September 2011

Welcome to Yang-Sheng!  <養生>欢迎您!

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Yang-Sheng (Nurturing Life) is an E-magazine and a network for all Qigong, Tai Chi, Yoga, Reiki, mindfulness and meditation practitioners, health seekers, and spiritual cultivators. It promotes philosophy and methods of self-healing, positive mind and health preservation, and shares knowledge and experiences with those who are interested in the subjects and their applications in everyday life.

Yang-Sheng merges traditional life-nurturing knowledge with modern scientific research and clinic evidence, and combines ancient wisdom with our own experience to support our daily practice and well-being,  and to reach true meaning of health in body, mind and spirit… Your contribution, participation, sharing and suggestions are truly appreciated.

Click to download the entire September issue as a PDF

Highlights of September Issues (Vol 1, No. 7)

[From the Editor] Introduction to the theme of this issue, Secrets of Longevity, by the editor-in-chief, Rebecca Kali. — Exploring the secrets of longevity is of interest to everyone but it becomes a personal interest, very personal, as we grow older. If we like our lives, we want to extend them, to live longer. However, longevity is much more than just extending the length of our lives. This issue offers practices as well as advice on food choices to foster living a long healthy life, and explores the real meaning of longevity and immortality.

[Featured Article] Longevity & Immortality by Dr. Roger Jahnke — Immortality is not living forever in the body you have today, it is to be aware of your eternal nature – before you die. Laozi wrote “using your own radiance return to the source of all light, this is the practice of entering eternity” # 52, Tao de Ching. In Qi cultivation, this process is initiated at the practical level of health and healing. However, in the more advanced methods, healing, longevity and immortality are gained by returning to one’s primordial or pre-birth nature and by merging with the timeless field of universal Qi.

[Featured Article] 7 Secrets  to Grow Younger, Live Longer by Deepak Chopra, M.D. — Only a few decades ago, conventional medicine viewed the body as a machine whose parts would inevitably break down until it could no longer be repaired. Today scientific research is arriving at a radically different understanding: While the body appears to be material, it is really a field of energy and intelligence that is inextricably connected to the mind. The mind influences every cell in the body and therefore human aging is fluid and changeable. It can speed up, slow down, and even reverse itself. Dr. Chopra outlines seven steps to tap into your inner reservoir of unlimited energy, creativity, vitality, and love.

[Featured Article] Life-Nurturing Regimen, as revealed by a centenarian of 101 years old translated by Richard Kwan — If someone can live to the ripe old age of 101 years without any major health problems, he must have a good health regimen. Mr. Kai-chen Tsui (崔介忱),who was born in 1910, shares his secrets of longevity including 32 practices from his Life-nurturing Regimen.

[Methods of Self Healing] Turtle-Breathing Qigong

[Mind-Body Medicine Research Update] ● Can meditation slow rate of cellular aging? Cognitive stress, mindfulness, and telomeres.  ● Subjective experiences of older adults practicing taiji and qigong.  ● Mechanisms of yogic practices in health, aging, and disease. ● A Critical Review of the Effects of Medical Qigong on Quality of Life, Immune Function, and Survival in Cancer Patients. ● Yoga therapy as an adjunctive treatment for schizophrenia: a randomized, controlled pilot study. ● The effect of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for prevention of relapse in recurrent major depressive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. ● Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy: an efficacious community-based group intervention for depression and anxiety in a sample of cancer patients.   ● Changes in physician costs among high-cost transcendental meditation practitioners compared with high-cost nonpractitioners over 5 years.  ● Effect of Qigong on quality of life: a cross-sectional population-based comparison study in Taiwan.  ● Meditation training increases brain efficiency in an attention task. ●  Buddhist group therapy for diabetes patients with depressive symptoms.

[Proverbs of Yang Sheng] Selected Secrets and Maxims of Longevity by Some Famous Chinese – translated by Kevin W. Chen, Ph.D. — reveal the secrets of longevity from Lao-tzu,  Zhuang-tzu, Meng-Tzu, Hua-tuo, Sun Si-miao, and more…..

[Breathe in this Life] Women’s Empowerment in an Age of Illness (part 1) by Ginger Garner — In the US, there are more women living in poverty and suffering from chronic diseases than men;  “the United States has more neonatologists and neonatal intensive care beds per person than Australia, Canada and the UK, but its infant mortality rate is higher than any of those countries,” says the annual State of the World’s Mothers report. …”This country’s extraordinary record of medical advancement makes its haphazard approach to maternal care all the more scandalous and disgraceful.” We need change in health care for women in America. Part 1 in this series reports some alarming statistics. Next month, Part 2 will show you how you can self-empower your way to better health through a 5000 year old practice.   

[From the Master] There is no Jin (part 2) by Master Chun Man Sit– Many talk about the mysterious jin 劲, or nei jin 内劲; all taiji masters seem to have this jin, or so they claim. However, master Sit thinks it is the non-Jin practice that makes the difference in Taiji and other mind-body exercises. Exploring Gravity – the Force of No Force; Gravity and Rooting; and The Rhythm of Yin and Yang.

