qi gong – Dr. Elizabeth Cox, ND, LAc https://drsaritaelizabeth.com Tue, 14 Mar 2023 14:50:20 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://drsaritaelizabeth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/favicon-36x36.png qi gong – Dr. Elizabeth Cox, ND, LAc https://drsaritaelizabeth.com 32 32 Water ~ You are a visionary https://drsaritaelizabeth.com/water-you-are-a-visionary/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=water-you-are-a-visionary Tue, 14 Mar 2023 14:28:53 +0000 https://drsaritaelizabeth.com/?p=4513 Continue reading →]]> You are a visionary.

The water element paired organs that peak in winter are the Bladder and Kidney (plus adrenals).

The bladder meridian travels from the inner canthus of the eye across the head down the back side of the entire body exiting out the little toe. It traverses all of us.

Many of the point names indicate their function: bright eyes, supporting yang, supporting middle, celestial pillar, soul door, spirit hall, spiritual celestial connection, soul gate.

Acupuncture treats all levels of the human – mind, body, spirit.

Treating the bladder points can not only treat our organs like the bladder or the eyes, but it can also treat our spiritual sickness. It can help us see through the eyes of spirit. The dark clouds of our emotions and thinking can be cleared to see the bright blue skies of divine perfection.

Winter is Dreamtime.

Make the connection to your internal visionary this winter.

Dream it.

Envision it.

]]>
Earth: Too much sitting injures the spleen: qi gong https://drsaritaelizabeth.com/earth-too-much-sitting-injures-the-spleen-qi-gong/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=earth-too-much-sitting-injures-the-spleen-qi-gong Tue, 03 Jan 2023 16:48:31 +0000 https://drsaritaelizabeth.com/?p=4303 Continue reading →]]>

The digestive organs are injured by stagnation.  Desk or remote virtual jobs, long hours of studying, research and writing keep us seated.  Relaxing and decompressing may also become habituated to screen time, gaming or media binging. Fatigue sets in from lack of activity; a sedentary life is injurious. Frankly, it is killing us slowly. The combination of oversitting and overthinking is a harmful combination for the earth organs,  particularly the spleen.  The lack of healthy circulation settles dampness deep into our systems. If you are prone to oversitting, please build in healthy habits. 


Set a timer at the desk for 30 minutes to take a 5 minute movement break out of the chair.

Shake away any accumulated worries, negative postures.

Take a few stretches or yoga poses.

Walk to the water station and hydrate.

Walk a few flights of stairs.

Take a walk around the block.

Learn and practice Heaven & Earth Rotation Daily


 

Heaven & Earth Rotation: Qi Gong Earth Exercise

  1. Open the gates of heaven (top of head ~ meeting of ten thousand things) and earth (bottom of feet ~ bubbling spring) again. 
  2. Pivot from the lower back with smooth and continuous action. The left palm, facing earth, pushes downward while the right palm, faces heaven, pulls upward. 
  3. At the end of the pivot, alternate hand positions. 
  4. Repeat 40 times while imagining healing, golden light internally healing and balancing your spleen, stomach and pancreas.

Purchase your element wisdom card deck to support your daily health & wellness journey


Cultivate wellness this Earth season by practicing exercises for healing the spleen with Qigong support. 


 

]]>
Earth: Shake into your muscles https://drsaritaelizabeth.com/earth-shake-into-your-muscles/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=earth-shake-into-your-muscles Fri, 23 Dec 2022 15:25:16 +0000 https://drsaritaelizabeth.com/?p=3583 Continue reading →]]>
Learning to “shake it off” during times of stress could be as simple as practicing just that, shaking.
 

The traditional warm up before practicing a qi gong form is 5-15 minutes of shanking.  We progressively shake deeper starting with our skin, into the muscles, tendons, bones and organs.

Read our blog post about Qigong Shaking: http://drsaritaelizabeth.com/fire-creates-earth/

A daily habit of shaking for five minutes will pave a path of wellness for you. 

Need science to convince you?

Check out this research on Qi Gong for the Prevention, Treatment, and Rehabilitation of COVID19 Infection in Older Adults

 

 
 
 
 
 
Support your wellness journey with Element Wisdom Cards.
The Earth deck is used daily to support your Earth Element &
four times yearly during the 18 days around each solstice and equinox
Purchase here:
 
 
]]>
Earth: Convert discord into harmony https://drsaritaelizabeth.com/earth-convert-discord-into-harmony/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=earth-convert-discord-into-harmony Fri, 23 Dec 2022 15:18:16 +0000 https://drsaritaelizabeth.com/?p=4178 Continue reading →]]>
Convert discord into harmony.
 
 
 
It is time to come home. It is time to find your true center. 
 
The 18 days around each solstice & equinox hold the power of transition. The fifth season of earth resonates with trust, harmony and abundance.
 
 
 
Here are a few practices that I encourage my patients to utilize during the earth season to break up discord:
 
1. Take a walk. 
Nature works best but a few flights of stairs, a walk around the building or the block interrupts the pattern.
 
