Floating in a swimming pool we become part of the water. Weightless, shapeless our internal organs float like bubbles free of gravity’s pull. We struggle against its force unaware: we age sagging downward. Floating is the feeling of perfect circulation, the sort of relaxation possible if blood and energy were allowed to flow uninterrupted, reaching all areas of the body by means of its normal pathways. We can accomplish this liberated feeling with herbs that enhance circulation. Herbs are used to affect acupuncture meridians, lifting what has fallen with time and wear. Energy balancing can be accomplished with certain oils and massage techniques that move circulation along well-established but invisible body pathways.

We all have experienced the pleasure of being stroked in a particular direction, for example, downward from the head, over the shoulders and towards the lower back. We find it soothing because it lengthens tense back muscles. For natural face and body lifts, we will stimulate the flow of energy circulation in the opposite direction to ensure more blood flow to the head.

We try to reverse aging with surgical face and body lifts. But they are temporary and come with risks. Herbal lifts do not interfere with normal circulation or leave scars. They cost less than surgery, and you can do everything necessary at home. You may wish to repeat the following energy facelift anytime you feel low.

Natural Face Lift
We are going to lift your blood circulation and wrinkles, using acupuncture meridians without applying needles, lasers or any medical device. This is not appropriate for people who are frequently dizzy, nauseous, light-headed, extremely weak or enraged. It may feel uncomfortable for persons with headache or high blood pressure.

Either in a hot bath or lying flat on your bed, breathe deeply and slowly into the lower abdomen for ten minutes, while gently massaging your abdomen in a clockwise manner. If you are in a bath, add ten drops of pure essential lavender oil to the water. If you are lying down, place a few drops of the oil onto your abdomen as you massage. Let the spicy lavender steam penetrate your senses.

Take a moment to send any sick, angry or evil influences in your life through your feet, down the drain or through the floor. Say goodbye to the problems and people who are troubling you. When you feel clear and calm, continue breathing deeply until you relax completely.

Sandalwood Oil Cools and Lifts
Place a drop of pure essential sandalwood oil on the very top of your head. This was the neonatal font, the soft spot that was the last part of skull to fuse after birth. Placing sandalwood there, a cooling oil which attracts circulation to itself, lifts your energy to that spot. It activates a deep acupuncture meridian, which passes through the uterus, testes, abdomen, stomach, heart and brain, lifting it towards your neonatal font. You may feel temporarily flushed after placing the oil on your head. Relax and allow your energy to move freely.

As this is happening, focus on a loving thought, a prayer or healing image. Allow your spirit to leave you from the top of your head to merge with your favorite deity or highest inspiration. Keep that image on top of your head as you continue to breathe.

Herbs to Protect Circulation and the Heart:
No one associates the heart with beauty. Most people consider a clear complexion, luxurious hair, a lithe body or a sparkling personality to be worthy of admiration, while they consider the heart to be merely an engine to keep the beautiful chassis running. However, without a strong heart, oxygen cannot nourish the cells. Then youth fades, luster dulls and the mind and emotions go limp.

One way to ensure adequate circulation is to supplement important vitamins, including C, E and beta carotene, rutin, and also minerals such as calcium, iron, and trace minerals. Drinking green tea instead of coffee helps strengthen blood vessels and protect their elasticity. But there are things you can do to protect your heart in order to give you the glow of youth.

An Herbal Face Lift
Some years ago I learned about a delicious easy-to-make wrinkle cure from a lady acupuncturist in Hong Kong. Since then Hong Kong has changed hands, I’ve lost touch with my lady doctor friend and I’ve not followed her advice concerning her wrinkle tonic. When I tried it, it worked wonders, lifting the freshness of improved circulation to my skin, leaving my face younger, brighter and slightly flushed.

The herbs are diaphoretic (increase sweating.) Don’t stimulate sweating until you have cleared impurities and excess acids because diaphoretic herbs would to send blemishes to the surface of the skin. If you want to try the following herbal face lift, start by cleansing the skin from the inside out, using an herbal blemish cleanser for a week or two before you try the lift.

Stage One: Cleanse Blemishes

Start by clearing blemishes–simplify your diet for a week or more. Use our basic diet for slimming and cleansing–2 fruits, 6-9 vegetables 1 sort of protein and 1 whole grain meal daily. It includes low fat, non congesting foods and no caffeine or alcohol. If you need a laxative, take one half cup aloe vera gel in apple juice or green tea daily, adding one teaspoon turmeric powder. Turmeric is a useful antibiotic that rebuilds healthy internal digestive energy. Also take 50mgs zinc daily to reduce acne.

