My Chinese daifu says at first when the meridian is blocked, there is a hardness that can be felt in the body. These pieces of hard energy collect into one big piece and this eventually over years realizes itself as ulcer, cancer, or some other sickness. Through acupressure and acupuncture, she has been breaking up the “ke” (pieces) of hardness in my meridians. She lets me press my fingers into my leg and follow along the meridian so I can feel where I am soft and where I still have rigidity. Fascinating. I can really feel it. She presses into my belly, close to my naval, and there are pieces there, hard and tangible. They break apart over weeks/months. As she presses in, I can feel them like bubbles or globs that bloop and move, occasionally breaking up.

It has been more than a year that I have been getting treatments from my Chinese “dai fu” (doctor). My body has changed in to a softer more flowing me. In Chinese medicine (a medical history of over 2000 years) our bodies are wired with meridians, through which our “qi” (energy) flows. Each of our internal organs are connected by these meridians. The ease-filled fluent flow of our qi is realized as wellness in our bodies. When the meridians become congested, the qi realizes itself as dis-ease in the body. The body’s torso holds our internal organs, it is the center. Our limbs are extensions of these channels. From feet to head, head to feet, we are wired and flowing.

Western medicine can not conclusively see (take physical photos) meridians, and therefore it labels Chinese medicine as mysterious and inexplainable. But in Chinese medicine, the feeling of these meridians is prominent, pulses are taken, and it is very believable to anyone who receives treatments. Because I have been cultivating my awareness for over a decade, I can understand very tangibly the treatment’s effects. To someone cultivated with a ‘western’ mind, there is skepticism because treatment effects are part of a human body’s rhythm of healing, which is not instantaneous, like taking a pain pill. The changes of the meridians are step by step.

Then there is the mind. The mind is either relaxed and at ease, or it is fraught with thought. When the meridians are clogged, this will affect the mind, causing the mind to also be clogged. The mind reflects the state of our meridians, and perpetuates the reflection in the body. Unwell in the mind, unwell in the body. Unwell in the body, unwell in the mind. Chinese medicine is like a traffic cop. Through acupuncture and acupressure, the meridians are coaxed into opening, so the flow of qi can be more smooth. When there is wellness in the flow of our meridians, our mind reflects this.

I have a friend that went to see my daifu. She’s in her thirties, and she was hoping the daifu could help her skin clear up. Sure, this is possible. She went dedicatedly for 3 months and her skin was still not better. Quack, she must be thinking. She says it must be the air here, or the food, because when she is in other parts of the world her skin gets better. I asked my friend if she really thought 3 months compared to a lifetime of slowly injuring her meridians would actually be enough to remedy all her problems…so true, she replied.

Skin is an organ too. The skin is directly related to the lung meridian. The lung is fed by the stomach/spleen meridians, which are fed by the heart/small intestine, which are fed by the liver/gall bladder, which are fed by the kidney/bladder meridians. Ok so treat the lung meridian, cuz that will help the patient’s skin. Mmmm, but what if the stomach/spleen meridians are congested because the heart meridians are burnt out (heart is your “fire” element, the easiest element to go out of control). Oh, well, then treat the fire (heart) meridians? Mmm, sure you can ease the fire but you must do this with more water…water element is kidney/bladder meridians, so treat those? Ok, but those meridians are fed by the lung meridians (metal) which is the original problem…so what to treat first?

The daifu works on the stomach/spleen meridian first. This is our “earth” element, the center of all of the other elements. Without earth (food, nourishment, etc) our body will perish. A slow process of bringing the earth back online, so that the other elements can slowly repair and replenish. This is (in my case and most cases) the undoing of 20-30-40 years of damage. Not an overnight process.

It’s not just a matter of going for daifu treatments that heals the body. The road to wellness requires effort from the patient as well. The body requires a natural schedule of basic nurturing. Eating, sleeping, exercising, in the rhythm of a natural cycle. These basic daily habits cultivate health in the body. When we forfeit healthy habits for unhealthy ones, we slowly become unwell as the meridians are affected. Simple. What is unhealthy? I wrote about this in my last Chinese medicine blog. Check it out.

