I pushed myself so hard back in college that I think I broke something. In retrospect, I did. My energy level after that was useless and I couldn't get through the day without imbibing on caffeine just to keep going on a normal day. Coffee, tea, redbull, coffee, tea, redbull. 
The first semester at Yo San, a teacher told us that if we are to fix other people, we gotta fix ourselves first. So I checked into the clinic, got acupuncture every week and took herbs. Apparently my adrenals were shot. After about a month of acupuncture and herbs, there was noticeable improvement in energy. Things were looking up so I kept going.

Now I guess I want to share, a few months later, I'm caffeine free. I don't need caffeine at all! My body mechanisms and disharmonies are harmonized, and energy is ample and self generated. Crystal clear mind to boot. Faster studying, better memory. I love it. I'll still need to keep going to the clinic for awhile though, there's still lots of damage left to be undone.

Other than that my life has been pretty steady. The people at school are the nicest people I've ever met and seeing them everyday is a treat despite the occasional dry (insufferable) class *cough biochem*. Still learning. There are other things going on but it seem to fade in importance quickly after. Businesses opportunities are still brewing steadily away in my head. Oh, there is a real Shaolin temple in Temple City with real Shaolin monks teaching Shaolin kungfu. I'm really excited to start learning from them during the coming break. It was one of those things I've dreamed about doing but didn't think was remotely possible. Now I find out that they're 5 minutes from my house! Funny. They also have morning meditation too. Imagine... learning kungfu and meditating with Shaolin monks! :D Eeeek!

A few days ago one of our classmates landed at a wrong angle while practicing an exuberant form of Qi Gong, she heard a crack in her ankle. Thinking that her ankle bone was broken, her friend was going to take her to the hospital. On the way, one of our teachers stepped in and pressed firmly on a point in her back. "Does this feel sore?", he asked. 'No." "Well then your bone is not broken," he said with a wave of his hand, "you're fine." In our textbook this particular point is correlated to the bones, and would turn into a sore spot if any bones in the body were broken. Chinese medicine cannot cease to amaze me. 

I was studying herbs and came across the Ginkgo nut, I was surprised to find that they're toxic! Ginkgo nuts are a treat for many people but they are toxic and sometimes fatal if you eat more than 40 according to my herbal textbook (and Wikipedia). Especially with children, no more than 7. Otherwise, ginkgo nuts are healthy in small amounts. Just a heads up. 

In biochem class we learned that artificial sweetener Aspartame (used in Diet sodas, Splenda, and other foods) reacts chemically to heat and turns into a neuro-toxin (think seizures and brain tumors). Most diet sodas are stored in non-refrigerated warehouses before shipping out to stores, most likely most of them are bad. Wikipedia entry for Aspartame mentions controversy and concludes safety. The second link down on the search results is Wiki "Aspartame controversy". Third down is "Aspartame Dangers and Side-effects." I wouldn't risk it, especially if I'm hearing this from Biochem class.    

Currently studying hard, really hard. I'm used to going through school not caring about what I'm learning. I didn't see how most of my previous classes mattered in high school (algebra, history) and undergrad (communication). Now, being in medicine I'm feeling personally responsible for every herb, meridian, point, bone, muscle, function... etc etc. Missing one or mis-learning something might mean screwing someone up or just not being effective. So I'm feeling more personal pressure than I've ever felt in school. There's a sense of pride that I'm learning something that really matters to me and others. There's a fascination with this medicine. I just hadn't anticipate this pressure. Also, I had such a easy time last semester with the intro classes that I decided to take all the heavy intense classes at once. My mistake. Holy crap this is intense.    

I thought Muhammad Ali was just another famous boxer, boy was I surprised! His literary creativity is amazing! 

"I wrassled with a alligator, tussled with a whale, handcuffed lightening and threw thunder in jail. Just last week i murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick!"

The way he said it is even more impressive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-5_8af3TiY

I'm officially a fan. 

