November 15, Great Shuttle, BL 11

Great Shuttle, III - 11, (dà zhù)

     When a tapestry is woven a shuttle is used to weave the patterns of design. It is the shuttle that guides and creates the details that will weave the overall picture of the tapestry. Here our way in life can be woven in harmony with the cycles and patterns of life. This point is both the vision and organization of the inner Bladder line that contains points that have a direct contact with each of the Officials and their vital organs. Here is the first opening along that line of points of a delicate network of Qi that is both able to rejuvenate and revitalize each Official. This is the movement and force of a shuttle that is able to weave dynamic patterns that enrich the working cycles and patterns of the Officials so their efforts work in harmony.

Explanation of Point Name: In ancient China the spinal vertebrae were referred to as zhu gu, shuttle bones because the vertebra resemble a shuttle weaving in and out of the pattern formed by the posterior of the rib cage. The first vertebra, being the most prominent, is labeled with the epithet “great” (see Great Hammer – GV-14). This point is located just lateral to that bone; hence the appellation.


     There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as the expectation of something tomorrow.
- Orison S. Marden

Ambition Room, (zhì shì), III - 47


     The Chinese say that as we pass through the gates of life and are born into this world, the angels whisper the secret of life. We forget this at the time but it remains an invisible thread that guides our life. If we follow the thread we will live in harmony and balance and be enriched by the path we have been given. Zhì Shì is an inner place of creative drive and desire where one inherits their purpose in life. Zhì is drawn as the development of plants growing over the heart meaning scope, ambition, purpose and will. Shì is drawn as a roof of a building and a bird that suddenly dives at the ground. It means to reach a home, to arrive and a house. Here we can go straight to the home of our will with purpose and determination.

Explanation of Point Name: The kidney stores the will. Since BL 47 is located 1.5 inches lateral to the kidney associated-shu point, it is intimately connected with that viscus. The appellation Will Chamber reveals this relationship.

Thirty spokes join the circular hub of the cart wheel. Only the hole at the center allows the wheel to spin. The center hole is essential, the spokes simply follow. A potter turns his wheel and makes a pot – its use is where there is nothing, only the space within allows the pot to hold water.
- Lao Tsu

October 28, Second Interval

Second Interval, (èr jiān), X - 2


     The Chinese say that there must be duality for there to be existence. Heaven sends its rains to the earth to fertilize and soften her soil so the new plants can grow and flourish. It is from these plants that the air receives its heavenly oxygen for life to prosper. Heaven needs earth to exist, just as earth needs heaven. Yin, the secret darker side of life, needs yang the brighter active part of life. Without darkness the light cannot be seen. Two expresses this duality of the Large Intestine and the Lungs of letting go and taking in.

Explanation of Point Name: “Second space” refers to the “space,” i.e., the depression on the distal side of the metacarpal phalangeal joint, at which the second point of the Large Intestine channel is located.

The main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing.
- M. Brown

October 27, Pearl Jade

Pearl Jade, (xuán jī), XIII - 21

     Pearls are tiny precious stones that are found in the vast ocean of life. Xuán Jī is the jade within the pearl. Xuán is drawn as three pieces of jade strung together and the foot being set into motion. Jī is drawn as three pieces of jade strung together and the smallest subtle thing meaning in a pearl. The Chinese say that the pearl within must be polished with faith, humility and moderation and out of that polishing will come the radiance and beauty of the polished pearl.


Explanation of Point Name:  The combination xuan ji names an ancient astronomical instrument that turns on a pivot, much as the head turns on the neck. Thus the point is named after its location at the bottom of the neck.
     The first four stars of the big dipper form the bowl of the dipper and the last three form the handle. The second and third stars are called xuan and ji respectively. The dip at the top of the sternum resembles the bowl of the dipper. CV-21 is located in the area that corresponds to the bottom of the dipper formed by y the stars. To picture this, simply imagine the collar bone as the handle of the dipper and CV-21 as the bottom of the bowl.
     Xuan ji is also the name of a particular palindrome that was embroidered on satin in the 4th century A.D. It was done by a woman for her husband (who had been banished to Tartary), and it consisted of 840 characters, which could be read the same backwards as forwards.

Yes there is Nirvana; it is in leading your sheep to green pastures and in putting your child to sleep. To write the last line of your poem.
- Khalil Gibran

October 26, Heavenly Stream

Heavenly Stream, (tiān xī), XII - 18


     When heavenly rains fall into an open valley it nourishes all the earth and brings forth an abundance of growth. This is the way the Spleen brings great Qi nourishment, filling it with the breath of heaven, full of inspiration and well-being just like the streams and rivers fill the earth with vibrant water. Here are the heavenly streams flowing through the earth creating life and beauty

Explanation of Point Name: The area above the diaphragm is often referred to as “heaven,” tian, (see SP-8). The ideograph xi refers to the cleft formed by the ribs and sinews that contain this point. The point name is a reminder of the point’s location in a cleft of the upper body.

In health there is freedom. Health is the first of all liberties.
-Henri-Frederic Amiel

October 25, Narrow Defile

Narrow Defile, (liè quē), IX - 7


     Liè Quē is a narrowing, dividing, arranging and partaking. It also means lightening. Liè is drawn as to divide and place in order. It means to arrange to enumerate, to separate and to classify. Quē is drawn as earthenware and to partake. It means to defile, deficiency, vacancy and broken. Here is a place where the energy is concentrated and gathered together to be clarified and divided. Here is the real place of separation where that which we need can be recognized and that which we no longer need is let go.

Explanation of Point Name: The name of this point may be understood in terms of the path of the lung channel. At LU-7 the path splits to join the large intestine channel at LI-14. This splitting can be seen as a break in the sequence of points on the lung channel. This argument may also be understood as a break in the general sequence of the channel system. In most cases, qi is transferred from the last point of one channel to the first point of the following channel. Here LU-7, and not the last lung channel point LU-11, is the issue point of the lung channel.