Today though, I want to bring up hot and cold. Since the refrigerator was invented, we have been enjoying “ice cold” drinks and other cold drinks. The Fridge was invented for domesticated use in 1913. I am overwhelmed when I am in the US as to how many people drink cold everything. Water, beer, milk, EVERYTHING is cold. American culture is conditioned to attach “cold” beverage to the adjective “GOOD, MODERN, CORRECT.”

Think of your body as though it is an infant. Take a big glass of icy cold water and pour it all over the infant. Hmmm. Doesn’t seem right, does it?

Cold stuns the body. Think about your organs. They’re all at body temperature to function most naturally. Enter the cold liquid. The body must first receive this cold (think about jumping into a freezing pool of water), then warm it (takes fuel to do this) then digest it. Doesn’t sound like much when you talk about a sip of cold beverage. But keep on drinking. A lifetime of this, and the small shocks collect and become injury which numbs your sense and solidifies slowly into trauma. Little by little, these organs are stunned, and meridians are affected. Qi flows slower, gets congested, causes dis-ease.

I’m not a doctor, nor a scientist, but correlating COLD drinks to the amount of dis-ease that has risen from the western population over the past century must have some relevance.

My daifu was saying that if you want to defrost something, which temperature will defrost it the fastest? Super hot water, room-temperature water or cold water. Well, super hot, seems like the right answer, but no, it’s room temperature water. Hot water will unfreeze the outside of your frozen item, but the inside remains locked in cold, because the outside becomes “seared” by the heat, sealing the freeze inside. Room temperature naturally defrosts the item faster.

So the same goes for putting things into our body. Drinking hot things or eating hot things, then drinking a cold beverage, etc just reeks havoc on our digestive system. Medium warm, not super hot, room temperature, not super cold…these small subtle details make a huge difference on our organs.

This also comes into play with my nightly foot soak. I was told by MANY chinese doctors to soak my feet in HOT water every night for good health. I was told to use the hottest water, almost to the point where my feet could almost not stand the heat, soak until my head sweat. Sounds good, right? But for my body, this was the worst thing I could do. Fire (yang) and Water (yin) in the body should go like this:

Fire (yang energy) flows down the body towards the feet
Water (yin energy) flows up the body towards the head

When I would soak in hot water, my fire would rise, and then push my water OUT of my body (sweat) which would DRY my already arid meridians. THe hot foot soak encourages “SHANGHUO” (literally UP-FIRE) which is what I want to avoid…

Pan Daifu says a body-temperature foot soak for 10-20 minutes before bed is by far one of the MOST affective things anyone can do for their bodies on a daily basis. This temperature encourages your warmth (fire, yang energy) to go down towards the feet, allowing the water to flow up, with out sweating any of your moisture out. If you have any inclination to try something on your own, DO THIS…encourage the flow.

I guess in a way she is “defrosting my body” over time and process. The hardness I liken to the ice that is in my body. As she massages the meridians open, flow begins and the hardness breaks down. She does this in a patient manner of natural human time processing…and this natural progress is slow and steady. Very grateful to her for helping me to remember natural time in my body. With this, I am more at ease and not nearly as neurotic as I used to be about life in general. Defrosting Jess. I like that.

Hope this isn’t too wordy for you all. I write this because it’s fascinating to me, and helping me. My goal is to help those in the ‘western’ mindset see that this eastern mindset has something very viable, healthy and naturally obtainable…we all deserve to be in good health, in relaxed states of mind. If an individual’s mind and body are at ease, then on the “world” population level, we are that much more in good health.

Thanks for reading. If you have comments or questions, please feel free to email me. If you are seriously considering finding a Chinese doctor, remember you must seek one that you trust. In any profession there are those who do not fully understand, but pretend they do. Use your intuition. Like your doctor…trust is very important.

Be well.

thanks to Frances for her expertise counsel. http://francesren.com/acupuncture/tag/frances-ren-huang/

Yo yo yo. I have been slammed with busy.
It’s all good stuff. Performing alot for private events and parties. Even some amazing flash-bling weddings (fireworks included).
I saw Jojo Mayer and his band, Nerve, perform here in Beijing. His new material is fantastic. Me and my cohorts danced and danced and appreciated the musical integrity. It did feel like we were dancing in a petrified forest (as many Chinese attended, they did not MOVE, but just watched).

