Category: Health and wellness

1. Try to start the day by smiling

One of the effects of stress is the feeling of dread when you first wake in the morning. Before you know it, it has increased in intensity and you are now beginning to feel anxious. To help with tackling this early morning stress, there is a simple yet effective trick.  After waking up, no matter how you feel, find the nearest mirror and smile.

It may sound strange but smiling has a very powerful impact on your emotional state and can change how you see the day ahead. What happens when you smile is that you stimulate muscle memory and release chemicals in the body that make you feel good. Your body remembers what you felt like when you smiled, so by forcing yourself to smile every morning, you are releasing chemicals that will automatically change your mood.

Also, smiling also has a powerful effect on other people. When you smile, a smile is likely to come back to you – not always – but more often than not.

2. Practise gratitude meditation

Of all our emotions, gratitude has the highest vibration. What this means is that the more grateful you are, the happier you become. Feeling overwhelmed and totally consumed by negative thoughts and emotions is often a symptom of being stressed – mentally and physically.

Begin and end each day with a five minute gratitude meditation. Start by focusing on your breath, then when you feel calm and peaceful, reflect on all the different things in your life that you are grateful for. This meditation helps you to realise how many things you can be grateful for.

Even when life feels challenging, be grateful. Each situation no matter how hard, teaches us something from which we can learn and grow. The more gratitude we have within us, the more peace and happiness we can find in our lives.

3. Do something for others

Often when you are stressed, you will be advised by others to make more ‘me time’.  Whilst it is said with the best intentions, one of the effects of stress is to spend time focusing on our problems and dwell on how they are making us feel. In this instance, more ‘me time’ often isn’t the best solution.

To really change we need to do the reverse and start thinking about others. When we make others happy we naturally become happier. This is the law of nature. Nature is constantly giving without expectation. When we follow this natural rhythm we become more peaceful and find greater happiness and meaning in our life.

4. Become aware of your thoughts and manage them

Stress and negative thoughts often go hand in hand, and this can be extremely damaging to our emotional and physical health. It is therefore essential to become aware of negative thought patterns and try to steer them in a different direction. Just like we can train our bodies to do things differently, we can also train our minds to think differently. It just takes practise.

The first step is always awareness. Try to observe your thoughts daily especially in stressful situations and see if your thoughts are helpful or destructive. Every time you have a negative thought, just say to yourself ‘unhelpful thought’.

Don’t allow your thoughts to go down a spiral of negativity. By stopping the continuation of negative thoughts they will slowly happen less frequently until you completely change the pattern of negative thinking.

5. Breathe

To become more peaceful, it is essential to get out of our busy head. We need to bring all our energy and focus away from our head and down into our body. Start by bringing all your focus and attention to the area just below your naval. This is a very important energy centre called the danjun. Whilst keeping your attention on this area you can start to breathe slowly, in through the nose and out through the nose.

Every time your mind gets distracted, bring your attention back to this area and your breath. You will find that after a few minutes your breath will naturally slow down and you will start to feel more calm and peaceful. When this happens you will be able to think more clearly and be able to make the right decisions. Focusing on your breath is a very powerful way to bring about calm, helping you to find a more peaceful state of being.

Stress – see how stressed you are

If you are worried about your stress levels and how to deal with life’s challenges, or just constantly worn out with the pressures of everyday life, don’t worry.  Take the ‘Stress OUT’ test to access simple solutions on how to manage stress.

Take the stress OUT test : https://www.masteroh.com/stress-out#no-back

Is He Shou Wu, the new matcha? Matcha tea has seen a surge of followers due to its health benefits, such as reportedly enhancing metabolism, reducing stress, boosting the immune system and lowering cholesterol, as well as helping longer-term illnesses.

However, there is a little known herb in the West that can be enjoyed as ‘tea’ that is equally amazing. It is called He Shou Wu (also known as Fo-Ti) and is one of the most revered herbs in Asia due its extraordinary range of health-boosting properties.

