It’s been a hard couple of years, to say the least. Most of us are hurting in one way or another, or in multiple ways. So why might acupuncture help? For starters, acupuncture is primarily a therapy whose goal is homeostasis. In other words: “stable equilibrium between interdependent elements,” as defined by my dictionary. Keeping […]
In his wonderful forward to Stanley Rosenberg’s Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve, Stephen Porges, Ph.D. states, simply and beautifully, that “Healers enable the body to heal itself.” He goes on to describe how effective healers enable and empower their patients to heal through their bodies’ own mechanisms. This is an important foundation […]
Our bodies are supposed to be self-regulating. That’s why we can live for 80 or 90 years, in spite of all the crazy things we do and all the various awful things that happen to us. Pain and sickness will always come and go, but pain should not be a constant feature of life. If […]
Spring is here! So get out there into the garden, or into the mountains, or onto the ball field of your choice, but be careful! Loosen up first, and don’t be careless about your body mechanics. Check in with your body, and feel the earth solidly under your feet before you do any heavy lifting. […]
A couple weeks ago, I rode in the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s “Obliteride,” a bike ride to raise money for research to accelerate cures for cancers. Among the many reasons I participated in this ride was the knowledge that Fred Hutch is developing treatments that aren’t as risky and debilitating as the ones most […]
I remember a teacher I had in acupuncture school saying that the Earth, being an organism, was of course subject to all the same principles as any other organism in nature. And as we’ve all sort of known for a long time, our planet is not exactly in perfect health. “It suffers from Yin deficiency,” […]
One of the most wonderful and invaluable things about Chinese Medicine, in my opinion, is its emphasis on the interconnectedness of all aspects of a person. Unlike Western Medicine, with its extensive specialization and compartmentalization of different aspects of health, Chinese Medicine focuses all treatment on the whole person. A good practitioner of this medicine […]
Continuing downstream from one meridian to the next, we proceed from the Lung meridian to the Large Intestine meridian. These two meridians are connected by a short “connecting channel” in the region of the thumb and wrist. As I mentioned at the end of the last post, the major organs in Traditional Chinese Medicine are […]
Life, as we know it, begins and ends with the breath. Anyone who has ever found themselves afraid of drowning because they have swum too far from shore will know very well just how true this is. Anyone who practices meditation eventually notices that it is the body’s continuous breathing, independent of any willful action, […]
Perhaps the most essential principle to understand about Chinese Medicine is that it is based on the belief that the body is supposed to efficiently regulate and take care of its own health. Injuries, trauma, and exposure to pathogens that will make a person sick for a time are inevitable facts of life, but a healthy body […]