Put some sugar in my bowl

Powerful Points and Meridian Flows

The average person in the UK is on average 3 stone heavier than they were in the mid-60’s. But people haven’t become especially greedy and contrary to popular belief, our physical activity has not changed drastically to that of 50 years ago. So what has changed? It’s our diet and more especially the high levels of sugar within it. Sugar, according to David Kessler former head of the US food agency FDA, is highly addictive; it is “highly pleasurable. It gives you this momentary bliss. When you’re eating food that is highly hedonic, it sort of takes over your brain.” A 2008 study showed that sugar affects dopamine levels in the brain and creates behaviours such as bingeing, withdrawal and cravings. Through these neurochemical changes, just like cigarettes or alcohol, we can become addicted to sugar. So why doesn’t our highly sugared food such as fizzy drinks, come with a health warning? Amazingly today as I type this I see New York has banned the sale of sugary drinks over 16oz. Well not to get too political about it but I believe only when the cost of caring for obese people outweighs the revenue that governments receive from large food lobby groups, we will see change. Until then it’s our own responsibility which really it always has been, to nuture our own sweet selves and those around us.

In Chinese medicine the sweet flavour is linked to cravings and addictions, also to the stomach/spleen and this time of year which is abundant harvest of mother earth. From the Chinese perspective there is nothing wrong with sweet food, however if we over indulge, as with any area of life it will cause problems.

If you have found yourself in a habitual eating pattern or caught up in a cycle of addiction. Here are a few simple tips from Traditional Chinese Medicine to eat more consciously, break the habits and feel satisfied.

Firstly CHEW CHEW CHEW. This is an integral part of our digestion often missed out in our busy lives when food is eaten rushing down the street or inhaled in the car running from one appointment to the next. When we chew the saliva transforms the carbohydrates into sugars and our taste buds will pick up on that releasing chemicals in the brain to promote a feeling of satisfaction.

Eat foods that are naturally sweet such as sweet potato, carrots, parsnips, and butternut squash. Take time to roast them so all the natural sugars are slowly released into your blood stream. Sprinkle them with sesame seeds and eat with a bowl of brown rice for a perfectly balanced nourishing sweet soul dish. Many diets and slimming groups would steer you away from these foods because of their natural sugar content. But from my point of view that doesn’t help you to love your body in the long run. With cravings listen to them – it’s your body trying to tell you what it needs. That doesn’t mean to say that you have to exactly what it asks for. Remember the saying “Follow your heart but take your brain with you”. After being pregnant with my twins my body asked for a magnum ice cream everyday but really already being 14stone (I’m only 5ft tall) it wasn’t what it needed. But my body was crying out for extra energy and support. I ate some carrots but really what helped was making sure I had time for me, especially to receive shiatsu. This helps to nourish the flesh, the stomach/spleen and bring us back into connection with our body. (for more info on this topic see – Shiatsu and Children page) Any type of physical touch will help the body and alleviate cravings so go get a hug or give yourself a foot massage.

While you are down there you can work on pressing Spleen 6. This is a great point for many different conditions such as heavy painful periods, infertility, genital itching, difficult labour, impotence, seminal emission, genital pain, digestive disorders, diaorehhea, abdominal distention, insomnia, low back and knee pain. It is such a powerful point it is not advised to use if pregnant. It is used widely for general wellbeing and stress reduction. It gets things moving, emotionally and physically so bringing a sense of balance and satisfaction. Its three fingers above the ankle bone on the midline of the inside of your leg and can be quite sore. Just hold it till you feel is soften or fill with energy.

Another point I feel drawn to but this time typed, is beware of low fat foods, these are often high in sugar or sugar related products such as corn syrup. The body can store these sugars around the liver which can lead to type2 Diabetes.

If you would like to learn more about nuturing your stomach/spleen, breaking eating compulsions and regaining a sense of abundance in your life Joanne Faulkner of Shiatsu & The Art of Conscious Cooking together with Jasmine Itter of the Galway School of Shiatsu have put together a unique weekend workshop which will address the cycle of cravings and how to bring a sense of calm satisfaction to your life.