2. Bring awareness to your body. 
What does discord feel like in your body? 
Where does the dissonance settle? Your gut? Your skin? The back of the neck? 
What sensation does it create?
Ache? Sharp? Tingle? Throb? Pressure?
Watch it change. It does. Every single time. Eventually.
 
3. Shake.
Spend 5 minutes shaking the body. This is how we warm up for qi gong (internal tai chi). Shake into the muscles, envision golden light. This strengthens our connection to earth and helps move out disease before it somatizes.
 
Harmony can be defined as a consistent, orderly, or pleasing arrangement of parts. As we journey deeper and deeper into our personal healing, we begin to become aware of the parts of ourselves that create discord, dissonance, imbalance. As we come into relationship with these players of personality, we may not like who we meet.  Each one of these facets of ego, helped us survive, cope, overcome, suceed, thrive or compensate.  They may no longer be needed and at risk of unemployment. At that point, this unacknowledged, unappreciated part of ourselves may self-sabatoge.
 
4. Invite home all of the parts.
Develop a dialogue with each face of self. Invite this part of self to tea.  Ask its name and what she needs. Ask how she served you.  Thank her. Ask what she fears, enjoys. Get to know these players.  Integration brings harmony.

Allow yourself time to integrate all the changes that you have chosen during
autumn, the season of letting go.
Return to your true self now. 
Remember your center.
Your place is right here, right now, between heaven and earth.

 
 
Disclosure: There are no three magic ways. Or 5 must dos. I grow weary to do lists of how to heal.
The healing is finding your own way. Empowered medicine.
I choose to educate you to the natural and dynamic rhythms of nature. I honor that you know. I am here to meet you on your journey.
 
Healing is an inside job.
]]>
Metal re-cap https://drsaritaelizabeth.com/metal-re-cap/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=metal-re-cap Sun, 13 Dec 2020 15:32:39 +0000 https://drsaritaelizabeth.com/?p=3667 Continue reading →]]> I’m sharing with you messages, musings, affirmations and instructions from the Metal season.  Yesterday, we returned to the Earth season.  Standby for inspirations to balance your internal earth and steward our external earth. The information is arranged by Element Wisdom Card title then a seasonal Food as Medicine section,  Enjoy!  To learn more and purchase your deck visit element-wisdom.com

In Chinese medicine we focus on the lungs and large intestine during this season. Our Cultivating Wellness blog is now searchable. You can learn more with the keywords: metal or autumn. If you love our blog click the grey envelope to subscribe. In 2021, we will be offering Wisdom Behind the Cards so you can search you element-wisdom card by title! So join us for simple seasonal wellness tips to keep you (and your lungs) in tip top shape.

Honor Your Grief

I recently read an intriguing research article about grief entitled: Grief, poetry, and the sweet unexpected. “The sweet unexpected includes the ease with which trauma survivors engage their trauma narrative, the critical insights that emerge in poetry, the beneficial social context of sharing poetry, and the healing benefits of poetry for writers, care providers, and readers alike.” The metal organ the lung is the seat of the emotion of grief. The large intestine’s facilitates in letting go or letting go into transformation. Grief comes in waves, often magnified by the holiday season and understood to be heighted during the autumn according to Chinese Medicine. Therapies like poetry, positive affect journaling, dance, yoga, qi gong can be directed to help us transmute the grief so we do not become only stuck in the emotion of loss. For support for the metal/autumn season visit element-wisdom.com and pick up a deck of wellness cards for yourself or a friend

Pressure Forms the Gemstone

Diamonds form from elemental carbon between 237,000 – 1.3 million times atmospheric pressure deep within the earth. Just like us, rocks and minerals are in a constant state of change. By the end of this crazy cycle, we should all have a trove of gemstones in our treasury. What gems are you creating in your life? your community? your family?

You are Precious

According to recent research “Self-affirmations can successfully increase adherence to recommended diet and health goals in the context of an mHealth app.”(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30026179/) During an acupuncture session, I have a patient choose an element wisdom card or choose one for them. Last week, I forgot to have the first patient of the day choose a card, so I sent it by text. I encouraged her to forward the picture to one or five of her beloveds. This is actually one of our ways to play (for 2 or more) Our element wisdom cards offer 73 daily affirmations, wisdoms, questions and health tips. Check our ways to play & purchase a seaonal gift today at element-wisdom.com

Don’t sweat the small stuff

Don’t sweat the small things. Being able to ‘pick your battles’ and never let little things ‘steal your happiness’ are important skills to ensuring your happiness. You cannot control every situation you are faced with, but you can control how you react.

