June 2009 Newsletter

Moon and Lotus
Kamala Quale, MSOM, LAc
541-345-2220

 

IN THIS ISSUE:

Articles:

Classes:

Food Sensitivity Testing, June 26-27

 

SUMMER DEBUT FOR HEARTMIND ACUPUNCTURE

As spring turns into summer, and we approach the day of longest light, it seems like the perfect time to introduce HeartMind Acupuncture.  Summer is a time to manifest ideas that were sprouting in the spring.  This idea came to me in a moment of inspiration earlier this year, and is a guiding light in my work with myself and my clients. Heartmind means many things. Through the articles in this newsletter, I am going to try to convey its different aspects.

Simply put, heartmind is a state of being.  It is consciousness, love and intuition.  When combined with a practice, like acupuncture, it becomes a medium for relieving physical symptoms, and creating a safe space to talk about your deepest concerns.  Within that healing state of being, you are more attuned to your intuition and know how to manifest your inner longings.

Consider the following story.  A woman, who is suffering with asthma, came into the office recently, and said that she was really looking forward to her visit.  She said it was new for her to be excited to come to the doctor. She feels that our work together has really helped her. One of her deep concerns was the anxiety and irritability she feels when she can’t breathe.  She is desperate to do everything she can to relieve the problem. But this very anxiety and desperation makes her more tired and breathless. When she is in that space, her speech is hurried and her body and mind are restless.

Through heartmind listening, energy medicine therapies, and self awareness work, she learned to calm her nervous system and find a “beautiful” breath that is calming and sustaining.  She has been able to reduce the use of her inhalers at varying intervals, and do the gardening that she is longing for. Her garden grounds and calms her, and her quality of life has greatly improved. Avoiding her food sensitivities has also been a great asset in her healing process.

Heart CaligraphyAnother clue about the meaning of heartmind is in the Chinese character for the Heart meridian.  It is conspicuously Spleen Caligraphymissing a symbol that indicates that it is a physical organ. The other 11 organ meridians have this symbol (see pictures with organ symbol on the left). This signifies that the Heart harbors the part of us that is immaterial. It is that which makes us human.  It is our mind, our consciousness and our intuition. 

In Chinese medicine, heartmind is called shen, or spirit.  Shen is considered one of our three treasures as human beings.  It is the treasure that integrates our bodymindspirit into a complete whole. Through our shen, we are connected to universal consciousness. In the classic texts, it is said that if shen is strong, body and mind flourish.  If shen is weak, there is chaos and imbalance.  Therefore, the physician is advised to attend to shen first in any healing situation.

During a HeartMind acupuncture session, I guide people to use their awareness, love and intuition to heal their bodies in several ways.  Here are four of them:

  • We focus awareness on the roots of health problem in mind and body.  These may include mental and emotional patterning that underlies pain or illness. When you know what you are doing that helps or hurts the situation, you can choose how you behave in the future.  
  • We listen to your intuition (and mine), which reveals creative solutions to the problem. Your inner voice of wisdom helps you be more in touch with your boundaries and tolerances in any given moment.
  • We help you connect with the abundance of healing energy in nature and absorb it, through imagination and sensation awareness.  This is a qigong approach.   
  • We find ways to help you accept and love yourself as you are.  This helps you drop limiting beliefs and manifest your goals with more vitality and joy.

HeartMind Acupuncture helps physical and emotional pain, and is great when your life seems out of balance.  When you, or someone you know, calls the office to make an appointment, tell Samantha that you want to schedule enough time for a HeartMind session.

 

TIPS FOR SELF CARE 

Work Life Balance

So many people come into my office looking for work life balance, although they often don’t know that at first.  They are aware of headaches, PMS, digestive problems, body tension and pain, insomnia, fatigue, or symptoms of a low immune system.  When we get to the roots of these problems, we discover that people are overworking and over thinking. Worry, anxiety and even the desire for personal time, keep them up at night.  At the same time they are longing for more care free time, more spontaneous play with their children, and more joy and positivism in their personal and work lives.

