Stretching Your Potential - Four Directions Wellness

Stretching Your Potential

Stretching Your Potential. At some point, usually near the end of a year, you take stock in what you’ve accomplished. But, now, in the new year, you likely have a better vantage point for what you want to change, to reach your fullest potential.

Aztec Medicine: Ancient Healing Traditions of the Mexican Plateau

Around the turn of the mid-13th century, European countries are in a fever-pitched exploratory mode, attempting to expand their kingdoms. Colonization of territories around the world hasten as new lands are discovered and conquered. No different are the Americas, when in 1267 the Spanish conquistador, Cortés, arrived on the shores of modern-day Mexico. Reaching back to this era, the Aztecs, …

Inca's ancient medicine

Inca’s Ancient Medicine

Journey of the Medicine Wheel, and Healing for the Mind, Body, Emotion and Spirit to Today Prior to the success of the Spanish conquistadors, the Inca Empire (or, Tawantinsuyu in the Quechua language) is the largest civilization to inhibit the Americas. Master stonemakers, sprawling cities from the Amazon basin to the tops of the Andean mountains, and, in turns out, …

Traditional Thai Medicine: Healing Traditions in the Kingdom of Thailand - Four Directions Wellness

Traditional Thai Medicine: Healing Traditions in the Kingdom of Thailand

Did you know that the Thai government has recently announced that it has the best marijuana in the world? But, marijuana is not yet legal (again) in Thailand, and that’s all about to change. As reported in Globe Southeast Asia’s article, “Making green: how weed could push Thailand’s economy to new highs,” Thai government officials have moved forward a draft …

Traditional Tibetan Medicine: An Ancient Healing Practice of Asia

Traditional Tibetan Medicine: An Ancient Healing Practice of Asia

In October 2016, 400 Traditional Tibetan Medicine practitioners, scholars and experts conferred in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital city. They came together to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Men-Tsee-Khang, also known as the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute, a Tibetan hospital that was pivotal in the development and preservation of Traditional Tibetan Medicine throughout the ages. Since the 1950’s, Tibet, or Xizhang …

When the Holidays are Filled with Loss

I remember it as if it were yesterday.  It was Thanksgiving of 2011.  I was to be in Alexandria for the holidays but Mom had taken a turn for the worst in Pittsburgh.  She had been diagnosed a year earlier with ovarian cancer.  And now, here I was in the doctor’s office with the news that hospice services had been ordered …

Gratitude and Miracles for Thanksgiving

Gratitude and Miracles for Thanksgiving

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” ~Albert Einstein   As we approach Thanksgiving this week, it’s a good time to consider the the value of gratitude in your life and the miracle that is your life. As Fred Rogers of Mister …

Emotional Intelligence and Meditation - Four Directions Wellness

Emotional Intelligence and Meditation: How a Mindfulness Practice Can Improve Your Health

Over 250 years since the dawn of modern psychology, psychologists have characterized success based on many traits. None have been more focused on than intelligence (IQ)–their ability to think fast or slow. In the 1970s, positive psychology was born as a branch of psychology and a cadre of new scientists began to study not disease of the mind but the …