What Your Physical Appearance is Trying to Tell You

Skin is your mirror that reflects your body’s good or bad condition.  By only using expensive exfoliates, lotions and washes to clean the exterior surface of that mirror, and not caring about what it means internally, will guarantee that the results do not last long.  Taking care of yourself from inside to out will allow your true beauty to shine. 

This generation’s definition of beauty focuses mainly on facial complexion and hair, and very rarely do people ask what their outer complexion could mean for the inside of their bodies.  If the face looked pallid or washed out, makeup can cover that.  If lip color is too dark or dull, you just put on some lipstick.  If there are color irregularities, concealer takes care of it all.  There are all sorts of cosmetics and facial products out there—the more expensive it is, the more likely it is that people will buy it.  After beginning to use these products, it’s hard to stop, because often times when you’re using the product you see results, but once you stop, it returns to the starting condition.  Because of this, people who seek beauty have become the loyal customers of the cosmetic industry, no matter how psychologically or physiologically addicted to the products they really are.   Has anyone ever considered why it’s so easy to become addicted to cosmetic products?

In actuality, a person’s skin, hair, complexion, build and other physical looks are all reflections of the conditions of the internal organs.  It’s our body’s way of telling us which organs are working normally, and which ones need extra care and attention.  In Chinese medicine theory, the lungs and the skin have an especially close relationship: “The lungs are responsible for skin and hair, and for the opening and closing of skin pores.”  We know that the skin carries out a lot of waste daily, and this waste exits the body in sweat through the pores.  If the pores lose their ability to open and close properly, then the waste is blocked and remains stopped around the pores, causing the skin to become coarse and lose its elasticity.  If the blockage is severe, rashes or pimples may occur.  If you want your skin to be healthy, make sure that your lungs are healthy as well.

If the heart is not working optimally, it will affect skin color and complexion the most.  If the heart cannot pump sufficient amounts of blood to the rest of the body, the skin will be pallid, and lose its natural rosiness.  If the arteries are blocked, then the face will be blotchy and dark in color.  So, if you want your complexion to be naturally rosy and appear revitalized, remember to keep your heart in good shape. 

Malfunctions in the liver and gall are generally caused by anger, anxiety, fear and other negative emotions.   They will leave your skin with blemishes, discolorations and black speckles.  These discolorations frequently appear accompanying problems with menstruation and the mammary/pituitary glands.  Sometimes, headaches or even migraines are an additional symptom.  Many sicknesses arise from anger—for the sake of your beauty as well as your health, it is important that you find reasons to be happy and enjoy life, staying far away from anxiety, fear and anger. 

Another factor that affects cosmetology is weakness of the kidney.  The kidneys are the source of a person’s energy; if they are damaged, it’s like the foundation of a house is being weakened.  Many symptoms of age appear, such as hair losing its luster and strength, teeth loosening, swollen, irritated gums, dizziness, ringing in the ears, back pain and weakness in the legs.  It’s important to keep the kidneys healthy and properly functioning, because if they are weak, the body cannot properly carry out its duties, much less look good on the surface. 

To some people, their reputation and impression on others is very important, so loving to take care of yourself is natural. Beauty is so important, especially for women, that it’s almost an instinct to want to be beautiful.  If being beautiful could become everyone’s motivation in seeking health as well, then I happily wish you success!  See our video: “Beauty comes from this exercise” : This “head bumping exercise” will help you channel your blood and Qi to your face and make your face look naturally good.

(Original Author: Zhongli Baren - the author of the best selling health book “Self Help is better than Seeking Doctor’s Help”. The book has been the best selling health book in China since it was first published in 2007. It has been reprinted 12 times within 6 months.

Trisha Han

Mother Nature’s Acupuncture of Austin

Combing Your Head has Many Great Benefits

Combing your head can help solving the following problems: gallbladder problems, mammary gland proliferation, chronicle headache, cardiovascular problems, stroke, hair loss, dizziness, susceptibility to catching cold.

Method: See the linked video clip below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEJmXbN2bO4

First, let’s look at the sides of our head. Look at the meridian and acupuncture point chart, you’ll see gallbladder meridian runs through the sides of our head. There are over 20 acupuncture points on this meridian. By combing the sides of your head, all these acupuncture points will get massaged and the gallbladder meridian will be opened up. If the gallbladder meridian is unclogged, your gallbladder will be healthy and all problems related to gallbladder such as chronicle headache (only one type related to Gallbladder problem), mammary gland proliferation, neck & shoulder tension, muscle aches & fatigue, etc, will be solved.

Then, let’s look at the top of our head. You can see bladder meridian runs through this area. One of Bladder meridian’s roles is to protect us from catching cold. By combing and opening up this meridian, you’ll not be prone to catching cold any more. Also, if you have dizziness. This is caused by insufficient blood in your brain which in turn is caused by clogged governor’s meridian. The governor’s meridian starts from the Baihui point at the very top of our head to our tail bone. Combing this area will help opening up this meridian and get rid of the dizziness. In addition, combing the top of your head may solve your hair loss problem and help you grow new hairs. This is simply because combing brings blood and nutrition to this area.

Combing the head has other benefits. Since we humans have emotions like anger, fear, anxiety and excitement, our brain works very hard all the time to keep up with these emotions. This makes our Qi (energy) and blood rushes to our head actively. So, it’s very important to keep our head unclogged. How do we do that? Comb our head, all over the head - sides, top and the back. This is a very important way of keeping us healthy and ancient Chinese doctors asked us to do this every day. (Note: as we talked about in our previously blogs, the “Walking on Your knee” and “standing on One Leg” practice can help channel blood and Qi to our lower body and keep our head unclogged).

How many times should we comb our head each day? At least 300 times. This seems a lot but actually not. If you have more time, make it 600 times each day. Some people may ask: what if this will hurt my scalp? Use a comb with rounded tips, not sharp tips.

Note: This is a long term project and we cannot expect to see results tomorrow.  But how about after one year, two years? You’ll be definitely  reaping benefits.

Future Blog:

1.       How to stretch your legs to improve the health of your liver and kidney.

Trisha Han, M.S., L. Acu.