My Journey into Holistic Health and Healing

As far as I can remember, I was seldom sick as a kid, and when I was, just the common cold that required no medication. I would rest; my mom would bring me lemonade and fed me congee, and before I knew it, I was out and about again. Fast forward to my teenage decade, when made a fateful decision that changed my life forever. Given the opportunity, I left Vietnam with my older sister on a small fishing boat, with 35 other people, on a mission to escape the country because we longed for a better future. Little did I knew, this determination to reach a “promised land” was deeply stirred by the spirit in me that wanted to fulfill its own destiny; I didn’t recognize until many years later that this was the stepping stone to that journey of self discovery and my soul’s purpose. So, if you’re on it now, do not feel despaired because it is a journey and you will eventually get there. Patience to push through and on is needed for the soul to remember its mission in this very lifetime. 

After 21 days of an arduous journey, by which many had lost their lives, we, fortunately ended up in Hong Kong, expected to be automatically considered refugees, but the immigration policies had changed. We became “boat people” instead, and had to live in detention centers with barbed wired fence for more then two years, while trying to prove our case as a refugee. The reason I bring this up is because this was not only the first time I was away from home and from the loving protection of family, Hong Kong was much colder than Vietnam. So, I got sick more often, especially without mom taking care of me! Perhaps for the first time, I started taking antibiotics for a common cold, just because I did not know better. I will never forget how awful it felt to take that “medicine,” which actually made me feel worse with longer recovery time. 

Well, the same thing happened again when I first came to the United States, then it dawned to me: this feeling is so familiar. And since then, I never looked back. I had decided that I will never want to take that antibiotics again for a cold.  Always listen to your intuition is a lesson I am still learning today. 

In Asia, parents have very high aspiration for their children. So, when I was young, it was already decided for me that I was to become a doctor! :-) So even when I was in college, I believed that was my path, although I was more interested in neuropsychology because i was fascinated with understanding emotions and relationships, thus with how the brain functions in this department. But my destiny had other plans. I ended up to have the fortune to create my own major, which, with the help of my advisor, professor Marvin Bram, it was titled “Education and Spirituality, East and West.” Thus was my introduction to the foundation on which civilizations and cultures were formed, built and flourished (or not), in both East and West. 

This very foundation of understanding the root of society had eventually saved my life and gave me a conviction for the direction I was to head in my own life.  Most of all, it opened my eyes to the beauty of my culture, and this had saved my soul, because my experience acclimating to a complete different culture and way of life when I came here to the U.S. was tumultuous, to say the least, especially with internal conflicts, trying to make sense of what I felt and what was going on. Such was the start of my journey of self discovery and my place in the larger world and eventually the universe. 

I got a chance to go to China for study abroad during my third year in college; and it was here that my desire to study Chinese medicine emerged. I remembered seeing Westerners in white lab coats doing rounds in a Nanjing hospital! i wanted to stay and study Chinese Medicine there and then, but off course I had to get back to finish my undergrad degree. 

During my last year, right before I was about to graduate, my dear sister who was in the camp with me in Hong Kong got sick with lymphoma cancer. The news was devastating because at some point she had to be in the ICU, not knowing if she could make it. I witness the ravage of treatments’ side effect on her strong body, the losing of her hair, the unbearable pain with the help of Vicodin, and long days of recovery. From the grace of the Divine, she had survived and is still living a happy life. This incident had cemented in me the desire to study Chinese Medicine. But it took me long 6 years before it became a reality, when I resigned my teaching job as an elementary school teacher in NYC public schools, to join the official study of Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine. 

This decision had set yet another course in my life where health and healing had become and is still the main focus of my research and studies. I had the blessing to learn from the most amazing healers and spiritual masters of all time. I learned the art of mindfulness with world spiritual leader Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh; the magic of BioGeometry with Dr. Ibrahim Karim, and Doreya and Sayed Karim; the law of attraction and manifestation from Abraham Esther Hicks and many others in the field of neuroscience and quantum physics. In the past four years or so, I had taken year-long training in Stone Medicine, Essential Oils, Advanced Chinese Herbs and Shamanism, based on Daoist teachings, from Master t Jeffrey Yuen, an 88th generation of Daoist Master of the Jade Purity Yellow Emperor Lao Zi School, and 26th generation Daoist Master of the Complete Reality Dragon Gate School.

I feel blessed beyond words can express. I feel it is my duty to share the knowledge I have acquired and the wisdom I’ve gained through continued research, study, and practice, and from living life, overcoming challenges that push the ego beyond its limited beliefs so that the soul can ascend to higher plane of frequency, with endless expansion. I humbly hope to inspire and to spread love, for ultimately “Only Love is Real.” 

When you have love, you have everything! And when you live love, you’ve learned the lesson of this life incarnation. Then you need to spread it like wild fire so that those who need it can get a taste of this sweet nectar of life. Perhaps among the most important starting point of love of all is Self-Love because only when you can love yourself, can you truly love or appreciate love from another. But nothing is ever perfect, so the dance of give and take is what makes things go around. Have faith and keep moving on. Be present.  May you feel love all around you when you seek it and most need it.

Namaste. 

SongLinh—DoubleSoul