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Our lives can get caught in a loop and recovering takes a mindful watch on what’s going on inside us…

COVID-19 and all its variants have become an uncomfortable part of life. Just as things seem to settle down and we get back to living normally, another variant comes along and the disruption begins again. This time of massive upheaval has spurred us to reevaluate how we do things as a community and a country. For instance, we’ve realized that having food, medical supplies, and essential goods come from halfway around the globe is risky, and there has been a surge in local production as a result. Producing essential goods in our local communities fortifies us, making us more resilient and self-reliant.

But beyond issues with our supply chain, there are grand patterns in daily life that erode our well-being, from what we fill our minds with to how we spend our days. While most of us are more aware than ever of how important diet and exercise are to our overall health, there are several other factors that also play a major role. Tending to the issues that follow below will help you be more resilient in the face of an ongoing pandemic and all the disruptions that come with it.

Fear

Fear, particularly when prolonged, damages the immune system, making us more susceptible to illness. Fear is a natural human emotion and a primary survival mechanism. It’s a reaction to a perceived threat. Fear serves an essential function in the moment by keeping us away from danger, but living in a state of fear for weeks, months—or years—has consequences. In Eastern medicine, fear corresponds to the adrenals, which are the source of our body’s constitutional energy, similar to our genetic makeup in Western science. The adrenals are also responsible for our willpower: our ability to focus on goals and pursue them with single-minded action. Prolonged fear damages this energy and can cause us to lose focus, our sense of direction, and the desire to move forward in life. Therefore, living in a perpetual state of fear can also be a precursor to many types of mental depression.

Chronic fear impairs the immune system, affects memory, interrupts brain processing abilities, and contributes to fatigue, clinical depression, and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

Limiting Negativity

Sometimes it’s difficult to see the positive when we seem to be drowning in bad news. The information we allow into our psyche profoundly affects our mental health. One of the ways we can begin to heal is to be aware of what we’re letting in.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, consider taking a break from the news. Put your social media accounts on pause and go outside. It’s easy to get stuck in a loop of negativity when it’s being pushed on us from every direction. If you need a boost in morale, call a trusted friend or, even better, have coffee with them. Read a book with your children or take your dog for a walk.

When going outside, make eye contact and smile. People are usually on autopilot, their heads down, lost in thought. When we smile and make eye contact, others are often surprised. Usually we can get a smile in return, and the gesture gives us both a boost. We each get to enjoy a tiny boost of endorphins (the feel-good hormones). It’s a small act of positivity, but it can be contagious.

Fostering Positive Relationships

Scientific studies have demonstrated that the number and quality of healthy relationships in our lives keep us healthy, happy, and living longer. The pandemic has made maintaining those connections more challenging, but they’re vital for our health. Focusing on nurturing, loving, supportive relationships strengthens us and helps us be more resilient when faced with adversity. You’ll recognize positive, loving relationships because they’re the ones that make you feel joyful, replenished, and grateful instead of depleted and depressed. These healthy relationships are the ones you want to nourish, especially now.

Becoming More Self-Sufficient

Many of us have felt the impact of the pandemic as a loss in different aspects of life. This loss has manifested in different ways, such as losing contact with loved ones, losing the ability to move about freely, and losing a sense of safety and security due to uncertainty about the future.

One way to combat this feeling is to become more self-sufficient. Self-reliance brings us back into control of our lives.

Eating, Sleeping, and Exercising

Eating well, exercising, and getting enough sleep are the fundamentals when it comes to keeping our bodies resilient. When life becomes unpredictable, as it has throughout the pandemic, getting back to basics is an excellent way to stay strong. Eating a healthy, varied diet of fresh, natural foods, going outside every day to move your body, and getting restful, rejuvenating sleep will help us cope with whatever life throws at us. With a fit body, satiated belly, and good night’s sleep, there’s little you can’t accomplish.

Processing Your Emotions

In Eastern medicine, attending to our emotions is considered vital to our overall health. Emotions are a normal part of the human experience, but in the Eastern medicine view, unacknowledged or unexpressed emotions can make us sick. Because of the all-encompassing nature of the pandemic and how it has affected every part of life, it can be hard to know where to start when it comes to dealing with our feelings. Emotional intelligence—the ability to perceive, control, and evaluate our emotions—is an important skill and something we all need in order to navigate the complex world of feelings. This need is amplified during the current upheaval. That said, try to keep it simple. Make time every day to acknowledge how you feel, and then allow yourself to feel it completely. This practice gives your feelings a place to go—simply by allowing them to be felt. Once felt, they can dissipate because they have served their purpose and no longer need to take up space.

A Shared Journey

The pandemic has been onerous. Our whole world changed almost overnight, and nothing has been the same since. The good thing is that you’re not alone. We’re all going through it together. Our unified experience is easy to forget sometimes because we’ve been so isolated. You’re not alone. Be kind to yourself. Take care of yourself and the people around you. There is love, goodness, and kindness in the world. It’s all around you. Acknowledge and process what you’re feeling and find joy wherever you can. We will all get through this, and the first step is to begin healing.

Adapted from Emma Suttie, L.A. Times

Celebrating Lunar New Year

With the arrival of the first moon in this year’s Lunar calendar, all of us at Tower Acupuncture want to wish all of you a joyous Lunar New Year! Observed by more than a billion people around the world Lunar New Year is a time to mark new beginnings with family and loved ones. We send our best wishes for a season filled with joy, peace and prosperity.

2022 is the Year of the Water Tiger. (Last year was the Year of the Ox.) Each year, the lunar calendar is represented by one of a dozen zodiac animals, which features 12 stations or “signs” along the apparent path of the sun. The zodiac animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. In addition to the animals, there are five elements—earth, water, fire, wood and metal—that are mapped onto the traditional lunar calendar.

