New Year's Newsletter 2010

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

 

IN THIS ISSUE:

 

One More Trip Around the Sun

Happy New Year!  Thank you for sharing your stories and your health care needs with me in 2009.  I look forward to seeing you for your next journey around the sun in 2010, and helping you achieve your goals for health and vitality. 

In this newsletter I will share some secrets I’ve learned for staying healthy in the winter season, and for thriving emotionally and spiritually during this time.  I’ll give you some tips and support for making your 2010 resolutions a reality.

Image of the sun.
 

The winter season, in classical Chinese medicine, is associated with our core vitality, our willpower and the brain, and our kidney/adrenals and low back.  The qualities of the water element are most apparent during this season.  Water in the physical world and in our internal world, is a source of transformation that continually nourishes, supports and evolves life with its flow of nutrients. 

The urge for transformation germinates during winter and manifests in spring.  New Year’s resolutions are a part of that urge for a change and a new direction. I hope the information in the following articles will help your personal transformation this season.  Please consider HeartMind acupuncture in this regard and note the discount on sessions for January and February.

 

Willpower and the Brain

I read an interesting article recently about willpower, the brain, and New Year’s resolutions1.  The ramifications of it were especially interesting to me as a classical Chinese medicine practitioner, because of the correlation to the water element.

As it turns out, the brain has very little physical capacity for willpower in the short run, especially when it has a lot of other tasks to do at the same time. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for willpower. However, this part of the brain also has to keep us focused, handle short-term memory and solve abstract problems.

So if we expect ourselves to make a lot of new changes that demand willpower, and we are also busy remembering to keep things together at home and solving problems at work, we may find we don’t have the mental or physical capacity to follow through with new behavior.

The good news is that studies show that exercising willpower by practicing one thing over time yields much better results.  So rather than having several resolutions that you try to implement on January 1st, you’ll be more successful if you focus on one at a time, and do it consistently for a while. You’ll also have better results if your brain has enough energy to do what you want.

A tired brain, or a calorie starved brain, is going to sap your willpower. It needs rest and proper nourishment to have the energy to function at its best.  This is true for all of your muscles and organ systems.  So follow nature’s example during the winter and rest.  Relax your thinking mind as well as your body at regular intervals. 

When the mind is quiet it can reflect on internal priorities.  What is your most important resolution and what is its deeper meaning for you?

For example, the desire to loose weight may be coming from an urge to move away from excess, and get to what is essential and vital for you.  The intention to calm your temper may be a call to let go of reactivity and learn to access a part of yourself that can respond from a place of centeredness within.  The desire to decrease anxiety may take you to a place of spirit within that gives you the trust and courage you need to move forward.

HeartMind acupuncture can greatly assist you in this endeavor.  In a HeartMind acupuncture session you receive the relaxing and pain relieving properties of acupuncture, as well as engage in compassionate inner listening and focusing that addresses your wholeness in the healing journey. 

Acupuncture gives your brain and energy system a tune up.  It helps decrease anxiety and addictive urges.  It helps you rest, renew and heal. 

Acupuncture coupled with compassionate self reflection balances the emotions, and helps you forgive yourself when you get off track.  When you quiet the mental noise and take the time to be present, clarity percolates to the surface.  This is perhaps the biggest secret to physical, mental and spiritual health, and the key to preventive healthcare.

I am offering a discount on four HeartMind sessions for the months of January and February to help you do just that.  Come in and support your efforts for transformation in your life.  We will tune up your physical systems and explore mental/emotional issues that may get in your way. 

I will suggest and help you practice qigong and other visualizations that can take you to the soul’s intuition.  When insights come from a place that “feels right” inside, it helps you stay on track when old patterns want to reassert themselves.
 
1“Blame it on the Brain,” by Jonah Lehrer.

 

Winter Special 15% off HeartMind acupuncture
And acupuncture and nutritional coaching!

New Year’s Special Health Packages, for those paying out-of-pocket.
Mention this offer when you make your appointments.

Save 15%
HeartMind Acupuncture:  Four sessions, $289. Good through February, 2010.

Save 15%
Acupuncture and Nutritional Coaching:  Six sessions, $432.  Good through June 2010

For those who have insurance for acupuncture, ask us about coverage.  We will take 15% off of your co-pay if we can bill for the entire session.