The Noble Eightfold Path
1. Right View
2. Right Thought
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration

October 22, One Hundred Meetings

One Hundred Meetings, (băi huì), XIV-20 

  

     Everything is part of the whole and this is the meeting place of the unity. It is the point of balance between the posterior and anterior, the yin and the yang and the light and the dark. It is where everything can be directed from the whole and the one. Here is where all the rivers and seas can be directed and guided from the original source of all life. The grand unity for the Chinese was the number one hundred called Băi and drawn as the number one over the sun. Huì is a meeting of words brought together and is drawn as words under a roof meaning to meet or assemble.

Explanation of Point Name: According to the Classic of Difficult Issues, yang converges at the head. GV-20 is the intersection-jiaohui point of the six yang channels and the Governing Vessel. In Chinese the number 100 stands for many; thus the meeting of many channels is called “Hundred Convergences.” Further, the numerous bones of the skull all meet at this point.

 
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.
- Albert Einstein

Practices

     It’s called a “practice” because it’s something you’re a beginner at, maybe a beginner with experience but a beginner nevertheless. And as a beginner, you’ve got to cut yourself some slack because you’re not complete yet in that experience. Same applies to new behaviors, new practices you wish to implement. Whether it’s “being non-judgmental” or “realizing it’s your own story about a person” or “pointing to myself”, it’s good to remember that we’re beginners and getting it somewhat right takes some time.
     Be patient.



A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
- Lao Tzu

PTSD

     I‘ve had the honor of recently treating someone whose been diagnosed with PTSD, his bouts of therapy don’t seem to be giving him what he feels he needs and would strongly prefer not to go the drug route. He presents anxiety, fatigue, depression, insomnia, low motivation, failure to thrive as an adult. Physical symptoms are also just now showing as well.
     He’s grief stricken with his experiences and disillusioned with life, dwelling in the fall the winter energetically.
     In treatment, we are re-kindling his fire, metaphorically, and he’s now arrived at the place where he can just see glimmers of hope in the shadows of that fire (“shadow” still being the operative word); new possibilities in relationship with his wife, potential joy in the lives of his kids, a life that can be filled with learning about things he loves.


     I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

-George Bernard Shaw

Getting the House Ready

We’ve been getting the house ready to put on the market. Lots of projects, things we’ve put off for the past 6 years. Of course, now with everything completed, all the painting and repairs done, it seems like a place I’d like to live in! Isn’t that always the way?

Do you have projects you’d like to complete? Is it the same list as the one from last year? I have patients who are reluctant to “get off the mark.” Is that how it is with you? Still planning on exercising? On cleaning out that room? On losing that weight?

As they say, tomorrow is a disease. Starting now is the only time to start.

For a list of all the ways in which technology has failed you, please press three.
- Alice Kahn

Just Celebrated My 60th Birthday

     I recently celebrated the completion of my sixth decade along with many of my high school classmates. The family had an outdoor gathering on the hottest day of the year at the picnic area near Lake Elkhorn here in town. We had lots of swinging and sandbox play (the most fabulous grandson Tristan was in attendance) along with candles, singing and sweating.

The Circles

Think of Life as five circles in a big circles.

The Crayons quote

     See the crayons. They are lined up so nicely- white, blue, green, red, and yellow – just like the seasons. They’re all pointed in the right direction, they’re all about the same length, they’re all brand new – never used. It’s a simple enough analogy – balance, harmony, equalness of position, etc. They aren’t out of their sequence or facing the wrong way or of unequal size.
     Not too bad for home grown photography.

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You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin, and even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things.- Walt Whitman

Piriformis Syndrome

     This particular condition occurs in women, 6 to 1 over men. It can literally be a pain in the butt. I am a sponsor for the Mid-Maryland Triathletes Club, MMTriClub, here in Columbia and that means that I get a lot email about races as well as the physical issues encountered by these runners, swimmers and bikers.
     The piriformis muscle is a smallish adductor connecting the front of the pelvis to the spine, more or less. And when you train at this level, it has a tendency to get overworked and compress the sciatic nerve leading to rear end discomfort or sciatic issues, that's the short version anyway. Massages, stretches, and pain relieving drugs are usual venues.
     In acupuncture parlance, it usually falls into one of three camps: Qi Stagnation and Blood Stasis, Liver Depression or Liver-Kidney Yin Vacuity, if you're interesested in the jargon.
     The crayons in order, not so much.

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When there is free flow, there is no pain and when there is no free flow, there is pain. - Alex Tiberi

Flying Cranes w/pic

     The cranes are back! I have had a mobile of cranes flying in my office since the beginning. When my former landlord moved she took the cranes, all the way to Oregon! And despite my best efforts and the internet, I haven't been able to find suitable replacements.
     So my very good friend Jen gave me these identical replacements on Sunday and I hung 'em up on Monday. I finally got the wings folded to suit them so they fly level now and don't just hang there, beak down.
     The mobile is from http://www.flensted-mobiles.com/ in Denmark with a supplier, Mr. Torben Nielsen in Highland,Village, TX at 888.664.3573.

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Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. - John F. Kennedy

Woo Way or Wu Wei

     In this type of acupuncture we talk about wu wei, it is the art of doing nothing or no thing. It is our practice that we merely are in the treatment room; we exist. The Tao De Jing says:
From this the wise man relies on doing nothing in the open, it's wu-wei. And he spreads doctrines without true or false words, by a wordless influence. All things appear, and he hardly turns away from the creatures worked on by him. Some he gives solid, good life, he hardly disowns his chosen ones. He hardly takes possession of anyone under fair conditions.