Hydrate

 It is always important to stay hydrated. In the colder months it is easier to become dehydrated due to the drier air, the use of indoor heaters, and because the colder weather generally makes you desire water to quench your thirst less than the warmer months where you may use cold water to help cool you off. If you are noticing that your skin is getting drier chances are you aren’t getting enough water. While lotions are an important step in combating the drier air, hydration even for your skin begins on the inside (after all your skin is just another organ). For more fun & simple fall wellness tips purchase your own Metal/Fall card deck. 73 cards of inspiration, affirmation, direction and inquiry to help you have your best autumn yet! visit www.element-wisdom.com

Mirror. Mirror.

Today is look for circles day (November 2). In Chinese culture the circle shape is associated with the Metal/Fall season and represents oneness, unity and being fulfilled. Perhaps one of the most common circles we encounter in our daily lives are mirrors. It is in a mirror that we can physically reflect on ourselves, however it is possible to reflect without a mirror as well. Look for circles today, but more importantly, reflect on what makes you whole. One self-care practice that I invite some of my patients to incorporate into their daily lives is looking into their eyes in the mirror daily and speak aloud ‘I love you’ or ‘you, darling, are fabulous’ or some such phrase. It works to lo change how we see ourselves and how to accept compliments with grace. Will you accept this November challenge to voice and reflect love to yourself?

Visualize white light filling your lungs now

Support your lung health today. The lung and large intestine energy peaks during autumn. When out of balance, we may be stuck in prolonged grief or find ourselves excessively judgmental. A simple habit to balance the energy of the lungs is visualizing white light circulating – filling each lobe, and tracing the tree like branches of oxygenation within our internal landscape. Add the healing sound of the lung: shhhhhhhhh. Learn more at element-wisdom.com

Dry brush your skin today

Want a Fall wellness routine that is easy as it gets? Dry brush you skin just before you get in the shower. Brush in long strokes from the extremities toward the chest. This helps move the lymph along it’s pathways and supports your immune system. Brush through the joints not to the joints. Lymph is concentrated in the joints, in the belly, groin, arm pits and sides of the neck. Go on…..love yourself a little more today and brush off the dead skin cells for a more radiant you!

What do you see in the clouds today?

Our perception is everything. Go outside. Look up. What shapes do you see? Similar to the classic Rorscharh Ink Blot test, I’m curious what you see in the clouds this season.

 

Photo Credit: Pezibear

Food as Medicine for the Lung & Large Intestine

December is Pear Month. According to Chinese medicine, pears are cold in nature and enter our metal season organs: lung & large intestine. This fruit is big dietary in season medicine during the autumn. Pears regenerate body fluids while at the same time dissolve phlegm & mucus. They lubricate the throat, relieve cough and hoarse throat. Pears quench thirst, promote urination and bowel movements. They are detoxifying in nature and improve overall skin health (skin is the expression of the lung). One of my favorite ways to prepare pears during the holiday season is to poach them in chai spices and white wine. You might just fall in love with pears this season if you give it a go!

Invite Pungent Flavors

Pungent foods actually aid the body in relieving dampness, a frequent concern in the Fall months. Dampness is not the same thing as hydration. Dampness refers to an excess of fluid where it shouldn’t be, this may look like an excess of phlegm or swollen lymph nodes. One recipe I absolutely love that combines several of these pungent foods is this one: https://autoimmunewellness.com/turnip-radish-and-fennel-saute/

Tap your large intestine channel

Today is red apple day (December 1) It is said that an apple a day keeps the doctor away but what actual health benefits can be found in an apple? In Chinese Medicine the apple clears heat, eliminates, toxins, and tonifies Qi and Yin by entering through the lungs, stomach, spleen, heart, and large intestine. Rhubarb, licorice root, and hemp seeds are a few more foods you may find in your grocery store which can aid in large intestine ailments. Tapping your large intestine channel is a qi gong exercise to balance the energetic highway that runs from the nailpoint on your pointer (1st phalange – LI1) and crosses the body to the acupuncture LI21 which is located on the face, just below the outer boundary of your nostril.  Tapping 1 toward 21 increases/tonifies energy along the channel, while tapping 21 toward 1 reduces energy along the channel.

Bookmark

One of our many Ways to Play with element-wisdom card decks.

Happy book lover’s day (November 7). I love the feeling of real paper pages turning at my fingertips. Books are a wonderful tool for learning, relaxing, or traveling to a different place. One fun ‘Ways to Play’ with our element-wisdom cards is: bookmark.
Pick an element wisdom card with intention then use it as a bookmark between the pages of your current read, return a borrowed book to the library or a friend or donate a book with a special message to your neighborhood little library or a shop that has a reference library. What are some of your favorite books? What are you reading today? Currently I’m reading Becoming Supernatural by Joe Dispenza, Unshakable by

Tony Robbins and How to live without getting a job (it’s not what you might think) it’s about mastering the gig economy with heart in the highest good ’cause that is what a lot of us have been gifted during 2020 – creative work!! Visit element-wisdom.com to check out our cool ‘Ways to Play’ with your seasonal or constitutional deck! Follow us on social media for more insight and instruction on how to re-wild yourself back to source by harmonizing with seasonal wellness practices.

 

 

]]>