I don't know where to begin. I'm in Taiwan right now, sitting in a cafe near my house sipping on a hazelnut latte. To my right behind me I catch drifts of English conversation with a older woman and a younger man. He is talking passionately. I hear snatches of words, "innovate" "Egypt" "gaming" "school" "structure" "restricted" "unique". I'm straining to hear but the overall chatter of the cafe drowns out their conversation. Whatever it is, it sounds like a passionate meeting of minds over innovation of something. I like it.

Where do I begin? I just finished Finals of my first semester at Yo San University and now I'm back in Taiwan, reacquainting with my family, the lush wildness that surrounds our house and myself. The stresses of LA's concrete jungle had dissolved from my shoulders. I finally have some time to sit down, breathe and reflect on the semester.

Firstly, I'm really happy. I love what I'm learning and that I can help other people with it.The business-side of me is having a bonanza with it in light of the sheer opportunities that this budding industry has. There's so much I can do with this! I've worked on a few concepts in different industries before and even though each one had promise, I didn't feel passionate enough with the concepts themselves to push it through. I loved them for its idea and potential, I just couldn't commit to it. It's like writing; I love to write and I know I could write well but I haven't found the subject I cared enough about. Here with Chinese Medicine I finally found my subject. Two passions combined, of business/entrepreneurship and Chinese Medicine. I'm like a writer who has discovered her favorite subject. On top of that, not many people have written about... it's an open door of opportunities. I'm sure there are many challenges and difficulties ahead, I'm ready for it.  

My sister told me a quote she liked that struck me, "What is worse, the pain of hard work, or the pain of regret?" Again, much pain and challenge ahead but I'm excited to meet it head-on. 

The image of how Chinese Doctors use to do things is stuck in my mind. They diagnose their patients as a whole, taking in each person's uniqueness (no one is the same, nor works the same way) and create a customized formula. The true physicians taught their patients how to become the master of their own health. They also taught their patients how to not only be free of illness, but how to go beyond that and reach peak health and vibrancy in all stages of life. The facialist that I go to regularly became excited when she found out that I was learning Chinese medicine. She said that since she started on this medicine a few years ago, she had more energy than she ever had and started to look younger and younger (she's around middle age). Indeed, I don't see any wrinkles, only laughing lines. She looks good for her age.

What is also stuck in my head is the image of Chinese doctors going around and picking local herbs for all their herbal needs. All the plants are local. People used to have common knowledge of local plants for common things like headaches, flu, indigestion, etc. They just go to their backyards and pick the appropriate herbs. No need for any doctor visits, pills and side-effects. Do you know that Dandelions are herbs? Crush the flower, stem and/or roots into a paste and it's great for any kind of inflammation of the skin like abscesses and swelling. Just spread and wrap something over it to keep it in place. Watermelon is also considered to have medicinal properties. It cools down the body like nothing other. Drink watermelon juice during summer to prevent or counteract heat stroke (hear that LA??). Also the fermented ginger that goes with sushi acts as an anti-bacterial that prevents food poisoning in case we come across old sashimi and E-coli, so eat more when eating sashimi and sushi. There's just so much around us, it's a shame we can't use it to their advantage! I hope I can reverse this with what I'm learning. ;)) 

I'm going to meet with my master tomorrow to continue with our Tuina lessons. Excited :)  

I came across this story a few months ago and love how elegantly it illustrates a pearl of wisdom:

Once an unhappy young man came to an old master and asked for a solution to his unhappiness. The old Master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it. "How does it taste?" the Master asked. "Awful," spat the apprentice. The Master chuckled and then asked the young man to take a walk with him to the lake.

The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and the old man said, "Now put a handful of salt into the lake." When the apprentice swirled his handful of salt into the lake, the old man said, "Now drink from the lake." As the water dripped down the young man's chin, the Master asked, "How does it taste?" "Good!" remarked the apprentice. "Do you taste the salt?" asked the Master. "None at all," said the young man.

The Master sat beside this troubled young man, took his hands and said, "The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less; and the glass and lake is represents how expansive of your life is. The amount of salt we taste depends on the container it is put it into.... Stop being a glass. Become a lake!"