In these recessional times, everyone is happy to have a job, and yet there is increased pressure to perform.  With lay offs, some people are doing the work of two or three people instead of one.  People who are self employed are feeling increased pressure to market and keep their customers.  When you are dealing with many stressors, it’s important to have an active plan for coping.  Here are five great ideas:


Enjoy Yourself

On the top of the list should be enjoying yourself.  It helps lift your spirits and generate new ideas. When you enjoy yourselves, it sends a signal to your body that says things are ok and it can relax.  We often think that enjoying ourselves means taking the time to go on vacation or get away and we can’t afford to do that.  However, enjoying oneself can happen moment by moment.  Open a window and drink in the fresh air. Take your time eating and savor the taste and smell of your food. Enjoy the person in front of you rather than try to fix or help him or her.  Listen for that person’s creativity and strengths, and talk about what you notice. The shape of the conversation will change, and things often work out differently than you expect.


Live in the Moment

An important key to maintaining work life balance is living in the now. When your mind starts to think and worry about the future, use all of your senses to redirect it to the sounds, smells and people in the present moment.  Take a few slow and deep breaths to relax your nervous system.  Let your body soften and feel supported by the chair or the floor.  Imagine a person or place that helps you feel calm.  Let a smile come to your face and your heart.  With genuine humor and compassion, imagine that you welcome the part of you that feels hurried or worried into your smiling heart so it has a place to rest.  Then find two or three things that you can feel grateful and positive about. This will help you reconnect with the task at hand with a new attitude and more creativity.  .  


Take Time Out

Whether it is a walk in the woods, a tour through the art gallery, reading a good book or dancing to great music; pepper your weekly schedule with a few activities that get you outside of your work mind habits, and enjoy a little personal freedom.  See the Tips for Meditation column for ideas about how to take time out by turning time into timelessness.


Balance Activity and Rest

Night and day are nature’s ways of alternating activity and rest.  We do our best, and enjoy life much more, when we follow this example.  In big and little ways alternate work with relaxation.  Before bedtime, turn off the computer and the TV and let your nervous system relax.  Let your eyes and ears enjoy the dark and quiet.  This signals the body to secrete the hormones that help you get a good night’s sleep.


Connect With Your Support System

Stay close to friends and family who support you to make good choices for your physical and emotional well being.  Avoid people and situations that reinforce your fear.  Get counseling, HeartMind Acupuncture or massage to help you relax and make clear decisions.

 

Create Your Personal Oasis
Refreshment and Renewal for Body and Soul

June 16 – July 9

This program has immense value for people who feel overworked, and struggle with the dynamic of work life balance.  It will also be loved by those who get nourished and energized by movement and nature.  The goal is to help you refresh and renew by learning and practicing methods that help you let go of the whirl and buzz in your head, and lead you into the moment, and into your body.

You will learn the skill of stepping into your sacred personal oasis in the present moment.  This oasis taps you into the infinite vitality of nature, and your own inner universe.  It will help you be more fully present in every activity, and counteract fatigue and exhaustion.

Through the practice of qigong and yoga movement forms, imagination, meditation and interaction with nature, we will turn time into timelessness and discover inner resources that add meaning and value to life.

To Register: Choose three or more of the classes below, along with the one-day intensive.  Choose payment option below and send to Kamala Quale, 1844 Lincoln St., #1, Eugene OR 97401.  For more info: 541-345-2271 or kquale@moonandlotus.com

Class Times:

Three Tuesday evenings, June 16 and 30, July 7, 6:15pm – 7:30pm:
Location: 1844 Lincoln St., Eugene

Three Thursday mornings, June 18, July 2 and 9, 8:45am – 9:45am:
Location: Washington Park, corner of 19th and Lawrence

One day intensive, June 27, 2009, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm
Location:  30 minutes SW of Eugene near Lorane at the Moon and Lotus Yurt

Fee: $85. (includes three classes and one day intensive)
        $95 (includes four to six classes and one day intensive)

 

Keys to Resolving Allergies and Asthma Naturally

FREE TALK by Carole Warner ND, LAc and Kamala Quale, MSOM, LAc
Thursday, June 25, 2009, 7:00pm – 8:30pm
Tamarack Wellness Center
3575 Donald St., Eugene
RSVP:  (541) 345-2220

Yes, you have another opportunity to hear this informative talk if you missed it last month.  This is such an appropriate topic for so many people right now, that we are offering it again.  Please join us, and tell your friends with asthma and allergies about it.

