On my last acupuncture treatment visit, my acupuncturist mentioned about Chinese life cycles.

As per the wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), we start a new cycle on every certain years. Women mark a new cycle in every seven years, while men mark a new cycle in every eight years, as it says “Women seven and men eight.”

The rough explanation of the women’s life cycle is as follows.

At age of 7, her adult teeth start switching from baby’s ones to adult’s ones. Her reproductive system starts to develop.

At age of 14, her first menstruation appears.

At age of 21, her adult teeth development completes and her body grows to full height.

In the next cycle, the fourth cycle of age 21 to 28, her fertility ability reaches at the peak. This cycle is the best time physically to give a baby birth.

On the next cycle, at age of 35, her physical peak condition starts declining. This cycle is still good for giving a baby birth.

At age of 42, she starts to have white hair.

At age of 49, her menstruation dries up (menopause).

***

I am 48 years and 9 months, and I am close to my next stage of life cycle.

My acupuncturist told me to be aware of the transition in physical and mental status when entering to a new cycle. I will need to put more attention and care to my physical health than before in order to maintain my good health.

I am looking forward to a new cycle. I personally believe, after menopause, which is a termination of reproduction, women will become much more aware of the spiritual aspects than her younger years. Thus, in the upcoming cycles, women can focus on spirituality more than ever.  

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Last night I stayed up late to finish sewing a Santa dress for my daughter. My daughter happily went to school with the new dress.

She brought 24 cupcakes to school and celebrated her birthday in advance with her classmates. She received lots of birthday wishes and hugs from her classmates.

She found out her teacher’s birthday was the same day as hers. It’s nice to know they share something in common. It was a nice surprise information.

When she came back home from school, she found another wonderful surprise in our mail box. It was an airmail envelop from her Japanese friend. It contained a heartwarming letter and a cute birthday card. It was very nice of her to remember my daughter’s birthday.

The address part of the envelop was blurred. Maybe it was raining when she mailed it. It was miraculous that this letter was safely delivered.

My daughter had a wonderful day today, as her pre-birthday.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Every Thursdays my daughter attends the art club after school. Our husband and I walk to school to pick her up, and three of us walk back home. We enjoy this walk every Thursday evening.

After the club, the art teacher personally gave me some information. It was the information about the upcoming art drawing contest. The art teacher highly values my daughter’s art talent. She wants my daughter to apply her art work to the contest.

My daughter recently applied her artwork to IKEA kids drawing contest. So, this will be her second participation in a contest. The winner will be awarded a $100 gift card. The winner’s art work will be their website with the full name and the grade.

While we were walking back home, we enjoyed watching a beautiful sunset.

My in-law sent me a picture of their land. They just had enough snow entirely covered their property. I wish we were there and drink a hot cocoa together.

I appreciate every moment of our peaceful days. They are all precious moments.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I have been working on making a Santa dress for my daughter. I could have worked much faster if I didn’t have watery running nose.

For these couple of days, I have been suffering from sore throat and running nose.

At first I thought I caught a cold. But some of my local friends told me it was probably an allergic reaction to cottonwood trees.

They can be right.

There are a whole bunch of white fluffy stuffs floating in the air, which I didn’t notice until today. Also I noticed other people are having the same symptom as mine.

This might be my first time to have an allergic reaction to cottonwood tree. I never noticed this bunch of cotton thingy floating in the air in this area. It reminds me of Rapid City, where I saw cotton staff floating in the air.

I hope I will get over from this allergy so that I can finish making the dress by this Friday.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I had an acupuncture treatment six times so far.

As for the first three treatments, my body reacted great. The improvements were obvious in my glucose numbers as well as in my emotional uplifting. As for the latter three treatments, however, I did not see any obvious improvements.

I discussed about it with my acupuncturist. She said it was normal. According to her, many clients experience great improvements on their first couple of treatments, and then, they experience the plateau phase which they don’t see any obvious improvements for a while.

Maybe she is right.

That being said, my intuition says my body have gotten used to the same protocol. These six treatments were done in the same protocol with using the same acupuncture points. As a matter of fact, there are some medical articles talking about my intuition might be right.   

Since my last acupuncture treatment in September, I have been thinking about exploring a new acupuncturist with a new protocol, just like having a second opinion.

That is why today I had my seventh acupuncture treatment with a new acupuncturist.

