The following is an excerpt from the book ” Miracles of Moxibustion”, by Ruth Liu- the Award Winning Author, Holistic Coach, Natural and Holistic Health Promoter and Practitioner. To reach her for her online course, seminar either in Chinese or in English or invite her for any keynote speech, pls. send email to her directly: ruth9485@gmail.com
———————————————————————————————————————————-
Why Do I Name This Chapter “THE END?”
You might find it weird to see that I have named this first chapter “The End.” I often told my clients in my courses that if you want a new life, you should first say goodbye to your old life. For health, it’s the same. If you truly want to have optimal health, you have to first say goodbye to your old habit that was causing your health issues. This is more important than any of the treatment.
It’s not difficult to understand if you think about it. Let’s say you easily have loose stools or diarrhea. I used moxibustion to quickly improve that—normally with 1–2 treatments. But if you don’t change your eating habits, your problem might come back in 2–3 weeks. You might think the treatment doesn’t last long, but the reality is, it is because of your daily habit. The speed of damaging your body is faster than the speed of healing it.
For people with diarrhea, it means too much dampness or too cold in the lower part of the body. It’s like cooking. There must be fire to heat the water to steam, or qi, so that it can go up to the top of your body to be utilized by your organ systems. If you continue to drink cold water and eat too much cold stuff, including excessive fruit, it will continuously cause the coldness, loose stools, or diarrhea.
In my online courses, I often tell my clients some important habit changes and emotional management at the beginning.
Another example:
Clinically, I can see that so many women have breast issues—either breast pain, nodules or breast cancer. I told them if they want to solve the problem from the root, they need to learn to stay calm and not be angry. Ninety percent of such breast issues are due to qi stagnation, which is related to emotion. So, treatment for the existing problem is one thing. Most importantly, you must think positively and learn to tolerate and forgive.
Nowadays, there are so many people talking about mental health. We have special concerns for the young people. In my class, I normally tell parents not to take their kids to psychologists or mental doctors. The reason is simply that it is not a mental issue. It is a physical, habit or education issue. The biggest challenge is that the young people sleep too late. It’s very common for the young generation, even the adults, to now go to sleep after 12 a.m. Some go to bed even later. And they often argue that they wake up late, so in total, they sleep more than eight or even 10 hours. I told them that the 8-hour sleep during the daytime is different from the 8-hour sleep at night. It’s not how long you sleep; it’s what time you sleep that matters more. To put it in a simpler way, you are going against nature.
God created the world and gave you the sun and moon to guide you when to sleep and when to wake up. What we are doing is against nature’s law. And we have a Chinese saying: that you must be sound asleep by 11:00 p.m. local time. There is a big theory behind it, but I won’t be focusing on this long discussion here. If you want to know about the holistic health theory, you can click to subscribe and follow my YouTube channel, “Holistic Queen,” or frequently check some blogs I posted both in Chinese and in English under website, www.showtcm.com,
So, to gain ultimate wellness, you have to end your old habits.
It’s Time for Mind Change
The second thing I want to talk about is a mentality change. Like everything else, if you want to change for good, you must change your mentality first.
When my second son challenged me as to why so many people still seek Western medicine while I said that Chinese medicine is a better alternative medicinal system, I realized he’s not the only one. That’s why I decided to start posting videos and write books to educate the people about the health understanding.
While Western medicine can be said to target the disease itself, the Chinese medicine or system is totally different. I think it would be more suitable to call it a holistic wellness system instead of just a medicinal system. The goal of Chinese medicine is to bring you back to the total balance within your body system, and the balance between you and nature so that you will have total harmony within yourself and with nature. This is not only used as the guidance to treat health problems but most importantly for overall wellness.
The way of thinking between Western medicine and Chinese medicine is very different. But don’t get me wrong. The physiological foundation can be consistent but described in different terminology. It’s the different understanding of pathological theory and hence the treatment directions that separate them.
For example, in regard to diabetes, I often give my students this illustration.
Let’s take two cups. We fill the first cup with 1/2 cup of water, and we fill the second cup with a full cup of water. We then add one tablespoon of sugar to each of these two cups. Could you please tell me which cup of water will taste sweeter?
