Beat Back to School Blues

It’s that time again, kids everywhere are getting ready to return to school. For parents, this is often a bittersweet time. Many parents are ready for more routine and structure in their children’s days, but now need to start packing lunches, helping with homework, and overall RE-ORGANIZE their own routine. Additionally, kids are returning to more structured bedtimes and morning routines.

So what can parents do, from a holistic perspective, to seamlessly shift from summer fun to school routine?

Here are a some suggestions:

1. Start a bedtime meditation routine. Kids of all ages can benefit from meditation…and parents can, too. Meditation can be short and simple for little ones. The older the child, typically, the longer the child can meditate. Some easy options for meditations include:
   1. Guided meditations such as these on Sleepy Starry Sky, Sleepy Sloth, The Sleepy Rainbow
   2. Healing Touch Self-Chakra Meditation which can be downloaded here. Add a therapeutic grade essential oil for added relaxation. A wonderful option is lavender essential oil placed on KD1 and PC6.
   3. An additional bedtime tip includes get everything ready for tomorrow morning the night before. Lay out clothes for tomorrow morning, put completed homework into backpacks and so forth to help create an easy start to the day.
2. Make the morning routine fun, inspiring, and a positive start to the day. By creating this positive energetic start, your child has a better ability to enter their school day optimistically and ready to learn.
   1. Start with a morning affirmation. For example: “Everything is always working out for me.” OR “I greet each moment and everyone with a smile.”
   2. Begin with a balanced breakfast.  If your schedule allows time for a quick sit down breakfast, that’s optimal. But for many, it’s unrealistic. Here are some great to go breakfasts. A meal replacement bar such as a Vega Bar, eggs baked in a muffin tin, Pamela’s pancake mix pancake roll-up rolled with organic bacon or organic sausage.

While I am a doctor in the holistic and integrated medicine field, I’m also a parent with young children always looking for ways to improve each day. If you have suggestions or tips for an easy back to school start, please leave a comment! We value your feedback.

Intending you a great day!

Dr. Kimberly Leupold, DACM, L.Ac., Dipl. Ac, HTPA

Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine

Earth Day and The Five Elements

Our Connectedness with Nature

Earth Day arrives on Thursday, April 22. There’s no better day to take some time to remember how connected our own wellness is to the vitality of our planet. All the systems and parts of the natural world are interconnected, and we’re part of it all, too.

Created in 1970, the very first Earth Day was purposefully planned to occur in late April, a time when spring is blooming, students are on breaks from school, and people in the Northern Hemisphere begin to spend more time outside. A major focus on that first Earth Day was bringing attention to water and air pollution, including from toxic pesticides, oil spills, and the impact of humans’ industrial activities on the environment.

Earth Day is a perfect time to reflect on how our own bodies and lives are connected to the natural world. Just like the planet’s environment, our bodies are majorly impacted by toxins and pollutants from the outside world. Our bodies rely on clean water and air, healthy soil to grow food, and a vibrant, biodiverse ecosystem.

The Five Elements

Traditional Chinese Medicine views the world and everything within it as having aspects of five elements.

These Five Elements are:

●          Fire: associated with the heart, tongue, circulation, and heat.

●          Earth: associated with the spleen, stomach, mouth, muscles, and damp weather.

●          Metal: associated with the lungs, nose, skin, and dry weather.

●          Water: associated with the kidneys, ears, bones, and cold.

●          Wood: associated with the liver, gallbladder, eye, and wind.

Each is associated with a season, as well as with certain organs, flavors, tissues, colors, etc. Each element also promotes and controls another. And each of us has a different constitution of these five elements within us. When the elements are imbalanced, and we can fall ill, experience emotional and mental distress, suffer from pain, and generally just feel…out of whack!

Yet, just like the earth’s seasons, it’s natural for us to experience cycles when one element dominates our constitution.

Balancing The Elements

Your acupuncture and TCM treatment plan is always focused on restoring balance to your systems by balancing Qi, or energy. Along with acupuncture treatments, you can restore balance and energy flow through exercise and movement, nutrition, herbal supplements (as directed by your care professionals), and other lifestyle habits.