I’ll be in Shanghai the first week of November, so catch up with me at JZ Club or The Cotton Club.

Got a JAZZ gig in Beijing VA Bar on November 18th.

And, I’ll be in Berlin for a private performance in December (before xmas).

Hope you are all doing well where ever you are in the world. Keep spreading the music and your goodness into the world!

Love, Jess

Sup everyone. I am back in the big sweaty fat lung of Beijing. 22 million people, I feel very impressed and slightly oppressed by this air. Don’t get me wrong, I love Beijing, but, this kind of weather is to be avoided by not being in Beijing in July-August, when it turns moist in a not so sexy way.

I just landed last night. Was just in one of my favorite places in the world. Get hip, from Vancouver, head north on scenic amazing route 1, past Hope, and turn left at Boston Bar. There you will find REO Rafting Resort. www.reorafting.com Simply one of the most beautiful places – fresh, spiraling trees that reach like fuzzy green arrows towards the mountain peaks spotted like cows, sitting fat around the perimeter of the resort. Then, the Nahatlatch River, a glacial fed river, crystal hypnotic jade color, rushes by, it’s melody like thousands of voices whispering and singing, all the time…It is so peaceful. And I assist taught a songwriting retreat with my mentor/friend Pat Pattison (author of acclaimed “Writing Better Lyrics”), songwriter/performer jazz pianist Bonnie Hayes, and songwriter melody maker Steve Seskin, and another assistant teacher, Don Osborne, out of Vancouver. We had 19 people in attendance (I am told much smaller than in previous years – boasting 30-40). I was sort of happy to have such an intimate retreat with so many music enthusiasts.

I taught a morning movement class (we called it yoga, but it was movement/breath/awareness practice) for 30 minutes, and then we’d all sit down and object write for 30 minutes. Then we’d chow down on the most amazing home cooked breakfasts (oatmeal with raspberry puree and syrup, for example) before beginning master classes with the folks I mentioned above. GREaT learning for anyone at any level. It was incredibly inspiring.

I also conducted a vocal gong fu class the 2nd to last day, and the response with the immediate results was really fun to experience. because many of them didn’t believe they could harness the power of their voices, and yet they were accessing their range and power to support the sound. Cool. Oh yah, it just so happens in Beijing there was a quick article about my vocal gongfu lessons. I gave one to a reporter, who then wrote about her experience, and advertised my email address. So cool, I’m getting some great responses from it. The link to the article (scrolll half way down, you’ll see my photo) http://www.timeoutbeijing.com/features/Around_Town/12381/Classes-and-clubs.html

Overall this retreat which I first attended in 2003, was the bomb. I really hope that the weather in BC improves so the owner, river master and fellow songwriter, Bryan Fogelman can continue to operate it. This year in BC the weather has been raining and cold, which is super strange, and affects small resorts in the mountains. So, if you are in that area in August, I highly recommend staying a night or 2 and delighting in one of my favorite places. I made sure to put in an order of sunshine for the area, so don’t worry about a thing. Facilities are superb, staff are beautiful, river guides are experienced and awesome. Check it out.

So August is going to be my busiest month yet. The Heavenly Stems (my rock outfit) is playing at VA Bar August 13th. I’ll swing some jazz with my quartet on August 26th at VA Bar. Oh, and Beijing Midi Jazz festival August 27th – You’ll get a jazzier The Heavenly Stems…

Hope you are all well, where ever you are. I will be more conscious on writing blogs…I got a few more Chinese Medicine experiences to tell you about. Next time. Love and light *** Jess

PS. I’m on itunes. i do facebook, i just got the twitter (like me, come on), lots of my drawings and other photos on my picasaweb and i think i’m now a google plus girl. Yo! Share it out -

Relax (放松 Fang Song)

Westerners say “relax.” Chinese say “put it loose.” Distinct difference. In the western mind it is a state the we often don’t reach. But if you just put it loose…it seems a little more realistic.