There will be 2 cookery lessons looking at how to give the body sweet soul flavours without over using sugar. There will be bodywork, movement and use of acupressure points and meridians to relieve cravings and promote a sense of abundance.

All of this will take place at the stunning Crann-ogg organic farm, which will provide the accommodation, ingredients and access to glorious countryside.

€255 includes all food, instruction and accommodation. Early Bird (Sept 30th) €195 For more information, a full schedule or a booking form please contact;

Joanne Faulkner(Dublin)www.joannefaulkner.org 086 607 0432 joannefaulkner@live.ie

Jasmine Itter (Galway) www.learnshiatsu.ie jasmineitter@yahoo.com

Building Heart Blood

Powerful Points and Meridian Flows

It’s been a while since the last post – summer holidays together with work and kids around is leaving little time for random thoughts which can formulate into a post. These thoughts on heart blood have been floating about since the “Building a Home for your Heart” weekend, so let’s see how it manifests. To recap the last post was about building yin so the shen/consciousness could remain calm and unflustered, promoting clear thought and maintaining healthy sleep patterns. This post focuses on building blood so that the heart shen can remain grounded in the body ensuring the mind can’t become overactive, searching outside for satisfaction and peace because as we know “there is no way to happiness, happiness is the way” – we have to find that peace internally.

As the stomach breaks down food, the spleen extracts the food essence which together with the small intestine is used to make blood. A great point for building and regulating blood is Spleen 6. You can use this point for any blood irregularities and the blood is not flowing properly such as painful periods, anaemia, dizziness or physical exhaustion. This is a very easy point to find. Sit down and look at the inside of your leg and the arch of foot. Place three fingers directly above the tip of the inner ankle bone and the place your thumb above them and in the grove behind the bone on the midline of the inner leg.

Other great points for building blood is Bladder 27 and Bladder 32. To find bladder 27 on your self, place your fingers on your lower spine where your buttocks begin and move your fingers outward (approx 1.5 finger width) you may feel a dint or dimple where the sacrum begins. That is Bladder 27, from there slide your fingers diagonally back towards the spine, they will fall into a groove, that is Bladder 32. If you are not sure massage the whole area with the knuckles of your fist and you can’t go wrong . There’s loads of great points in that area that always need a little TLC.

Overuse of sweet, fatty or salty food will weaken the blood so strengthen and keep blood clear eating foods like Spinach, Watercress and all leafy greens. These are full of chlorophyll; calcium and magnesium essential for healthy blood (see earlier posts). Other good foods for building blood are beetroot, for yummy recipe for summer go to ………Finally great blood builders are stocks from bone marrow or eating the actual bones in tinned sardine, herring and mackerel. This has links with the western view of blood building which says cells within bone marrow are responsible for making blood. As you are eating the very essence of an animal it is important that the animal has lived a happy, chemical free life, so organic and free range where possible. Here is a recipe for blood building, crammed with chlorophyll greens and especially good for the heart with the inclusion of the bittersweet pomegranate, the love apple.

Blood Building Salad

Watercress contain extremely high levels of Vitamin C which as well as boosting the immune system, provide vital antioxidants, essential for removing any waste or toxins from the blood. The salad can be quite bitter so the orange and red onions should sweeten the flavour although curiously the flavour for the high summer and the heart is bitterness. It is as the without the unavoidable pain and sadness of life the joyous expansion of the heart cannot fully be experienced.

• 200g Watercress or baby spinach leaves or a mix of both
• 100g Rocket
• 1 Orange
• 1 Pomegranate
• 1 small red onion

Wash and drain the green leaves, shred them by hand into small mouth size bites. Peel and cut the orange into chunks, tip these along with the juice onto the leaves. Cut the pomegranate in half and using a fork, scrape out the red fleshy seeds. Ensure that none of the pomegranate pith falls into the salad as this is really too bitter. Chop the red onion in half after peeling off the outside layers then thinly slice into half moons, these should come apart when tossing all the ingredients of the salad together.