     One one level, it is to give our patients the gift that all is done by themselves, the people accomplish everyting that is done, that there is. They should have the thought that we, the practitioners, do no thing to bring about the changes. When the patient realizes how superfluous we are, our task is finished.

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Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for. - Dag Hammarskjold

Cupping

     There are many ways to stimulate the points, reducing or reinforcing. The use of cupping is very effective in fleshy areas, like on the thighs or calves, abdomen or back, even on the upper arms.
     First, you lubricate skin with some lotion or oil. Then you dip your cotton ball into alcohol and light it (see May 7 for lighted cotton ball!). Now while holding the flaming and dramatic cotton ball (FCB), you move the cup around on the oiled skin to get the patient used to the sensation, then you plunge (too strong a word?) the FCB into the cup to heat the air just a little and then put the cup down on the patient’s skin. Don’t forget to blow out the FCB at this point! As the air inside the cup cools, it creates a vacuum and pulls the skin up into the cup. Now, you move the cup around over the affected area and then let it come to rest over the point where you want the energy affected.
      It doesn’t hurt at all, although it may result in some fairly deep bruising, especially on the back. Can give some good pulse changes too.

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This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative innovation. At first you might find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen. . .Your sacred space is where you find yourself again and again. - Joseph Campbell

Things to Calculate

     One of my patients asked what we were treating and what did we have to calculate. It started my re-examining what the routine was and what I needed to take into consideration. There’s the season, of course, and right now we are moving into the beginning of summer according to the Chinese calendar. There’s also the day of the week (which is the most auspicious number?), where the moon is in its cycle/and where the planets are, and the hour of day.

     Acupuncture recognizes that the life force of all things, the qi, moves in flow with so many variables and one of these is the hour of the day. The organ systems function at their highest and lowest about 12 hours apart. The Large Intestine, for example, is at the height of its cycle from 5am to 7am and at its lowest at 5pm to 7pm, so if you needed to address concerns about this system, it would be best to have a patient in during this window.
     At acupuncture school, there used to be horary (that’s the name for these hour-related treatments) parties for patients late at night.


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I ask myself, What is the - perhaps only one of several but for me the – most interesting technology that shapes the space one usually calls Western culture, as distinct, say, from Chinese culture? The obvious answer – and here Father Ong has been my main modern living guide – is the alphabet. - Ivan Illich, In Conversation

Zen Board

I got this Zen Board (from “Santa Barbara and Sun” it says on the back) given to me by a patient if I recall correctly. It’s great for writing on it with the brush dipped in water. At first, I used to write a greeting in English for the patient like “Welcome Bob!” The small difficulty was that if the patient did not arrive promptly at their time, then the water on the board would form drips – not pleasing. The very good news is that the writing in water evaporated quickly so that I could use it again within a few minutes.

It’s really quite excellent at writing brush strokes to practice calligraphy.

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The characters are formed out of the magical seven strokes which we know are the seven mysteries. It is said that the horizontal stroke should be like a cloud that slowly drifts across the sky, the dot should be like the falling rock, the vertical stroke should have the growth of a strong vine stem, the sweeping stroke should rise and fall like the ocean waves, the hook should be like an animal’s claw and the diagonal stroke should have the energy of an arrow.

Acupuncture Point, ST-36, Zu San Li, Leg Three Mile,

     There are 365 main points plus another two dozen extra points and a whole galaxy of additional points in the ears and hands. Now, I would have preferred that the Chinese had named the points according to function, like “Fixes Frozen Shoulder” or “Stress Relieving Point” or “Ensures Fertility,” that kind of thing. What you get instead mostly are things like ST-36, “Zu San Li,” “Leg Three Mile,” a point near the knee used to provide stamina for walking another three li or miles, perhaps.

     “The use of this point [c]an gain a lot ground and cover great distances. For people to walk and move arms more easily. Means for patient to move on – whether physical, mental or spiritually. Shakes up and revitalizes the energy. Use where there is laziness or an apathy. Feeds the Earth meridian in order that things can grow more richly. Feeding the muscles when working on the Earth element. One of the points for the Sea of Nourishment, according to the Chinese it bestows longevity and endurance, keeps you free from disease, conserves vitality and revitalizes the energy, the Official and the entire system. Brings stability and security to the element. Used with moxa, this point steps up the white blood cell count.” – Thank you J.R.Worsley

     The alternative name of Ghost Evil indicates its use in such disharmonies as epilepsy, manic depression, schizophrenia, depression or when heat in the Yang Ming is causing wild behavior. This point both calms the mind and strengthens the body. Regulates Blood pressure. It brightens the eyes and can be used for blurred vision and declining eyesight in old age.

     “In ancient times strong runners were used to deliver important messages from village to village. Here is the stamina to walk the length between two villas in ancient times. Zu San Li is to walk in the stillness of the way between heaven and earth with strength. Walking our path takes reserves and here are the nourishing energies to finish and accomplish our goals with these reserves of strength.
     The character Zu is drawn as a foot that walked in stillness or along its path in balanced mediation and means the foot or let. San is drawn as three lines. The upper stroke represents heaven, the lower stroke earth, and the stroke in the middle is man created out of the two. It means three or to treble. Li is drawn as a field and earth. It means a hamlet of eight families working together to cultivate the land, a place of residence, neighborhood, and street, melancholy and the distance between two villages or a Chinese mile.
     Here we gain our ability to be stable, receptive, caring, nourishing and balanced like the earth beneath our feet. Here the earth herself gives us the stamina to walk the fullness of our path.” - Thank you Debra Kaatz

     Schizophrenia, blood pressure, blurred vision, white blood cell count? It does get complicated.

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Healing is possible even in the absence of cure. Cure is about the recovery of the body. Healing is about the recovery of the soul. - Rachel Naomi Remen

View Me As Movie Star

The folks at Acufinder where I advertise have been offering the promotion about making a free video of your business (with annual add-ons at a premium).