The term also advocates a flow and ease in the body, which of course, affects the meridians that run their course from toes to arms and head. If you bring your attention to your shoulders right now, notice the position they are in, let the inhale come down into your belly, nice and full, and as you exhale naturally, let your shoulders be loose. Notice how much you just relaxed there. Wow, how often are you holding your shoulders in that way? As you brush your teeth, as you cut vegetables, write an email, as you do anything in your day…how much are your shoulders unconsciously being held in a state of tension?

Then take this concept into your whole body.

Example, your stomach. If your stomach is not nourished and taken care of, the stomach meridian will experience a depletion (or an engorgement), which realizes itself in your body and your mind. Over-thinking, excessive worry, obsession, are all results of an imbalanced stomach. The less you care for what you eat, the more you worry, the more you worry, the less (or more) you want to eat, and so imbalance is fostered in the stomach. Vicious cycle, ya follow? Ulcers, indigestion, heartburn, any stomach related issue cause the mind to over think. A person with a happy stomach (well-fed, mothered) has a sound, grounded mind. Someone overwrought with worry is “suffering” from the imbalance in the stomach/spleen meridian. Consequently, if one becomes aware of this “mental” behavior, they might “try” with all their might to relax their mind, but because the stomach meridian is already out of whack, the mind cannot steer the stomach back to balance. This is where the acupuncture and acupressure come in handy.

Acupuncture and acupressure encourage flow in the meridians by unblocking places of congested qi. If you’ve been for years in a viscous cycle like this, the TCM will retrain the body’s energy to flow in the original, natural way it used to (we are all born generally in balance). As this flow becomes easier, the mind follows this health and balance, and also becomes healthy and balanced, i.e. a relaxed state of body and mind.

Of course, acupuncture and acupressure can only do so much. The patient must also change their habits to promote the natural flow and health that is occurring on an energetic level. Caring for the “earth” element (of the 5 element cycle – water-wood-fire-earth-metal) involves eating at beneficial times (1st thing in the morning, a nice lunch, smaller dinner that happens before 8pm).

~~Practicing good habits for healthy meridian flow~~
We are all creatures of nature. It is when our meridians are in imbalance that our mind takes over, and we slowly drift out of awareness of what is, into what we believe is true. Example:

“Oh my right leg is shorter than the left. I have pain in my back. But that’s just the way my body is. My mother has the same problem. It runs in the family.”

This statement is LOADED with belief. All advocating a numbness in our bodies, because that’s just the way it is.

This is usually not the case. Somehow, this person’s ailment is adopted from the same movements and habits of his mother. Likely that he would pick up from years and years of being raised by his mother, the same movements and positions to hold himself in. Usually with the “one leg longer” problem, it is more muscular-based. We experience some injury (emotional, physical), our bodies are compensating through posture, the muscles are tight, weak and/or injured, and slowly over time, muscles somewhere in the body are tighter and pulling, which causes more tightness and inflexibility, which pulls on our bones, which creates this distortion. Back pain? Really. Not a surprise at all, because the muscles are also pulling on the spine.

Acupuncture, acupressure, and deeper awareness practices (yoga, meditation, tai qi, etc) will resolve this person’s problems over time. They will have to undergo radical changes that happen SLOWLY over time as they follow a healing process that re-aligns the qi in the body. As I follow my own healing process, I am in awe at how much better I feel, physically, mentally, emotionally, energetically.

So, practicing good habits that follow a natural schedule of the body’s own “organ cycle” (our bodies are naturally synchronized with our day, night, and season).

Let’s think of how it used to be, back before technology and electricity.

3am -5am Dawn. Light comes, we awaken, we are quiet)
5am-7am Morning Sun. Breakfast
7am-9am Mid morning. Tasks for survival, cleaning, preparing, planning the day
9an-11am Work.
11am-1pm Replenish and Rest
1pm-3pm Work some more
3pm-5pm Prepare dinner
5p-7pm Eat
7pm-9pm Quiet time awake with family
9pm-11pm Getting sleepy or already asleep
11pm-3pm Sleep

And what do we do these days?

