Heaven follows the momentum of the Tao; Earth follows the laws of Heaven; Human beings follow the laws of Earth.
In this ordering of Universal energy, we are both followers of and co-creators in the flow. With our life-force we create momentum and thus destiny.
Through our Jing, Qi, and Shen we bring the presence of balance or imbalance to self and surroundings.
✍️Wendy Brown, Lic. Ac.
Unsurprisingly, some people initially express some concern about needles that are used in acupuncture treatment. On occasion, the concern may verge on a phobia of needles in general, which would likely deter the person from seeking acupuncture treatment that they may derive great benefit from, due to a vague and undifferentiated grouping of needles, and how they were applied. Here is an important visual to lend perspective to the extent to which acupuncture needles are finer than needles that people may have previously encountered. 
Used for acupuncture, needles are almost exclusively constructed of stainless steel (although infrequently, of zinc, gold, or copper). They are pre-sterilized, fine-gauge, with no hollow space to transmit or extract a liquid substance. Acupuncture needles are inserted to varying depths from shallowly beneath the skin to a depth that depends upon structural location and patient’s personal build. The needles used are usually silicon-coated to create an extremely smooth blade surface, and they are completed with an ethylene oxide gas sterilization which can keep individually packaged needles sterile for approximately 5 years. Needle gauge, or thickness, and needle length vary considerably depending upon factors from anatomical terrain, to patient comfort level, to desired outcomes of treatment, most commonly. Nearly all acupuncture needles are intended for single use and are to be disposed of in bio-hazard waste containers, and discarded accordingly.
Xi Wangmu’s Instructions
to The Yellow Emperor
Drinking and gobbling up food, your body will never be light. Fretting and worrying, your Spirit will never be pure. Craving sounds and sights, your Heart will never be calm. Without calmness of Heart, your Spirit will never be numinous. Not numinous of Spirit, the Tao cannot work its wonders. Success is not in homage or worship, which rather make you suffer and exhaust the body. 
Success is in deepening the Spirit powers of your Heart. There is no effort needed, the Tao of Immortality is there!
NOW YOU CAN LIVE LONG
✍️Wendy Brown, Lic. Ac.
With chill in the air it is of particular importance to recognize our need for nourishing foods. Along with the cold, autumn brings the seasonal influence of dryness. Fall is a time of contraction; when our bodies and the natural surroundings tighten and contract to maintain warmth. Rather than salads, raw juices, and foods that are chilled, which appeal in summer and late summer seasons, in transitioning to fall it becomes essential that our food be nourishing, grounding, and that it secure warmth within.
In fall we build our bodily stores for winter. Nuts are good food and whole grains such as millet and sweet rice are a must. Paramount in autumn are roasted root vegetables such as parsnip, sweet potato, beets, turnip, rutabaga, leeks, and carrots, which provide nourishing starches, vitamins, build protein-rich stores, and offer a balanced warming nature that is especially beneficial now. Winter squashes offer similar nourishment to that of root vegetables. Cooking methods of roasting, stewing, sautéing, and mashing offer plenty of versatility in the preparation of root vegetables and winter squashes. Ripened pears and persimmon are autumn’s perfect medicinal fruit offerings which nourish and replenish the yin of the lungs and stomach, bringing balance to the effects of seasonal dryness.
With there always being a fine line between nourishing and clogging the body, it is best to keep food portions reasonably light and to cook everything well now, and throughout the upcoming more inactive season of winter to therefore enhance digestion. Nourishment from food is the source of strengthening Wei Qi which wards externally pernicious wind invasion and prevents colds and flu from setting in. This is now the time to reduce coffee and other stimulant foods. In the phase of autumn, slowing down, building reserves, and grounding for the eventuality of winter, we remain in rhythm with the expectations of the season, and continue regardless of the excesses of the season, to cultivate good health and wisdom.
With all best wishes for
good health and well being
The Heart never stops storing impressions and yet it also knows emptiness. From birth, we have the capacity to know things by creating distinctions, differentiations, divisions, partiality, and thus duality; and yet also the Heart presence knows unity. In its experiencing, the Heart keeps moving, and yet also knows stillness. When the mind is used, it reflects. When the Heart sleeps, it dreams. When it takes its ease, it indulges in wandering in reverie. The pure essence of the present instills unification of Heart and mind.
✍️Wendy Brown, Lic. Ac.
