Enjoy this Mountain Rose Herbs interview! Bevin asks me about my clinical practice, herbal work, and more. I hope you find some golden jewels in here. Podcast coming soon. I'd love to hear what you find most interesting, and/ or wish to hear more about. Contact me anytime! Find acupuncture/ herbs clinic info on JilingLin.com, along with upcoming events.
1.28.2021
Tea (Camellia sinensis, Theaceae)
Learn about Tea's cultivation, preparation, uses, and more with my podcast and herbal monograph article at https://www.herbrally.com/monographs/tea
1.05.2021
Chinese Medicine Herbs for Winter Welless
Learn about Chinese Medicine Herbs for Winter Wellness on the Mountain Rose Herbs blog
1.01.2021
Writing 2021
How do you express and process past experiences? How do you vision and plan future possibilities?
Journaling is an embodied practice that connects mind and body by bringing pen to paper. This releases stored thoughts, memories, dreams, ideas, and more. The hidden potential of your subconscious finds a path into the world.
This may be a cathartic release: let it out, let it go.
Or, surprising new insights may emerge: organize your thoughts, create action items, then move your dreams into reality.
If you are already journaling, then how can you enliven your practice? What areas of your journaling practice feel dead or outdated? How can you breathe fresh air into this area of your life?
If you are not currently journaling, then try it. Set the stage (see below), then commit to at least a month of daily writing. With so much stimulus in our daily lives, journaling offers solace, an opportunity to rest, reflect, and dream.
Ritual
Create a daily journaling ritual by setting the stage, then committing to it:
Choose a dedicated journal that feels good, and a smooth-flowing pen or pencil.
Journal at the same time each day (I like first thing in the morning)
Journal at the same location each day
Stream of consciousness
Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way” book calls for three pages of daily stream-of-consciousness writing, first thing in the morning, every morning. This is an integral process in Cameron’s process of sparking creativity, and living an expressive life.
I commit to one paragraph, but usually fill at least one page. Do what feels best for you. If your time is limited, then simply commit to laying pen to paper for a few minutes each morning.
Doodling
Stream-of-consciousness writing may include not only text, but also doodles. Sometimes, our thoughts are so unformed that no words arise; only shapes or colors come out. Have colors on hand to simply make marks: small blots, large splotches, lines that go nowhere but everywhere… experiment, and feel into it. I love crayons: they make immediate marks, and are easy to use. Again, find what feels best for you.
Prompts
If absolutely nothing comes to mind when sitting down to write, then here are some simple daily prompts:
List three things that you are grateful for in this moment.
List three things that you are grateful for that are coming (visioning the future).
List three things that I saw/ heard/ felt yesterday (observational exercise)
List three goals for today
Daily gratitude connects us with what is important to us, and a sense of connection and pleasure for what we have. It is particularly helpful to bring life into perspective during rough times: this life is a gift, and there is much to be thankful for.
Manifestation includes clearly visualizing what we want, so that we can first internally mobilize our resources, before outward action/ transformation can occur. Listing “future gratitude” and daily goals can help set this in motion.
The Journal
I made a 4x5 leather cover out of recycled leather scraps. I make and insert 120 pages of fresh pages into my cover about 3 times a year. This creates a travel-friendly book that’s small and portable, and feels good: the natural oils of my hands lubricates the leather, which is shiny from daily use and years of love. I have used the same journal since 2008, and have stacks of inner booklets.
When I feel moody, I may freehand pages of purging words and doodles with large crayons, then rip and/ or burn it.
Create a daily ritual, then give it space to breathe. Adjust each day as necessary, but keep the basic structure: write everyday. Draw everyday. Choose one ritual activity that helps you intentionally clear the old and welcome the new to create more beauty, spaciousness, and joy in your life, and all the lives that you affect in your one wild and precious life.
Entering 2021
What were my highlights from 2020?
What challenged me, in 2020?
What are my yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals in 2021?
How do I track and hold myself accountable for my goals?
What is my life Purpose?
Am I walking in alignment with my Purpose?
How do my actions align with my intentions?
Happy New Year.
12.20.2020
Solstice & Equinox
Winter Solstice (2020/ 12/ 21, 2021/ 12/ 21)
How do you REST? What seeds are you nourishing under the sleeping winter Earth?
Tonight, we celebrate the longest night of the year. During Winter Solstice, one of Earth’s poles is tilted furthest away from the Sun. After this long dark night, we welcome the returning light and lengthening days, even as Winter deepens her chill.
Spring Equinox (2021/ 3/ 20)
What seeds are you planting this spring? What are your visions? How are you walking your dreams into reality? What is rooting and budding to life within you as our Earth warms and stirs?
Our Sun crosses Earth’s horizon exactly to the east at sunrise, then directly to the west at sunset. Day matches night, for Spring Equinox. Plan your internal and external garden for the year ahead, then plant it with loving intention!
Summer Solstice (2021/ 6/ 20)
What are you passionate about? What do you LOVE? What do you SHINE into the world? What do you CELEBRATE?
Summer solstice is the longest day of the year. One of Earth’s poles is tilted closest to the Sun. The Sun appears at its highest altitude, for an early sunrise and late sunset. We welcome the heat and activity of playful passionate summer!
Autumn Equinox (2021/ 9/ 22)
As the fruits of summer fall into autumn, what do you release? What gifts do you share? What are you grateful for? What is SACRED?
Our Sun crosses Earth’s horizon exactly to the east at sunrise, then directly to the west at sunset. Day matches night, for Autumn Equinox. We welcome the season of slowing down, drinking nourishing broths, bundling up, and celebrating with community.