7am – 8am WAKE, Shower, Dress, Run out the door
8am – 9am Commute to work
9am – 6pm WORK (Maybe cram in some lunch)
6pm -7pm Exercise (if we’re organised enough)
7pm – 9pm Eating, drinking
9pm -11pm Some of us go out and continue drinking, some of us watch TV, some of us do both
11pm – 1am surfing the internet, probably drunk or, some of you not, but still, surfing the internet
1am – 2am should be asleep
2am – 7am sleep and then wake groggy and not so happy about the repeat process of this.

Oh but hey, there’s always Friday to get pretty wasted and spend the rest of the weekend recovering, or, pushing through it to do as much as you can before you have to go back to work on Monday.

Of course, I am generalizing. I know we all aren’t this way, but you’re probably laughing cuz you do that or you’ve done that. I used to.

Practicing good life habits include what and when you eat, when you sleep, when you work hard, when you relax…it follows a natural cycle.

Another example. Me. In late 2007, I was living with my amazing friend Frances, who was finishing her studies in TCM. She also happens to be an amazing cook. My Shifu (gongfu teacher) was giving me massage and would talk with me about practicing better habits. He would always talk to me about eating breakfast first thing when I would wake up. Ugh. The thought of putting anything in my body before 11am was nauseating. I was always in the beautiful habit of waking up around 8am and making myself coffee (bialetti italian espresso) with milk. I would enjoy the morning drinking coffee and writing. I’d usually have 2 big cups, sometimes more.

Liu Shifu would tell me about having “zhou” in the morning. Zhou is congee. Congee is the leftover rice from the night before, boiled down in alot of water until it become more “porridge” textured. Zhou can be made with just rice, or you can add beans or barley or other grains to it. Add a little of some fresh leaf vegetable like spinach, pea sprouts, jielan (chinese broccoli) and fry an egg in soysauce or boil an egg. Put it all together and it is DELISH.

Zhou is very kind to the stomach. It’s soft, simple, warm, nourishing, and moisturizes. Savory (salty) is easier on the stomach than sweet. Sweet is “fire” causing, and you don’t wanna do that to yourself. Trust me.

Frances is Thailand-born, Taiwanese who also grew up in the US and had spent 7 years in Beijing attending school. While we lived together, I got to learn first hand much more about Asian and Western cooking. I am from a family who did not rejoice in food. I always thought of myself as “someone who didn’t know anything about cooking.” I am also the type of person who learns through watching someone else do it. I watched Frann, and all my other foodie friends, and practiced cooking for myself.

As with practicing ANY skill/habit, at first you are learning, and it’s uncomfortable, but you keep practicing, and it gets easier and easier.

In 2007, for the first time in my life for probably 15 years, I starting eating breakfast. At first, I started small. A piece of toast. Add an egg. Then zhou. It’s 2011. 4 years of establishing good eating habits, cooking for myself, and now, joyfully cooking for others, getting excited about markets and food and taking pictures of what I cook. Joyful practice. Easy.

“Follow the natural path. 顺气自然”

First cultivate inner awareness. Usually we are numb in our bodies, from years of crap/unnatural habits. As awareness deepens, the healing process deepens and expands in to every aspect of life. Change is immediate, and happens naturally, rather than forcefully. Because you are cultivating health and flow in yourself, this will also permeate into your daily life practice, resulting in ease of your mind, body, energy and experiences.

Stay tuned for more blogging, Grasshoppers. It seems I have much to say. If you would like to share your thoughts, or have questions, you can email me at jessmeider at gmail.com.

I go to see a Chinese Medicine Doctor twice a week.
For the Western mind, this seems indulgent, perhaps alarming, that a doctor would want to treat a patient so often. I realize how the Western concept of health and medicine is quite constrained and myopic when addressing a person’s health.

In Chinese Medicine, the idea of health is overall, encompassing the body, mind, energy, spirit. The body has meridians (qi-flowing channelse) that circulate through the body, feeding a natural cycle that nourishes the organs. When these channels are congested, the entire cycle becomes congested. If the flow is not somehow reinstated, the qi stagnates and begins to go thru stages of solidification, which over a period of time will result in dis-ease.

In the Western mind, when dis-ease suddenly appears, we look to the last year, month, week before we knew about it for the cause. For example, “I have a herniated disc. I threw it out last week when I bent over to pick something up.” For the Westerner, it was that instance that the back decided to wonk out. But this kind of injury was long in the making, years of postural issues, weakness, lifestyle choices that invoke a stagnation of your qi, which eventually resulted in a herniated disc (dis-ease).