Building the Yin

Powerful Points and Meridian Flows

So in my last entry posted just before the “Building a Home for your Heart” weekend workshop I typed about the heart being represented by the eternal flame within us. That this flame is our unique, divine consciousness, our “shen” in Chinese medicine, and needs to be nurtured and protected, not allowed to rage out of control, fuelled by the externals of thoughts, judgements and emotions. Finding an activity such as meditation, swimming, walking in the park, singing, jogging or watching the waves on the beach as I am doing now allows us a healthy distance from our thoughts and emotions and reduces the power they can have over us so we don’t literally take them to heart. In this post I will list points and foods that can further support this Yin in the body and enhance peace within us. The first two recipes are for my favourite loaves of bread. Don’t be put off by baking your own bread – I promise it’s really easy and these loaves don’t need kneading, a big wooden spoon and you are away. Being able to bake your own bread gives me a connection to my kitchen and a real sense of accomplishment.

The first loaf may be a little controversial as it is wheat with extra added wheat and abit more wheat. Many people have developed an intolerance to wheat, it can bring on bloating and/or IBS. It’s unfortunate as wheat in its unrefined state has a positive effect on the heart, its underlying bitter flavour and fibre content can bring health benefits and a sense of grounding to the body. It is one of the few foods that can calm the mind and build the yin. I believe that we have over used and over-refined wheat and that is what has lead to many problems. It is so good at building up the body that if you hold onto weight or are prone to developing growths or tumours move on to the spelt loaf. If you are convalescing, need building up, calming down or are recovering from a broken heart, here’s the loaf for you.

Wheat Soda

• 175g wholewheat flour
• 75g cream flour
• 50g wheat germ
• 50g wheat bran
• 50g porridge oats
• 50g soft brown sugar
• 2 tsp bicarb of soda
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1 egg
• 450ml buttermilk

Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl ensuring the bicarb is well sieved through. In a jug mix the buttermilk and egg. I often use soya milk or goats milk for this recipe. By adding the juice of a lemon the milk or soya will sour and work as buttermilk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix, when combined pour into a buttered loaf tin. As this loaf is quite wet, bake for at least 75 mins at 170 which is a fairly long cooking time but I once heard a man say “if you don’t have time to bake bread, you don’t have time to live”. When I heard that I thought, with a strong dose of internal sarcasm “yeah …. right” but now when I cut the bread for my kids school sandwiches I get it and he was right.

Spelt Bread

Spelt is a very ancient grain that hasn’t changed much in over 4000 years. It can be tolerated by those who cannot normally eat wheat because its especially thick husk, which protects it from pollutants and insects also keeps it fresher and prevents it from becoming rancid. It is very high in protein and water soluble fibre which also allows for easy digestion and assimilation. This is the bread I started with and I still make it at least twice a week. The honey in the mixture gives the crust a real chewy sweetness. Try adding a couple of handfuls of pumpkin seeds for a very professional artisan bread.

• 500g Organic Wholewheat Spelt Flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp fast action yeast
• 14 fl oz warm water from recently boiled kettle
• 1 tbls honey
• 1 tbls olive oil

Mix together dry ingredients in a bowl. Dissolve the honey in the warm water and pour into the dry ingredients. Stir together well, adding the oil at the end to loosen the mixture. Grease a bread tin and pop the mixture in, cover it with a cloth and leave it to rise for about half an hour depending on the warmth of your kitchen or until it reaches the top of your bread tin then put into a preheated oven for 45-55 mins at 180°C

Building the Love

A good point to build yin and help the mind to settle into the healthy heart would be Heart 7. If you place your thumb at the top of your little finger and draw your thumb in a fairly straight line down to the crease on your wrist, you will find an indentation there, that is Heart 7. Hold your thumb there until you feel the energy come and meet your thumb or if it feels very solid or strong wait until the energy subsides and softens. Sometimes I hold this point for at least a minute or so.

And my favourite point which works for all occasions CV17. This point is really for balancing energy (Ki) within the body but I also find it calms and focuses the mind knowing that all is well….. all is well ……. So how to find it, draw an imaginary line from nipple to nipple, where that crosses the sternum/breastbone is CV17. Often there is a small dint there, just the right size for the middle finger to sit into. Again don’t press too hard just meet the energy with your finger and allow, feel the expansion as your rib cage softens and the energy settles.