8.01.2023

🌞Perfect day: welcoming 長夏 late summer │ August newsletter

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We're tailing towards the end of summer, slipping into the Earth Element, starting to harvest the fruits of summer, transitioning between seasons. Maybe we're slowing down a bit, settling into our homes, cleaning, redecorating, resting and nesting. Or maybe you (like me) are embracing Sierra season and trekking into mountainous passes for colorful days, colds nights, and the brightest of stars. How does this transitional time— chang xia 長夏 in Chinese— look and feel for you?


"If tomorrow you were gifted the perfect day, what would your perfect day look like?" Thomas Dick, Mountain Rose Herbs VP and my fellow Herbal Radio podcast host, concludes every "Interviews on Herbal Radio" show with the same question. "Nature, relaxation, and community," answer Leah and Chloe of Rising Appalachia. "... that human beings around the planet learn respect," says 7song. "Naked on a rock in the middle of a river with everyone I care for well taken care of— and world peace," I respond, serious-joking, hopeful.


I enjoyed this lovely day, this past month. Dawn yoga, surf, lunch, hike, river plunge/ lounge, dinner, then resting in bed with a book by dark. A wonderful day: friends, food, solo time, both saltwater and freshwater immersion, and an abundance of time.


This past month of non-scheduling (besides clinic days) has been the perfect respite. "No," I said many times. "That can wait," to my overflowing inbox. "I'd love to— but let's not schedule yet," to friends, organizations, possibilities. I gave into the Elements of Ayurveda, welcoming spacy vata into what can be an overly scheduled fiery pitta life, and lazing by the river enjoying earthy kapha. A perfect day, one exhale after another, stillness amidst movement, quiet amongst chaos. A pause.


What is your perfect day?


When was the last time you experienced this?


What is filling your cup— and what is depleting it?


How can you give yourself a pause to recalibrate, revision, and realign— before continuing on your brilliant life path, your one wild and precious life?


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Fallen trees replenishing the soil. Eastern Sierra, CA


Coming up

  • Ecstatic Dance at Bodhi Salt in Ventura, CA. Final Fridays of each month! Free for members, sliding scale $15-30 for public. Next dance Aug. 25 with community-DJ Bryan SantaOlalla!
  • Nourishing Life at the Omega Institute in upstate NY, a Five Elements immersion in a gorgeous location. All participants get a copy of my Embodying Elements workbook. Sept. 11 - 15
  • Elemental Creativity at Green Gulch Farm in nor-Cal— Art, movement, and meditation with Zen Monk Fu Schroeder and Art Monk Abbess Suiko McCall! Nov. 29 - Dec. 3


Recommendations

  • Enjoy new podcast interviews with fellow acupuncturists Toby Daly and Athene Eisenhardt on Herbal Radio!
  • The book Hagitude beautifully interweaves myth, psychology, and memoir around “reimagining the second half of life." I’ve been raving about it with my menopausal patients, and recommend it for people with partners who will experience menopause one day, too.
  • Are you an herbal aficionado, or fellow California acupuncturist? The Ojai Herbal Symposium is back! Nov. 11-12 in Ojai, CA and online. Offering 12 CEUs for acupuncturists! (Pending CAB approval)


❤️ Enjoy Earth Element time,


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Jiling Lin, L.Ac. 林基玲

acupuncture . herbs . yoga


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ACU-WAITLIST │ Having trouble booking an appointment? Get on my waitlist here. I will only message if spaces open (maximum once a week). If necessary, please remember to reschedule your appointments at least 48 hours in advance, to prevent being charged for the full rate of your appointment. This allows others the opportunity to receive treatment. Thank you!

7.01.2023

🌞Mindfulness reflections & resources ⎸ July newsletter

 

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I stop. Canyons of light and shadow dance across the rectangular patterning of the oak bark. I trace the canyons, red and black ants crawling over my fingers. Turkeys laugh. Deer trot by. The full moon sets, sun rises, and I track time with breath. Now, walking. Lift, move, place. Heel to toe, toe to heel, edges, center. Now, sitting. Just this. Gentle gaze. I see everything and nothing all at once. Soft belly. Spine elongated yet natural. Light and shadow. Ancestors everywhere. “What allures you?” Just this. 


Three days ago, I did nothing but eat, meditate, and sleep for a week of silent nature meditation at Spirit Rock. I type this now from an airport window, watching the pink sunset kiss Phoenix, AZ mountains, bleary-eyed on a red-eye layover en route to one of the largest herbal conferences in the world, the International Herbal Symposium (IHS). Walking, driving, and flying from my first multi-day silent Buddhist meditation retreat to my first time teaching at the IHS, I feel grateful (what an honor to teach alongside so many of my heroes). I toe the edge of overwhelm (from silent sacred everynothingness, to flying through the air in a big metal box, to celebrating with hundreds of excited herbalists-- this is a lot). I’m here


Slowly walking from one side of the terminal to the other at the Phoenix International Airport, I soften and expand my gaze, see everything and nothing, and track my breath, feet, and body. Just this moment. Body, breath, sounds. Seeing, hearing, sensing. Just this. 


