My Secret for Dealing with Heat

Anyone who knows me, knows that I don't deal well with hot weather. To be fair, I live in Texas, where the temperatures can soar to 100+ and summers tend to start in May. 

When the body heats up, it tends to travel up to the head, giving us headaches, red eyes, itchiness, and dizziness. Sometimes heat will try to escape through the feet as well, causing our feet to heat up and swell. I get both problems at one time!

I have actually found that soaking my feet in cool water, helps encourage the heat that has travelled to my head to release through my feet. If you've been out in the heat or just on your feet all day long, soaking your feet can have profound results. It can even help ease aches and pains in the body. 

This is the amazing tub I bought on Amazon for soaking my feet. It has a handle so I can transport it anywhere I want to soak my feet. Also, it is super tall, so I don't splash water anywhere. 

To make it even better, add some essential oils to water. I recommend peppermint, lavender, and geranium. If you're dealing with foot odor or fungus, try adding tea tree oil to the mix. Another great addition is dead sea salt, epsom salt, or pink salt. Salt helps to detoxify the body. The minerals in the salt, such as magnesium, are also absorbed by the body. This helps boost circulation, reduce inflammation, and ease muscle tension. 

If you tend to have cold feet, live in a cold environment, or you're feeling cold and depleted, you can do the same foot soak, but use warm water instead. This also works great for headaches. By putting the feet into warm water, you are diverting blood flow downward, away from the head, toward the feet. You can also place a cool pack on your head to further assist the downward flow. Soaking feet in cool water, can help headaches as well (if your feet are hot). 

I can't tell you how amazingly therapeutic soaking your feet can be! Try it before bed or when you get home from work. You'll be glad you did! 

How I Discovered Medical Qigong (Part Two)

Today I'd like to focus on why I switched programs. There aren't nearly as many Qigong programs as there are Acupuncture Schools, so there's not much information out there about the types of programs and the selection process. Maybe my experiences might be helpful to others thinking about studying Medical Qigong.

You can go so far as to get a formal Doctorate or Masters in Medical Qigong, but there are also many certificate programs. If you have flexibility and can move, you can take your pick of many programs, big and small, and be more selective. In general, you can learn more about the program by finding out about the person running the school. Who was THEIR teacher? What style of Qigong are they teaching? Are the styles more martial or maybe more quiescent? Is there a heavy spiritual component or is the focus more on tangible forms and memorization? Does the program build on itself slowly or is the focus on learning a lot quickly? I could go on and on. 

It's also helpful to know the ancestry or lineage of the healing modality or martial art. When learning these healing arts, we become linked with the transmission of energy, so it is important to choose a lineage that resonates with you.

I discovered the style and method that worked best for me, after completing several courses at The Healing Tao.  I preferred a program that slowly built on qigong forms and concepts that were repeated throughout the duration of the program. By nature, my mind goes 1000 miles/min, so I needed repetition, slowness, and concepts that built on each other. I needed to slow down and learn by experiencing the Qigong forms. During that time, I was also facing a lot of fear, so I needed to learn how to build confidence in myself as a practitioner through regulated clinical experiences and one-on-one teacher support. These were all aspects that I received when I switched to Aiki Healing. The Healing Tao was a wonderful program and I learned a lot, but we are all unique snowflakes with different learning styles and needs, so no one program can ever be right for everyone. 

I am filled with gratitude for my experiences at both the The Healing Tao and Aiki Healing and I would not be here now if it weren't for both programs.