Year of the Snake

Celebrate Chinese New Year and welcome the Snake year with TCFA When: Saturday 9th February, 2013, 6.00pm - 7.30pm
Where: Merrylands RSL Club
View program here

 
The year of the snake begins on Sunday 10^th February 2013, the year of 4711 of Chinese New Year. Snake is also called small dragon. Contemplative and private, the snake is not outwardly emotional. They can appear reticent and works very modestly in the business environment. The snake will plot and scheme to make certain things turn out exactly as they want them to. They are not great communicators and can become quite possessive when they set their minds on achieving the interest of a partner. Snake is intuitive, introspective, refined and collective. It is said that snake is the wisdom of a good omen in a family. It means your family is always having food to eat and never go starving. Snake is such a great mediator at business. Because snake body is very soft, they are able to perfectly digest anything easily. The snake flexibility provides them with strong surviving ability in living.  Although snake is very smart, they never show off in front of others. The snake is intelligent and wise, but could be greedy and cunning, so be careful, not to let the poison snake bite you.

Years of the Snake

Snake Years are sixth in the cycle, following the Dragon Years, and recur every twelfth year. The Chinese New Year is calculated according to moon calendar.   

1905*1917*1929*1941*1953*1965*1977*1989*2001

Read More

White or Red Christmas

Drink for a healthier and prettier you during Christmas and New year's holiday. Wines have been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years, make good use of white wine or red grape wine not only for health benefits, but to make you prettier.

Red wine

I do not suggest you over drink during the holidays, but drinking a little red grape wine will not only help your circulation, but also make your skin prettier.  It is studied in Chinese medicine, that a bit of red grape wine, may help you:

·         grape wine can reduce total cholesterol levels, and has anti-clotting effect, can inhibit thrombosis, thus preventing the formation of the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular thrombosis

·         Drinking red wine can prevent breast cancer.  Cancer Research magazine, Los Angeles cancer (cancer of food) Research Centre scientists extracted from red wine called procyanidins B dimer chemical ingredients found this ingredient can make mice breast tumor becomes small.

·         can improve blood circulation and help reduce period pain

·         can prevent the risk of Alzheimer, drink two small cups of red wine a day can protect the heart and reduce the risk of suffering from coronary heart disease and atherosclerosis. There are new studies have shown that red wine can protect the brain from Alzheimer's disease.

Dr. Sava Scannell (EgemenSavaskan), University of Basel, Switzerland, the research team led experiment found that red wine contains a lot of one kind of substance, called resveratrol (resveratrol) experiment, this substance has significant anti-oxidation effects, can reduce to Β amyloid (beta-amyloid) anomalous concentration in brain cells, play a role in protecting the brain cells.
In Tai Chi theory, everything should be balanced with yin and yang.   drink in balanced amount of red wine may protect brain cells, (1 or 2 cup) , but too much will damage to brain cells, drink in Tai Chi way, only drink excessive amount.

·         may help you sleep better

White wine

Tips if you are working too hard through the year, or you may simply be too busy to look after your skin due to little time, heavy make-up, or poor cleansing. Look at mirror in the morning before you apply make- up, if you find:               

·         your face skin downy

·         not healthy looking,

·         bigger pores, especially around the nose area,

·         red nose with orange skin look

In the case of heavy makeup, oily skin or germs, this tip may help you:

Use half spoon of white wine (must be made of grains) above 55% alcohol

Cleanse your face first, till it is clean and dry,

Tap the white wine on your finger tips and massage, and tap again, gentle massage the affected area, particularly the nose area, gently slide and  circle your finger tips around the area, please be gentle on  your skin as you do this.

Leave it for a while, do not need to wash out, you will find that your skin will be shining, soft and pretty looking.  

This method cleans the pores and gets rid of oily residue and will kill the germs in the pores.   Suggest you try it once, if you are not allergic, keep on trying, depends on your individual situation, the pores will become healthy and beautiful.

Read More

Creating a Harmony Balanced Lifestyle

Change your mind, change your life.  If I am asking you to change your life style, you may not like it. If I am telling you, this change will allow you to become happier and healthier, are you going to change it?