[Topics in Research] Scientific Qi Exploration Part 15b : Psychological Effects of Qigong by Marty Eisen, Ph.D. — a continuation of the series started in 2008, Dr. Eisen explores the effects of Qigong practice on behaviors and intelligence. This article includes: Part 4: Qigong as a treatment of mental illness (a)  Depression and Psychosomatic Disorders;  (b)  Anxiety;.   Part 5: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) ; and Part 6: studies of the effects of qigong on personality types.

[Echoes of Emptiness] Unknowing by Jacob Newell –When we are born, nature gives us the wonderful gift of unknowing. But human beings tend to overlook the value of this gift and treat it as an affliction.  We try every which way to avoid it or transform it.  Yet basic unknowing always remains. Jacob Newell explores his quest for coming to terms with our basic state of unknowing through: faith, philosophy, enlightenment…and Laozi.

[Positivity Blog] How to Overcome Your Worries: 5 Timeless Thoughts from the Last 2,500 Years by Henrik Edberg — You are going about your regular day in your usual fashion. Then a thought or a feeling strikes you. It multiplies and start circling around and around in your head. Becoming louder and louder as it saps your strength and makes you feel weaker. What can you do about worries? Here are five timeless thoughts to help you overcome or at least lessen the worries in your life.

[Illuminating the Dao 悟道] The Key To Long Life: Live Well! by Michelle Wood —  That seems a little simplistic, doesn’t it? If you want a long life, you have to live well. It actually is just that simple, but here’s the tricky part: Just what does it mean to “live well?” Michelle Wood employs uncommon, common sense, as well as ancient Daoist wisdom to explore the answer to this question.

[Experience Exchange] The Story of My Mother & the Secrets of the World’s Longest-lived Peoples by Phoenix Liu, Ph.D. — Although her mother is “just” 85, Phoenix Liu felt she was reading stories about her own mother when she read the book, Healthy at 100: How You Can Dramatically Increase Your Life Span and Your Health Span, by John Robbins.  The four populations of elderly people described in the book are (1) Abkhasians, the so called “Ancients of the Caucasus”; (2) Vilcabambans, who are the “eternal youth” in Ecuador; (3) Hunzans, the dancers in the mountain region of northern Pakistan; and (4) Okinawans, the centenarians on the subtropical islands of Japan.

[Qigong and Fitness] Standing Like a Tree! What is this Standing Practice? by Timothy Booth — Standing Like a Tree,  (Zhan Zhuang), is definitely one of the greatest gifts from the internal practices.  So simple and yet so powerful. It is a way of developing better balance and alignment, stronger legs and waist, deeper respiration, accurate body mindfulness and tranquility.

[Healing through Pleasure] Love & Sex: Expressions of Energetic Strength & Weakness by Felice Dunas, Ph.D. L.Ac. — The tale of Sleeping Beauty might sound old-fashioned in an age of gender equity, but it still strikes a chord in our souls. In its simplicity, it captures something basic about men and women. Essential feminine and masculine principles, termed yin and yang by ancient Chinese philosophers, are reflected in the storybook couple. Of course, the tale says nothing about their sex life, but: If Beauty and her prince used the ancient, erotic healing techniques of Oriental medicine in the royal bedroom, they would indeed have lived happily ever after-and healthier and longer as well.

[TCM Food Therapy] Longevity Eight Treasure Congee by Dr. Helen Hu — Chinese porridge or congee (Zhou: 粥) is a thick soup that is made from grains. There are various ways of making and serving congee, and no special skill is required. Medicinal congee, is based on varieties of natural grains combined with  vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, meat, eggs and certain herbs, selected according to their property for healing, promoting well being and longevity.  Dr. Helen Hu shares recipes for four versions of Eight Treasure Congee.

[Soul Salon] Stoke the Fire of Change by Rena M. Reese — Change is a beautiful thing. Or so we have heard.  Effective, successful changes require more than thought, planning and goals.  When we try to make changes in our life, even things that are really good for us, we may find resistance rears up.  If you are trying to make a change, eat healthier, get fit, whatever it is; if it gets worse before it gets better, that is great. It is a good sign…evidence of a shift. You are stepping toward change.  The universe is responding, first with what appears to be resistance, but it is really part of the re-organization of the way things are now. Your faith and your willingness to act are two ingredients the universe uses to guide you through the How-To’s of the change you seek.

[Food as Medicine] Seasonal Harmony by Ellasara Kling — Autumn is the Lung Season. Learn the foods that harmonize with the fall/autumn season.  Delicious fall season recipes:  Spinach Soup with Snow Fungus; A Fall congee; Middle Eastern Style Cauliflower; Moroccan Parsnips; and Ginger Tea. The Health Topic is: Letting go, a path to health and vitality. The Autumn/Fall season is designed for letting go. Letting go of the things that no longer serve us, and by doing so, gain greater clarity, understanding, balance and harmony.  How do we know what no longer serves us?  Read on in this month’s health topic for more ideas on this issue.

[A Comedy Moment] Out of Body. Back in twenty minutes!

[Book Review] Daoist Nei Gong – The Philosophical Art of Change by Damo Mitchell — reviewed by Sal Casano, Ph.D.

[Energy Healing through Science & Spirit] How can bio-energy be measured? by Cindy Cicero — The article explains a Duke\Rhine Research Center recent lab bio-emissions experiment that Cindy participated in with interesting results. You can watch a video in the article to explain the procedure….

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