So, I spent an exhausting Friday talking to the videographer on Friday about acupuncture. We looked at coming at it from several different angles. He shot a lot of footage, mostly of me blowing the lines, until it got comical. He did a bunch of office shots and movement shots and a whole lot a material to use. He did a really fine job of cobbling it together.

Admittedly, I look like I’m asleep (visit www.acufinder.com and search on zip code 21045 and pick me for a bit a laugh) while I’m trying to talk to you about the exciting world of acupuncture, but the rest of video is really good. His name is Charles Kim and you can reach him at 877-559-9898 if you need a video for your business.

Movie material, I’m not.

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Death is more universal than life; everybody dies but not everybody lives. – A. Sachs

Flaming Liniment

     Prestigious acupuncture text author and lecturer Alex Tiberi tells a very funny story about the flaming liniment he uses as a therapeutic treatment for muscle aches and pains, and besides its coolness melds very well with our shamanic tradition. In one hotel seminar, he had a (skittish) volunteer try dipping her hand into the flaming liquid with less than stellar results; she did try it and violated the cardinal rule of not being tenetive about plunging her hand in and decisively clenching it to extinguish the flames, thereby resulting in flinging the burning stuff on the carpet.

     And while he was looking for something to smother the bits of smoldering carpet, a brave attendee had taken his tee shirt off to use it as a cover for the kettle ‘o fire and managed to flip the whole burning container onto the carpet, which moved the event from a relatively contained mishap to one that required professional fire fighting assistance, carpet replacement, and limiting that particular public activity in the future.

Good times abound!

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We are put here on this earth to help others, what on earth the others are here for, I haven’t a clue. – W.H. Auden

Things We Are

It would be best if I could think of something that consisted of five things all mixed and blended together, maybe like some sort of fruit salad or like a concrete or like a recipe of five colors of clay thoroughly mixed together.

In this Five Element Acupuncture perspective, we are just that, a well-blended mixture of the ten thousand things, or at least the five things we can conceptualize. When we are very well in balance, these five energies come together seamlessly and it’s difficult to separate out which one predominates. When one thing dominates our mind, when we’re really angry or grieving or fearful, then we are in the throes of that energy.

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And if the earthly no longer knows your name, whisper to the silent earth: I’m flowing. to the flashing water, say: I am.- Rainer Maria Rilke

So Many Questions

How many needles do you use in a treatment? Maybe about a dozen.

How long is it? About 75 minutes.

Do I take off my clothes? Probably, except for your underwear

Do I have to believe in it for it to work? No more than believing in electricity.

Will it hurt? Much less than a heartbreak of any kind.

How do you know what to treat? I listen so intently to what you say and how you say it, and to what your pulses tell me.

Do you treat outside of the office? I do home visits as well as treat people in the local rest homes and rehab facilities.

Any side effects? The most common side effect is falling asleep and I get a gold star if you go to sleep, and two gold stars if you snore.

Do you take insurance? Yup, if your insurance pays for it, I’ll accept it.

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Your work is to discover you work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it. - Buddha

Acupuncture Datebook

     I’ve always been fascinated with time keeping from clock making to timed burning candles; calendars have always played a big part. Back in 1980, I think I had two dozen calendars in my office and page turning on the first of the month was a group effort!

     The Chinese calendar has become a source of interest for me as well. So much so that I’ve created a coffee table publication for use in the office waiting area. It goes from January to December with a page for each day; and on that page it includes a acupuncture point appropriate to that season, the point name in English, and in pinyin as well as in Chinese characters, the point’s location, something about the spirit of the point and some bit of daily wisdom.

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The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle. - Anais Nin

My Father's Dragon

After the recent office re equipage, I brought in a cloth sculpture my older brother made in the late 70s. It’s a map on canvas over cardboard with a fabric frame around it from the frontispiece of a childhood book called My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett from 1948. It was one of the favorites from my childhood. We still talk about the rhino brushing his horn with toothpaste. The map labels the places where the character and his dragon had their adventures on Wild Island and the Island of Tangerina.


It’s nice to have something of my brother’s in the treatment room with me.

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The beauty of the Way is that there is no Way.-  Loy Ching-Yuen

Remodeled Website

I’d like to invite you into my shop, at least the virtual rendition. Please come on down to www.ling-tai-acupunture.com to see what the new place looks like. It’s has a lot less emphasis on what the office (and I look like) looks like and more detail on acupuncture and how it can serve you.

It’s very well and creatively done by the talented and gracious Lisa Murphy (lisamurphywebdesign.com) out of Peoria, IL. I’d recommend her for your future website needs.

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Everything is everything. – BJ James

A Wellness University?

     There was a big article about the Tai Sophia Institute, my acupuncture school in the local county paper this past week. Tai is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year and maybe moving toward status as a “wellness” university in 5 or 6 years if all goes well.
     That’s pretty good for an organization that almost landed the founders in jail for breaking the skin like surgeons without a license.

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     May all beings everywhere with whom we are inseparably interconnected, be fulfilled, awakened, liberated and free. May there be peace in this world and throughout out the entire universe, and may we all together complete the spiritual journey. - Mahayana Buddhist Prayer

Do You Shine?

     You do realize that you are a sacred elephant trying to live in an anthill?

     Ms. Williamson put it best: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. - Marianne Williamson

Go big, don’t go puny. Serve the world.

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Moxa

     What an intriguing topic this is, one I know so very little about. Moxa, artemesia vulgaris, along with needles and herbs is one of the three legs of the stool of acupuncture practice. Moxa is a fibrous herb which smolders when a lighted incense stick is applied. Ancient Chinese Chapstick might be used as a base to stick the little compressed pyramids on. It warms the acupuncture point and subsequently the patient. We should be mindful about using it with those with heart conditions or who already have lots of heat in the system. But if you’re cold in the core or hand and feet, 5 – 7 moxa will do the trick.