Nine health benefits of He Shou Wu:

1. Longevity: recent scientific studies into the properties have confirmed that He Shou Wu stimulates the body to produce substances that promote longevity, among them superoxide dismutase, the most powerful antioxidant in the human body.
2. Combats burnout and stress: known as a kidney Qi tonic, it stimulates adrenal gland function and promotes general endocrine system balance. Qi translates to “vital energy” and refers to the original energy that fuels life. Fo-Ti works to increase our kidney/adrenal energy, which is where Daoists believe Qi is stored in the body. This also has the added benefit of calming the nervous system, making He Shou Wu an excellent tonic for those facing burnout or under high levels of stress.
3. Slows down and even reverses the growth of grey hairs.
4. Enhances blood circulation.
5. Provides high levels of iron and zinc and supports fertility.
6. Supports the liver.
7. Improves brain function and memory.
8. Enhances the immune system.
9. Protects and repairs DNA.

What is He Shou Wu?

‘He Shou Wu’ literally means “He’s Black Hair” in Chinese. Ancient Daoist texts dating to 812AD recorded that an old man who was weak and frail fell asleep in the forest and awoke the next day to see a tall vine next to him. He was attracted to the plant and proceeded to dig it up with all its roots, as was customary at the time in China, and took it home. He then prepared the herb according to Daoist principles, cooking its roots with clean water, and started taking it regularly.

His strength and vitality returned and within a week he became virile and fathered a child, which was a miracle. When eventually his hair turned from grey to shiny black, the whole village was in awe. He went on to live more than 100 years (some sources say 160) and fathered four more children. The man’s name was He Tianer, so the herb was named He Shou Wu, meaning “He’s Black Hair”.

He Shou Wu latte

I began drinking He Shou Wu after receiving a packet as a gift. The gift was intended to help strengthen my hair, which is what He Shou Wu is famous for. As well as hopefully serving its intended purpose, I discovered He Shou Wu is a great energy-booster and pick-me-up. I now have a He Shou Wu latte every day and recommend it as an alternative to coffee or traditional tea, due to its numerable health benefits.

Ingredients:

• Almond milk
• Cinnamon
• He Shou Wu/Fo-Ti powder
• Raw/manuka koney or natural sweetener (optional)

Method:

Stir one teaspoon of Fo-Ti powder into a saucepan of hot almond milk (enough for one mug). Let it come to the boil and sprinkle some cinnamon. Take it off the hob and let it cool a little. Add raw honey to taste. Enjoy!

Eating Disorders ~ Come as you are

We see the return of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (February 25th – March 3rd), so we are focussing our blog on the seriousness of this illness.  Many people understandably associate this illness with food, and they wouldn’t be wrong but what we really need to address is the underlying issues that reinforce the eating disorder. Throughout this blog we will look at the facts behind eating disorders and how we can help heal the person and not just the symptoms. The best you is you – come as you are.

What are Eating Disorders?

Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses that involve disordered eating behaviour. This might mean limiting the amount of food eaten, eating very large quantities of food at once, getting rid of food eaten through unhealthy means (e.g. purging, laxative misuse, fasting, or excessive exercise), or a combination of these behaviours.

It’s important to remember that eating disorders are not all about food itself, but about feelings. The way the person interacts with food may make them feel more able to cope, or may make them feel in control.  Eating disorders include anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder.

Eating disorders can cause serious harm and may be fatal – anorexia has the highest mortality rate of all mental illnesses. But even though they are serious illnesses, eating disorders can be helped.

What Causes Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are complex and there is no one single reason why someone develops an eating disorder. These ideas have all been suggested as explanations:

• Genetics
• Lack of ‘off’ switch
• Control
• Puberty
• Social pressure
• Family
• Depression
• Low self esteem.

Eating disorders are complex, and not everyone will experience the same symptoms. People will respond differently to treatment and can take different amounts of time to recover. Some people can be affected by more than one type of eating disorder or find their symptoms changing as they recover.

