Glowing health usually requires balance, moderation, and routine. But variety is the spice of life— travel enlivens the spirit and new adventures feed the soul! However, many travelers find it difficult to happily hop around the country (or the world) without feeling some common travel woes, like disturbed sleep, poor digestion , constipation , or mild anxiety . From the perspective of Ayurveda (yoga’s sister science), most travel discomforts are due to increased vata dosha, the energy governing all movement in the body-mind. Despite constitutional differences, everyone has vata dosha, which supports movement in the respiratory, circulatory, nervous, and digestive systems (and elsewhere). When vata is in a healthy state, these systems run smoothly—breath is fluid, elimination easy, thoughts well communicated, etc. But when the momentum of external travel increases the momentum of internal vata, the emotional result is feeling wound up, scattered, forgetful, or anxious, while the p...
What Is Traditional Chinese Medicine? Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a complete system of medicine comprised of eight branches: Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Nutrition, Body Work (Tui Na/Cupping/Moxibustion), Meditation, Tai Qi/Qi Gong (Exercise), Feng Shui, and Cosmology. TCM looks to the natural world and observes how human health and disease are subject to the principles of natural order. In TCM, patterns of illness may arise in the body, organs, and meridians in various ways. If the organs and channel meridians that carry the “energy” or “Qi” are stagnated, deficient, or in excess, disease arises. Through unique diagnostic methods, the TCM physician provides a diagnosis, prescription, and treatment plan encompassing the branches of TCM to the patient. During the Zhou dynasty (770-446 BC), TCM was modernized and systematized. The Yin and Yang Theory, Five Element Theory, and other foundational theories that form the basis of TCM were established during...