Coronavirus Blog Number 3 – by Ann Cecil-Sterman

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Please note that Ann is not practicing in her office at present. Please click HERE to see the video ‘Remote Healing’ for an update on her practice methods during the Coronavirus period.

March 18, 2020

“Are you in your office this week?” That’s the question of this month. My answer is yes, of course; that’s my practice. If I weren’t in the office, I couldn’t say to myself that I am practicing medicine the way I want to. Are MD’s closing their offices?

We cannot “beat” the coronavirus. It will have its way. The quarantining is a great idea and it should happen, but only to slow down the daily demand on the emergency rooms and the ICU beds. We might think that the quarantining we are doing is statistically proven to lessen the number of people affected by the virus. I don’t buy that. Quarantining changes the numbers by stretching out the time it takes to cover the bulk of the population (perhaps by many years) and it makes the impact of the virus milder as time goes by, lessening the number of people seeking medical care.

It all comes back to Wei Qi. 90% of all the DNA we walk around with is not our DNA: it’s bacterial (mainly) and viral. We carry an encyclopedic library of microbes as an essential and integrated part of our being. These microbes are responsible for immune function and movement, otherwise known as Wei Qi. There are three pounds of bacteria in the gut alone. We can neither blink an eye nor digest a single grain of rice without bacterial assistance (Wei Qi). Bacteria and viruses are not just a part of life; life is dependent on it. Without it there is no movement and no defense.

Why would one type of Qi be responsible for both movement and defense? Obviously, to sense danger and move away from it, but that’s just part of it. We harbor so many viruses and some of the colds we have are responses to viruses that are part of our own Wei Qi already! What is that all about?

The function of viruses is to create change. They are masters of change, able to change themselves on a dime. Their essence is change itself. When a virus enters a human body, or when a resident virus activates, the instruction is loud and clear: Change now. If we resist these changes, if we “fight” back with anti-virals and anti-inflammatory drugs, the virus recedes, then changes, becoming more insistent, more virulent.

Germany and France both report that young patients with COVID-19 needing ICU (hospital intensive care) are most often those with a history of taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, (NSAIDS: Advil, Motrin, Aleve, Aspirin). NSAIDs send a message to the immune system (Wei Qi) that says, stop what you’re doing, stop reacting; you’re making a mistake to have this fever and this inflammation. In doing so they suppress the immune system, damaging Wei Qi, its prospects for smoothly flowing to the exterior, and its ability to respond to a pathogen. They undermine the change the body is trying to make.

We are in a period of extreme estrangement from eye-to-eye, living, breathing, present contact. I mean before COVID-19. Never before have we seen the amount of change we’ve had in 20 years, let alone 120 years. Things have become so fast, so impersonal masquerading as personal, with things so quickly obtained they’re cheapened, with endorphins running our excited attachment to little screens, with obsessions so shallow yet so celebrated. The celebration of inconsequential things has become like a religion, and the distribution of wealth has become polarizing. We think we’re so connected, but we are in essence, disconnected; disconnected from the time we naturally need to feel our true path.

And what change is this virus generating? We’re being asked to go quiet. We’re being asked to go internal and reconnect to self. We’re being asked to evaluate what really matters. We’re being asked to share. And most importantly, we’re being asked to care.

This is happening already. The bewildered man who stockpiled 17,700 containers of hand sanitizer waiting for the market to decide how much it was worth was met with outrage and shamed into donating it all away. Who’ll be next? The drug companies that continue to raise the price of insulin during the epic, continuing sugar disease epidemic? The list is endless. (Meanwhile, on a sweet note, our dear pharmacy, Kamwo, on Grand Street, is still selling its herbal remedies without raising their prices one cent, and will continue to do so until their shelves are emptied, soon.)

But what about us as practitioners? What are we being asked to do in this pandemic? What change are we being invited to make specifically?  If the message of the virus is to invite quiet, to go internal, to evaluate what really matters, to share and to care, where better than in our offices, where we can do these things with tremendous specificity. What other medical practice is able to address Wei Qi, bolster it, distribute it, harness it, activate it, and conserve it?

Treatment of the Sinew Channels does all these things for our patients. In our offices, the patient and the practitioner together change the emanation from the Sinew Channels. This makes more room for the entire world to make its gargantuan shift. Intention is the cornerstone of our practice; with the intention of cultivating the change the virus eliciting, we bypass the illness that would befall were we to resist it. What I’m saying is that if we as a community practice our medicine, we can help create a shift not only for our patients, but for all humanity, since the emanations of all Sinew Channels are one seamless arena. These are the workings of herd immunity. You need a small number of people to experience the virus and change; they initiate a ripple of change that is greater than one’s imagining, and then we have immunity of the herd. After that point, the virus loses its potency in the Wei Qi field and resides with all the other viruses to which there is herd immunity; the illness pretty much disappears.

So to practice these treatments is an essential service. To tonify Wei Qi, tonify its two components: Kidney Yang and Stomach Fluids. There are many ways to do that, but if you like protocols, moxa KI-3 on the left and needle CV-12. As you’re doing that, imagine that Kidney Yang is being directly fortified by the heat of the moxa (I call it a Yang Qi donation) and imagine that the fluids at the Stomach are so rich and plentiful that there is a wonderful store of that resource for the production of Wei Qi. Then release LR-14 on the left, to be sure that Wei Qi can be evenly distributed. Finally, release LU-7 near the right wrist. This is a simple treatment for the cultivation, distribution and readiness of Wei Qi.

If you have a patient who is fearful, bleed BL-58, GB-37, and KI-4 all on the right side.

If you have a patient who is too weak to encounter the virus if they contract it, moxa DU-4 and DU-14 to tonify Wei Qi in the Tai Yang sinews. Find blockages (tight spots) on the Tai Yang sinews and gua she them to release them.

If you have a patient who suspects they may be coming down with, or have the illness (fever and dry cough) treat them over FaceTime. Have them massage KI-3, CV-12, LR-14, and pinch on LU-7. Then have them press hard on GB-22 by making a thumbs-up hand sign and bringing it to the side of their chest to release the Lung Sinew. Then get them to press hard on LU-11 to allow the congested Wei Qi to flow in the chest. Show them how to press on ST-45 and LI-1 to release Yang Ming, then GB-44 and TH-1 to release Shao Yang, and then BL-67 and SI-1 to release Tai Yang, all with a finger nail but not so hard that they hurt their skin. Counsel them to make soups and broths if they have the energy. Encourage them to stay warm, to keep their necks covered and warm, and to stay in bed and rest. Real rest, not phone or tv-assisted rest. Counsel them to reduce their exposure to news while they are recovering. See our other blogs on diet for Corona, etc.

None of these treatments will work if we are not calm as practitioner. Remember that what emanates from the practitioner’s field is part of the treatment as it infuses the field of the patient. If you are scared, bleed your Luos. You are beautifully trained.

Ann
NYC

Practice as though nothing else matters, because everything does.

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