Updates from Tiffany Lynch

Anxiety was a constant companion in my life until my brother-in-law handed me a revelation that changed everything. After doing a 23andMe test, he discovered he had what some call the “worry gene.” This genetic marker, along with high homocysteine (Hcy) levels, often translates to increased anxiety and stress.

It’s astonishing how our genetics can influence our mental health. Studies confirm that elevated homocysteine levels can provoke anxiety, stressing us out over everything from our jobs to our family’s well-being. This is a daily battle for millions — one I knew all too well.

When I realized my anxiety was possibly due to genetics, I didn’t need a test to confirm it. My lifelong struggle led me to make a transformative decision that ushered me into the world of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

Imagine finding a natural way to heal from anxiety without the need for prescription medication. That’s exactly what I found in TCM. In Chinese Medicine, worry and anxiety are imbalances of the earth element, which is tied to our stomach and spleen. These organs play crucial roles in our digestion, transforming food into the nutrients our bodies need to function optimally.

By focusing on balancing my earth element, I managed to heal my anxiety profoundly and naturally. Ancient practices like meditation, qigong, herbal remedies, and dietary adjustments worked in harmony to restore my internal balance, making anxiety a thing of the past.

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Modern science is uncovering what Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has known for thousands of years: anxiety isn’t just triggered by external stresses but is deeply rooted in your body’s physiology. As TCM suggests, the key to overcoming anxiety lies in achieving harmony within your body.

In TCM, the vital life force called Qi (pronounced “chee”) flows throughout your body, maintaining balance and well-being. When this Qi is disrupted or imbalanced, it can lead to various physical and emotional disturbances, including anxiety. The balance of your Qi hinges on the opposing yet complementary forces known as yin and yang. Any imbalance in these forces can manifest as mental and physical ailments.

Through TCM, I successfully managed my anxiety and realigned my Qi, restoring a sense of peace and balance in my life. While I am not a medical doctor, I am passionate about sharing my journey and the methods that worked for me.

If you struggle with anxiety, these Traditional Chinese Medicine practices may offer you the relief you’re seeking.

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Meditation is the number one branch of Chinese Medicine. Meditation helps stimulate our endocrine or glandular system. The glandular system helps our hormones, which balances our nerves. Studies have shown the only way to balance the Leydig, Pituitary, and Pineal glands is through meditative states. When these glands work correctly, they help calm our nervous system.

I meditate daily, and I will notice a difference immediately in my nervous system when I don’t.

This is the second branch of Chinese medicine. This is similar to meditation, but moving the body to keep Qi flowing is important. The funny thing is we don’t need exercises that break a sweat unless you want to. It’s about movement, balance, and flow. Doing these movements is especially helpful if you do them outside to get vitamin D. This helps the overall system of anxiety,

I will alternate my daily exercise, do nature walks one day, Qigong, and guided movement the next. It is helpful for me if I get outside. Nature and the sun help align my body and my nervous system.

Since the earth’s elements rule the stomach and spleen, it’s important to watch your diet. Stay away from refined sugars, processed food, and gluten starches. The best is to be gluten-free. This is true if you have a sensitive digestive tract. When we eat gluten, it can put a gluten lining around our intestinal tract, which makes it difficult for the body to release toxins. We must release toxins to keep our overall Qi flowing, helping the nerves.

Having enough of the right amount of vitamins in the system is essential for Qi to flow. With the worry gene, it shows that the body may be deficient in folate and vitamin B12.

Vegetables with the Earth and Foliate: Turnip greens, spinach, romaine lettuce, asparagus, brussels sprouts, broccoli, beets, carrot, cucumbers, eggplant, mushrooms, cabbage, parsnip, rutabaga, squash, potato and yams

Foods with the Earth and B12: Sea veggies, kidney beans, nutritional yeast, fortified cereals, whole grains, oats, salmon, trout, shellfish, poultry, lamb, beef, liver, and eggs

Fruits with the Earth and Foliate: Bananas, oranges, berries, citrus fruits, apples, apricots, cherries, figs, dates, grapes, papaya, peach, and strawberry.

