Every year we set New Year’s resolutions for ourselves we plan to achieve. But many times, we let these resolutions slip away. It turns out it can be harder than you think to turn those new year’s resolutions into reality.

To meet the goals, it will take discipline, hard work, practice, and patience. Here are seven tips on how you can achieve your goals this year.

  1. Make sure your goals are realistic

Don’t set goals that seem impossible. Make sure your goals are realistic. The more realistic they are, the more attainable they will be. We tend to become stressed when we are not achieving the goals set forth for ourselves. Don’t let this potential stress affect you, set realistic new year’s resolutions and reach them.

  1. Set small monthly goals that get bigger over time

Budget out your resolutions. Think about it. If you set a goal to lose 5 pounds during the first month of the new year and achieve it, you will be feeling great and confident you can do more. Try setting a goal of losing 10 pounds the following month, and slowly increase increments until you reach your desired goal.

  1. Stay focused on one goal

It can be easy to start off the new year with a ton of resolutions. You want to be healthier and more active. So, it is only normal for you to set a lot of goals for yourself. But remember, to reach your goals most effectively, you should focus on one specific goal at a time. Once you have completed that goal you can move on to the next one.

  1. You aren’t in this alone

Make sure you have a solid support system around you. Friends, family, colleagues, personal trainers, or workout partners are all great people to make up your support system. Build a support system that will encourage and empower you to reach the goals you have set out for yourself this new year.

  1. Believe in yourself

This may seem a little obvious but putting faith in yourself goes a long way. When the going gets tough it can be hard to truly believe you will achieve the goals set forth. So, take a deep breath, believe in yourself, you can do this!

  1. Front-of-mind awareness

Don’t forget about your New Year’s resolutions. Keep your resolutions in your front-of-mind awareness. Hold yourself accountable and remember your goals. Life can be busy, and at times feels as though it is moving too quickly. But if you keep your resolutions in mind, you can make them a reality.

  1. Start immediately

The truth is… you don’t need to start on January 1st. Pick a date on which you want to start, then write down what your goals are going to be. Remember, a goal that is not written down is simply a wish. As soon as you write down that New Year’s resolution, go out and start making the change happen. I know we have all been there. We are all guilty of having set New Year’s resolutions for ourselves that we don’t reach. This is mainly because we write the goal down and don’t do anything about it on Day 1. The best way to achieve your goal is one day at a time, if you miss a day, start again the very next day, never give up and one day you will look back and see that you have reached your goal and beyond.

We wish you the best of luck in setting and achieving your goals.

Today we have access to more things to help us heal than at any other time in history, one of the first and most important steps to healing is making sure you’re getting enough quality sleep every night for the body to do its internal restorative work. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) yang qi is what keeps our minds and bodies busy during the day and at night it goes internal to help a deeper detox and repair the systems of the body while the yin qi takes over externally to rest our conscious minds and shut down muscle activity. This yin/yang trade-off, when working in balance, is the very foundation of good health according to TCM.

The nature of yin is cool and calm. It’s associated with calm, darkness, and stillness…all the relaxing sensations you get when you’re genuinely resting. A body in a yin state will slow down its heart rate and metabolism. In Biomedicine (Western Medicine), this relates to the parasympathetic nervous system. Its main purpose aligns with yin qi: to keep us calm and conserve energy. While the sympathetic nervous system is what switches on our fight or flight response and is more correlated with Yang qi. Yang is expansive, stimulating, warming, and gets us moving. In general, yang qi is more accessible during the day, while yin qi dominates the nighttime.

Sleep disturbances are one of the main manifestations of too much yang and/ or not enough yin. To correct issues like insomnia we need to look at how we are living in accordance with that natural balance.

Here are 6 ways you might be throwing off your own sleep and wake cycles:

1) Ingesting Too Much Yang: Before bed, or in general, spicy food, alcohol, or stimulants can disturb sleep. Spicy food and alcohol causes heat in the system, which creates excess yang in the body. Too much coffee also keeps yang qi stuck at the surface to be available for activity. Even just having a large meal before bed can block the yang energy from going deep in the body at night.

