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Accessing Your Three Treasures for Health, Vitality and Inner Radiance in 2018!

The Zen of Beauty

You are a walking candle! In this new year, how bright will you be shining as you give your presence to the world and to your loved ones? There is a way to measure and increase your vitality and inner radiance and to manage your health. But where do you start? It starts with your Three Treasures. In Chinese Medicine, which is based on Taoism, there is a system called the Three Treasures: your Jing, your Chi and your Shen.

The JING is the candle BASE, your foundation, your bones, your structure and your constitution. It is your prenatal jing or genetics, passed down to you from your parents at birth or in the womb.

It gives you your features, your eyes and ears, your facial shape,  and every detail of your physical blueprint that makes you who you are today. Every feature has its own character definition, so to speak. Add up all these characteristics and it makes up the uniqueness that is you, which no one else is, or could ever be!

Your CHI is the WICK of the candle. It is how you manage your energy. Good lifestyle choices and habits, along with great thoughts and emotions, will produce powerful chi in your life—and vice versa! Your chi is also generated through your breathing and the optimal nutrition that you take in (or the opposite). Your chi nourishes and supports your Jing. It is the fuel for your furnace.

How do you express yourself, your unique chi? It will be through the movement, relationships and expressions of one or more of the five elements: Earth, fire, water, wood or metal. All parts of nature, including our bodies, are made up of these five dynamic phases of nature, which are also tied to each feature on your face. Are you balanced in each of these five elements?

The SHEN is your spirit energy—the FLAME of the candle. The Shen energy resides in your heart. It radiates through your meridians, the light in your eyes and the glow on your skin. This is the special spirit energy that you give to others that makes their day. It is your smile that lights the room and ignites someone’s special life. It can be conveyed in a handshake or a kind word. The Shen is the part we want to most be concerned about. It is your true vitality, your candle shining in the darkness of winter.

Now, there is one more of these Chinese names and that is your MING. Your Ming is the coming into being of your pure essence; it is called your Golden Path. Through your ming, you endow the Earth with your purpose—on purpose! It is not what you do, but HOW you do it—or how you just BE it. It is about living a purposeful life using all your gifts and talents.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, we have ways to assess the current state of your Three Treasures and we offer the means to increase and optimize those treasures. I offer a Five Element Face Reading, which includes an assessment of your Three Treasures. The first 15-minute consultation is free. At the Zen of Beauty, revealing your inner beauty and radiance is my joy!

Know Thyself Through Thy Face Workshop on January 21

Posted: January 10, 2018

Five Element Face Reading in Chinese Medicine. – Participants receive one hour of study of the Five Elements and how it relates to Chinese Medicine and the art of face reading. This knowledge can help you improve health…

East Meets West for Facial Rejuvenation

The Zen of Beauty

Microcurrent Technology with Color Light Therapy

Aging has to do with the root (the cause) and the branch (the effect) according to Chinese medicine. The root is the depletion of our kidney yin and yang qi (also called our essence or vitality). This has something to do with genetics as well as how well we use our Jing (our life force)—one of the Three Treasures in Chinese medicine theory. One factor in the depletion of our Jing is the loss of our natural hormones as we age, partly our fire energy. Bottom line is that we need all the help we can get to reenergize our body to produce qi.

Let me tell you about a technology that mimics your own natural current of electricity at a cellular level to help you rejuvenate your body as well as your facial skin.

Microcurrent Electrical Neuromuscular Stimulation (MENS), commonly referred to as Microcurrent Therapy, has been supported with more than 40 years of research. It was first used in the medical and
physiotherapy fields for whole-body healing and was soon discovered as a great tool for facial rejuvenation. For the past 15 years, numerous microcurrent devices have been made available to the
practitioners in the healing arts and estheticians for facial enhancement and skin rejuvenation. Further study has shown that MENS stimulates the ATP (the energy current in the cells), strengthens the production of the collagen and elastin protein fibers, and increases muscle tone as well.

