Even the Center for Disease Control acknowledges the reluctance to use pesticides in this article, and suggests using these essential oils as alternatives to repel ticks effectively:

CDC recommended essential oils to prevent ticks bites.

 

Unfortunately for me (but fortunately for you, as you will learn from my mistake), I was not prepared with my essential oil blend this weekend when my son and I spent a weekend in the wild. You can hear about our story in the video below. It was horrifying, but I’m glad that it prompted me to write this post so others can benefit.

There are many natural tick sprays you can get from your local health food store. I prefer this blend which uses high quality, therapeutic grade essential oils that are sustainably sourced.

If you’d prefer to DIY, here’s a quick and easy recipe you can use when threatened by ticks:

Tick Repellent Spray

• ~ 2 ounces Fractionated coconut oil (a lovely carrier oil because it’s not greasy!)
• 20-40 drops (total) essential oils from this group, use single oils or in combination: Geranium, Cedarwood, Lemongrass, Peppermint, Thyme, or Rosemary.

Add essential oils to a 2 oz. spray bottle and top off with fractionated coconut oil. Shake gently to mix. If you store it in a cool, dark area when not in use, it should last 2-3 months.

To use, spray directly on skin before going outdoors.

 

Having this blend handy may have helped us avoid taking home 3 ticks from our weekend away. It would also have been wise to check ourselves before getting in the car and then showering right away when we got home (to make sure they’re not in your hair).

You should know that ticks usually need to be attached to the skin for 36-48 hours in order to pass on diseases (symptoms then show up within a week of infection). We knew that the ticks on my son had just attached, so weren’t worried about disease. However, I was sure to treat the wounds with lavender essential oil to speed up the recovery.

I hope you find these natural tick repellents useful so you can enjoy your time outdoors to the fullest!  Please let us know if you have any questions or important information to share in the comments!  If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it with your friends.  Well wishes to you…

Summer is a favorite season for many people, but it comes with certain challenges. Longer stretches of powerful sunlight, warm-weather pests, and eating unhealthy foods on family vacations are just some of things that can dampen one’s enthusiasm for summer fun. Be prepared with these essential oils for summer challenges to keep your family naturally healthy and happy all season long!

Essential Oil Remedies for Summer Challenges

Bug repellent

Do you have a family member who is a mosquito magnet?  That would be me, in my family.  So believe me, plant power is safer and equally effective at keeping them at bay than DEET-containing concoctions!

The recipe below incorporates dōTERRA Terrashield, which actually works fabulously on it’s own. The additional oils kick the power up a few notches.

Halloween is a favorite holiday for many families. We love the parties, the spooky decorations, and parading around the neighborhood in frightfully delightful costumes. But celebrating with enormous amounts of sugar can make it downright dreadful!  I have some tips for a healthy Halloween that you’ll appreciate!

If you’re like me, you’re bracing yourself for the endless negotiations with your kids for treats at parties and on Halloween night. And you’re also wanting to avoid the inner battle of whether you should binge on left over candy.

Over-consumption of sugar right now can lower your immune system response, damage beneficial gut flora, and make you more likely to get sick. And no doubt, if you continue to indulge after the holiday, it can negatively affect your physique.

Is it possible to have a healthy Halloween without taking away all the fun?

Absolutely!

Here are several tips you can try that will get you through this festive time, without any regrets.

5 Tips for A Healthy Halloween

1. Bring healthy Halloween party food

Who said Halloween party food has to be sugary and full of artificial colors and flavors? You can bring healthy items that everyone will enjoy eating. Here are a few ideas you may want to try:

Tangerine Pumpkins and Banana Ghosts by Weelicious

3. Prepare for trick-or-treating with balanced meals

For the days surrounding Halloween, you can help prepare your child’s body for the treats to come by making sure they eat 3 well-balanced meals.