2) Too Much Activity/Excitement: The yang qi is needed deep on the inside of the body at night, don’t hold it hostage with outward energy requirements. Stop exercising at least 90 minutes before bedtime. This allows for endorphin levels and body temperature to return to levels that are conducive to sleep. Try not to argue before bed, or even get too excited. Give yourself time to wind down & transition.

3) You need to Cool Down: Literally. Yin is associated with coolness. To invite your yin qi to come out at night keep the bedroom temperature between 60-67℉.

4) Too Much External Stimulation: Lights, especially blue light from tv’s, phones and computer screens prevent melatonin release in the body, making it harder to fall asleep. If you need to finish work on a computer, wear blue blocker glasses or get a blue light blocking screen cover for your computer. Also, yin time should be quiet time, it’s recommended that all electronics should be turned off about half an hour before bed to help calm the mind before bed.

5) Too Much Stress, Not Enough Rest: We live in a yang-obsessed world. This creates stress as many of us are over-worked and over-stimulated, while not always having time for a healthy self-care practice (meditation, Tai Ch, etc.). This leaves us with a restless mind (‘disturbed shen’ in TCM terms), and can keep us lying in bed exhausted, but unable to sleep. The challenge is to resist the modern-day pressure to keep up and create more self-care time to support a more balanced lifestyle.

6) Feng Shui of the bedroom:  A Feng Shui specialist can analyze the yin yang balance in your bedroom. For instance, the bed should be opposite the room’s door, but not directly in line with it (this is called the command position in feng shui). The headboard should be against a solid wall with balanced night tables on each side. It is also important to keep the area under the bed clear, not for storage. Many people find simple feng shui adjustments can have a perceptible effect on things like sleep and wake cycles.

In addition to these considerations for improving sleep, don’t forget the value of relaxing into a healing state on the acupuncture table. Acupuncture is a cost-effective self-care tool and can help reset your yin-yang balance for better sleep and overall health, call us today so we can help you get better sleep!

Chinese New Year is the most important holiday in China for good reason. Each new year brings new energies and opportunities. The celebration begins the day after the first new moon between January 21 and February 20 each year and lasts until the following full moon. These 2 weeks is a time of welcoming and aligning with the new energies. This year, the Chinese New Year falls on Feb 1st and festivities continue through Feb 15th, 2022. Each year has a corresponding element and animal of the Chinese zodiac. 2022 is a water-tiger year that holds a lot of promise for an exciting, productive year.

This water-tiger year is in gear to be a faster-paced, more passionate year after a slower year of the Ox (2021) and a very challenging year of the Rat (2020). The tiger has been sleeping, awaiting his time for action. 2022 has great potential to be a year of change because of the energy of the tiger: brave, self-assured, and ready to pounce. Individually we might be inspired to embark on new adventures, such as travel or moving, or starting a new business. Collectively, there may be an energetic shaking off of stagnation brought on by the past couple of years of the pandemic. It will be a year of exploring new ideas, and not shying away from challenges. If energy is not allowed to flow (individually and/or collectively) there may be some restlessness or unpredictable behaviors. It is also important to balance the aggressive energy of the tiger with times of rest. Even tigers take cat naps. This is a water year, so the yin energy of the water can help to balance the fierce fiery nature of the tiger.

Master Lu's Health Center, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture, Cupping, Herbal Medicine, Moxibustion, Tai Chi, Kung Fu, Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year, Year of the Tiger, 2022

In terms of health for this year, keep that balance in mind. Get moving, embrace life, face challenges, and be brave but take time for relaxation, meditation, and proper sleep. The tiger is associated with the liver and gallbladder organs as well as the lung channel. We can give some extra support to these systems this year by:

For extra luck this year:

Chinese New Year food traditions are empowered with symbology. The idea is to signify prosperity and abundance with traditions such as cooking extra food to make sure there are leftovers and cooking coin-shaped cookies or dumplings representing pockets of money. Traditions can be considered ritualistic practices that help to infuse our lives with meaning and intention. And cooking is such a delicious opportunity to bring rituals into our celebrations.