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Death is more universal than life; everybody dies but not everybody lives. – A. Sachs

How I Got Started in Acupuncture

     My fabulous wife had been getting regular acupuncture treatment for ten years and had said "you really should go, it’ll do something for your blood pressure." So I finally went, not without a little grumble.

     Anyhow, I had the very patient practitioner take my BP before the treatment and during the treatment, and sometimes when I was standing or lying on my side and practically in every permutation besides eating the green eggs and ham. And, after about eight weeks, it had come down about 20 points, keeping me drug free.

     Now the really interesting thing was how I would watch the looks on folks’ faces as they would come out of her office and I thought “I’d like to be able to provide that.”

     Circumstances eventually led to the universe saying “sure, come on down Route 29 to acupuncture school.”

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When you don't have any money, the problem is food. When you have money, it's sex. When you have both, it's health. If everything is simply jake, then you're frightened of death. - J.P. Donleavy

The Aucpuncture Points Artwork Site

     You can buy copies of acupuncture point artwork in some sort of format if you desire. These works are done by two artists, Brooks and Tu. Marlow Brooks honours traditional oriental calligraphy as a strong practice of being "on the spot" with her entire body, mind and spirit, and is delighted to blend this ancient art with her love of colour and painting. A devoted artist, Harrison Tu has created numerous works of calligraphy, many of which have been selected for exhibition in the United States, Japan, Korea and Singapore. Between the two of them, they have produced a stylized version of each of the points, all 365 of the grneral ones. Here's an example for the site,  www.worsleyinc.com/spirits/artwork.shtml, it's Lesser Palace, Heart 8.
     These are a bit hard to interpret in their form, as in there's a lot of flourish, but they're very nice looking. All artwork consists of original pieces, elegantly presented on rice paper in various sizes. The largest is 15" x 19" matted, and the smallest is 12" x 17" matted. Each is matted in acid-free mats of appropriate color, backed with acid-free foam core, and packed in clear cellophane. Matting protects the piece during shipping and gives a beautiful finish in the home or office.

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Treasure the love you receive above all. It will survive long after your gold and good health have vanished. - Og Mandino

My Name Badge

     Each student got a 1 x 3 blue name badge when we started to the Tai Sophia Institute acupuncture school. It was a pin-on plastic with white letters. I just threw mine away about a week ago, of course. Our acupuncture class started out with 40 students, a large class, maybe the largest class the school had seen in thirty plus years.
     And, it became quickly evident that not all were meant to finish the 4 year program, at least not at the same time. So as each student left the program, either dropping back a class or flunking out (which was rare) or leaving through other avenues, I wrote their name on the badge's back as a way for me, for all of us to remember them.
     I remember referring to the badge when in school, reminding myself of them.

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What is this about being real? About doing life in front of everyone all the time?

Chinese Language

     I'm starting my most recent Chinese language class this month at the local community college. I seem to be fascinated with how the characters are formed. It's like each character is a puzzle in a box and when you open it, it's never the same.

     There is the story about the development of the Chinese language, maybe between Huang-Di and his advisor, I could look it up I guess, who shows the Yellow Emperor the footprints made by different birds in the sand along the beach. In a similar vein, he offers that a written language could be created by constructing a graphic for each different word in the same way.
     Now, after you get past tree and river and house and leg, the language is a lot less precise on the face of it, but the ambiguity of the needed modifiers renders a great banquet of nuanced meanings, once you get to that point of course.

2,500/162 lbs

Each of us literally chooses, by his way of attending to things, what sort of universe he shall appear to himself to inhabit. - William James

The Second Five Practices

     There are actually seven of them and it makes better reading if you keep it listed to five I think. I set them out here so that I don’t forget what I need to write:

     Have No Expectations
     Look to See, Listen to Hear, Be.
     Pointing to Myself
     Bow to How Life Is
     On Automatic
     Design Your Day
     Doing It for Whom?

     I plan to write more on each as we go along.

3,500/161 lbs

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow. - Chinese Proverb

Diagnosis

      How do we diagnose? That’s the big question because if can determine what’s wrong, then the big answer is how can we address it?

      Here’s a very simple example, which is a lie, because the people are never uncomplicated, but anyway, the patient has rheumatoid arthritis in a severe way wherein her hands are deeply affected enough where they are cramped up and turn outward. Notice I didn’t label them as “deformed”; it took me a long time to realize if I thought that way then that contributed to continuing to affect her hands. More later. RA is an auto immune condition, and in addition she also has muscle issues, as well as anger issues.

     So what? All of these begin to point me very directedly at treating the Wood element.

4,500/160.5

Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were. - Cherie Carter Scott

Acupuncture and the WSJ

     The Wall Street Journal ran an article in March 2010 about acupuncture. Please go online and look at it. I think I’m summarizing it correctly to say that the gist of the article was, and you may quote me here, “there may be something to that acupuncture stuff.”
     As fanciful as that seems, acupuncture does have real effects on the human body, which scientists are documenting using high-tech tools. Neuroimaging studies show that it seems to calm areas of the brain that register pain and activate those involved in rest and recuperation. Doppler ultrasound shows that acupuncture increases blood flow in treated areas. Thermal imaging shows that it can make inflammation subside.
     Scientists are also finding parallels between the ancient concepts and modern anatomy. Many of the 365 acupuncture points correspond to nerve bundles or muscle trigger points. Several meridians track major arteries and nerves. "If people have a heart attack, the pain will radiate up across the chest and down the left arm. That's where the heart meridian goes," says Peter Dorsher, a specialist in pain management and rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. "Gallbladder pain will radiate to the right upper shoulder, just where the gallbladder meridian goes."
     Neuroimaging, Doppler ultrasound, thermal imaging - who knew!