FOOD SENSITIVITY TESTING with Dr. Carole Warner
Friday and Saturday, June 26-27, 2009
At Moon and Lotus Clinic

 

TIPS FOR MEDITATION

Turn Time into Timelessness

Turning time into timelessness is an inside job. We must take a break from our endless to-do lists, and move from the external march of minutes, to the internal expanse of time and space.  One key is to imagine and feel the way that time and space are connected.  When we feel hurried, overwhelmed and out of time, we also feel there is no space in our life for anything else.  To counter that we must train our minds to pay attention to the spaciousness that exists everywhere.  It is between our thoughts, it surrounds us as we walk, and it is between the inhale and exhale of our breath. Every cell in our bodies is permeated by and surrounded with space.  When you are aware of space, it slows you down, and you feel that you have more time.

We can jump start the process of letting our minds and hearts expand, by contemplating the spacious expanse and timelessness of the universe.  This has been done since ancient times, and in all cultures. As human beings we have always been fascinated by the expansiveness of the sky.  We have observed and studied the moon, the stars and the planets in our quest to find our place and purpose on this planet.  

Today we send powerful telescopes out into space and take pictures. The picture below was taken by the Hubble telescope, and was voted the best by a group of astronauts.  It is called the Sombrero Galaxy, and is 28 million light years from earth.  It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across.

Sombrero Galaxy

You can look at this picture, or gaze at the night sky and then close your eyes.  Turn your awareness inward and feel that same spaciousness and mystery within the stillness of your own being.  For a moment, or for as long as you can, let yourself be a part of this infinite mystery and timelessness.

It is your heartmind, your consciousness that makes the connection.  Consciousness is the medium, and the unified field, that connects us with ourselves, each other, and the entire universe.  So when you feel rushed and overwhelmed by your problems, take a moment to turn your awareness inward. Use your heartmind to feel spacious, connected and timeless in each and every moment.  This will produce the change you want to see in yourself and the world around you.

To practice the art of turning time into timelessness, join my “Create Your Personal Oasis” class this month.  See the classes section for dates and times.

 

Food Sensitivity Support
Simple, Realistic & Achievable
By Carole Warner, ND, LAc

Many people are able to take the test results they get from their sensitivity evaluation and follow the protocol successfully for great results.  By that, I mean that they avoid the things they tested sensitive to for six weeks and then reintroduce them one by one.  Once they’ve determined how their body reacts to each item that’s reintroduced, they adjust their diet to include only the foods that aren’t a problem and enjoy the health benefits of doing so.  But now I want to talk to the rest of you!

For many the changes are much easier to make on paper than in real life, and even though many of us clearly feel better when we avoid the foods we’re sensitive to, we find ourselves really challenged when it comes to fazing them out of our diet successfully.  Some of us just don’t seem to have the “will power” to stop eating foods that are making us sick.  For others it’s that we don’t cook and can’t figure out what else to eat instead.  Or maybe we just don’t have time to do it.  And then there are those of us who are just overwhelmed by the whole darn thing!  If that’s the case for you, you may be asking; now what?

Well, the last thing any of us need is to have one more reason to feel bad about ourselves.  After all, we got tested in the first place in hopes of discovering a way to feel better!  So how do we cope with cravings and other things that get in the way of our being successful at eating foods that make us healthy and avoiding those that make us ill?

