Nutrition

Healing: Traditional Chinese Medicine, with The Herbal Path

Many Westerners have a passing acquaintance with traditional Chinese medicine, but there may come a time when that curiosity will turn to a deeper inquiry…and I can’t think of a better place to begin than with The Herbal Path, in Oak Bay.

The clinic has been operating since 2003, and has a steady & devoted clientele of regular patients. When you visit there, you’ll meet mother-and-daughter team Vicky Chih and Annie Kung (left). I like the way they describe their experience and purpose on their posting on The Spirit of Victoria:

Wei-Chi (Vicky) Chih, owner and Chinese Medicine practitioner of The Herbal Path, speaks fluent English and has been a health consultant in Taiwan and Canada for almost two decades. She has helped hundreds of people to resolve disease, remove pain, lose weight, look younger and feel better.

She believes that THE KEY TO HEALTH AND WELLNESS is strengthening “the doctor within”- our body’s incredible and powerful immune system which can defend the body from most illness. She believes that “PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE” and will work with you to find your body’s weaknesses and build health.

Acupuncture is a system of complementary medicine that involves pricking the skin or tissues with needles, used to alleviate pain and to treat various physical, mental, and emotional conditions. Originating in ancient China, acupuncture is now widely practiced in the West.

Annie Hui Kung is a Registered Acupuncturist & Registered TCM Herbalist – she completed her Traditional Chinese Medicine education and certifications in Victoria, Calgary and Vancouver, and has been practicing Acupuncture since 2009. Her areas of specialty include chronic/acute pain syndromes, digestive disorders, physical/mental relaxation and more. Annie also follows the principles of “Yang School” in her daily practice.

Annie’s goal is to help people regain health and happiness. She truly believes everything is connected, as it is the law of the universe. Human beings are a part of nature; therefore, we should eat, act and live our lives according to nature’s patterns in order to maintain the equilibrium. Annie’s mission is to spread the wisdom of TCM and to help educate others about how to find balance in their lives. This is a lifelong lesson!

A couple of years ago, Jack Etkin interviewed Vicky on Citizen’s Forum, drawing from his own experience of how it helped him after an accident – this is an easy, in-depth way to find out more about what awaits you, at The Herbal Path:

Nutrition: Soul Food: Spirituality and Nutrition, with Lisa Turner

It’s common in our culture to blend ideas about how we eat & what we eat with what our hearts might say about what we’re doing to grow, spiritually. Lisa Turner explores this in this essay for the Huffington Post:

Soul Food: Spirituality and Nutrition

By Lisa Turner
Years ago, I spent a lot of time in an ashram. One of my jobs (besides less-glamorous stuff like cleaning toilets) was to cook in the kitchens. It was lovely. The food was simple, clean, pure; most of our meals were composed primarily of beans, rice and vegetables, but they tasted like the fare of five-star restaurants. I am convinced it was the serenity and open-heartedness of the people cooking, the melodic chants we sang as we stirred. The spirituality of the place entered the food — or maybe, we became more spiritual because of it.

In a well-known quote from Consuming Passions: The Anthropology of Eating, authors Peter Farb and George Armelagos say, “Food to a large extent is what holds a society together, and eating is closely linked to deep spiritual experiences.”

Read more….