3,500/161

In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted. - Bertrand Russell

How Five Element Acupuncture Is in the World

     The very shorthand of the beginnng is that first and always there is the Dao, out of which comes the (second) Yin and Yang, and (third) they are the originators of heaven, earth, and man - the three, out of which comes the four directions, and they produce the Five Elements or the Five Phases. Boy, what a mess of incompleteness that is!
     I may have to come back to most of that.
     Five Element is a nature-based, phenomena medicine, at least the way I learned it which may not be exactly the way I was taught.
     There are the five (!) seasons or five elements (Wood can be thought of as that green cirlce at about 9 o'clock) and each one is associated with a whole host of ideas which we practitioners observe, like color, smell, odor and emotion. The season of spring is associated with the color green and the emotion anger. The Liver and the Gallbladder are the organs of the element of Wood, the season of Spring. The concept of the Liver (somewhat different that we appreciate it in Western medicine) is associated with vision (since the meridian of the Liver opens into the eyes) and muscles.
     When the elements are well in balance we incorporate all five aspects seamlessly. When one is uneven, it shows up more.
     The "so what?" aspect is answered when we perceive a patient with anger issues, the color green observed around the eyes or mouth, problems with vision or muscles. The wood pulses, the Liver and Gallbladder ones, may evidence some unusual characteristics or be very weak or very strong. Any combination, this little scenario may direct us to treat something to do with Wood.
     Now, it's not as simple as that. It may be that the supervising element of Metal may be over controlling or Wood may be undercontolling its responsible element of Earth, so we have to allow for those interactions.
     Again, we rely on the interplay of the pulses to provide us direction.

5,500/160

We should manage our fortunes as we do our health - enjoy it when good, be patient when it is bad, and never apply violent remedies except in an extreme necessity. - Francoise de La Roschefoucauld

It Might Be Personal

     I treat a patient like we were in the middle of an operating theater with hundreds of people watching and use the draping material accordingly. Maybe it’s because I’m male and lots of my patients are not, so I take care to maintain and respect their dignity, their space, with no surprises. Particulars? Yes, I have some. I treat points on the Conception Vessel meridian, it’s a line that runs down the front of our trunks, from chin through belly button to public bone.
     There are points on the CV which are located on the lower abdomen which border the public bone, or points on the Kidney meridian located on the upper chest, all of which need to be approached with reverence. The CV points have to do with digestive disorders, with fertility issues, with menopausal matters, and so much more. The Kidney points also have lots of uses in treatment, so these are just a few of the areas where having a body can be kind of personal.
     There are times where I’ll ask a patient to push down the waistband of their garb so I can access to the lower CV line and it’s a mark of a rookie practitioner to ask the patient “to pull their pants down”. It’s illustrative of the both the delicacy and power of language, something I feel about strongly.
     (I didn't get the picture I wanted!)

7,000/160

How you choose to respond to each moment to the movie of life determines how you see the next frame, and the next, and eventually how you feel when the movie ends. - Doc Childre

Showing Up

     Which reminds me, what do other people count on you for? Is how you show up in the world as you see it, consistent and congruent with how others perceive you? It seems to be a better thing if I realize that not all will embrace my quirky humor.
     Do you seem welcoming and serene to others or are you liable to be sharp, flighty, late and grumpy? Either way is great, just as long as you are aware of it. In our schooling we had an exercise in our very experiential classes where we put written things in the basket of our personality, symbolic of how others perceived us. Not surprising, it was all very positive. We did not have the follow up exercise where we were critiqued for our obsessive punctuality, our OCD-related neatness, or our overly judgmental natures.
      And isn’t that one of the thing this format is good for?
     
3,500/161 lbs

One kind word can warm three months of winter. - Japanese proverb

Commitments, Not Patients

     I went to visit a prospective patient the other day at the acute rehab center because she couldn't come to me. The main purpose of my visit was to ask if she was committed to making progress, whatever she deemed that to be. Was she willing to change diet, to change lifestyle, to change perspective and her comfort level in all things? She surprised me by asking what kinds of questions were those? Didn't I want her as a patient?
     I sort of surprised myself in answering her with the remark that I didn't want patients, I wanted people who were committed to improving their health.
     My reputation rests with each one of my patients, even more, my karmic destiny. I succeed as each patient succeeds. A common comment in practitioner circles is that we should never work harder than our patient is willing to work.

5,000/160

How you spend your time is more important than how you spend your money. Money mistakes can be corrected, but time is gone forever. - David Norris

Pulse Diagnosis

     There was a day early on school where we were to begin checking pulses. One of the major diagnostic tools we have as Five Element acupuncturists is pulse diagnosis. We were taught that there were three deep and three superficial pulses on each wrist and to interpret that we had to check a lot of wrists; before my day folks went out to the airport for this - imagine!
     We were required to document I think it was fifty pulse picture a week for the first year and forty per week for the subsequent years and I remember at the time I thought I was getting nothing for the first year. I think my classmate Tiana made the comment that she got no information for the first thousand, all the info she needed during the second thousand, and too much info for the third thousand. In treatment today I probably check the patient’s pulses a dozen times or so. Pulse diagnosis, along with tongue diagnosis (the only internal organ we can visualize externally) provides real feedback tools to us.

5,500/162

Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy, sweat will get you change. - Jesse Jackson

Moving Day

     It’s moving day! Actually it’s office moving in day for me. My landlord of several years is moving to Oregon and taking her office furniture with her to open a new practive out there. I have new stuff to move into the same place. I’ll miss the flying crane mobile and the hanging frog, even the rickety plant stand holding the anatomical statue, but it’ll be nice to have my own desk and table in there.
     This fall I plan to perform some treatments out of doors in September and October, and then depending on how that goes maybe some in the cooler weather of November and December. I’d really like to treat oitside in the dark under the stars; it seems like it would be very freeing. I don’t have a better word than that. I have my eye on some space at the Shaw Farms here in Columbia or on the church grounds over in Owen Brown.