 

REST?  I DON’T HAVE TIME!!!

By Kamala Quale, LAc

One of the biggest obstacles to resting and renewing our energy during the winter is our busy schedules.  Our brain and body need energy to restore and heal.  Here are a few of the stories I’ve heard this winter about physical symptoms that show up when we ignore this seasonal guideline. 

“I’ve been feeling so much fatigue lately.  After about 2pm at work I’m done for the rest of the day.  Then I come home and try to do my share of the housework, and be a good wife and mother.”

“I’m stressed because I’ve got this project at work that is overwhelming.  I think about it all the time, so it’s hard to be present in my relationship.  I’ve been getting headaches frequently and I feel a lot of tension across my shoulders.  Finally I made a list of the 27 things that have to be done so I don’t have to keep it in my head and that was better.”

“I’ve been so busy with work and school that I haven’t been exercising, and I can’t take any time off.  I know it’s not good for me, and my digestive symptoms have been a lot worse.”

“My back is really hurting.”  I walked around at the mall for hours trying to get my holiday shopping done.  I still don’t know what I’m going to get for my granddaughters.  They seem to have everything.”

Each person felt inner pressure that drove them past their physical limits.  No one felt satisfied with her/his situation.  The good news is that when they took the time to relax and reflect during their HeartMind acupuncture session, a solution arose.

For the first person it was having an honest conversation with her husband about her fears of keeping up her usual activities around the house when she is too tired.  For the second person, it was deciding to take at least 10 minutes a day to do something that felt personally satisfying, like playing the piano. 

The third person liked the idea of taking little personal vacations each day.  It maybe a walk with a friend, it might be a few minutes to do some conscious breathing, and it was the permission she gave herself to include time for her in the day.

The fourth person realized that she felt out of touch with her granddaughter, who lives in another state. She wanted to give her something of personal value that she would remember and use.  The increased pain in her back and the emotional pain about her granddaughter were linked. 

After acupuncture and self reflection, her back felt better and she had more clarity. She decided that next year she would start early and make her something.  She realized that she had to pace herself and rest at regular intervals. “I also have to come in here regularly because it helps me so much.”

These are all examples of small changes that can have a big impact on pain relief, increased energy and happiness. 

As we learned in “Willpower and the Brain,” we are more successful when we exercise willpower by spreading a new behavior out over the year.  Use acupuncture to help you. It is well known that acupuncture increases relaxation, and relieves pain and inflammation. 

It is less known that acupuncture improves emotional balance and helps you feel more secure by strengthening willpower, decision making, and connection to self and spirit.

 

WHO HAS YOUR BACK?

Embody Ideas To Relieve Pain

The saying, “Do you have my back?” is a request for support.  When someone says, “I’ve got your back” or “She has my back,” it implies camaraderie and protection.  Variations on this phrase were used by two of my clients in the same week. 

In each case the person was suffering from back tension and pain. This got my attention.  Our physical back supports us to stand upright, and we brace ourselves from physical and emotional pain by tightening there.

It is important to note that people often use phrases like, “That weighs heavy on me,” or “I feel stuck,” to express an emotional issue that also reflects a physical condition.

Making these phrases a “felt experience” in the body is a way to relieve pain; both physical pain and the emotional need that underlies it.

The following two stories show how we can embody ideas to get out of our head and into our experience. They demonstrate how we can meet our own needs for support by connecting with our bodies, and finding an inner resource that leads to wholeness. Often the support or love we want from others, is the very thing we need to give ourselves.

My first client described her back pain as a problem to be solved. She has tried many things to heal it, including surgery.  She was frustrated that it kept her from doing what she wanted to do. 

How does she carry herself that reflects this problem relationship?  She pulls her shoulders up, and holds her whole back very tightly.  She described her back muscles as carrying anger and containment.

Almost immediately after focusing on her back tension, my client told me about a recent event involving her niece, saying her niece “didn’t have her back.”  I was struck by her use of the phrase in this context, and asked her about it.  She said her niece didn’t think about her welfare or care for her. 

She had hoped that her niece would have been more supportive and felt abandoned by her. The angry feelings she had about this incident were reflected in her back muscles.