Color Light Therapy has arrived into mainstream usage and scientific validation in recent years. It also rejuvenates the cells, with each color application having a different nourishing action. For
instance, green gives support to the tonification of the muscle as well as balances the skin and body. Blue helps to reduce inflammation and has an antibacterial effect. Red helps increase
circulation.

I have been using microcurrent combined with color therapy for facial rejuvenation for 13 years and have found amazing results for my clients especially when treatments are given in a series of ten or more. The two combined have helped my clients not only with anti-aging but also with any type of acne, and even rosacea, or whenever there is inflammation of the skin.

Applying key ingredients in products with active vitamins and plant nutrients for the skin to support the skin daily are also important. People of any age (women and men) can benefit from this wonderful, regenerative technology. I always keep in mind the whole person and, according to Chinese medine principles, we balance not only the skin but also the body—we work with the root to
enhance the beauty of the branch. After all, the skin is an organ (the body’s largest) and the skin is only reflective of what is going on inside the body. Treating the facial skin stimulates all of the meridian pathways (acupressure/reflex points) and by this you are treating the whole body’s energetic systems. Add gentle facial cupping and nourishing masks to your treatments and your
skin and body will altogether be renewed—head to toe!

Thank God for the ancient wisdom of the east—coupled with technology of the west—to help us combat the aging process! Want to learn more? You can start by watching my 3-minute
introductory video:

Know Thyself Through Thy Face

The Zen of Beauty

See the magazine article

I find the best way to love someone is not to change them, but instead, to help them reveal the greatest version of themselves.
—Author Steve Maraboli

Discovering keys to improve your inner and outer health and well-being… getting in touch with your true nature and aligning with it… living and fulfilling your life’s purpose… finding your golden path… It’s all in your face!

Each unique feature of your face tells a story about you, your character, what you like and what you don’t—why you like it and why not! How each feature is shaped, its size and length, how it protrudes or doesn’t—your eyes, ears and nose, your lips and chin, even your eyebrows, their shape and angle, their sparse or bushy hair—tells a story.

For instance, someone with ears that protrude from their head means they like their ideas to stand out in this world—definitely not a conformist. This is great if they are independent thinkers and can manifest their idea in life, but if they find themselves in a stifling corporate environment, it could be hard, unless they are the entrepreneurs. Someone who has a long, straight nose pointed downward is a trailblazer who gets the job done. High cheekbones? You would be better off to let them be in charge to get the job done. They have high standards and won’t be pushed around. It will be “my way or the highway” with them. A strong protruding chin? Yes, they’re stubborn and they’ll never give up. Having a strong will is a virtue, of course, but having a personal relationship with this person could be difficult, especially if YOU have a strong chin also!

Someone with deep-set eyes is usually an introvert and somewhat private, so don’t try to push them in front of a crowd to perform, and don’t expect them to disclose too much even in private unless they really know you. By contrast, someone with large eyes usually has deep emotions and is sensitive to their own and others’ feelings, so watch out if this person goes to a sentimental movie with you. You may find them crying a lot—their feelings are right on the surface ready to bubble over.

While knowing these features and traits about yourself is one thing, living in close relationship with others and staying true to yourself while accepting the habits and influences of those you’re close to, is another thing. That’s where knowing thyself, with your original talents and unique character, is key to keeping your balance in the face of life’s challenging relationships.

Thanks to Chinese Medicine, there’s a road map to your journey through life—the Three Treasures. Honor yourself through these three: The Jing (your genetics, inherited gifts and talents), the Shen (your unique spirit energy that shines in your eyes and emanates through your glowing smile and skin), and the Chi (the fuel that you access through your food and lifestyle choices and the breath of life). Nurturing these treasure is the secret to longevity and to living in harmony with your being and with life.

These three treasures can be read on your face. They are the keys to revealing the greatest version of yourself and of those you love. To learn more, please join me for both the upcoming free introductory class and the three-hour workshop.

[As seen in the September/October 2017 issue of Natural Life News.]