How Can Master Oh Help

We know that eating disorders are complicated and everyone is different. Not everyone will experience the same symptoms and people will respond to different treatments.

That is why at Master Oh, we understand that we can be affected by suffering and pain when we are disconnected from our original source or being. This feeling creates negative energy within ourselves and our physical environment. To reconnect, we need to re-energise and harness the power of Qi.  Our mind then becomes clear, bright and beautiful.

What is Qi?

Qi is nature’s primary source of energy and the power that creates and supports life, keeping everything in balance and harmony. It is responsible for the communication between all cells, organs and systems in the body. It is vital to our wellbeing, relieving physical and emotional pain, increasing vitality and enhancing the body’s self-healing capacity.

A simple metaphor: like a car, which requires both a battery and fuel to run, human beings need both invisible Qi (the battery) as well as sufficient energy from food, water and air (the fuel) to sustain our lives, and one cannot replace the other.

Master Oh’s Energy Treatments are a powerful combination of acupressure and sound which help to open the energy channels and improve the flow of ‘human energy’ – Qi.

With his sensitive touch, Master Oh can feel how energy is circulating in your body and where it is blocked. He is also able to assess your energy reserves. He then works on your entire body, applying gentle acupressure on the main energy points to release blockages, clear toxins and recharge your energy system. Throughout the treatment he uses a breathing technique to make a sound vibration that transmits Qi deep into the energy channels.

After the treatment, many people experience relief from pain, stress and anxiety, as well as a new sense of calm, lightness and increased mental clarity. This positive frame of mind helps us to see things clearly and feel more in control.  This sense of control can help those who feel they have to turn to disordered eating behaviour to in order to help them cope with the strains of day to day life.

There is the popular belief that stress is due to external influences, such as an overload of work, family circumstances or financial worries, however what if this isn’t the case? 

What if stress is really coming from within us and it is our ability or inability to manage our thoughts and emotions that really affect our stress levels?

You will find that some days you are more able to deal with life’s challenges than others. If you are wondering why this is, the clue is in your energy levels. The days when everything feels overwhelming might coincide with a prolonged busy time at work, with tending to the children’s needs or a busy social calendar with a series of late nights. These types of events require us to use up more energy than usual, leaving us depleted and unable to cope with events, work, people and decisions that might have otherwise felt manageable.

We need Qi energy to digest not only the food that we eat but also to process information and to stay positive. A shortage of Qi means we literally don’t have the energy required to carry out the brain functions in charge of managing the emotions caused by life events and relationships. 

Our emotional and mental state, our immunity and ultimately our health, are all dependant on the natural and free-flow of Qi energy through the energy channels as well as the level of Qi in our energy system.

A harmonious mind flows like water

If we have enough Qi energy and it is circulating freely around our body, we feel happy, energised and our mind is clear. If we hit an obstacle, we can find a way around it. 

When we are short of Qi energy or when our Qi is blocked or depleted, the obstacle becomes an issue. We can’t find a natural way around it and stress is then created.

4 ways to avoid stress

1. Accept and let go

Acceptance allows us to be at peace with things the way they are. When you let go of trying to change or control a situation and instead see it for what it is you can see it from all sides and achieve a better understand of the situation. Everything in life comes and goes; happiness, pain, people, work, money, everything in the physical world is transient. Accepting this puts us back into the natural flow of life. We can appreciate things without needing to hold on to them and avoid feeling loss when they go.Most of us tend to hold on to painful memories, keeping us from healing and moving on from the past.  These emotions are stored in our energy system and create energy blockages. Blockages affect the free flowing energy in the body and result in stress. Making a conscious decision to accept and let go of emotions is a great way to support your mind and body.

2. Positive thoughts

Every thought is transmitted to the body through the energy system and every thought carries energy. A positive thought allows the energy to flow freely through the body, and a negative thought blocks the flow of energy. This will eventually affect the functioning of the main organs in the body.