- Find your local dates for Solstices/ Equinoxes on TimeAndDate.com
- Get a pagan perspective at We'Moon
- Enjoy an acupuncture tune-up with me at JilingLin.com
("Nature Heals" artwork by Troy Chafin, from Amplifier Art)
11.27.2020
Holiday Gift Guide + Class Update
Happy holidays! Geminids meteor shower 12/13. Winter Solstice + Ursids meteor shower 12/21. And happy new year, coming right up. May your month be filled with wonder, rejuvenation, celebration, and rest. Here's your holiday gift guide, holiday health tips/ reminders, and class news.
Gift Guide
- $10: Give a Soothing Acupressure online video, Relaxing Herbs online video, or herbal first aid balm stocking stuffer. (Online videos are discounted! Email me for the balm.)
- $15: Gift a Sierra Club membership to support environmental conservation, and receive an insulated cooler and quarterly magazine!
- $35 (or $50 for 2 people): Gift an American Horticultural Society membership for free access to botanical gardens throughout the USA.. including our Ventura Botanical Garden & Santa Barbara Botanical Garden!
- $45: Support our local Ventura Land Trust, Ventura Botanical Garden, or Ojai Valley Land Conservancy with a gift membership
- $65 (monthly recurring fee): Gift ongoing health with an Acu- Membership, for 1 treatment each month.
- $80- 300: Nourish a friend with an Acupuncture Gift Card.(And save $10- $20!)
Holiday Health
🌊 Some granny-style wisdom: Stay hydrated with warm teas, exercise, drink nourishing broths, eat balanced meals, and wear your scarf + vest. Keep your core warm + covered!
🌊 A gentle Covid- reminder: If you have social holiday plans, travels, or get-togethers with folks outside of your household, then please schedule your appointment for at least 2 weeks afterwards. We're committed to providing you with the safest care we can. Thanks for diligently keeping us all safe, while accessing your care!
Classes
🌊 Online classes are up! Get 1-hour videos of my "Soothing Acupressure" and "Relaxing Herbs" classes. $10 each, for now. Check it out.
🌊 Thanks for your ideas. Kids' herbal classes. Ceremonial herbs + incense. More soon. What would you like to learn? Let me know + let's make it happen.
🌊 More offerings en route. Free resource page. Membership site. Coaching & courses. We give thanks for unknown blessings already on the way!
Happy holidays!
Jiling
Jiling Lin, L.Ac. 林基玲
acupuncture . herbs . yoga
JilingLin.com | 575.342.1050
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10.28.2020
Reflections
2020- 10- 27
Seasonal changes, life changes.
What do I care about.
What do I release.
We talk, and then we dance. One by one, sharing. Mostly nothing blatant. Everything expressive, simple, murky yet clear.
I feel your hands cupping, opening wide, then letting go. Gazing out over the abyss. Fear. Death. Infinite possibility.
We release, release, release.
It’s easier to notice what we care about and hold tight, than what we release.
Changing seasons, political chaos, wildfires, pandemic.
Hanging upside down, cocooned in an aerial yoga hammock, “I wonder how often do they wash these silks” then, “I hope I don’t get sick.”
Japanese maples en route to work. I rejoice as they start turning red, then watch, week after week, as more red leaves pile up on the sidewalk. I imagine their crunch as I drive by, remembering crunching as many as I could walking to school as a kid, then creating huge Connecticut red crunchy leaf piles with other folks’ kids as a wilderness awareness mentor, as an adult. Every so often, I stop to pick a tick off myself, off a child.
Self versus non self. Immune system, most complex system of our bodies. Boundaries, weaving and navigating internal and external webs of protection. When to speak up. How to verbalize something colorful, complex, uncomfortable. How to hold integrity with lightness and joy.
天地人. Sky, Human, Earth. Such power in the center of the circle. Such humbleness. Each choice minute yet integral.
Yoga by the Ocean yesterday. Red flag wind warning. Choppy waves. Large, yet formless. Unsurfable. I balance, falling, then standing. I bow, and bow, and bow, and bow.
2020- 10- 28
We are moving. January, New Zealand. A flurry of activity from now until then.
I have moved. From the deserts and coasts of California to the forests and hills of Connecticut, I have moved. Across the seas to lands known and unknown, slowly across the Earth and quickly through the Sky, I have moved.
I know movement. From the small sacred stillness of heart beating under tight dry skin to the big rawdy movement of thumbing across the country coast to coast, I know movement. Dancing with strangers in studios large and small, sunlight streaming in through windows, rain battering our bodies dancing in the mud at Standing Rock, darkness igniting wild dances in Los Angeles, I know movement.
We are moving. Across the sea once more. Now, with a license to practice in one country, and nothing for another country, beyond experience. So many precious experiences. We are moving.
Hands open, heart shuddering yet tenacious, I step forward.
2020- 11- 01
I’ve been experiencing election nightmares. My patients share similar elections nightmares. We bunch our bodies into knots around this great unknown, with a sense of mixed impending doom, and hope.
Meanwhile, full moon. Flying bats. Changing seasons. Ocean lapping against shore, wearing it down, moving closer inland. Fires continue devouring ancient forests. Our rivers dry, then refill. I find new old maps. We trace the trails with our fingers, then go walk them, mile after mile of sunburning foot-blistering bliss.
Much that is unknown, yet much that is known. Embrace simplicity. Do the work, then step back. Step forward as needed, but do not live in a constant state of tightened painful over-responsiveness, histamines jumping at things both significant and not, cells autophaging on overdrive.
May the pinkening dawn and dusk remind you of your own internal pinks and pastels. That which oxidizes in the air, but remains soft and nourished within the tenacious yet tenuous outer wrapping of skin. Emotions intangible yet oh-so-felt, be gentle. Nourish. Rest. Find that which is delicious, and enjoy it. One foot after another, stop every once in a while, poising and balancing in the great in-between. Wavering, quivering in the wind, dance.
10.19.2020
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