According to the Lingshu, a classical text in Chinese medicine known as the Celestial Pivot, the adverse influence of wind was considered so great that the sages ‘avoided the winds like avoiding arrows and stones.’ Like the sages mentioned in the Lingshu, we are all cautioned to avoid even subtle exposure to wind. The wind is considered a ‘pernicious influence’ in Chinese medicine. In ancient times, distinctions in wind were made relative to the bagua directions of the I Ching; each of which yields a certain pathological influence.
Adaptation from prose of Song Yü, 4th Century BCE
A gust of wind blows in. How pleasant a thing is this wind which is shared by all people. Wind is a Spirit of Heaven and Earth. It does not choose between noble and base, nor between high and low. Wind-Spirit comes to different things but wind is not all the same.
It follows the rolling flanks of mountains and dances beneath the pine trees and cypresses. In gusty bouts it whirls. It rushes in fiery anger. It rumbles low with a noise like thunder, tearing down rocks and trees, smiting forests and grasses. Once at last abating, it spreads abroad, seeking empty places and crossing the thresholds of rooms. Growing gentler and clearer, it changes and is dispersed and dies. Freeing itself, wind falls and rises. It bends the flowers and leaves with its breath. It wanders among the osmanthus and pepper-trees. It lingers over the fretted face of the pond to steal the soul of the hibiscus. It touches the willow leaves and scatters the fragrant herbs. Then it pauses in the courtyard and turning to the North goes up to the Jade Hall, shaking the hanging curtains and lightly passing into interior rooms. Wind is fresh and sweet to breathe, and its gentle murmuring cures the diseases of men, blows away the stupor of wine, sharpens sight and hearing, and refreshes the body.
There is also wind that is ill-wind; wind which rises from narrow lanes and streets, carrying clouds of dust. Rushing to empty spaces it attacks the gateway, scatters the dust-heap, sends the cinders flying, pokes among foul and rotting things, till at last it enters the tiled windows and reaches the rooms of a cottage. Now this wind is heavy and turgid, oppressing a wo/man’s heart. It brings fever to the body, ulcers to lips and dimness to eyes. It shakes one with coughing and weakens a person before their time.
Xing Ming Gui Zhi 性命圭旨 [1615], Taoist texts bearing theory on innate nature and the preservation of life force through inner alchemy. “Physical form and Spirit are together marvelous disciples of the Way; Innate disposition and lifespan are mutually perfected.”
✍️ Wendy Brown, Lic. Ac.
In Chinese medicine we are taught from the perspective of cosmological wholeness. Humans are understood to be integral aspects of nature, embodiments of the same life force and flow as everything else in the natural order of the universe. From this holistic perspective, the wisdom of Chinese medicine advises that people undertake behaviors befitting the progression of the seasons since the influences occurring in nature have inextricable influence on human physiology. Springtime is the the season that nourishes and renews life from the contracted state of winter’s introspection and containment. It is the season of beauty and harmony; a time to roam through gardens and forests, leisurely sitting and absorbing tranquil sights, sounds, and fragrances. It is against the dynamics of nature in this time of bursting forth to dwell upon things or become morose. Spring is a time to be rid of stagnant energy. The energy that encourages budding and regeneration is experienced by all of the natural world.
Heaven and Earth are enlivened and the ten thousand things may now begin to grow luxuriantly
Renewed warmth of the sun’s rays kindles growth and the wind stirs motion. This stirring, upward energy can have influence on disease conditions that have lurked beneath the surface, activating their expression with the heightened dynamics of the wood element. In early spring [from February to April, according to the Chinese calendar] weather is erratic; cold wind at one moment then hot sun the next, and since most people suffer some form of chronic imbalance, this advancing and shifting of influences may also cause people to feel tired and weak. Chronic ailments flare easily under these conditions and therefore we should encourage suppleness of the Liver.
Artwork by Liu Yunfang, Shandong Province
Gao Lian, Ming dynasty medical scholar and poet, elaborated upon the season of spring as discussed in the Huang Di Neijing Su Wen, the doctrinal source of Chinese medicine for more than two millennia.
• Spring is the time to discharge the stale energy of winter’s storage and confinement. In spring one should behave in such a way that new life is nourished so that growth can occur in summer.
• Get up early. Walk. Let your hair down. Garden. Do T’ai chi. Relax and make your body supple.