One key element I’ll talk about today is setting a Simple, Realistic and Achievable Goal.  Now I know I explained to you that your best results would be from avoiding ALL the things you tested sensitive to at the same time, and this is true.  BUT, what matters is that you are successful, and for some of us doing everything at once can be just too overwhelming.  So we give up altogether, fail to gain any health benefits and beat ourselves up over it all.  This doesn’t do any good whatsoever.  What I recommend instead is to break it down into tiny “bites” (sorry, I couldn’t resist!) that you can chew.  Something that’s simple, realistic and achievable for you.  Now you may be thinking, “But you don’t understand!  I can’t think of a single thing about this that feels simple, realistic or achievable!”  Then you’re still thinking too big.

I once had a patient who discovered that she felt much better when she avoided most of the things she tested sensitive to, but she just kept eating them anyway, and felt powerless to change it.  Whenever she tried, she inevitably got back to eating her favorite problem foods and then felt guilty and hopeless about it all.  After thinking it over she realized that it felt like everything she loved to eat was being taken from her.  So we tried something different.  I asked her if there was a food or beverage that she felt helped her health improve that she wasn’t eating very often.  After considering the question, she said that while she loved salads and vegetables she didn’t eat them that often because of the time they took to prepare.  So I asked her if there was any goal about this that she felt she could set that was simple, realistic and achievable for her.  She said she could eat a big bowl of salad or vegetables at every lunch and dinner.  

“That would be great, but is that truly realistic?” I asked, and she hesitated.

In the end, she decided to commit to eating at least one serving (between ½ and 1 cup) of vegetables at lunches and dinners for the coming week.  I thought this might still be too much to take on all at once, but she wanted to try it.  By the end of the week, she’d managed to eat vegetables at eleven out of her fourteen lunches and dinners, and had eaten two large salads!  This was a huge accomplishment for her; a big win.  And, she noticed that she had less swelling around her ankles and a bit more energy as well.

For months she focused on only one simple, realistic and achievable goal at a time.  Some weeks she was more successful than others, but taken altogether she’d really made some concrete changes and was feeling the results in her health.  Little by little, she had established a habit of eating at least one serving of vegetables at all of her lunches and dinners, drinking more water each day, choosing baked or broiled foods over fried foods (most of the time), and even going for a 15 minute walk right after lunch before going back to working in the afternoons at her job.  

By this time she was feeling pretty good about herself and was ready to try a goal of giving up one of her favorite problem foods – cookies!  I suggested instead that she find some cookies (either recipes or cookies she could buy pre-made) that didn’t have any of her problem ingredients in them and to limit herself to just one or two max a day.  After all, why give up something you love if you don’t have to?  But she was trying to lose weight and felt that eventually she had to give up desert.  This may be simple, but I’d hardly call it realistic or achievable!  I encouraged her instead to focus on improving her diet by choosing less processed foods and ingredients, eating more vegetables and fruits and finding tasty satisfying substitutes for some of the foods she loved that were contributing to her health problems.  

Each person’s journey to health has different challenges, and in order to be successful in our quest for health and wellbeing we have to work with ourselves the way we are, one doable step at a time.  For some of us this will mean taking a longer more circuitous path, but that’s ok. Every person is different in what they can do.  Each of us must customize our own journey to fit our abilities.  Forget right, wrong, good or bad!  Forget all that, take it one step at a time.  Think “simple, realistic and achievable,” for YOU!

PLEASE LET US KNOW:

Kamala and I are considering starting a support group for those who are struggling with the process of weeding out foods and habits that interfere with their health, and successfully implementing changes.  In addition to addressing specific issues such as how to eliminate cravings, we would provide coaching that would assist you in customizing your approach to making permanent changes that will help you achieve your health goals in a way that works for you.  Please give us your opinion about:

  1. Whether you feel a need and an interest for a dietary support group
  2. What topics you would like to have presented.
  3. How many times per month and how many months you feel such a group should meet to give you the support you need.  
  4. If you would like to meet at a specific location, or by conference call, or both.
  5. How much you can afford to pay for this kind of group support.
  6. If you would like the program to include some personal consultation with Kamala or Carole.

These meetings would last for about an hour.  Our intention would be to have each session stand on its own so that people would get value whether they attended every session, some, or just one.  Please let us know your thoughts about how we can support you, by sending us an e-mail at: kquale@moonandlotus.com