Chinese Medicine is what Westerners call “preventative.” Overall health in China has culturally been more widely encouraged in daily walks to parks, movement, massage, taiqi, etc. To visit a park in the early morning in Beijing, you will find the elderly walking around clapping their hands (this stimulates qi in the arms), banging their bodies softly against trees (people believe tree energy is nourishing), practicing tai qi (cultivating the flow of their qi), playing chess, singing in groups, dancing (line dancing and ballroom!), banging on drums, sword play and more…I love that this behavior is so socially accepted, ingrained into the way of life. No one gets bent out of shape as they walk by me standing in a meditation, staring at a fixed point, so still, for 30 minutes or more. It’s acceptable. Where in the West, perhaps people would be quite concerned about my strange behavior; here in Beijing, it’s completely “normal.”

So culturally, already, the Chinese are living more naturally (although in this fast modernization, this is less true) than Westerners. Massage and doctors are easily accessible and affordable (although this is also less true as the standard of living costs more and more) for most people, and it is widely used to reconfigure the one’s overall health.

The mind follows the body. Not the other way around. Therefore, you cannot think “ok spine, you are gonna lengthen up and that disc is gonna go back in to where it belongs.” It’s not gonna happen.

I go to see the Chinese Dr twice a week because I want my body’s meridians to be more at ease. Acupressure (a hardcore kind of massage) and acupuncture (needles put into qi points along meridians) continue to amaze me as my awareness deepens in my body. I learn the natural way of things. I am completely tripping out on it all.

Here’s my situation: I have weakness and stagnated qi in certain areas of my body, and because of the way in which I lived my life so far, in a very YANG(male energy) state of being (meaning I was VERY active all the time, pushing myself to my limits physically, burning myself out, I caused great constriction in the meridians, and great dryness in my organs, muscles, tissues, fascia). The dryness makes it very easy for me to have “fire” in my body, which can result in skin irritation/itchiness, belly issues, migraines and more. Examples of causing fire in the body: Going to bed very late, drinking alcohol, eating fire foods like fried, salty, spicy, lamb, garlic, peanuts, will cause someone like me, who lacks moisture to have exceeding amounts of fire. The doctor opens up my channels, shows them how to flow, and slowly, the moisture, meaning my YIN (feminine energy) returns to quell the desert fire that was out of control for many years. Fascinating.

As she’s doing this to my body, I’m noticing HUGE changes in my mental state. Before, I could get quite obsessive in my thoughts. This has to do with the stomach/spleen meridian, which for me, was very undernoursihed, very depleted. As the energy flow becomes more plentiful, more natural, my mental state is much stabler, calmer, clearer. My mind is following the body.

Without the Chinese Dr, I would not be able to make these energetic changes to my physical body, because the imbalance in my qi-flow had my mind following its trends (imbalance) which resulted in thinking too much. I could not “will” my mental state into calm, rather, the body had to change first.

Am I making sense?

I have been going to see the Doctor since last year in November. So you can understand, this is a process to heal and raise the body into a more natural state. You can not just go once or twice and expect that everything will be healed. This is a lifestyle change too, as the more you heal, the more you prefer to adhere to a healthier way of living, ie. maybe you won’t have 5 beers, you’ll have 1. maybe you’ll eat a piece of pie, but not 3. maybe you’ll decide to go to sleep at 10:30 instead of 1am. Natural things that make healthy sense.

I am learning so much! I’m grateful that I speak fluent (ish) Mandarin. The Doctor and I speak about what is happening, how it is happening. I relay my sensations to her, but she already knows what they are, because she is also plugging into my energy and can feel it very sensitively in her own body. Remarkable. Often times we end up smiling in amazement at this natural process.