What does this mean? See here for my specific dietary advice for kids.  Basically, I recommend school-age children get approximately:

• 50% of calories from complex carbohydrates (mostly veggies & fruits with twice as many veggies, limit grains to 2-3 servings/day)
• 25-30% protein (free-range organic meat, fish, eggs, whole-fat yogurt, nuts, seeds, quinoa, and beans)
• 20-25% fat (olives, avocado, coconut, macadamia nuts, butter, egg yolk, fatty fish like salmon, flax oil)

Adding good fats to your child’s diet is critical to helping with blood sugar balance. It may also help keep them full longer, so they’re less likely to binge on candy.

You can also help manage blood sugar surges by taking a shot of apple cider vinegar diluted in water prior to each meal. It may be hard for children to accept, but they may try it if you say it’s necessary before eating candy.

4. Limit candy consumption

Last year I tried to be a cool mom by letting my son gorge on as much candy as he wanted when he returned home from trick or treating. And for the first time in his life he passed out during bedtime stories before 9pm. For us, this was a huge deal because my son has never been one to “crash” and has always been a night owl.

He thinks this story is hilarious. I think it’s horrifying. And I’m not going to do it again.

This year, we’re going to have a healthy, fatty snack after trick-or-treating and maybe just a few pieces of candy. And it will be given this way for a few days until we decide what to do with the rest of the candy. Perhaps that will work for your family too.

Now the #5 tip, what do you do with all that candy?

5. Give the candy away

It’s hard to fully embrace a healthy lifestyle if you’re eating handfuls of leftover Halloween candy each day. To resolve this problem, consider…

• Making a deal with your child – I know some parents who trade money for their candy, or toys for candy. There’s also the Switch Witch who leaves a special gift in exchange for piles of candy.

• Donate the candy – Operation Gratitude collects candy through their Halloween Candy Give-back for deployed troops & first responders. You can find a participating company, club, or dentist in your area at this link. Here in Redwood City, CA Roy Dental is one of the donation spots.

• Dump it – my son usually forgets about the candy after a few days, so I just keep a handful and either throw the rest out (because really, candy is not good for anyone), or my husband takes it to work. This year, we’ll try to donate it.

How do you deal with the sugar overload during Halloween? Do you have any rules for your family about candy? We’d love to hear how you manage!  Please let us know your own tips for a healthy Halloween!

When it comes to seasonal foods of Autumn, I think most everyone in the U.S. would agree that pumpkin is at the top!  I have some healthy pumpkin recipes for you in this article that will satisfy your craving for this tasty squash.

I wrote earlier about my love of of Fall and how it’s necessary to change our activity level, diet, and lifestyle in order to stay healthy throughout the season. Incorporating pumpkin into your diet is a great way to adjust and also add some variety and flare to your family kitchen.

Nutritional Benefits of Pumpkin

In addition to being a yummy food, fleshy pumpkin pulp is a valuable remedy in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) dietetics. Pumpkin has a cool and sweet nature according to TCM. Therefore, it can help with many “heat” or inflammatory conditions such as dysentery, diabetes, eczema, and stomachaches.

Pumpkin seeds are just as valuable as the pulp. They’re high in protein, iron, zinc, magnesium, manganese, copper, vitamin E, and have many other nutritional benefits.

In TCM, pumpkin seed (called Nan gua zi) is an effective herbal remedy for prostate and bladder issues and is strong enough to expel stubborn parasites.

How to Incorporate Pumpkin Into Your Diet

If the thought of working with a whole pumpkin in the kitchen sounds too daunting, no worries. You can buy canned or boxed pumpkin  (BPA-free) instead and pumpkin seeds from most grocery stores. We like eating raw, sprouted seeds in our house, like this Go Raw brand.

The beginning of the school year is a great time to  assess your kid’s health in preparation for the challenges that come in Autumn.  Sadly, I’m not just talking about the common cold, influenza, or temporary childhood diseases.  Asthma attacks have been shown to spike during the Fall, which can be scary for many parents.  I’m sharing with you some hope though, since this information about Chinese Medicine for Pediatric Asthma can dramatically improve your child’s health.