***

The new acupuncturist offered me a different type of protocol.

The previous acupuncturist’s protocol is to insert needles on my front side of body. She used 35 to 40 needles. The needles were thin (very fine) so that I hardly felt pain when being inserted. It was treated from head to toe.

Contrary to that, the new protocol was to insert needles on my back side of body. The number of needles were less than the previous one. Maybe around 10 on the body (shoulder blade, lower back, and upper ankle) and 5 in the ear. The new protocols were Electro-acupuncture (A small electric current is passed between acupuncture needles) and The Ear acupuncture (auricular therapy). I felt the needles were bigger and thicker so that I could feel a slight pain when being inserted.

I cannot tell which is better for me, at this moment. I was satisfied that I could experience a new protocol.

***

Here is the memo that my new acupuncturist gave me.

 

Diagnosis from tongue

Lung: Heat

Kidney: Yin Vacuity (陰虚) with Heat

Jing (精): Vacuity (虚)

— I never heard of the word of Jing. Based on my Internet research, jing is stored in kidney and represents “essence”. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) it is one of the Three Treasures Sanbao 三寶, along with qì and shén. I guess jin is like vital energy, and I am lucking the vital energy.

 

Diagnosis from pulse

Wiry, forceful, deep

— I never heard of these expressions of pulse. Based on my Internet research, it represents “congealed blood (凝固血)”.

 

Recommendations

Exercise: Tai Chi exercise on daily basis

Foods: low-fat, high fiber, raw fruits and vegetables, cooling foods, roots such Mexican yam, yam, radishes, potatoes, carrots, melons, cucumbers, beets, turnips, taro, pumpkin, wheat, mung beans, winter melon, celery, pears, spinach, sweat rice, soy beans, tofu, squash, burley

Book: Healing with whole foods: Asian traditions and modern nutrition by Paul Pitchford — I already ordered this book. Looking forward to reading it.

Hot bath: regulates pancreatic function

Chrysanthemum tea — I never took this tea. Maybe I will look for it in the local grocery store and try it.

 

Avoids

Excessive vitamin B and C, strong aroma, strong spices

Water with ice — It has been my daily habit to drink lots of water with ice. The acupuncturist recommended me to switch to room temperature water, as extreme cold water puts too much stress in my stomach. I never thought of that, but she is right. I will stop putting ice in my water.

***

PS: Five days has passed after the Electro-acupuncture treatment. I didn’t see any improvements in my glucose levels nor my emotional uplifting. I am going to ask my new acupuncturist to try another protocol on my next appointment.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

This evening I talked with my Japanese friend with LINE. Although I’ve heard about this application and its great benefits, I never used it. I am an old school type of person when it comes to SNS. New application always comes with some fear.

My Japanese friends told me the majority people use LINE to communicate in Japan. Urgent messages are passed through LINE not only between friends but also between schools and workplaces.

Contrary with that, here in America, I never heard anybody using LINE. The major chat app here is Facebook Messenger as far as I know.

My Japanese friend and I normally enjoy talking on Skype. For this month however, she could not get on Skype due to some reasons; either the Internet connection error or the computer error. That was how she asked me to install LINE on my cell phone.

With my friend’s help, after struggling in installing, I finally could talk with my friend through LINE free talk.

By the way, my installing LINE app accompanied with a nice surprise gift.

My mom’s name was in the recommended friends list. I sent a simple message to my mom without knowing if my mom is suing LINE or not. Within a minute, she replied back to me. I didn’t know even my mom has a LINE account.

I am glad I could catch up with the Japanese communication app, finally.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My daughter asked me to sew a new Santa dress for her. With her request, we went to the craft store and got some materials and fabrics.

I normally don’t use a pattern when making outfits for my daughter or myself.

Instead, I start with creating an image in my head.

My daughter already had the certain images for Santa dress in her head. She drew some design sketches and described it to me.

Now I have a clear image of what I want to make.

I hope I will finish making it before her birthday.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

In my dream of this morning, I was cooking Japanese rice porridge (okayu) for many people. While cooking, I focused on putting my positive and healing energy into the food, so that everybody who eats my food will be energized. I felt blessed to be able to cook and serve my homemade food to many people.

***

Then I woke up.

I thought it interesting. Contrary to my dreams of these past several days, which were the dreams of my receiving, today’s dream was the opposite. I was giving to others. I am glad that I could be in a good balance of giving and receiving in my dream.