The 5 elements, which I have spoken about before in past blogs, is a cycle. Just as they relate to the seasons, they also relate to corresponding organs. The meridians feed into each other. You can check more about this thru my dear friend Frances Huang, who is a TCM (and divine foodie) and keeps a website that speaks about all of this in easy, simple language (in English and Chinese!). TO FRANCES CLICK

I’m currently re-vamping my website, but for now I continue to use this format. There are lots of conversations I write into blog form; you can look at the tags to the right of this, and click to see what else is there. I’ll continue to post more about my experiences with the 5 elements in relationship to everything in my life…I find it fascinating, and feel that sharing these experiences is just another way of injecting knowledge into the greater whole which is our human race. Spreading the goodness.
YOU ARE THE GIFT, ARE YOU GIVING IT?
Inspirations ***** Jess

My practice. Sunday, March 27, 2011

I question sometimes how much I want to reveal publicly about myself. I teeter between mystery and just giving myself fully over to everyone, because in the end, we’re all human, and NONE of us really know what we’re doing. I figure all the help that can be offered through my own experiences will ultimately elevate us all to deepening awareness and promote inspiration for us all to give what we have. I feel vulnerable to share, and yet, I have such appreciation for people who are willing to put it out there. After all, what’s to hide? We are all in this together.

So I would like to share a little with you about my life practice.

I meditate as daily as I can. There is flexibility in everything. I also practice yoga or movement of some kind (walking, standing qigong meditation, biking, qigong meridian opening exercises) at least 5 times a week. I teach yoga a few times a week (www.yogayard.com), and teach vocal gongfu (my own version of vocal coaching) at a Chinese modern music university, and privately. All my teaching is just another form of learning and practice. In fact, everything in my life is practice. I like this perspective on life, because it implies “ongoing.”

There is a new practice happening in my life lately with my new rock band. I’ve only recently picked up an electric guitar. The power of it is intense. The noises that it produces with the gentlest touches. Uber sensitive. I observe my intimidation and ignorance, but consistently play it anyway to engage in understanding it more. There’s a term in Chinese “SHU FU” which means comfort/comfortable. In the context of me and my electric guitar, I am not YET fully shufu.

Add to this my band. Bassist Gao Fang and my long time Beijing drummer, Zac Courtney, and there is a whole new set of things to consider. The first set of rehearsals I was entrenched in what I was doing with electric guitar, how it would interact with the band, singing these powerful vocals, that I had alot of difficulty applying my arrangement and production skills. Usually, I can easily hear what I want, or direct the player of where I’d like him/her to go, but because I was paying attention to this crazy guitar, I was less so…and it’s cool, it’s just part of the process of practicing. Accepting this makes improving a smoother, easier process.

Our first show was alot of fun. I was able to watch the video of our performance. I cringed alot. A great way to learn….stepping out of the situation to watch it. Challenging and yet so enriching.

What’s good, is that we looked good. What’s better, is now I know how to fine tune, what has to happen next. Things usually don’t progress unless there is awareness. So yes, I am hyper aware of what I gotta do to bring this form of expression into a more “shufu” place. I had a funny thought; most guys don’t think a girl can play electric guitar. At the moment for me, this is kinda true. But not for long. This is my practice now. To be electric gutiar shufu and band shufu.

Next gig in Beijing. April 14th, 2011. Club Yugong Yishan, 9pm
Next gig in USA – Pittsburgh, PA September 3, Ambridge High School Reunion

If you have comments or questions, email me at jessmeider at gmail.com

Greetings Earthlings, from the warm sunny gardens of Pompano, Florida. I have lived the life of a bird this year, taking my leave from the cold, dry, firecracker-ridden city of Beijing (Chinese New Year) for the south south. All I have to say is it’s a brilliant plan. I am sunkissed and heading back to Beijing next week. The month of March is gonna be fun and busy.

First line of business will be rehearsals with my new rock trio, The Heavenly Stems. Yes, Jess and the… We have a gig at Yugong Yishan on the 23rd of March. Will be filmed and photographed. Now that I am a movie star, I gotta step up the rock star part.

Second is the songwriter in a round session I am gonna do on March 9th in conjunction with The Bookworm’s Int’l Literary Festival. All kinds of cool authors, poets and readers will be participating in this. It’s a big deal. Check here for more details: http://www.beijingbookworm.com

If you didn’t know, I play myself, Jess Meider, jazz singer in a new movie that just came out February 1st. It’s the Chinese version of “What Women Want” starring Andy Lau and Gong Li. Two of my original songs are featured from my jazz album “Dao.” I perform “Now is the Time” on stage for the stars, accompany Andy Lau as he sings to Gong Li and apparently later in the movie, another scene features my song “Kiss” in the background. I have not seen the movie yet, but upon my return to Beijing I will make sure I get to the theaters to see it. The preview link is in the blog posted 2 down from this one.