Your Face Tells the Truth

The Zen of Beauty

They say that we are what we eat. Well, as we wear our emotions on your face, over time, those expressions become permanent, until we decide to change how we respond to life. So, yes, food excesses and imbalances will show up on the face, and emotions out of balance for a long time will show up there, too, as indicators of what we need to work on to improve our overall health.

The face is a hologram for the entire body. We can actually see what is going on with our health by looking closely at our face. Each marking, line and pigmentation will provide a clue as to what is going on in the body and the emotions.

For example, we will want to look for a change in the coloring of the face, swelling, enlargement of the nose, any new lines developing, and any new markings, whether it be hyperpigmentation or breakouts, especially when the pattern repeats itself frequently in the same area.

In Chinese Medicine, the face has been studied for over 2,000 years to reveal how we are managing our stress and how that affects our health over time.

Look over the above illustration and take note of the different organ area as zones on the face and see how you might be managing your life. The good news is you can change your face through right diet, right thought, by managing your emotions, and by using the right tools for healthy living—at any age! And, of course, healing treatments like facials, massage, acupuncture, and aromatherapy can go a long way to keep the body, mind and emotions balanced and to help manage stress. Know thyself through thy face!

Come in for your free mini-consultation, and a facial reading with me, so we can get you on the right track of your whole-body, facial rejuvenation!

Are You Manifesting Your Beauty From the Inside Out?

The Zen of Beauty

(As seen in the May/June 2017 issue of Natural Life News & Directory.)

Have you ever met someone who glows from the inside out, and yet, their appeal has little or nothing to do with their physical appearance? In Oriental Medicine, based on Taoism, this inner radiance is described as “Bright Shen or Significant Shen,” meaning bright spirit. These individuals are lit from within and have no problem expressing that through their eyes—and even their skin.

How do we access this kind of inner-to-outer beauty? We balance our mind and our emotions, which in return, affects our health and our overall radiance.

Chinese Medicine has used face reading as a way to access information about what is going on inside the body and mind. Ancient Chinese practitioners considered the control of the five emotions, based on the five elements, to be key to inner and outer beauty, health and vitality. These five emotions are called the five rebels of the body and need to be kept under control: fear from the kidneys, anger from the liver, joy from the heart, worry from the spleen and stomach, and sorrow or grief from the lungs. All of these emotions are necessary and have value when used in balance; however, overuse or underuse of these emotions can cause harm to the organ to which they belong.

Each of these emotions also affects the face in specific ways. For example, dark circles under the eyes can indicate depletion in the kidneys as a result of overuse of fear. When anger is overused, it can create deep lines between the brows. Worry can cause the chi to stagnate, causing unclear thinking and incomplete digestion, and this shows in eyes that appear to have a lost look—glazed or unfocused. Too much excitement in the emotions can lead to chronic redness in the neck, throat and face. Grief can show as a deadness of the shen, where the eyes do not sparkle. Feeling and/or expressing these negative emotions too often will affect the organs and the body, and eventually show up on the face as a lack of overall radiance, as unwanted lines and wrinkles, and as other signs of premature aging.

Three modalities, based on Chinese Medicine, that can help include:

1) Shiatsu (finger pressure on key points on the meridian lines of the face and body) to unblock or balance the energy of the organ systems.

2) Cupping on the back can help to remove stagnation of the chi.

3) Aromatherapy, based on the five elements, using specific essential oils on specific acupressure points to balance the mental, emotional, and physical bodies for deep, restorative healing.

Facial rejuvenation, using micro-current, and light-therapy, and facial cupping, can also help to move the chi, and also working with the meridian acupressure points, resulting in diminishing or softening of some facial lines and wrinkles.

Come into your balance this spring. Move that stagnant chi for your inner and outer beauty and heath transformation!

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Three Dynamic Treatments for Face and Body Rejuvenation

The Zen of Beauty

Do you wonder why facial skin, or your body’s skin for that matter, ages faster for some more than for others? It has to do with your Jing, your Qi and your Shen! These are the Three Treasures in Chinese medicine: The Jing is your primordial energy; the Qi (or Chi) is your everyday energy;  the Shen is your spirit energy.