Movement within stillness. Stillness within movement. Still waters flowing. 


What mindfulness practices ground you in everyday life? 


What small rituals anchor your attention in this present moment, in what truly matters? 


Sassafras & Rosa multiflora near Boston, MA

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🌻RETREATS🌻

Come join us for...


Nourishing Life at the Omega Institute in upstate NY, a Five Elements immersion in a gorgeous location. All participants get a copy of my Embodying Elements workbook. Sept. 11 - 15, 2023


OMEGA


Elemental Creativity at Green Gulch Farm, just north of San Francisco-- with Zen Monk Fu Schroeder and Art Monk Abbess Suiko McCall! Art, movement, and meditation with three stellar teachers. Nov. 29 - Dec. 3, 2023


GREEN GULCH


🌻MORE RESOURCES🌻

Find mindfulness resources at jilinglin.com/links#meditate


Ventura mindfulness organizations:


Take a retreat! Here’s some retreat center ideas and my upcoming retreats


Herbs to support travel-- here’s two articles I love, from


New Podcast Episode: Herbal Action Project, with Shaman Jesus

 

PS: The International Herbal Symposium was a blast. I reconnected with old friends, made new friends, taught about things I love, learned more about other things I love like clinical skills for better midwifing people-plant-place relationships-- and am inspired to integrate these skills into my local Ventura clinic & teaching home-scape.


❤️ Enjoy the rest of your summer,


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Jiling Lin, L.Ac. 林基玲

acupuncture . herbs . yoga


JILINGLIN.COM


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FACEBOOK


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6.01.2023

🌻 Happy Summer Solstice ⎸ June newsletter

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Happy Summer Solstice on June 21! As we approach the middle of 2023 and the start of summer, take a moment to reflect on how your year has been thus far, where you are now, and where you are going. Journal, draw, or put on a piece of music and dance it out.


SUMMER is associated with the Fire Element in East Asian Medicine. Stay cool through the rising heat (between June gloom, for my Ventura folx). Sip on herbal iced teas, or make a refreshing herbal highball. Make cucumber salads with fresh garden herbs. Create sun teas with mint family plants like tulsi, peppermint, lemon balm, and lavender. Make and freeze fresh pesto with basils, chives, and mustards. Revel in the abundance of this time of year. As you travel into your bold summer adventures, remember to rest, relax, and create pockets of spaciousness for freeform play– and simply doing nothing. (Acupuncture can help!)


VENTURA YOGA | Two beloved yoga studios in town-- the Pharm and Aum Vibe-- have closed their doors. 🙏 Teachers from both studios are rippling back out into the rich waters of our local Ventura yoga-scape at various other studios:

  • Ecstatic Dance continues at Bodhi Salt every month with rotating community DJs!✨ Bodhi Salt also has gentle infrared heat, all levels yoga, and rad teachers. Email me to sign up for dance updates, or write me to DJ! Come dance!
  • Love climbing? Lauren Snyder teaches yin-flow on Tuesdays, and I teach Hatha-vinyasa on Thursdays at Boulderdash climbing gym @7:45 PM
  • Klaudia Paletta & Rafaela Garcia of Primas Colectivas teach "Yoga en Espanol" in Oxnard & beyond.
  • Portside Yoga now houses Accessible Yoga with Lisa Feeney, River Flow Yoga with the one and only River Shima, and Pilates/ Barre with Carrie Sablan... on the beautiful Ventura Marina!
  • Going to Ojai? Visit Breathe Ojai and take classes with River, Lisa, Lauren, Sarah Aspell, and more!


🌻UPCOMING🌻

ECSTATIC DANCE | It bears repeating that Ecstatic Dance is now at Bodhi Salt! This location was one of the first locations that I taught yoga in Ventura. I've spent many an ecstatic dawn welcoming the sunrise through the majestic studio windows. It's a gorgeous space. Dances are FREE for Bodhi Salt members/ staff, and sliding scale for others. We're still rotating DJs and creating this community together, so please reach out if you would like to DJ!


EVENTS | Clinic nourishes my Yin, whereas teaching stokes my Yang. When I'm home in Ventura, not only do I get to rest and surf, but I also get to nourish my patients by anchoring all my teaching material with hands-on clinical experience, tending to one human at a time. This is quiet, focused, loving, attentive work that I am grateful for. The fanfare of teaching and travel is also deeply satisfying. This is my expressive move-around, share-everything-everywhere part of my life where I channel the Gods, embody poetry, and radiate sunshine. "You're a force," gushed a recent participant. *Blush* Well, I nourish my Yin in clinic/ ocean at home, and shine my Yang teaching all over once a month. Follow all event updates here! And come join us!


Trillium and fern in Eugene, OR

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🌻HIGHLIGHTS🌻

 

❤️ Happy summer adventuring!


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Jiling Lin, L.Ac. 林基玲

acupuncture . herbs . yoga


JILINGLIN.COM


INSTAGRAM


FACEBOOK


Book your acupuncture appointment here

BOOK NOW


If someone forwarded you this email & you loved it, then subscribe here!

SUBSCRIBE