I also want to thank all my fans and friends that send me comments and emails about my music and how it affects their lives. I am learning that there is something soothing about the albums I have so far produced. I hear from all over the world, lately from Germany, Brazil, Norway, England, and the US. When I write the songs, it is a purely pleasurable process that results in a feeling of joy. It’s like pulling something precious from the ocean of energy, and performing the songs is just my expression of all of our potential. Thank you all for your support. I encourage you to spread and share my music to your friends and family. The best way to perpetuate a good thing is to share it.

Catch up on me through Facebook
Check out my web photos on picasaweb, including performance shots, creative endeavors, and friends and fans that I meet as I play shows.
As always, if you want to communicate, email me: jessmeider@gmail.com
More soon.
Peace out***

If you know who Andy Lau and Gong Li then you will understand how exciting it is that I am “starring” in a new movie with them!

If you aren’t familiar with these 2 movie stars, Andy Lau and Gong Li are two of Asia’s biggest movie stars. I would say Andy Lau (who is really fun to work with) is equivalent to a “George Clooney” and Gong Li something on the lines of classy/chic “Angelina Jolie.” So it’s a big deal…

The movie is the Chinese version of “What Women Want” (that Mel Gibson film where he can read women’s minds) and I am singing a song off of my jazz album that I wrote called “Now is the Time” in a jazz club scene. I haven’t seen the film yet, but I caught a glimpse of myself in the preview.

The film was released February 1st, 2011 so if you haven’t seen it yet, check it out! The Chinese title is 我知女人心

Upcoming gig! My sister, Sarah and I are going to play a gig at
Dada’s in Delray Beach (Florida)
Tuesday Feb 8, 2011
8:30pm

Rehearsals start today for special guests to join us…

Merry Merry Everyone!
Colder than cold in Beijing. I walked out to take a big hike over to the Lama Temple, and went about 100 meters before I turned around. Did not have enough clothing on. Not even with my new uber thin silver magic Uniquo down jacket was it even remotely pleasant. This is like Canada cold. Chicago cold. Milwaukee. Biting, dry, vaporize your fingers, shatter your teeth kinda temperatures. Or maybe I’m not wearing enough…But, because the wind howled and gushed last night, us Beijingers enjoyed a big blue bowl sky with white winter light cascading upon our grey brown metropolis.

Grateful crazy happy I am about to head to warm, wet, kind weather of Florida. Merry Merry. Joy Joy. Ah Florida, where the sunsets and rises with spectacular colors, where the clouds grace and gash the skies with their magnificent forms. Where my talented, beautiful sister resides. Goodness. (My sister is now also on iTunes…Highly recommend!!! Sarah Meider)

My quest to record this trip was not destined this time. “Fang Xia” my Chinese doctor tells me. It means to put it all down. Press ‘pause’ on the thoughts. Mmm. She’s right on. Overkill on thinking affects our stomachs. In Chinese Medicine, the stomach meridian is the Earth element, which is the mother, the center, the nourishment. Without balance in this element, the other four elements go tipping into imbalance. So yeah, Fang Xia. I got it. Practice practice. :) EXPLANATION OF 5 ELEMENTS

In the meantime, I recorded a demo of all the rock stuff with my true blue Aussie drummer and neighbor, Zac Courtney, just this week in my livingroom. It’ll do until we video our performance in March 2011 at a great live music venue, Club Yugong Yishan in Beijing.

For your viewing pleasure, new videos on YOUTUBE (Search “Jess Meider)

I’m always uploading new photos into my gallery. Things I draw, see, people I meet, my performances and more. YAYPHOTOS!

For all of you winter season folks in the northern hemisphere -enjoy the hibernation, warmth and love of your life.

For y’all in the southern hemisphere – YAY…go outside and enjoy that.

Peaces and Loves, Lights and Inspirations*****
Jess