3. Open energy blockages in the body to free the mind

We can only access the mind through the body.  By opening energy blockages in the body, it allows you to clear out deep-seated blockages in the mind. In order to open the physical energy blockages in our body we need Qi. Receiving Qi through an energy treatment is a very powerful way to recover the free flow of energy in the body and renew your energy levels, allowing you to be free from mental, emotional and physical stress.

4. Accept things with an open heart

Once we accept what life throws at us with an open heart we can move with life’s movement, which is both up and down. This also mirrors how Qi energy flows in the body. 

The first step to avoiding blockages in the mind and dealing with stress is to address is your Qi, or energy levels.

Happy New Year to you all from Master Oh, we hope that everyone has a happy and healthy year. This week sees the return of National Obesity Week, which is fast becoming one of the great public health issues of our time. The week is intended to raise awareness of the disease and hope that communities come together to help each other support their health and wellbeing. 

Master Oh is committed to helping others find health and happiness and there are a few simple and positive things that we can all do to help ourselves. This blog aims to raise awareness, help those with this disease and show how energy blockages as well as diet can also affect obesity.

The Facts

Firstly, let’s look at the facts. Currently in the UK, 1 in 3 adults are obese. This represents a phenomenal 380% increase over the last 30 years given that only 8% of adults were obese in 1980. According to a recent report, at the current trend, about 50% of the UK adult population will be obese by 2050. More worrying is that in children, we are seeing extreme rises in the rates of obesity.

The Causes

Obesity is caused simply by an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure. The average adult needs about 2000kCal/day and the body stores any excess intake over this. Continued excess calories input over time results in obesity. High calorie, mass-produced/convenient food, along with over-large food portions, is to blame. Additionally, the increase in sedentary lives and a reduction in exercise contribute to the issue.

Health Consequences of Obesity

Every year, as many as 30,000 people die prematurely from obesity-related conditions, with some experts now warning that obesity is responsible for more ill health than smoking. Being significantly overweight or obese is linked to a wide range of health problems, including:

• Arthritis
• Cancers (e.g. breast, liver and prostate)
• Diabetes
• Gallstones
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Indigestion
• Infertility
• Liver disease and liver cancer
• Pancreatitis and possible pancreatic cancer
• Snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea
• Stress, anxiety, and depression

Regarding the liver, obesity is now the commonest cause of chronic liver disease in the UK.

How energy blockages can affect obesity

There are many causes of energy blockages within the body. Our bodies react to certain situations such as stress, relationships, loss and bereavement, but we also react to external blockages caused by toxins in food, environmental pollution and other chemicals.

Our human energy is affected by exposure to an excess accumulation of toxins absorbed into the body from the air we breathe, the water we drink and the unhealthy food we eat. We then use our energy to trying to rid these toxins rather than focusing on the healthy functioning of our body. Over time, this leads to feelings of depleted energy, low mood and other diseases such as obesity. Below are a couple of causes which could link obesity to blocked energy:

Diet

When we are overworked or overtired, when we eat at irregular times or when we crave sugary or processed foods, we can deplete our energy levels and build up toxins, tension and blocked energy in the body. Blocked energy can affect our digestion, absorption of nutrients and elimination, affecting our health.

Inherited Blockages

Energy blockages can be caused by physical and emotional energy patterns passed down through the generations of the family. Essentially, we believe that people’s energy can be affected by the history and energy of their family. So could obesity be a disease which can passed down through the generations? We inherit our physical features through our genetic make-up, but in the energy system emotional patterns, ancestor’s life experiences, memories, pain, health issues and even addictions can be imprinted and carried forward to future generations. We may be born with weaknesses in our energy system inherited from our ancestors that can have a significant impact on our physical and mental wellbeing.

We are not surprised to see that people are increasingly interested in researching their family history to see how their lives have been shaped by previous generations and this can also include the impact on our health and wellbeing.