Other useful blemish cleansing herbs you may want to use at this time include dandelion capsules taken along with honeysuckle flower tea; burdock capsules; gotu kola capsules for nervous outbreaks or a skin cleansing combination of herbs such as the Chinese patent formula, Lien Chiao Pai Tu Pien, available by mail-order from Chinese herb shops. After you are satisfied with your cleansing routine, you can begin lifting your wrinkles and toning your face with three Chinese tonic herbs.
They can be prepared either as a tea or medicinal liquor.

Stage Two: Energy Lift

Astragalus, Dang Shen and Jujube Red Date
The Hong Kong doctor’s original face lift recipe included astragalus (huang qi), an energy tonic that lifts vitality and normalizes sweating, and jujube (da jua), a large dried Chinese red date, which tones the heart by building energy. Together they take increased blood circulation to the skin. I have added an additional herb, Chinese false ginseng (dang shen) to make sure the lifting effects act more strongly on the face. This formula should be avoided when you have a fever, headache, dizziness or the common cold, because at those times you should use anti-inflammatory herbs instead.

Face Lift Tea
In a large ceramic coated pot, simmer one handful each of the three herbs in 1 quart of spring water for at least forty-five minutes. Avoid aluminum and teflon pots like the plague. Drink the resulting brew hot or cold between meals. The herbs are not digestive. They can cause digestive stress when taken too close to meals. The combination of astragalus, dang shen and red date are aimed to make you perspire and, in so doing, send your energy to your skin, not to your digestive organs.

Face Lift Wine
This is a delicious way to look and feel better. Beware, it’s addictive. The preparation of this wine, vodka or sweet liquor takes two weeks. You should start it aging while taking your blemish-cleansing herbs.

Cut one handful each of astragalus, dang shen and jujube into small pieces. The dates can remain whole, but cut the astragalus and dang shen into half inch pieces with a scissor. Add them all to one quart wine or liquor and place in an air-tight glass container. Keep this away from light and heat for two weeks. Once a day, gently turn the bottle upside down to mix the ingredients with the liquor. By the end of two weeks the liquor will have turned a golden color with a sweet aroma and taste.

The normal dosage for this wine is one or two small wine glasses daily between meals. Diaphoretic herbs can slow digestion if taken with meals. This warming and relaxing drink makes a lovely gift to share with friends. If you wish to sweeten it further, add a little raw honey. With the money that you save on surgical face lift treatments, you can visit Asia.

A Great Body-Lift in a Pill

My contribution to alternative medicine seems to be my highly unorthodox combining of traditional Asian medical potions with healthfoods to make effective beauty remedies. One of my recipes combines energy and immune-boosting herbal tonics along with royal jelly, moistening herbs and a homeopathic remedy. It tones and lifts energy, circulation, and immunity as though the sack containing your internal organs and skin were tightened and lifted. If you have become run-down enough to feel your tailbone stab when you sit down or your face and vitality droop from fatigue, if you have lost youthful sparkle, this is your best formula for renewal. If you have been ill, you may have to use it for three months before you can see and feel the results. For the moment, this body-lift formula is a combination of pills and make-it-yourself herbal tea, but I’m always creating new combinations.

AstroLift
This formula gets its name from one of its principle ingredients, astragalus. It is a latin word for a Chinese variety of vetch, normally used to build immune strength. The formula is made by combining astragalus, ligustrum, ganoderma, Siberian ginseng, codonopsis, schizandra, licorice, oryza, Chinese malt, and a tea made from simmering American ginseng and ophiopogonis. Then finally take a dose each of fresh royal jelly, a highly concentrated form of B vitamins, and homeopathic argentum nit. 6x for younger skin, all together three times daily between meals.

The first nine ingredients come in a pill called Astra 8, made and distributed by Health Concerns in Oakland, California. The dosage is five pills three times daily. Make a tea by simmering one handful each of American ginseng and ophiopogonis, both moistening herbs, in one quart of spring water for fifteen minutes. Take five Astra 8 pills with one cup of this tea between meals.

Then you might eat one level tablespoon of raw royal jelly–the real stuff. It’s a bitter-tasting paste, excellent though a bit expensive, or you can swallow a vial of royal jelly sold in Chinese food and herb shops. Finally, take a dose of homeopathic silver, argentum nit. 6x., which is moistening and rejuvenating. Any one of these ingredients will improve vitality and looks, but the combination brings energy, moisture and freshness to the skin, tones internal organs, and lifts everything that sags.

If you don’t have time for all that take a handful of Astra 8 along with a dose of homeopathic argentum nit. 6x between meals three times a day. Or instead, make a decoction–simmering for twenty minutes–one handful each of astragalus and jujube (red Chinese date) in a quart of water. Drink a cup of that between meals, adding the homeopathic silver. You can store the astragalus/jujube tea in the refrigerator for a few days. With your renewed glow of youth, you’ll have better things to do than make tea and take pills.