My last patient of the day just left and I must scrawl a blog before going home. All day I’ve been wishing everyone a “Happy New Year” as is the custom, but I just couldn’t say that to my last patient. Life has been very tough for him; every day brings a whole-body pain that’s
Because I’m in my 50s, the feeling of our current culture where there seems to be so little privacy, decorum, dignity, self-censoring, no quiet realm for deeply personal things, where things that you would never talk about are now common currency on social media—all feels so unbecoming. Is there anything that people think should be
So How Do you Fix That? I really enjoy treating people with Damp-Heat in the joints. In the general population the condition is widely thought be permanent, even incurable, but the Divergent Channels know otherwise. These people can be ill to the point of being crippled, yet relief is usually so fast. A woman came
At first, intention and knowledge seem to contradict one another. What is intention? Is it simply wanting someone to heal? If it is, is it enough?Our intention to help our patients is very strong, otherwise we wouldn’t be in this profession. Yet, how much we care seems to make no difference sometimes. As humans, we
At 7:15am this morning the most remarkable thing happened. I had just finished my morning meditation and was starting on my gratitude practice when I heard a truck coming up the driveway. Looking through the window, I saw it was a red utility van. The driver turned the engine off but didn’t get out of
Sometimes I think we’re in the most humbling of professions. There’s more information than we can possibly master or absorb in a lifetime and then, at every moment of the patient encounter, and all the way through the treatment, we must be ready to be wrong. And then, when we realize we’re wrong, we have
Interesting case today and perhaps the highlight of the week. I saw a homeless man with a mountain of debt and with one single penny and two sticks of beef jerky in his pocket. He’d had a job in a store but neglected to pay his parking fines which accrued so much interest that the
A curious case today. An actor came in with long-term general malaise and migraines for as long as he could remember. After a deep discussion he told me that he feels that only one percent of his talent has been realized in his current profession, despite his substantial success, but that he can’t tell anyone
November 5th, 2019 Yesterday during the online chat we were asked about meditation and its purpose for a practitioner. I’ve just finished my morning meditation and wanted to add a few more thoughts to yesterday’s chat. A key function of meditation for me as a practitioner is the cultivation of the difference between judgment and
A rare departure from the complement channels for me today. A pop singer came in today announcing that she was about to go on antibiotics for swollen lymph nodes in the neck. She had to leave early to fly and there wasn’t much time. Having been called to rescue her gut many times over the
For many years I used the same brand of needles. They were superbly engineered. Made of shiny stainless steel and completely uncoated, they performed their job superbly. They would engage Qi effortlessly and allowed my intention as practitioner to be enacted, just as a fisherman (fisherperson?!) moves the bait to hook his catch. Once on
Food talk today can be complex and confusing: eat more of this, less of that; this is a superfood, that other is a mustavoid…or is it the other way around? Fads come and go, and studies can be found to justify almost anything. What is often overlooked is the importance of the way foods are
In the dietary branch of Chinese Medicine, cooking bones is a method to extract the essence of the animal in a way that can most easily be digested and assimilated. There is something shamanistic about it; we are trying to absorb the deepest digestible energy of the animal. Yes, high cuisine relies upon stocks for
With so much food variety today—and so many people’s health sabotaged by their food choices—one thing we can count on is a steady stream of food fads. To be more respectful, let’s call them trends. To someone following a new trend, of course, it seems totally sensible, the only questions left are, “What took me
Dampness is one of the six climatic factors taught in Chinese medicine, along with cold, heat (fire), wind, summer-heat, and dryness. For many today, modern heating and air-conditioning have eased the climatic influences—unrelenting cold or oppressively humid summer heat can be escaped by going indoors. And while climatic dampness can be an important issue for
Recently the office received an email from a practitioner who had been told by an advisor to go ahead and
Just a short note today. This morning I received an email from an acupuncturist asking for tips for sustaining commitment.
Sorry to be out of touch. Right now it’s 5:45AM and Andrew is beside me driving in the dark while
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