Enjoy this dumpling recipe in celebration of the year of the Tiger. Just remember to fill them with not only the physical ingredients but your own intentions for a prosperous healthy new year!

Ingredients:

Dumpling wrappers (home-ade or store-bought)

Sesame oil

filling:

Cooked & chopped Chicken or Tofu (white color to support lungs)

Cooked & chopped dark leafy greens (support liver blood)

Pungent spices like fresh ginger and black pepper (open/move lung qi)

for dipping:

Soy sauce

Rice wine vinegar (helps to relieve liver stagnation)

Chopped green onions (benefit lung qi)

Happy New Year of the Water-Tiger!

Don’t forget to make acupuncture part of your new year’s celebration and get in for some treatments to fortify your own inner-tiger vitality and get the most out of 2022! Call today to schedule your Acupuncture appointment! Rawr!

If you feel like you’re battling frequent colds, a cough that won’t quit, or just seem to be tired all the time, it may benefit you to find time for a daily walk or simple exercise routine. Doing this a few times per week can have many health benefits and help build your immune system. Viruses such as COVID-19 take hold in our bodies when our immune systems are at their weakest points. Below are a few ways to help increase your immune function so your body can function as it’s meant to and stay balanced!

Exercise

A scientific review conducted in 2019 in the Journal of Sport and Health Science found that exercise can improve your immune response, lower illness risk, and reduce inflammation. This study reported on immune system reactions to those who partook in moderate to vigorous physical activity lasting less than an hour. The author of the study, David Nieman, stated that “Because exercise increases blood and lymph flow as your muscles contract, it also increases the circulation of immune cells, making them roam the body at a higher rate and at higher numbers.” This shows that increased exercise helps increase your immune system function thus giving you a better chance at staying healthy. There are many reasons that exercise is recommended when it comes to nurturing a healthy immune system. One reason is because of your body temperature; as you work out, your body temperature rises during and after exercise which helps to prevent bacteria from growing, thus helping to fight infection. Additionally, physical activity helps to flush bacteria out of your lungs and even slows the release of stress hormones (cortisol) which is also known to hinder the immune function.

Overindulging on Alcohol

If you drink every day or frequently, you may notice that you are more susceptible to catching colds, and drinking is shown to dramatically impair the immune system.

If you have a hard time refraining from drinking, these self-massaging acupuncture points help the body release toxins, control cravings, and become more grounded.

Liver 3: Located on the top of the foot. Start in the space between the big toe and the second toe, now walk your fingers back along that depression onto the top of your foot until you run into a bone and you can’t go any further. This is Liver 3. It helps to balance the liver energy of the body and helps reduce stress.

Large Intestine 11: Located on the lateral elbow, at the end of the elbow crease. Large Intestine 11 clears toxins from the body, as well as releasing heat. It also balances digestion and helps to regulate body temperature.

Excessive Sugar Intake

When you look at a nutrition label, what’s the first ingredient you look for? For many of us, we’ve been trained to look for the calorie count per serving, but did you know that The American Heart Association recommends that we limit our sugar intake too? The AHA suggests that men eat less than 36 grams (9 tsp) of sugar per day and that women have no more than 24 grams (6 tsp). To add perspective, the average person eats nearly 15 teaspoons of sugar each day (that’s almost double the recommended amount)! Why is the consumption of sugar an issue? When we consume sugar, our bodies break it down and become inflamed. This decreases our immunity because it weakens the white blood cells’ ability to fight off infection! If you have a sweet tooth and want to make a sweet treat that also optimizes your immune function, try making this TCM herbal tea below:

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Master Lu has been practicing Acupuncture and Chinese martial arts for over 40 years. He was one of the first Licensed Acupuncturist in the state of Utah. He was trained in Taiwan in both Acupuncture and Chinese martial arts mainly Northern Shaolin Kung Fu and Old Yang Style Tai Chi. Master Lu was also twice national champion for full contact fighting in Taiwan.

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