TL;DR Nouera co-founders Cynthia Boedihardjo and Jessica Sharp bring you an explanation of the Year of the Ox and a meridian massage experience ahead of the Lunar New Year.

Nouera, a conscious cannabis company, has partnered with Eaze to share traditions and advice from Asian cultures to kick off a better start to 2021. Don’t pass up the chance to ring in the new year all over again with energetic alignment, and fortune-forward ease, according to Asian traditions.

>>The Best Dumplings Recipe for Lunar New Year Celebrations>>

While you enjoy our Lunar New Year programming, be sure to try Smallz, Nouera’s balanced, earth-forward joints, available on Eaze.

So what’s in store for the Year of the Ox? We tapped Chinese astrologer, diviner and artist missTANGQ to get some answers. Here’s what she had to say about the Yin Metal Ox:

Thriving in the Unknown by missTANGQ

“What does the incomplete leave us with? The creative mystery of potential. In Chinese astrology, the Ox rules the life stage of pregnancy, representing nurturing and hidden work. The embryo is incomplete – it has much to develop and grow before it is ready to manifest. This year is about nourishing the smallest possible thing, the seed of creation that is barely visible, but is the precise emergent point that heralds change.

Rather than feeding your need to know what will happen next, meditate on the idea that not knowing is a form of protection. This time is like a shell or womb, a protective covering that will be broken through only when the time is right. To emerge too early before the fetus is ready would be catastrophic. Those living in the protection of the womb are not hiding in ignorance, but becoming attuned to an inner awakening, a blossoming of unknowable potential.

We are engaging in a new model for change. The patriarchy-colonialism paradigm of change has been implemented through sudden insurrection and revolution, often turbulent and violent. What would be truly revolutionary is to invite transformation through the power of yin – a slow, stabilizing, inclusive and integrated process that is focused on development, not on a hasty outcome. This type of change is akin to pregnancy, which makes space for hidden and mysterious processes. This is change based on earth wisdom and a geologic perspective (the Ox is an earth sign). Like a mountain, what has developed over time cannot easily be taken down.”

Read the rest of missTANGQ’s forecast for 2021 here.

Meridian self-massage, a welcome energy flush between Zoom calls

Natalie Mei Watters guides us through a 20-minute exercise to clear out our energetic channels. This video covers four of the eight branches of Traditional Chinese Medicine; meditation (or know thyself better), movement (with Qi Gong and breathing), bodywork (tapping and self-massage) and acupuncture points (meridian therapy).

New energy, new fortune and blessings.

Natalie Mei Watters is a plant-based chef and yoga instructor who credits her approach to cooking and wellness to her Northern California upbringing and her family’s Chinese traditions. Connecting breath with body movement in alignment with mindful culinary practices are her passions – there is nothing more potent than wisely choosing how we use our bodies. Learn more about Natalie on the Asian Americans for Cannabis Education Website.

missTANGQ is Chinese astrologer, diviner and artist based in the Sierra Mountains. She uses divination and astrology as a tool for self-discovery and life-path exploration. She guides participants in the art of making choices by helping them harmonize, integrate and create change. Uniting western perspectives of psycho-spiritual liberation with eastern understandings of ancestral forces and fate resolution, she helps participants enact their personal power in alignment with the Dao, using compassion and insight. and mythology. These themes also reflect the queer and immigrant experience as it seeks to transform what has been inherited by society and culture into a creative undertaking of self-creation. Through her artwork, she facilitates the passageway through the inner and outer worlds to birth new narratives of being. 

Nouera is a female-founded conscious cannabis company based in the Bay Area. Proceeds from smallz (coming soon to Eaze menus) support artists, activists, and healers focused on healing communities and rebuilding intergenerational knowledge and economic abundance. Learn more about the founders and the making of smallz on Asian Americans for Cannabis Education site.