More . . .

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Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great. - Comte DeBussey-Rabuto

Designing a Treatment

     How do I design the treatment? For me, it begins with being on time. If I have an appointment at 11:30a, I make it a priority to design the previous treatment with enough time at the end so that I can take care of business with that patient (what happened this time on the table, the payment, scheduling the next treatment, the goodbye, changing the sheets and getting set up) and still be out in the waiting room between 11:29 and 11:31a.
     This being on time may be peculiar to me. I like to start church on time, for movies to start on time, classes at school to start on time. This way of life about punctuality is not better than other ways for those that are schedule-challenged, it’s just who I have come to be, it serves me. Those people and patients in my life can count on me to be just a little bit early.
     I greet the patient with “won’t you please step back this way.” I don’t greet them by name because there are usually other people in the waiting area and this avoids confidentiality issues. I don’t ask them how they are cause they’ll begin to tell me out in the hallway.
     These are small things and here’s a good place to stop and point out it either all matters or none of it matters. For me, it all matters, every bit of it. The greeting, the cleanliness and color of the sheets on the bed, the music in the treatment, how the needles are lined up on the tray, all of it. Does it matter to you?

6,500/159.5

One kind word can warm three months of winter. - Japanese proverb

Is My Butt Too Big?

“Cleaning out things makes my butt smaller.” That’s what a patient told me the other day. Up until this spring, the patient had been holding on to too much stuff, it’s a lot, really. And now this season, it’s time to turn loose of it, to lose weight, to strip down to what really serves, to cleanse out life.

There’s a quote from Gail Reichstein, author of Wood Becomes Water, that reads "the quickest way to control an excess Earth element is to clean up clutter. Not dirt necessarily, which is the province of the Metal element, but the clutter and overabundance that accumulate around us during times of stress and inattention. Clean off tabletops and desktops, clean out drawers and cabinets, organize closets and basements, throwing out as much as you can, and organizing the rest into neat piles. This will begin the process of draining and simplifying an overburdened Earth element."

"Earth element"? More later on the elements. . .
It’s like it’s connected, the more stuff that goes, the less you weigh.

6,000/160

How you spend your time is more important than how you spend your money. Money mistakes can be corrected, but time is gone forever. - David Norris

Covering the Basics

     Covering the Basics then. What is the mindset? What preparation have I made? Already that day I have 1) designed my mood, 2) decided not to be on automatic, 3) in all situations, to look and see, listen and hear, to be.

     What resides foremost in my active mind - how will I perceive the world? The answer – I’ll bow to how life is, I’ll realize that all the people I meet are one with me, I’ll recognize that I have a choice in all things, I’ll remember that I must allow people to come into my presence as perfect beings - not limiting them in my story about them and with no judgment, I’ll have no expectations about how they should be or act, life is continuous change, I am a beginner in so many areas, and that my words are very powerful. That’s how I’ll start each treatment. That’s how I’ll do life.

(That's my travel Gladstone bag.)

7,000 steps/161lbs

You can’t try to do things; you simply must do them. - Ray Bradbury

Stroked by God

There's a great film about Ram Dass after he had a stroke, which is where the title comes from. As I recall, it shows him making remarkable progress and recovery while receiving acupuncture treatment.

Well, this month is the one year anniversary of a similar event in my life. I suffered a circulation-based event, resulting in paralysis and difficulty speaking on a Wednesday morning in April. After five glorious days in the hospital, the medical staff was still unsure of what happened (it didn't have the phenomena associated with a stroke), but they said to be sure and come back if it happened again. After another three weeks, I started the walking program and weight loss regime. So far, I've lost about 35 lbs and walk several thousand steps each day. What a deal!

6,500 steps/ 160 lbs

When you blame others, you give up your power to change. - Dr. Robert Anthony

Sciatica and Beginnings

     In acupuncture school at the Tai Sophia Institue, we had a clinical phase there at the end where we had to do 90 treatments and at least ten different individuals as a requirement to graduate. My first patients (as well as my wife) had back and sciatica issues, enough so that I was the unofficial go-to guy in clinic at the time to consult on those matters. I didn’t plan it that way, I would have chosen smoking cessation or weight loss or something that it seems everyone was interested in.

     The upshot was that I became very comfortable with things associated with sciatica treatment, things like where’s Jumping Round, GB-30 located (close to the hip joint), is cupping indicated (induce a vacuum into a glass ball with a lighted alcohol-soaked cotton ball - very dramatic!), how to introduce heat into the area (on a big needle with burning moxa), what are the related points, how do you situate the patient for treatment (on their side), how do you maintain the site with draping and obtain access to what you need to while maintaining their dignity?

6,500 steps/160 lbs

He who lives in the present lives in eternity. - Ludwig Wittgenstein

Do Without the Judgment

     Can you do this, even for an hour - not to compute all the incoming data, the physical aspects, the emotional content, the facial expression? Can you be at peace in someone's presence without having to assign a bottom line calculated to be where they are?

     Take the snowstorm from February, 2010. I found myself having a judgement about it before it even arrived, something as funamental and elemental as a weather event. It was going to be terrible and inconvenient and disruptive!  I think I could have moved through the event much more easily if I had allowed the storm to just be, it didn't need me to comment on it. I think I would have been better served if I had let myself just register that there was a storm, recognize it for just what it was. My being in the world would have been much lighter if I hadn't had to append "terrible", "obstacle", and "mess" to the event.

      Next time.

6,000 steps, 162 lbs

When you're through changing. . . you're through. - Bruce Barton

My Story, Your Story

Do you have a story about how things are? How all things are?