I personally have experienced so many people suffering from headache, poor sleep, shoulder stiffness, no appetite, backache…………… , they have told me:  Sue I am very healthy, my blood pressure is not high, my blood shows I have nothing wrong…………

I am going to ask you, what are those symptoms you are suffering then?

It is true that if you go to see a western doctor, the tests may indicate there is nothing wrong with you and the doctor will resort to giving you panadol to help reduce the pain, or pills to help you sleep. In Chinese Medicine, it is very wrong, all those symptoms show that you are either yin or yang and not balanced , which causes your meridians to be blocked somewhere, causing the pain.   A good example of imbalance is sleep disorder – either sleeping too much or not able to sleep.

Those symptoms are caused from long term irregular life style – not having enough to do, thinking too much, or long term chronic stress.   Often people with an irregular lifestyle refuse to listen and communicate with their mind and body, they know on some level that they should take action, but they do not want to change their current life style or refuse to change themselves.  They just simply ignore themselves, and keep on suffering till they become sick or end up lying in bed.

I have been advised by so many people including my family members, such as alcoholics, that when they are suffering in bed, the doctor will advice them to stop and they all can stop alcohol, but sadly they can only live in bed for the rest of their lives as the damage has already been done.   

Chronic diseases like cancer, high blood pressure and faulty arteries do not happen in one day.  They are the result of long term chronic stress with symptoms that gradually appear and increase and may change day by day.  It may be likened to an apple that appears to be bit rotten on the surface, it has  not changed the quality of the whole apple yet, but you should pay attention on it.  Once the whole apple turns rotten, or 1/3 of it turns rotten, it may effect the cells of the whole apple.  Even tasting the non rotten part of the apple, is already likely to taste horrible.   Even though one half of the apple looks good, the bad cells have already developed and the sickness has taken place. Once your blood shows it is wrong, you are sick.  Once you have put the head of sickness on you, it is not easy to take it off.

Chinese medicine studies the regulation of nature, monitoring the quantity change, not quality change.   Once you have the symptoms of disease, I strongly suggest you pay attention to them and take action to change your life style.

Read More

Qigong Massage

Massage is an excellent way of strengthening the immune system and maintaining good heath. Qigong massage is an extension of Qigong exercise and meditation and is a wonderful way to nourish the mind, body and spirit, and maintaining harmony in all systems.  Qigong massage can easily be done on oneself or with a partner.

The benefits of Qigong massage include improved muscle tone, increased blood circulation, stimulation of the lymph system, elimination of wastes and toxins, stress release and increased relaxation response. Qigong massage can be used to rejuvinate the entire being from head to feet. 

General Head Massage   

Great for sinusitis, respiratory allergies, headaches, anxiety or depression.

Massage the bridge of the nose with both sides of the middle fingers. Complete six circular rubbing motions moving from the top to the outside, down toward the nose and then into the point above the inside corner of the eye. 

Move the hands up from the bridge of the nose to the top centre of the forehead. 

Spread the hands apart with the fingers of the right hand moving down to the right temple and the fingers of the left hand moving down to the left temple. Massage the temples in a circular motion six times.

Move the hands up to the top of the head and bring them down the neck. Rub the back of the neck - up and down the tendons that extend on either side six times.

Move the hands up to the outside of the neck until the lower point of the jaw joint is felt. Rub that six times.

Now move the hands back to the bridge of the nose and in a smooth motion, trace the outline of the eyebrows to the temple and then move the hand down to the hollow of the cheek.  Repeat this motion three times.

With care, slowly rotate the head, stretching the neck so the right ear is almost touching the right shoulder. Then slowly shift the head to the front so the chin is touching the chest. Then move the head to the left so the left ear is almost reaching the left shoulder,  Now move it slowly toward the back.  Look up at the ceiling. Repeat three times, then reverse direction and repeat again.

• Please do not perform massage on any area where there are skin eruptions, localised infections or malignancies, swelling, or recent surgery.

Read More