Superpower your memory and increase cognitive function using time tested, evidence supported botanicals.
Show notes:
3:16 Yi Zhi Ren
4:05 Gut flora
4:30 Lymphatic drainage Continue reading
Discover the secrets of warlords, kung fu masters and Olympians.
Show notes:
:50 General Han Xin
1:27 Ban ZhiLian
2:10 General YueFei Continue reading
Explore the history, research and easy application of herbal foot soaks.
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Show notes
:40 History/legend of foot soaks
(Earlier accounts are in Confucius’ book or rites)
2:50 Case studies Continue reading
(Reading time-4 minutes)
Just as trees sigh in the wind and seaweed undulates in the ocean, you too are subject to natural rhythms. Your body changes with the climate and weather. Changes in temperature and moisture affect blood circulation and hormone production. The conditions in the outside environment will influence what you come into contact with. This can greatly influence your health, memory, and even your personality. The weather affects everyone. By studying how it affects you, you can better understand how to adapt to change.
Heat
There are three main sources of heat in the human body:
Heat produced from the metabolism of human cells
Heat produced from the metabolisms of microbiota
Heat you absorb from radiation.
Warm soup, sunshine, and a crackling fire can all introduce heat into the body. They work in concert to heat you from within. When you feel too hot, you lose your appetite. This is because the process of digestion generates heat. Your body doesn’t want you to overheat so it reduces your appetite to help you cool down. To further avoid overheating, it makes you feel tired to keep you from moving too much. The heart begins pumping hard to send blood circulation to the surface of the body where it can cool off. This can contribute to heat rash and makes heat particularly dangerous for those with heart problems. Because your body wants to reduce its metabolism and get water, you naturally feel more inclined to eat fruits and vegetables to stay hydrated and cool off. These foods require your body to do less work compared to eating peppery beef jerky. Your body cools down when you breathe, sweat, urinate, and defecate. The faster these processes happen, the easier it is to cool down. Continue reading
“You are made of Heaven and Earth-a delicate combination of gasses and microbial dust merged into an elegantly integrated whole….Master your microbiome and the world will become your garden, your pharmacy, and your playground.”- Enlightenweight
After 3 years and countless revisions it’s finally ready. We wanted to offer 3 versions.
Version 1: Kindle (Available now)
Version 2: Paper (Available now)
Version 3: Audiobook (Expected completion within the year.)
Enjoy,
Andrew Miles L.Ac and Qiu Xuelan Ph.D
Welcome to purgatory.
Eventually we all get stuck somewhere. Perhaps it’s a pointless meeting that carries on because some blowhard likes the sound of his own voice. Maybe it’s a high school graduation where you are subjected to a barrage of platitudes. We have all been there and you will probably have to attend more these things in the future. Think of it as an intense yoga posture. Go inward, find your alignment and use breathing to make the situation useful. There is usually something that isn’t flowing as well as it could. Relax your body, meditate with your eyes open, clap when you are supposed to and make the best of it. You can even smile, nod and give packaged responses without having to really be there mentally. In this way, you can make the experience restorative rather than soul sucking. If you don’t want to meditate, you can just sleep. We used to be active with the Lions Club. Other than the two of us, most of the Lions in our chapter were well over 70 years old. Every Wednesday at lunch, different speakers came in. Some of them were great, some had political agendas or were simply dull. When a speaker didn’t connect with the audience, you would know it. Many of the members would simply go to sleep. Many weren’t even subtle about it. Mouths agape, snoring, some would put their heads on the table. I thought there must be an epidemic of narcolepsy. As I investigated, I found that for some of them it was a conscious choice. I asked some of the members why they nodded off at times. One man answered, “Well, it beats getting upset over nothing.” Another man was over 90 years old and active in the club. He gave me the following advice. “Imagine if all the idiots and the arguments were all just gone. You are better off getting some rest so that you have more energy for the things that actually matter.” This may be sage advice, but unless you are retired, you might consider faking attention. After you retire, go ahead and sleep.
Off to my happy place.
You can make this facial expression even if no one is home. Nod occasionally and everyone will adore you.
How to Meditate Through Boring Meetings by Andrew Miles & Xuelan Qiu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at enlightenweight.com.
Reading time: 2 mins
The cold, dry air of the arctic causes life to slow to a crawl. The slow decay and sparse plant life contributes to poor soil quality. Plant life grows briefly in Summer and then must prepare for the icy hibernation of winter. Every animal in these environments must adapt. They insulate themselves in fat and burrow underground to create warmer microclimates.
In the arctic life itself seems to escape with every breath. The air pulls water and heat out of your skin. In the arctic, people need to stay warm and moist. As northern peoples eat nutritionally dense foods, it providing more metabolic heat. It creates a tropical greenhouse inside, serving as a climate barrier against the frigid landscape. To help maintain this barrier they use pungent foods such as leeks garlic or hard liquor to maintain warmth. Where pungent foods are scarce, sweat baths achieve similar effects. Smokehouses and saunas can be found throughout the Arctic circle from Scandinavia to Alaska. Continue reading
Reading time : 2.5 min
Cold and Moist
The animals in a temperate forest sing, but not with the complexity of their tropical cousins. The flowers bloom and fruits ripen, but more modestly than their tropical counterparts. Cool weather slows the collective metabolism. There is less density of life and less competition than the tropics.
There are certainly areas of the body that should be swampy, but when this extends into areas which are meant to be dry, it creates problems. Sedentary living reduces fluid metabolism. This can lead to water retention. When the internal microbiome becomes cold and damp, it overloads your water transport mechanisms. It doesn’t matter how much water you are drinking. What is important is that your body is distributing all of the water you absorb. Continue reading
Reading Time: 3.5 Mins
Shaking
As the water flows over rocks in a river, you can see the wave rise above it. In a still pond, a pebble disturbing the surface will cause a ripple which will continue outward until it hits something solid and then the vibration reflects backwards. As waves travel through your body, you can feel for areas of tension. Use large waves and shorter waves and alter the frequency and pitch of the vibrations to find areas of hidden tension. As you begin to loosen up, your body will seek an efficient alignment. It is normal to feel some slight tension keeping you out of alignment. You may notice certain muscle groups pulling your body toward the unhealthy postures you might be accustomed to. For those who sit down a lot, Continue reading
Reading Time: 4 mins
The Tensegrity Arch
Your foot hundreds of integrated arches. The whole of the foot forms something of a dome. It is an incredible design for distributing force. It is one of the greatest engineering marvels ever created. Roman bridges still stand as a testament to this incredible structure. The human body is engineered in a similar way. You are capable of distributing incredible forces thanks to the arches which permeate our structure. Continue reading
Andrew Miles, DOM & Xuelan Qiu, PhD 