Contact us today to schedule an in-person or virtual appointment—let’s get your elements balanced!

Tis the season…for digestive holiday upsets….

It’s the holiday season – an illuminating time of year full of friends, family, white elephant gifts, mulled wine, desserts and savory dinners. Yes, a wonderful season but can have painful repercussions on your digestive system. What to do to ease this? Getting to know your acupuncture point Stomach 25 can help! Stomach 25 is located about 1 inch from either side of your bellybutton. Begin by practicing abdominal massage. Move your hands clockwise over the belly 30 times to regulate digestion. For loose stool move only counterclockwise. For constipation move only clockwise. You can also use firm pressure over this area to give relief to bloating.

Stomach 25 treats digestive complaints such as bloating, constipation, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. It influences the Large Intestines. Anatomically, Stomach 25 is located over the intestines of the digestive system. It is the point where food transforms into the nourishment of the body and moves the remainder on for elimination. In Oriental Medicine it is called the “Celestial Pivot”. “Pivot” implies that it located at the level of the belly button and is the axis between the upper and lower part of the body. It also implies that it is the center of the wheel which circulates the body’s energy. 

Happy Holidays from Holistic Health Care Centers!

Holiday Food…Holiday Stomachaches!

Upset belly from all the holiday parties and dinners? Here is some sweet, sweet relief.

Combine licorice root with an orange peel, anise, and cinnamon and let 1tsp steep in 8oz of water for 5-10min. Then sip yourself into relief.

Licorice root is a Chinese herb called Gan Cao that translates as “Sweet Herb”. The name comes from the properties of Licorice Root – the sweet flavor. This sweet property is how the action of the herb transpires. Licorice Root nourishes the Spleen channel and strengthen the body’s energy – it’s qi! The energetic function of the Spleen channel is to transform food into energy and transport that energy throughout the body. However, when this function is impaired from too much Halloween candy symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, lack of appetite, bloating, nausea, and loose stool manifest. The sweet flavor is energetically nourishing, moistening and harmonizing to normalize the functions back to normal.

Happy Holidays! Send us a message or give us a call with any holistic health care related questions.

Be well,

Stephanie Marynus, MSOM, L.Ac., Dipl. OM

Tips for Meditation

Read Kimberly’s most recent blog:

Elite Rehab Plainfield

Do you meditate? Have you tried and find it hard to stop your mind from wandering? If so, don’t feel alone in that meditation difficulty. One of the main reasons people give up trying to learn to meditate is because they have a hard time relaxing their mind. They find as soon as they attempt to quiet their mind, thoughts flood into their head. Many times, this can lead to giving up on meditating.

If you have attempted to meditate but found it difficult, these suggestions may be helpful for you.

• Make sure you are in a comfortable position
• Take deep breathes: Breathing deeply helps your brain tell your mind and body to relax. A helpful way to start meditating is by deep breathes. Inhale slowly and in your mind count to 7 while inhaling, then exhale while counting to 5 in your mind. Continue doing this several times, and…

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Cool Nights are Upon Us

Holistic Health Care Center’s practitioner, Kimberly Leupold-Nemeth BPS, MSOM, L.Ac., HTPA, also treats patients at Elite Rehabilitation Institute in Plainfield, IL. Below is one of Kimberly’s recent blogs.

Elite Rehab Plainfield

Does the smell of a bonfire cause you to smile? Many people love the fall season. The feeling of crisp cool air with a gentle breeze blowing against your face can be very inviting. Since there are often random drops in temperature this time of year, it’s important to dress for the changing climate.

From an Oriental Medicine (OM) standpoint, weather changes can quickly affect your state of health.  A sudden gust of cold air on the back of your neck can allow in “cold evil”. OM theory understands the pores on your skin to be the door way that either allows illness to enter, or shuts illness out. This is called wei qi or defense qi. Qi means energy or life force. When the wei qi is combated with cold, if the qi is weak, the cold can force the doors of the pores open. When the cold enters…

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You Are What You Eat

Holistic Health Care Center’s practitioner, Kimberly Leupold-Nemeth BPS, MSOM, L.Ac., HTPA, also treats patients at Elite Rehabilitation Institute in Plainfield, IL. Below is one of Kimberly’s recent blogs.