Earthly Nuts: Chestnut, chia seeds, almond, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut, and walnut.

Please remember that when working to heal the body naturally, you must use these holistic methods for at least 30 days or more to see any changes or patterns within the body.

We are mind, body, and spirit, and it’s important to take care of all three!

Blessings from my heart to yours!

The apple tree is perhaps the first tree ever to be cultivated. In Traditional Chinese Medicine apples are an excellent source of fiber, antioxidants, and vitamin C. — The healing powers of the apple are endless and go back centuries.

Apples have sacred and mythical significance in many cultures In mythology apples are said to have given the gods their eternal youthfulness. Buckets of apples have been found at burial sites in Norway and Ancient German grave sites, suggesting they held symbolic importance to these early peoples.

Apples have long been a symbol of fertility. In ancient Greece, apples were said to be sacred to the goddess of love, Aphrodite. To throw an apple at someone was to declare your love for them, and to catch the apple was to accept that love.

In the Bible, apples are associated with the Garden of Eden and are the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. As a result of the story of Adam, Eve, and The Apple, the apple became a symbol of knowledge, immortality, temptation, and the fall of man into sin.

The larynx in the human throat is called an “Adam’s Apple” because of an old notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit remaining in Adam’s throat. It also evolved into a symbol of sexual seduction, as another play on the notion of it being a forbidden fruit.

Photo by John Finkelstein: https://www.pexels.com/photo/red-apple-1630588/

Pin Yin: Ping Guo

Meridians: Lung, Heart, Intestines

Key Actions: Supports the Lungs, Builds Qi, Strengthens Intestines,

Stops Diarrhea, Tonifies the Liver, Strengthens the Heart

Medicinal Uses: Nourishes Skin, builds immunity, relieves asthma and bronchitis, resolves mucus, builds Body Fluids, supports liver and heart health, treats constipation, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and bloating, and helps remove toxins from the blood.

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/three-apple-fruits-209339/

In Spring our body wants to cleanse itself of the fats and heavy foods of the Winter. This is a good time to do an apple cleanse as the body is naturally cleansing.

Edgar Cayce (Holistic Healer) recommended 3-day Apple Fasts to hundreds of people to ‘cleanse all toxic forces from anybody’ and said that fasting is one of the most effective ways of preventing disease. He fasted on apples for 3 days three times a year.

This Apple Fast provides not only the benefits of the malic acid in apples but also gives you large amounts of natural pectin fiber to cleanse the intestinal tract.

It’s called a fast because, by eating only apples, the body is fooled into a fasting mode, where it starts dumping toxins from the liver, kidneys, and other internal organs, into the bloodstream, where they can be leeched by the pectin.

I buy as many different varieties as I can to mix things up a bit and I usually eat 4 to 10 apples depending on my hunger. Don’t worry about how many you eat. When you’re feeling hungry simply eat an apple and your hunger subsides.

This is key! I always fill up a glass with half cold water and then half boiling water and keep it with me. Just get into the habit of drinking warm water. Cold water isn’t good for digestion and elimination — but warm water stimulates peristalsis.

This was Edgar Cayce’s idea is based on the same principle as the liver flushes that are popular now. When you don’t eat any fat for days, your liver and gallbladder store up bile. When you flood your system with fat (olive oil) all at once like that — your gallbladder and liver release all the stored bile and push out the cholesterol stones that have formed.

Stay healthy my friends and remember the healing power of this beautiful temptress fruit — The Apple.

Blessings from my heart to yours!

I was born a sensitive soul, and because of this, I have always been very connected to my emotions. I could hear the whispers of my heart.

Being sensitive and navigating a world that may not always appreciate my sensitivity was tough.

Sadly, in my early twenties, I started believing I should try to suppress my emotions. I had the pressure of my family telling me I was too sensitive, so I began to pretend to be someone I wasn’t. I stopped listening to the wisdom of my heart, which caused me to lose myself.

It was then that my heart began calling me, saying please wake up, don’t forget about me I’m still here guiding you.

As I was starting to wake up, I remembered who I was, I decided to reclaim my sensitive heart!