Western medicine would say that your Jing is your genetics, the food you eat to give you energy is your Qi, and the Shen is your inner happiness. An apt analogy would be a candle—the wax is the Jing, the wick is the Qi, and the flame is the Shen. A lack or depletion of any of these three will create an imbalance, which will cause you to weaken and to age prematurely, which can show up on your skin. What is the solution to all these imbalances that life brings, with all its stresses and challenges? Find good ways to balance your life and nourish your body, mind and spirit—your Three Treasures. Here are a few tips:

  1. Cook your own food with nutrient rich ingredients that are organic and fresh in season. For medicinal value, add fresh herbs and spices. Explore Chinese herbs for nutrient-rich fortification of the cells.
  2. Detox your body seasonally.
  3. Exercise daily, moderately; walking is one of the best. Use a rebounder 10 minutes a day. Do QiGong, Tai Chi or Yoga, including deep, diaphragmatic breathwork.
  4. Do meditation and enjoy quiet time and other tools to unwind and let go of out-of-balance emotions from your day.
  5. Find a way to serve life (family, friends, the needy) in a way that nourishes your soul and spirit.

At The Zen of Beauty, I recommend three treatments to add to your daily routines that will nourish the Three Treasures, for beautiful, radiant skin and to balance your emotions and relieve stress:

Energetic Acupressure Massage ~ This treatment helps to not only balance the emotions but also opens up all the meridian channels to get the Qi moving in the body. It also invigorates the flow of blood and lymph.

Microcurrent Facial Rejuvenation ~ The Microcurrent uses the same electrical frequency that the body naturally has when you’re in optimal health. This special current awakens the ATP in the cells, prompting them to rejuvenate. This dynamic action works not only on the face, but also triggers rejuvenation for the whole body, since the face is a hologram for the entire body. Using the microcurrent probes, along with color-light-therapy, and targeting the acupressure points will build up collagen and strengthen the elastin fibers, softening the skin to its original suppleness. A hydration mask and antioxidants are also prepared and applied to the skin to penetrate deep within the dermal layers. These help to tone and tighten the muscles and soften fine lines and wrinkles.

AromaPoint Therapy ~ This applies pure essential oils to the designated acupressure points that are key for face and body rejuvenation and life balancing. You will notice an increase in both the Shen and the Qi. This treatment can be done as a supporting add-on with any facial or massage.

There is so much more to teach and share with you! Please come in for your free 15-minute consultation, for a face reading from the viewpoint of Chinese Medicine, and to find out what we can do together for your dynamic face and body rejuvenation!  

Aromatherapy for Winter Transformations

The Zen of Beauty

 

Have you ever wondered what oils might bring you warmth and comfort, free you from depression, keep you balanced, and help your immune system stay strong this winter?

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, winter is a time for going within and for stillness. This will support and nourish the kidney and bladder energies—what is called the water element.

Essential oils can be used on acupressure points to rejuvenate the body, mind and spirit. These points are found throughout the body and are keys to the opening of the meridian system. They move the qi (your animating life-force) to support and nourish the blood and to stimulate the corresponding glands and organs.

To create warmth, strengthen your energy, and bring circulation to the kidneys and bladder, here are a few oils and some easy point locations to use for self-balance this winter:

Ginger essential oil can be used on the belly button, warming your core; this can also benefit digestion.

Atlas Cedarwood can be used just below your navel and on the inside back of the ankle, where the hollow area is, for stimulating the kidneys.

For a sluggish lymph system, for water retention, and to decongest and support circulation throughout the body but especially in the legs, Geranium, Cypress or Juniper can be applied to the inside of the lower leg from the ankle to the top of the inside of the knee. These oils are for moving the blood and stagnant lymph in the legs and to strengthen the water element.