• Reward, fortify and promote all life. Do not kill, deprive, or punish, as these contrary actions damage the Liver.
• Seek to give, not take. Be agreeable and have a benevolent bearing.
• Eat less sour food in order to prevent excess in the Liver, and eat more mildly sweet food to shore the Spleen which is suppressed by excess the wood element.
• Avoid drinking alcohol, coffee, and food and drink that agitate the harmony of Liver Qi.
• Show restraint in eating the commonly eaten foods that have a tendency to harm the integrity of the Spleen and Stomach.
• Do not simply use herbs to overcome stagnation. If there is no sign of disease the need to take medicines is lessened. [Converse to the advice to nourish with foods and tonifying medicinals in the previous two Yin seasons of winter and autumn].
There was moonlight, the trees were blossoming, and a faint wind softened the air of night, for it was spring.
~Li Bai, from ‘Clearing at Dawn’
Humans depend on Qi between Heaven and Earth for existence, and on the law of the seasons. Life destiny lies in balance.
Tranquil and highly efficient culinary and lifestyle arts are expressions from China’s antiquity. China has long-understood the ways in which the heart of human life unifies with nature – and in early spring it is all about peach the blossom! Here are 3 delicacies from the peach blossom: 1. Petals dried on hot rocks and infused into tea. 2. Dessert (milk from Liziqi’s flock, lotus root starch, rock sugar). 3. Peach blossom infused honey.
WELCOME SPRING!
When Lǐ Qīngyún 李清雲 was 105 years old, he traveled to Pingliang County in Gansu province of Tibet to collect herbs. In the Kunlung mountains Li met a hermit who was much older than he. Li asked the elder for the secret of long life, and the old hermit laughed, saying, “Why are you asking me? Aren’t you doing quite well on your own?”
“Ren Shen參, Zhu Ling猪苓, Ling Zhi靈芝, and the orchid are herbs of longevity,” the hermit said. “The mountains, forests, and the wilderness are all places of quietude. Nature is the secret of longevity, and you have all of this, so why are you asking me?” But, Li was persistent, even begging the elder. The old hermit spoke of some breathing [Qigong] and a word of dietary advice to follow.
After his encounter with the elder, Li recruited three Taoist adepts to go to Emei Mountain, a famous Taoist mountain in Sichuan province, to live in practice of these ways. There, Li built a hut and taught the methods to the others. According to Li, within a few years he was able to abstain from grains [bìgǔ 辟谷], learning to lighten the body.
Exercises practiced every day, regularly, correctly, and with sincerity, Li was able to achieve the power of Bìgǔ, attested to by the brightness of his eyes and the sharpness of his senses. He was full of energy, exceeding his former self. At that time he was already 140 years old, but the people who met him said he looked like he was in his 40s.
Li remained at Mei Mountain for about 100 years. The number of his followers grew to around 100; all baby-faced, white-haired elders, each over 100 years old. After the Manchu Dynasty ended and the Republic was born, Li decided that he was quite old now and decided to move to the Chen Compound in Kaixian 开縣.
What annoyed Mr. Li was that living in the town was just too noisy and there were too many social functions. Some people there challenged him, openly telling him that they did not believe him to be 250 years old. He showed no sign of anger, but his answer on one occasion revealed his displeasure. “Why should I tell a lie?”, he would say. “It’s up to you whether you believe it or not. If you believe I have lived 250 years, it doesn’t benefit me. If you don’t believe, it doesn’t hurt me. But I have to tell you, during my life I have never lied and I have never cheated.”
Rest and exercise should compliment one another. Rest with little physical exertion tends to be harmful to the body; long-term sitting being harmful to the muscles, and lying down for extended periods harms the Qi. It can be concluded that even with good diet and rest, but without physical exercise, the entire system is burdened.
Harmony is the essential characteristic of the Chinese philosophy of health. Everything from Heaven and Earth, to the seasons, to the five elements, to the human body, must remain harmonious with the Tao [Universal Qi] in order to maintain its existence. To preserve vital Qi we must learn to flow with the Tao and seek harmony and balance. In this way, moderation is key.
Choose suitable, individualized, daily physical exercise to reduce stress and the hazards of disease. It should be noted that lifting and bearing beyond one’s true strength harms to the body. Qi Gong, T’ai Chi, and yoga are excellent practices to promote healthy organ functioning, nervous system, and circulation among plentiful other benefits.