Without thinking, you would choose the half cup. When you do a blood test, you will be told the sugar concentration level is too high. So various enzymes will be given to you to break the sugar down. The problem is that the broken sugar will then sink to your lower limbs. That’s why a lot of diabetic people end up losing their lower limbs at the later stage if they don’t change their habits or seek alternative solutions. From Chinese medicine theory, it’s the water issue, not the sugar. We need to add more water to the half cup. But of course, it doesn’t mean that you just drink more water. It must be water “qi” to be utilized by your body. This will be another big topic. I will try to cover various health issues. You can follow my YouTube channel-Holistic Queen.
I believe Chinese medicine is the most natural holistic medicinal system in the world. It’s not technological, but it’s very scientific. Its theory never changes, in the past or in the future. While Western medicine focuses on the disease itself, Chinese medicine focuses on holistic wellness. There is a big difference.
Stop Endless Medicinal Pills
I once met a cancer client during the internship. He took out 15 types of pills. Yes, 15 types. He started with a stomach issue. So, he was prescribed stomach medicine. Then there was a side effect. He took another medicine for this side effect. Then after a while, his liver had a problem. He took liver medicine. Then there were side effects. So, he took more pills for these side effects, and so on and so on, until he was now taking 15 types of pills and was diagnosed with throat cancer. Can you imagine what kind of impact it has on your body if you take 15 pills altogether every day?
I also met a patient in my own clinic with a similar story. Nowadays, it seems that when a person has 4–5 bottles of pills, it is very normal.
I should say, most nutritional or dietary supplements follow similar medicinal theory. If you lack vitamin C, then take vitamin C. Or just take multi-vitamins. It sounds right. But seldom does a person think deeper. How do those things really react in your body? What kind of problem could it lead to?
I often hear my clients say that they take aloe juice to help them with bowel movements. And it works very well. So, they must drink it every day for the rest of their lives to help them poo. Just imagine if you were relying on laxatives. It’s a similar theory, but aloe juice is much lighter of course. If for temporary relief, it’s okay. But if you drink it for the long term, it will cause problems. First, you must ask yourself why you have bowl movement issues in the first place.
For most people, especially the elderly, it’s because the yang qi is getting lower. To put it another way, there is not enough energy to make the intestines move. So, the proper way of solving this problem is to restore the normal functionality of your intestines. You might ask what the harm would be in the long run from taking aloe juice. Well, to put it simply, your clear chi cannot be steamed up to nourish your lungs and your upper parts. In the long run, your intestines will totally stop working, and you will lack enough clear qi or energy supply. Then some other issues such as dizziness, dementia, COPD, etc. might occur. You would never think they are related at all. I might exaggerate a bit. But I did find that a lot of people ended up relying on aloe vera juice for their bowel movements.
It’s common sense that if you want to treat an issue, you must know the cause of the issue, right? Dry eyes, dry nose, dry lips, dry mouth, dry throat? Each dryness implies a different reason or issue from a Chinese medicinal point of view.
So, it’s time to rethink the health choices now. I will try to explain these theories down the road. You can follow me through my YouTube channel, “Holistic Queen” or check some of my blogs posted on www.ShowTCM.com.
Why Should You Know About Moxibustion?
Why do I want to write this book and show you about the miracles of moxibustion? I saw clinically, or from those moxibustion fans or followers that miracles happen so often. I will talk more about this in the later chapters. So many people were desperate because of the doctors’ diagnosis or the hospital notes, but they experienced great results by using moxibustion. So, I set my mission to promote this natural, comfortable and holistic way of treating health problems. You can read those real stories in later chapters. So, bottom line, if you are suffering from some health issues, and your doctors told you there is no cure or no hope, you should think of trying moxibustion.
New Journey
So, it’s time to end your old habit, your old way of thinking or even your old supplement. It’s time to learn about the moxibustion: an ever-green, effective home remedy. It’s time to start a new journey of holistic wellness. Your health starts with your willingness to change, to try and to take action. Your health is not with your doctor; it’s with you.
I hope this book will bring you a very different health and life change, for the good.