I had a story about Mr. McWilliams who owned the used clothing store in my home town when I was a kid. He always seemed grumpy and upset whenever we were in there and I made up this whole monologue about his disliking children, poor children, his being upset whenever we were in there. I found out later in life that he was very fearful that we wouldn't like the quality of his goods, that he was actually very good with kids.

What's our story about our patients, our relatives, people we meet? Do we construct how people are based on their clothing or facial expression? What's the phenomenon that's actually present? Can we actually be in the presence of another without drawing down some experiences from the past and make a construction of them without benefit of the present facts? Can we listen and hear them, look and see them, as they actually are right here, right now?

5,500 steps, 161 lbs

It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere. - Agnes Repplier

Upset Is Optional

I love the commercials about how life comes at you fast. People say to take it one day at a time, but then several days may gang up on me at once! How do you handle it, the way life comes at you? Do you get caught up in it, like becoming entangled in the overhanging vine tendrils in a jungle? Does every problem (the broken dishwasher, the irate driver in back of you, the relative's phone call, the temper tantrum) seem to demand a big response from you?

Do you realize there's an alternative? It's very true that problems are mandatory in this life and it's equally true that the upset is optional. You don't have to have a (big) reaction. There is some gap in time between the phenomenon and the reaction. My challenge is to widen that gap sufficiently so that the reaction doesn't follow automatically, that I have a space there to design a response, that I can choose to blow up or, in the alternative, just shrug it off. I can choose what my response will be!

7,500 steps/162 lbs

Everything has been figured out except how to live. - Jean Paul Sartre

Perfect Just As You Are

What else is in the toolbox? There's the concept of perfection, as in you are perfect, just as you are, complete with all the things that make you human.

Boy, this illustrates how hard some of this stuff is. I have a patient with what most folks would call a diminished lifestyle; he's in a coma of a sort, on a breathing/feeding tube, completely dependent on those around him, and yet, he is most perfect, just as he is. He doesn't need fixing in any way.

Can you at least think about someone being perfect, just as they are. This is how we are exhorted to think of our patients, that they are perfect as they come to us, not that we should perceive them as too much or too little of anything (too fat, too old, too flighty, too negative, etc.). When someone arrives to you as perfect, there's very little that needs doing.

(And that's Hudson, a 5 year old French Bulldog.)
2,000 steps/159 lbs

Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectonism. Confronting your fears and allowinng yourself to be human can, paradoxically, make you a far happier and more productive person. - Dr. David M. Burns

"And" for "But"

So try this practice: substitute the word and for the word but in all things for a week. I know it often doesn't make grammatical sense, and it allows us to be more inclusive about things. The use of and for but prevents us from excluding things, permits us to have a wider filter on things coming our way.

Don't we have an impulse to categorize things and people? Putting people in a classification is one of the first things I used to do. You are a Republican, you are a liberal, you are an elitist, you are a bigot, you are another label that probably doesn't really accurately describe who you are. When we categorize people like that we limit them, we cut their story short, we don't let them have access to all the other humanity they may be.

3,000 steps/160 lbs

Your current safe boundaries were once unknown frontiers. - Unknown

We Are Connected

The Basics then. Can we start with everything? We are, quite correctly, stardust. It just turns out that way that the planet and all that is therein comes from the cosmos, not to put too fine a point on it. The same atoms are used over and over again, have been for the past several years just slightly rearranged; Lily Tomlin says we are time-sharing atoms. Is there a connection between all things because of this?

The First Five Practices

"And for "But"
Perfect Just As You Are
Upset is Optional
No Judgment
My Own Story

4,000 steps/159lbs

Everything is connected. . .no one thing can change (or be changed) by itself. - Paul Hawken

The Basics: A Toolbox for Life

If you are interested, if you are curious how we do this life business, then we must start somewhere near the beginning I guess. What are the assumptions? What are the basics? How do I get you to accompany me on this journey?

It's been my observation that it is the proclivity of acupuncture to shake things up. You wouldn't be here if you didn't want something different, if you didn't want to perturb the status quo; maybe it's to have that hurting in your shoulder go away, or be less angry at life, or see things generally in a different way. Whatever it is, be very clear in yourself: acupuncture will take all your stuff and put it on a tray and then shake the dickens out of it like nobody's business so that it all floats to the top and then sinks at varying rates.

We made these precious trays of foodstuffs for my daughter's wedding, each section having berries or nuts or flower petals and it was going great right up to the part where I managed to flip one of the trays over during transport from the car to the hall. The plastic wrap covering the tray kept everything from spilling but it was all mixed together. Same with acupuncture - all your anxieties, aches and pains, emotional upsets together.

If you think acupuncture treatment is limited to treating your sore shoulder, you're very much mistaken. It will include everything: body, mind a spirit. If you don't plan to extend change into these areas, then don't read any further.

4,000 steps. 159 lbs

Destiny is no matter of chance, it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. - William Jennings Bryant

The 10,000 Steps Program

That 10,000 steps program is a reference to the book of the same name: 10,000 Steps a Day by Greg Isaacs.

Sleeping Our Way to Health

Many of my patients have trouble with their sleeping. The simplest solution is the one that has been around the longest. Get up early and do stuff. I have a patient in his mid 50s who hasn't slept well in years. The patient has recently embarked on a program of walking. Perhaps I'll include more detail on this simple statement later. As it turns out, the walking has led to all the other things: weight loss of about forty pounds, lowered blood pressure and cholesterol, elimination of taking a whole host of medication, better quality of life and outlook, and surprise, the patient sleeps very well.

I'm on the 10,000 steps per day program myself. As you can see, I'm not quite there yet. More to follow. . .

Sleep is the golden chain that ties our bodies and health together. - Thomas Dekker

Now it's wine and acupuncture on the ads, hmmm?

2,500 steps/158.5 lbs