How Master Oh can help

Qi is the body’s vital energy, which travels around the body through a network of energy channels. According to Eastern medicine it is the natural flow of Qi which determines the state of our health and wellbeing.

Overtime, problems can develop with the body’s energy circulation – energy levels can drop, energy channels can be blocked or the energy itself can become toxic. This leaves the body more prone to illness or injury, and less able to recover if problems arise. Correcting the circulation of human energy enables long-terms healing to take place.

Receiving energy

The energy you receive during a treatment with Master Oh or through Qi classes helps to open energy blockages and remove stagnant toxins, improving the circulation and boosting the immune system. Having a treatment is a great way to open deep-seated energy blockages quickly. From there, Master Oh recommends changing our patterns to support the healthy flow of Qi throughout the body by following a balanced diet and taking regular exercise.

Resolving spiritual energy blockages

The Ancestor Healing Programme run at our Centres, addresses this crucial but not well-understood aspect of human life by healing these inherited patterns, and freeing us from their influence. The programme is a profound and spiritual experience to clear inherited energy patterns that can affect our life, wellbeing and relationships.

How an energy treatment can transform your sleep

Let’s face it, there are few things in life more frustrating than being unable to sleep.

A night of restful sleep gives us mental clarity, physical energy and emotional stability as well as increasing our performance at work. It also gives us greater resilience to illness and maintains hormonal balance, which all ads up to helping us live longer, healthier, happier and more fulfilling lives.

Insomnia and a lack of energy

What many people don’t realise is that we need energy to sleep and it is a shortage of energy that is often the root cause of insomnia and other sleep issues. Just like we need energy for moving, thinking and digesting food. We also need energy to help us to feel calm and peaceful.

When we are short of energy, we feel a sense of restlessness and the inability to switch off. Lack of energy creates excessive thinking, which prevents the body from finding peace and therefore sleep. A lack of sleep can have a huge impact on our lives, leaving us feeling foggy headed and emotional, making our muscles ache and generally feeling pretty awful.

Maintaining ‘Qi’

Master Oh’s Energy Treatments have been enormously beneficial in helping people to overcome their sleep issues. His treatments focus on recharging the body with ‘human energy’- Qi, whilst opening the body’s energy channels to create a balanced flow of Qi.

Qi is the invisible energy that creates and supports all life. It supports our organs and cells making our body function correctly. An energy treatment helps clear toxins and release emotional tension bringing the body back into balance, leaving you feeling calm, relaxed and ready for bed.

When your energy system is open and the flow of Qi restored, you have enough energy for your brain to create the hormones needed for sleep, helping your body to switch off, relax and release any tension it’s holding from the stresses and strains of everyday life.

Here are eight ways to help you get a better night’s sleep, using energy healing and other natural remedies and tips:

1. Switch off all electronics at least one hour before bedtime. The blue light they emit activates your brain and is a signal for your body to wake up.
2. Lavender oil is a classic remedy for promoting sleep. Put a few drops into your bath or on your pillow to help relax your body and calm your nervous system.
3. Slow abdominal breathing is one of the best ways to calm your nervous system helping you to relax the body and quieten the mind.
4. Relax before going to bed by reading a book, having a warm bath or listening to quiet, calming music.
5. Reduce your caffeine intake by stopping all caffeinated drinks after 4pm.
6. Moderate exercise no less than three hours before bed is one of the best sleep medicines around. A vigorous workout could have the opposite effect, but light exercise will help relieve any tension which has built up over the day.
7. Go to bed before 11pm so you can get at least eight hours sleep.
8. Receive an Energy Treatment from Master Oh. Master Oh is also able to look at your inherited energy patterns. These inherited energy patterns can play a significant role when it comes to sleep issues. Why not book a treatment and consultation with Master Oh to find out how these can be cleared.

Improve your sleep this winter with the power of Qi and a Master Oh Energy Treatment: www.masteroh.com