FATIGUE, DEPRESSION & IMMUNE SYSTEM

Frankincense is a great remedy for depression, which comes sometimes with winter with its shortened days and less sun exposure. Frankincense also stimulates the immune system. It can be used on the inside of the wrist, where all the meridians pass through the body, along both sides of the spine, where the meridians to all the organs are accessed, along the front centerline of the body, where the great yin vessel is, and finally, directly on the spine, where the yang vessel line is that controls the electrical system and its energy flow throughout the body. In addition, Frankincense can be used to clear the sinuses and lungs: apply it on the chest and to the sinus acupressure points on each side of the nostrils.

BALANCING & NURTURING

Geranium can be used on the bellybutton for supporting, nurturing, balancing and centering. This oil can also be used on the wrists. It is called “the mother of all oils.” Its nature is sweet. It has the ability to strengthen the qi and encourage blood flow. For stabilizing female hormones for all ages, Geranium can be applied on the inside of the leg four fingers above the ankle.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THESE OILS

Essential oils can work on many levels; they will help you physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, based on the constituents of each oil. Here are some thoughtforms for five of these oils taken from Gabriel Mojay’s Aromatherapy for Healing the Spirit: Restoring Emotional and Mental Balance with Essential Oils:

  •  Ginger—Initiative, self-confidence, accomplishment
  •  Geranium—Security, receptivity, intimacy
  •  Cypress—Transition, transformation, renewal
  •  Juniper—Fortification, unburdening, empowering
  •  Frankincense—Tranquil contemplation, spiritual liberation

Come to The Zen of Beauty for a free 15-minute aromatherapy session, to find out which oils are best for you.

Body Cupping for Tight Muscles and Skin Rejuvenation

The Zen of Beauty

How can cupping can benefit overall body health:

  • Unlocks tight muscles
  • Releases stagnant lymph
  • Removes toxins

Do you ever feel you are all bottled up from the chest up to the neck? Cupping is a traditional, time-honored treatment favored by millions worldwide because it is safe, comfortable, and remarkably effective for many disorders. When cups are applied to the skin, suction is created that increases the flow of blood and chi to an area of blockage or injury.

Don’t want those round skin marks?
Not to worry—these don’t occur when cups are gently moved during therapy. This gentle pulling action engages the parasympathetic nervous system, thus allowing a deep relaxation to move through the entire body. It is not unusual to fall asleep when receiving this treatment. People are often surprised at how relaxed, warm, and light they feel for hours—sometimes days—afterwards.

Body Cupping Therapy causes tissues to release toxins, stimulates the movement of the lymph and circulatory systems, clears colon blockages, reduces stretch marks and varicose veins, eases chronic pain, and relaxes stiff muscles and tendons. On a deeper therapeutic level, cupping can resolve asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety, fatigue, and headaches—just to name a few. It helps open the chest and clear the lungs, thus improving respiratory problems. The most dramatic effects can be upon the skin and the blood flow in the arteries and veins, resulting in detoxification.

Facial cupping
The facial cups are smaller in size and are used to vacuum and lift the facial tissue, increasing lymph drainage. Facial cupping also increases the circulation and absorption of the nutrients in facial products used in the treatment. The drainage of stagnant areas in the face can reduce edema and chronic puffiness under the eyes.

How cupping can be used
1) Along with massage, cups can be applied on the back to open up the fascia and release the muscles. Ten minutes of cupping can produce great results. Warm rocks can be used beforehand to warm cold tissue.
2) For detoxification, a whole-body cupping treatment can be combined with aromatherapy essential oils or a seaweed wrap.
3) Large, stationary magnet cups can be applied over the entire back for major detoxifying effects.
4) Cupping can be used on scars to break up scar tissue and stagnation.
5) Cups can be applied in conjunction with a foot-reflexology treatment and massage.
6) Can be used on sports injuries to bring blood flow to the affected area.

Michael Phelps and other Olympians helped propel cupping into public awareness. The chemicals used in the pools these swimmers train and compete in for many hours daily are highly toxic. Cupping draws these toxins out of the body, which would otherwise lead to stagnation, blood poisoning, pain, and dysfunction. Many athletes rely on cupping on a regular basis to detoxify and enhance their performance.