Children often become sick in the Fall because of stressors like:

• Fluctuating hot-cold Fall weather can be difficult for their bodies to adjust to.
• Being packed in small classrooms with infectious kids (there’s always at least one runny nose in the room, right?!)
• Having compromised gut flora and depressed immune systems from a Summer full of sugar, high exposure to chlorine in pools, and a recent round of vaccinations.
• Low vitamin D stores if they were constantly covered-up with sunscreen outside in the summer and were not getting dietary supplements.

The increase in asthma this time of year is usually explained by cold & flu viruses progressing to and irritating the lungs.  However, medical doctors also say that it’s because of colder, lung-constricting weather, and mold allergies.

Asthma Statistics, an Increasing Concern

Asthma is a really, really big deal, as parents who have a child with this condition know. Breath is life and heart breaking to watch your child gasping for it. Here’s some statistics that may interest you:

• Asthma is on the rise and children are effected the most, according to CDC statistics (8.4% of children with asthma vs. 7.6% of adults in 2015).
• It accounted for 1.6 million emergency room visits in 2013 alone.
• Asthma attacks result in thousands of deaths each year.

Parents should be concerned about these statistics because asthma can develop at ANY time during adolescence. Just because your child doesn’t have it today doesn’t mean they won’t have it soon, especially if they already have an inflammatory condition like food/seasonal allergies, eczema, and chronic ear & sinus infections.

Also, the standard medicines used to manage asthma are clearly not enough to bring morbidity down. Though the prescribed medications are very effective for calming attacks, there are serious side effects. Bronchodilators are stimulating like caffeine, so they may cause increased heart rate, insomnia, and hyperactivity. Steroids, on the other hand, can cause immune suppression and growth delays.

There is another hope in managing asthma in children that is complementary to the current Western medical approach – an older system from the East that focuses more on the energetic as well as physiological imbalances that makes certain children more susceptible to asthma: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

TCM For Childhood Asthma

What makes TCM most attractive as a complementary approach for asthma is that it is individualized for the patient. Their symptoms and presentation are taken into account, along with other Chinese Medicine diagnostic cues.  This input then guides the practitioner to the appropriate treatment.

(It’s often an imbalance involving Lung energy, which is the organ/channel system that relates to Autumn!)

Specific acupoints are stimulated through gently-placed needles or noninvasive methods like laser, shonishin, or Tuina acupressure massage.  This balances the child’s energy, essentially teaching the body how to heal itself. From a biomedical perspective, this stimulation helps to reduce inflammation, reduce bronchospasm in the case of asthma, and bolster the immune system.

Chinese herbal remedies aid in the reduction of inflammation and bronchospasm too. Also, they address the root energetic imbalance that is present. So for pediatric asthma, herbs that tonify the Lungs, Spleen, and Kidney organs are usually prescribed.

Most TCM practitioners advise on whole food nutrition, which sustains the effects of acupuncture and herbs and sets your child up for a lifetime of healthy eating based on their personal constitution.

Skilled practitioners can also teach your child relaxation techniques that will keep the airway relaxed when your child feels an attack coming on. They can have their inhaler handy, but may not need to use it!

Here’s a wonderful article with greater detail: Childhood Asthma – The Traditional Chinese Medicine Approach

Asthma sufferers have reported that TCM treatments result in:

• Symptom relief – deeper breathing, less wheezing, greater physical endurance
• A decrease in asthma attacks
• Less dependence on medications

Next Steps For Healing Your Child’s Asthma Naturally

If your child has asthma, seeing a TCM practitioner is one of the best things you can do for them!  If your child doesn’t have asthma, but is at risk, they can receive wellness treatments that will keep them strong and prevent asthma from happening in the first place. The time to help them is now.

Please let me know if you have any questions in the comments! If you need personal help, know that I provide free 15 minute consultations where we can discuss your family’s needs or I can help connect you with a TCM Practitioner in your area. Well wishes to you all…

It may also be worthwhile to talk to your child’s teachers and see if they can incorporate mindfulness practices in the classroom (perhaps at the same time also making sure you’re on the same page about discipline and the way your child is treated in class).

Please reach out to me if you have any questions about treating your child’s ADD/ADHD naturally. I offer free consultations where we can discuss more about how TCM, whole food nutrition, and mindfulness can help your family. Well wishes to you…