***

This morning, I went to the grocery store. Today the environment was back to normal; after Black Friday of yesterday. The road and the store were quiet and calm.

One of my shopping lists was to buy a birthday card for my daughter. Her birthday is coming closer. I already prepared a birthday gift for her. The birthday card will be the last item to complete the gift.

At the card section of the store, I was drawn to the right one.

The card was decorated with a bunch of shining beads. They look like twinkling stars. Also, it comes with the music, “Celebration” by Kool & The Gang. I know my daughter will love this card.

On my way back home from the grocery store, I got on the car and turned on the engine. The very first song came out from the car radio was “Celebration” by Kool & The Gang.

I thought it as a nice confirmation from my family spirits. I am glad they also liked this birthday card.

***

This song brought me back to my younger days. On my 21st birthday, my-boyfriend-at-that-time took me to a live music club. The guest musician was Kool & The Gang. We were lucky enough to sit in the first center row. We enjoyed their songs right in front of them. I have a good memory accompanied with their songs.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

In my dream of this morning, somebody gave me a big glass jar. It contained a full of medicine mushrooms.

***

According to my Internet research, receiving medicine mushrooms indicates the healing of sickness. I was happy to know the meaning. I am willing to receive the healing energy for my physical health.

Nowadays I have received a bunch of gifts from different people in my dream. The same things are simultaneously happening in the real life. I have received a bunch of surprise gifts from different people.

I thought it interesting. The dream world and the physical world are reflecting one another, back to back. I feel many other people have been experiencing the same way as I have been.  

***

Today was Black Friday; the following day of Thanksgiving Day. Most stores offer a huge sale. The sale start time varies to stores. Some stores start their huge sale from midnight, while other stores start at 4 am or 5 am in the early morning. Some stores give away a $25 store gift card to a certain number of the first customers.

I used to hear my local friends bragging about their winning over the free gift cards, after standing in a long waiting line in a dark cold morning. They also happily showed me their purchased items with the prices.

While listening to their bragging stories, I would secretly felt peaceful in being me, who is not interested in any bargain shopping or getting any free gift cards.

Don’t get me wrong. I understand how they feel. I had been in the same shoes when I was living in Japan. I used to enjoy a bargain shopping. I used to buy lots of unnecessary items, which eventually made me feel regret for buying them.

I learned from my past experiences. Now I know that unnecessary items will make me feel stressed out. I feel light and energized with only necessary items in my house. I don’t need much more anymore. And I am loving this peaceful mind.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

In my dream of this morning, I was a Manzai-shi (Japanese duo comedian). My partner and I were one of the most popular and famous duos. I liked my partner. He knew me pretty well so that he could bring any of my funny actions and remarks into laughter.

After one comedy live show, he had a pile of Chikuwa (a tube‐shaped fish paste cake) in his both palms and handed them to me. He said I deserved to receive these. While saying, he was smiling and happy for me.

Then I woke up. I don’t know what this dream means. I woke up happily, so I guess it was good.

***

Today was Thanksgiving Day.

We were invited to our family friends’ get together. This family has two children, and one girl used to be my daughter’s classmate. She transferred to a Christian elementary school two years ago. I was glad to see them still being good friends and played together.

There were 12 people at the gathering. Since everybody brought some dishes, there were so many different dishes at the table. I brought my homemade dinner rolls. They turned out very well. We all enjoyed our delicious foods.

The host couple asked everybody how this year was for them.

On my turn, I answered my year of 2018 was pretty good. Everything was calm and peaceful. My days and months went by quickly. I was surprised that we almost reached at the end of the year.

To my surprise, everybody was nodding to me. It was great to know all of us had the pretty calm and peaceful days this year.

To me, this year was a year of manifestations. I had many surprising incidents happened exactly as I wished.

***

I am thankful to my dear family; my husband and daughter, for enjoying our happy and healthy days together.

I am thankful to my Japanese family and Navajo family for their consistent love and support to us.

I am thankful to my dear friends for inspiring me and cheering me up, and staying as my friends.

I am thankful to my late son and my late aunt for their protection and unconditional love to me.

Lastly but not the least, I am thankful to my family spirits and angels, my grandfathers and grandmothers, and my ancestors.

I love you all, from my heart.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