Elite Rehab Plainfield

Food is one of the most important cornerstones of your health. What you ingest affects every cell in your body. Food can help boost your energy, detoxify your body, help build lean muscle, and so much more. On the other hand, unhealthy foods can inhibit your immune system, decrease your energy, and build fat instead of muscles.

Typically, in regards to food, what matters most are the food choices you make and the quantity you consume. For example, eating a salad from a fast food restaurant is often not as nutritious as eating a salad made from your local produce. Over time, vegetables loose nutrients. Often, vegetables from fast food restaurants have preservatives on them to help their shelf life. Many fast food choices that seem “healthy” are filled with many things other than what you think you’re eating. For example, healthy choices such as eggs contain many by-products other…

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Auricular Acupuncture and Acupressure

Holistic Health Care Center’s practitioner, Kimberly Leupold-Nemeth BPS, MSOM, L.Ac., HTPA, also treats patients at Elite Rehabilitation Institute in Plainfield, IL. Below is one of Kimberly’s recent blogs.

Elite Rehab Plainfield

What is auricular acupuncture and acupressure?

One reason Oriental Medicine works at such a deep level is due to the treatment versatility. While a primary mode of treatment is through acupuncture needles on the body, there are also many other ways to offer productive treatments for patients. One example is auricular treatments. Some ways auricular treatments can be performed include: acupuncture, acupressure, laser, and colored lights. Auricular treatments utilize acupuncture points specifically on the patient’s ear. Auricular acupuncture treatment is considered a treatment method using a microsystem on the body. By using this auricular microsystem, a patient can receive the benefits of full body acupuncture by receiving correlating points on the ear.

Auricular acupuncture can treat many conditions. Below is a list of conditions auricular acupuncture is extremely beneficial in treating:

• Weight loss
• Smoking cessation (quit smoking)
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Pain management for acute and chronic pain
• Emotional disorders

Auricular…

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Resolution 101

Holistic Health Care Center’s practitioner, Kimberly Leupold BPS, MSOM, L.Ac., HTPA, also treats patients at Elite Rehabilitation Institute in Plainfield, IL. Below is one of Kimberly’s recent blogs.

Elite Rehab Plainfield

Are you ready for healthy changes in 2015? Do you feel inspired to take a new step forward in your goals for a healthy lifestyle? A new year often brings a desire to change the areas of life that are not promoting you to the live the life you truly desire.

These are usually the causes for creating a New Year’s Resolution. Many people set New Year’s resolutions, but for multiple reasons do not succeed in accomplishing them.  While it may be easy for you to think of reasons your previous resolutions have failed, it may be hard to think of ways to follow through and fully succeed in your resolutions.

From the perspective of our patients’, there are several main reasons it can be difficult to follow through with a New Year’s resolution. A few examples of what creates difficulty in fulfilling a personal resolution include:

“There is…

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Holiday Cheer?

Holistic Health Care Center’s practitioner, Kimberly Leupold BPS, MSOM, L.Ac., HTPA, also treats patients at Elite Rehabilitation Institute in Plainfield, IL. Below is one of Kimberly’s recent blogs.

Elite Rehab Plainfield

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year” as the song goes. For many people, this is a joyous time of year. The joy may also come with a feeling of stress from the long list of things to be done for the holidays. For others, the holidays can be very difficult.  Wherever you fall in the spectrum of holiday cheer or stress, it is an important to time to care for you and your health. Many people have busier schedules, less sleep, and changes in their diet during the holidays. Plus, the many climate changes as you face the cold outdoors.

Here are some ways to handle the added stress during the holidays:

• Deep breathing: place your hands on your abdomen, take a deep breath by inhaling for 7 seconds with your belly pushing outward,. Then, inhale for 5 seconds while your abdomen pulls inward.
• Yoga
• Acupuncture
• Exercise
• Massage
• Chiropractic…

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