Because of her back pain and the emotional need she had for support, I wanted to help her find a new way to meet that need and relieve the pain. After she got on the table, I placed acupuncture needles in points that relieve back pain and ease anger.  Then we did a mindfulness experiment.

I asked her to imagine that I was her back speaking to her personally.  I asked her to listen as I repeated the phrases, “You don’t have me,” and “I need you to have me.”

At first she felt a little sad, then her shoulders relaxed and her back tension melted.  She was able to feel compassionate towards her back and herself.  It helped her access the great capacity she has to love herself and others.  After I had removed the needles, I asked her to walk around the office feeling that she “had” her back. 

Her walk had much more movement, her shoulders were relaxed and she was smiling.  In subsequent sessions, she told me that she had been repeating that phrase over and over again and relaxing her back. 

“I realize that healing my back is not just physical.  I must be honest with myself about how I feel.  When I feel inadequate, guilty, or less than, I repeat the phrase, I have my back, and soften up on myself physically and mentally.”

This little individualized practice had become an internal resource.
 
The second person came in saying that he sensed that his chronic neck and shoulder pain was connected to his low back and lumbar area.  After I placed needles to address his back and neck, I asked him to send his breath and his mind to his back to feel into it and talk to it. 

I suggested he ask his back what it needed today, and left him to relax and reflect. When I returned he was much more relaxed and comfortable in his body.  He told me that he had used a meditative technique he had been practicing with his breath.

When he inhales he says to himself, “breathe” or “breathe in.” Before he exhales he says “hold” or “hold it.” When he exhales he says “let go.” Before the next inhale he says “rest.”  When he focused his mind and his breath on his back, the words “hold it” changed to “hold you,” and “holding you.”

He said it was like holding his back with support and affection.  “The words that came to mind were, “I’ve got my back.” and “I’m there for you.” “Since my back is always holding me up, it was natural to be returning the favor, so to speak, even if only in my mind and imagination.”

So the next time you want to relieve back tension or pain, get a sense of what it would take to “have your back.”

Listen to any words or ideas that come up for you and make them a felt experience in your body for healing.

 

ACUPUNCTURE IN THE NEWS

On December 28th in the Oregon Life section, the Register Guard ran a great article on the healing effects of acupuncture for peaceful sleep, relief from arthritis, squelching pain, and reducing the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation. The article was written by the You Docs, Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz from the Wellness Institute at the Cleveland Clinic and the Heart Institute at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Daniel C. Cherkin, Ph.D., from the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle, wrote an article about acupuncture and the relief of back pain that was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. In an 8 week study, 60% of people who received acupuncture for back pain reported signs of improvement vs. 39% who received conventional treatment.

 

TIPS FOR SELF CARE

Six Secrets for Staying Healthy this Winter.

The following recommendations come from the 16th century Chinese poet and medical scholar, Gao Lian, fl.1575.

Original article translated by Heiner Fruehauf, Ph.D., Lac

  1. During the three months of winter, heaven and earth shut down and go into a state of storage. Therefore, go to bed early, and get up only after the warming rays of the sun have appeared in the morning.  At night, do not immediately collapse into bed, but settle down with leisure.

  2. Wear padded winter clothes during the coldest time, but add them gradually and not all at once; stop increasing the layers just when you have added enough to not feel cold anymore.

  3. Do not be daring and expose yourself to cold wind, especially if you are old, because winter poses an increased risk of catching cold and coughing.  Do not go outside at an early hour, or you will be danger of being assaulted by frost.

  4. Seek warmth and stay in a well sealed dwelling, but do not warm yourself in front of a roaring fire.  This may cause inner restlessness.

  5. Make sure your food intake is regulated. Decrease salty foods and increase bitter ones.  This brings balance to the kidneys (which are associated with the winter season and are affected by salt) and the heart (which is associated with the summer season and affected by heat and inner restlessness).

    (The bitter taste is found in raw cocoa, mate tea, bitter melon, marmalade, olives, citrus peel, cabbage, arugala, mustard greens and brussel sprouts.  We are not as used to bitter foods, which can be made more palatable with a little salt and olive oil.  Bitter foods have been shown to prevent disease).