Anyone else notice that chronic complainers tend to live in a small glass cup? ;)

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I tried visiting a few Chinese Pharmacies around San Gabriel a few days ago for the first time, hoping to procure some herb pills that I could take before all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ (prevents indigestion and hangover), herbs that stop bleeding instantly and regenerates flesh, Silk Tree flowers (used for centuries for heartbreak), among other things for myself and other people. Much to my dismay, the pharmacies are stocked but most are cluttered, dusty and the sales people/herbologists at the counter only speak in Chinese. I can speak Mandarin but imagine when curious westerners come in to get herbs! Too intimidating! And a little too dirty. It's normal in the Chinese standard, but in the hyper-image conscious, customer experience land of the US, it's a bit of a PR disaster. These settings could only deter potential new customers, the curious, and the western community. Not only are the pharmacies badly set up, but also the products themselves. The products are generally badly branded. It's killing me how useful and powerful those herbs and formulas are, but how badly it's packaged. Do they NOT want to sell their products?? Yes the Chinese community doesn't care about branding and packaging in the least bit, as long as it works, but we're talking about a completely different buying culture here in the US. 

I'm sad, but I smell opportunity... Lots and lots of opportunity. ;) 

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SCHOOL! Loving it. What's surprising me about Chinese Medicine is how big of a role the mental/emotional state a person has in a person's physical health. The body and mind are believed to be inseparable. If one is constantly wreaked emotionally, it would start to eat away at the person's health. Vice versa, unhealthy physical habits can actually create, or predispose, a person to unhealthy emotional issues. In fact, there is an article on Los Angeles Times not too long ago discussing the long-recognized link between depression and heart problems; that depression is "corrosive to the heart" and could actually create heart disease. Physical factors can affect our mind and emotions as well. Does PMS sound familiar? Hormone fluctuation of the body creates anxiety, irritability, and other emotional symptoms in women every month. Is it so hard to believe that the health of mind and body are closely linked? From what I'm hearing from here, the scientific community's beginning to study the link between mind and body.

What I love about this body-mind connection in this field of medicine is that Chinese doctors have recognized and documented all the emotional issues that could give rise to specific types of diseases and vice versa for centuries. In a nutshell, a Chinese Doctor can pinpoint a person's emotional issue just by a person's physical symptoms, and even treat the emotional problem through acupuncture, herbs, etc. It's actually pretty amazing. We're currently learning the 5 classes of emotion that give rise to different classifications of diseases...  So what Chinese Medicine does is that it treats both mind and body.

In a previous entry, I wrote about visiting an acupuncturist in Taiwan. What I left out was that not only she treated physical issues, she also diagnosed the person emotionally. After examining one person, she patted him on the shoulder and said, "You're too anxious! Your mind's scattered and you find it hard to follow through with things. Am I right?". Nevertheless, he was astonished and affirmed that it was true. She prescribed some herbs for both his physical and emotional issue. She then turns to another patient with some digestional issues and after a quick examination, she said, "You worry too much! Knotted up your stomach! You gotta stop worrying so much or else you won't get well!". She also looked at my little sister and said that by a bluish tint in her forehead, among other observations, that she has suffered major shock sometime in the past, and that's why she's manifesting certain health issues. Her powers of observation is astounding. What I'm learning so far is that Chinese doctors look at a constellation of symptoms and characteristics to pinpoint the underlying issue through observations of complexion, pulse, body shape, sound of voice, color of nails, tongue, smell, current season, etc, etc, even demeanor- how the person is acting. They even look into the eyes to see who's peering out from inside, because certain conditions affect the Shen, the spirit of the person. 

It's amazing. Learning this medicine. I'm only writing about a small portion of what I've been learning in school so far and the field of Chinese Medicine, but I think this is the biggest and the most delightful surprise in my studies. ;) 

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Oh oh, also a common misconception, 5 Element theory is not literal. At all. They don't think the world is made out of only 5 elements. It's actually metaphorical; each elements representing certain set of characteristics, and together, is an system of information meant to describe all forces of change in the human body and in nature. It's an elegant and simple system. I'm starting to appreciate how wise and deep the knowledge base is.