The water tiger comes up every 60 years and represents strength, bravery and clearing away “evil”. The prolonged pandemic has marked another turbulent year, and all of us endured a huge physical and psychological burden, many experienced death of their loved ones. As we celebrate the Year of the Water Tiger, we carry our fierceness, robust capacity for resilience and aspiration for happiness and well-being into the New Year.

Achieve Your Ideal Weight

Are food sensitivities preventing you from achieving your ideal weight?

If you answer “Yes”, to three or more of these questions, food sensitivity testing may be the missing component enabling you to lose weight and keep it off.

• Have you dieted repeatedly?

• Do you need to lose more than 20 pounds?

• Do you retain large amounts of fluids?

• Do you engage in binge eating?

• Are you often tired?

• Do you suffer from diarrhea or constipation?

• Do you suffer from joint or muscle pain?

• Do you experience anxiety and mood swings?

What are food sensitivities?

When you eat healthy foods your body will usually digest and assimilate them properly.

Digestion breaks food down into simple components which can easily be absorbed and utilized nutritionally. The immune system “recognizes” these components as beneficial once they are absorbed into the bloodstream and does not react against them. In some cases foods are not completely digested and large complex components called macromolecules are absorbed into the bloodstream. The immune system does not ”recognize” these macromolecules as beneficial and thus mounts a defense reaction against them. This is termed a Food Sensitivity which can result in a variety of symptoms including weight imbalance.

How to detect food sensitivities:

It is almost impossible to pinpoint your sensitive foods on your own because the reactions you experience can occur from several hours to several days after the food is eaten. Now there is a simple blood test, the Immuno Bloodprint™ (Food Sensitivity Assay), which can identify your food sensitivities. Your immune system’s defense reaction produces antibodies, called Immunoglobulin G (IgG). The Immuno Bloodprint measures these antibodies to over 150 foods, thus identifying your food sensitivities.

Call us today, get started on your Immuno Bloodprint weight loss plan!

What do our food cravings mean to us?

Our bodies are made to ensure our survival and one of the ways this mechanism sustains us is through hunger. Hunger signals us to eat to live, but where do food cravings fit into this picture?

Certain food cravings can be our bodies communicating specific nutritional needs and these can be informative to our health, although most of our cravings seem to usually come in the form of unhealthy snacks such as an ice cream sandwich, potato chips, or a sweet pastry from the local bakery. These cravings can be so potent that they can even sometimes override our bodies’ own beneficial needs.

Healthy Food Swaps: What to Eat When Those Cravings Hit - Cooking Healthy Academy | Emotional Eating Coach

In 2021 in the US alone, 34.2 million adults have diabetes, which is 10.5% of the population, and with 463 million adults worldwide having diabetes. According to an article published by Harvard University, on average, one out of every three adults is obese, which is about 36% of the population. The numbers continue to increase every decade with chronic health issues also on the rise globally.

Our evolutionary needs of survival through mechanisms of hunger are no longer at the forefront in today’s modern and developed worlds as our systems of technologies have advanced our access to foods and resources. We can now have our favorite fast food and snacks hand-delivered quickly and more efficiently to our doors than ever before. In addition, marketing and advertising agencies continue to steer certain eating and dietary habits for modern society – however, there may be something deeper going on internally beyond the external cues around us.

Our brains play a key role in creating the blueprint for what our bodies are driven towards and in particular with food cravings, we see that neurotransmitters, specifically serotonin and dopamine, are important players for our desires and daily pleasures. When we taste something delicious, serotonin levels rise and dopamine solidifies that sensation to ensure we seek that particular food and experience again. People who have intense food cravings and addictions have fewer dopamine receptors resulting in the need for more stimulation and pleasure, eventually leading to low energy states, depression, and lack of motivation. Furthermore, this mechanism has guided our evolutionary means of survival, however it has been skewed in today’s society with the influx of sugary and processed foods bombarding our phone ads and computer screens. But we are not destined to never-ending cycles of unhealthy eating patterns. And even more empowering is that with this mechanism in place, it allows us to lead the way in training and cultivating our cravings over time.

Now, there’s also your gut – each one of us has 50 trillion or so different strains of bacteria in our gut. Each strain is vying for our attention with what we eat playing a vital role in which bacteria strains get fed and grow in our gut. These bacteria collectively make up our microbiome, and research continues to show intimate links with our gut microbiome to our brain, digestive, and hormonal health. If our microbiome is constantly being fed junk-food or sugar, the gut is sending hormones and signals to the brain to thrive on these types of foods and eating habits. When we replace those sugary drinks and pastries with a healthy alternative, we starve out the bacteria that once fed on the junk food, in turn growing and allowing the healthy bacteria to thrive.

We have external and internal factors that drive our cravings, so how can we possibly go beyond these ever so engrained mechanisms? The answer is simply mindfulness and awareness. It is not enough to say that we have to be mindful of what we put in our bodies. How we observe our reactions to our present moment in awareness are key to bringing a change to our eating habits – are we reaching for our box of cookies while feeling stressed out about a deadline for work, or are we trying to feel better about a breakdown in a relationship with a slice of cake? Just as we can drive our brains and our microbiome towards unhealthy food cravings, we can also in the same way rewire our mechanisms towards healthy food choices and actually enjoy doing so!

The Gut-Mind Connection: How Gut Health Affects Mental Health

Moving Forward in a Pandemic

Celebrating Lunar New Year

Achieve Your Ideal Weight

What do our food cravings mean to us?