  6. Drink warm tea every day that contains tonic herbs, such as dioscorea, or Chinese yam, to protect the yang qi (inner vitality). (Dioscorea helps digestion and supports the energy of the lungs and kidneys.  Ask me about getting some to make into tea this winter.)

 

TIPS FOR MEDITATION

The winter season is associated with the water element in classical Chinese medicine.  Water is yin in nature. Its complementary and polar opposite is fire, which is yang in nature and is associated with summer.  Fire is the light in the darkness of winter.  This article suggests using your fireplace to practice the art of inward reflection, which is so important in the winter season.  If you do not have a fireplace, make your own place of light with candles. 

Fireplaces - The Art of Reflection

By Mike M Johnson

Fireplaces during the long winter months provide a function beyond the practicality of providing warmth; staring into the flickering flames offers a rare chance to reflect and think. In today's world, we are used to filling our rooms with noise and distraction. We don't give ourselves the chance to sit and quietly reflect: fireplaces provide the right environment to do just that.

Fireplaces - Fight the Winter Blues

Increasingly, people are suffering from seasonal affective disorder (SAD) as the winter months last longer and longer. The dark, cold days can impact heavily on your mood as the days get shorter. Fireplaces are a great way to counteract SAD. Fireplaces make us feel cozy, comfortable and instinctively at peace.

A fireplace, good friends and good food are enough to turn your home into a haven of comfort and pleasure during the long winter months. Warm and inviting fireplaces can transform a room into a welcoming retreat, to battle the worst of the winter chills.

Fireplaces literally light up a room.

Fireplaces - The Advantages of Idleness

And a comfortable armchair in front of a fireplace is the perfect way to encourage the art of doing nothing. Tom Hodgkinson is an advocate of idleness - he has written a book on the art of being idle. Fireplaces are one way of introducing reflection into your life.

Reflection and inner stillness can help us sift through our thoughts and troubles, think through life's challenges, daydream, relax and generally create a sense of calm and clarity. And if you follow Hodgkinson's advice, the perfect way to achieve a state of idleness is to go for a walk, followed by a comfortable chair by the fireplace.

Walking, Hodgkinson says, creates harmony. We walk through our troubles alone, or generate the time and space for good conversations in company. After a long walk on a winter's day, sitting by our fireplaces with a glass of wine or hot chocolate in hand is the perfect end to a day of reflection. And by shunning the fast-paced demands of modern life, Hodgkinson believes, is a powerful act of defiance against our over-worked culture.

Fireplaces give your mind space to ponder - watching the flames flicker induces reflection and thought. Whether you are pondering poetry, remembering a loved one, or just letting your thoughts drift, fireplaces can be good for the mind, body and soul.

Mike K Johnson, managing director of Aztec Fireplaces Limited - trading as English Fireplaces - is an experienced businessman and entrepreneur. He bought English Fireplaces in December 2006 determined to establish a high quality service focused competitor to the brand leaders in the fireplace industry.

English Fireplaces, Unit 6, The Brows Industrial Estate, Liss, Hampshire, GU33 6JG Telephone: 01730 890218

http://www.englishfireplaces.co.uk
info@englishfireplaces.co.uk
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_M_Johnson

 

FOOD SENSITIVITY TESTING and YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION

If you want to loose weight and improve your health in 2010, food sensitivity testing can be a great help.  It gives you a list of foods you can eat, and those to avoid.  This concrete guide can help you realign your eating habits.  We recommend that you follow the test with a six week elimination period.  After that, foods you tested sensitive to can be reintroduced one at a time to find the biggest offenders.

For people who want to support their diet changes with help from acupuncture and nutritional coaching, I am offering a discount on six acupuncture and coaching sessions as a follow up to testing.  You will come in once a week during your elimination period. 

We will use acupuncture to support your energy, relieve physical symptoms and cravings, and balance your emotions.  Part of each session will be devoted to talking about your diet changes, suggesting substitutions and recipes to keep it interesting, and working with any problems or emotional issues that may arise.

This year we are scheduling food sensitivity testing, with Dr. Carole Warner, when we have the demand.  Next testing date: Friday, February 12, 2010.  Please call the office, 541-345-2220, or respond by email to kquale@moonandlotus.com if you want to schedule an appointment.  For more information go here.

 

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