The heart speaks a different language; it may give you a slight nudge telling you to talk to this person, befriend this person, watch your diet, go to bed sooner, pick up a new hobby, or it will ask you to change jobs and start public speaking.

It wants you to take leaps of faith into the unknown. It nudges you to trust your intuition; it tells you not to be afraid.

The more connected you become, it will tell you everything will be ok, even if the world appears to be falling apart.

It tells you to trust in yourself, know the beauty of this universe, and believe in the power of unconditional love.

As I navigated my heart, I began to understand the meaning of surrender. There are powers far beyond my understanding that guide us in this universe.

It’s when I listen to the wisdom of my heart that my life tends to be more in flow. There seems to be an inner knowing I am heading in the right direction. My mind stops questioning, and the heart leads — saying trust in me and I will guide you.

Reflecting, I came across a poem I wrote as a young girl. This poem made me realize we are all born with a deep connection with our heart’s wisdom. As we age, we may forget it, but it is always there for us to reclaim its wisdom.

Don’t fear the vast ocean of your emotions — these emotions guide us into our intuition. Most people avoid uncomfortable feelings. They check out or use vices to numb out. But here is the thing: our intuition mostly speaks to us through painful feelings. This is when we know where we are off-kilter. Through emotions, we are getting to understand how our soul speaks.

As humans, we can be scattered. We want one thing from our minds and another from our emotions. The goal is to unify — then the mind and the heart become one.

For all you sensitive people remember to reclaim the wisdom of your own heart, and let it guide you!

Blessings from my heart to yours.

How would you handle death? Would you grieve for years? Would you hold in your tears? Would you scream? Would you cry? Would you let it out?

My mother-in-law passed away recently, and my husband let out a bellowing cry. This particular cry startled me, but once I settled into the eerie sound I was extremely relieved that he let out his grief in such a way.

This cry was different from other ones. I felt the depth of his sadness as if it released all the toxins inside his body. My husband didn’t cry when his father died years before, and because of this, he went into a deep depression.

When his mother died, and he let out all his pain from both his father’s and mother’s deaths. It was a FREEING CRY! The sound was haunting, I could feel the depth of his pain from this cry.

Our bodies are magical, we are all energy. In Taoism, there is a natural flow to all things in this universe. This includes our tears. It’s important not to hold on to our feelings but to flow freely with them.

Think of children, they are aware of the need to flow with their emotions. They will cry, get angry, yell at you, and let it out! Then they will turn around and say I love you, with complete sincerity. This is a superpower that frees up their energy.

If you watch nature animals respond in similar ways. Eckhart Tolle brings this up with The Duck Story: When two ducks fight, it never lasts long — they’ll separate and fly off. Each duck then flaps its wings vigorously several times. This releases the surplus energy that builds up in him during the fight. After flapping their wings, they fly peacefully as if nothing had happened.

In Taoism and Traditional Chinese Medicine, The release of tears, sadness, and grief helps the Lungs and works to increase their Qi. Smiling helps the Heart, the king of organs, that controls the mind, to let its Qi flow. Taoism opens the door to using sound and emotions to tune up the body and mind.

When you cry, feel your voice and the power and energy behind it. You release more tension and stress by going deeper. The goal is to cry, as tears are one of our most powerful healing tools.

Think about the gamut of emotions held by tears — people cry when they’re sad, angry, frustrated, worried, scared, excited, and happy! And did you know? Modern science has discovered that not all tears are the same. Your body is so smart that when it creates tears of sadness, they have a different chemical composition than tears of happiness. You’re turning this emotional energy into a physical substance, and allowing it to exit the body — for good. Tears are powerful, beautiful things.

There was a project called “Topography of Tears,” they used microscopes to give us an unexpected view of dried human tears. This ended up launching a multi-year photography project in which they collected, examined, and photographed over 100 tears from a handful of people and other volunteers.

My husband is feeling much better. He tells me that his deep bellowing cry healed him. He was able to let go of both his parents. He now says he can feel his body lighter and his soul happier.

Water has tremendous power, much like your tears. Let them flow organically — allow them to heal your heart. Never underestimate the healing power of your tears!

Blessings from my heart to yours!