Acupuncture and Me #2

July 11th, 2007

Part Two: Developing my own approach.

As a result of my very unsatisfactory experience at this college, I devised my own approach to acupuncture. I had been frustrated by all the details that seemed to have no organisation. So after one of the outrageous classes I went home and said to myself, “There’s got to be a better way! So what’s acupuncture about?” The answer that came to me was: the channels the fluids and what gets in the way of their working. But what did this mean as far as choosing points and putting in the pins mean? It meant a different approach to choosing points. My approach would be to find what the points were used for and to choose them on this basis.

This meant setting aside many philosophical approaches and most of the currently accepted ways of choosing the points. It was replacing these philosophical approaches with one based on clinical experience. So how could I know I wasn’t just being crazy? I decided to check the major existing texts. I went through the texts noting every acupuncture point they used and what it was used for. I found that they mostly agreed with each other. They all used the same points for the same things. I also found that not even the most extensive texts used anything like all the points. Even, of the points that were used, there were some points that were used very much more often and some This is a huge simplification and meant that if you chose the points on this basis that you would be choosing effective points. I was extremely pleased with this result. My approach checked out with the existing reference books. This had all taken weeks of very intense work and I was quite tired.

From this I wrote up my own approach to acupuncture. It forms the basis of this blog. I was so excited that I had found a quicker and simpler way to teach acupuncture! It was, needless to say, resolutely ignored by almost everyone. Why would colleges want a shorter course? It would mean less money for them. And the associations were pushing for higher qualifications that would take more time to do. No one wanted to know. I find this situation scandalous. (I’m not questioningindividual’s intentions; but this does mean that acupuncture is made less accessible; at the time when we desperately need ways to respond to the crisis in health funding). This situation, once again I emphasise the situation not the individuals, is ethically unacceptable. My response is to make the learning of acupuncture as widely available as possible, as cheaply as possible. That is what this blog is.

To get from what I had written to this blog took a few years. Partly because I was waiting to have illustration done to accompany the text. Partly too because I lacked confidence. And because there wasn’t a way to get this information out widely to lots of people without spending lots of money (I am fairly poor). Since then blogs have come along as a way to get information out to lots of people quite cheaply. I now have a friend doing illustrations for the text and, I have got frustrated enough and angry enough to just do it and see what happens.

This is my story. This blog is an experiment in taking acupuncture to the world. I think we need an acupuncturist in every street – who is at least good enough to treat every day sort of things and who knows to refer for more difficult stuff. And acupuncture can be quick and easy to learn. I invite you to join in the adventure.

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Acupuncture and Me #1

July 11th, 2007

Part One: How I got to study acupuncture.

These are long posts. They explain how I found acupuncture and how I developed my own approach to it.

During my 20’s I worked for a Christian youth and community work organisation called Fusion Australia. Around the end of my time with them I was doing office work and feeling that I wanted to do something with my hands. I started watching TV shows about craftspeople, doing an aerobics class, reading bodywork books and thinking about what a Christian physical spirituality would look like. During this time I enrolled in a Swedish Massage class in a local community college that used a school after hours.

Massage I found really enjoyable. It intrigued massage and other physical activity (like aerobics) made a difference to us. Thinking about this I formulated a question: if aerobics gives us more ability to handle everyday stresses, helps us be more patient – then what physical action would help us develop compassion? At this time I also discovered a body movement system invented by a Japanese christian,Hiroyki Aoki, called Shintaido ( http://www.shintaido-australia.com/).

It was by following my interest in massage that I eventually ended up at acupuncture. From Swedish Massage I tried out other types of massage. One course that was fabulous was run by FrancoisNovi and was called “Massage and Bodywork”. This combined western massage with eastern awareness of moving from our centre. I also tried Deep Tissue massage, eventually deciding that the sort I was taught was too much about enduring pain and so unhealthy. I eventually ended up studying Zen Shiatsu. The results from this were far in advance of what I had found with western massage.

At this point I moved from Sydney to Brisbane. My interests were clearly diverging from Fusion’s (by some people in Fusion they were regarded with suspicion) and I had fallen in love. In Brisbane through a friend I ended up being involved in organising a course inAmma massage. The person teaching the theory content of the course also taught an acupuncture course. His name was Geoff Wilson (http://www.artofhealth.com.au/), who now, like me once again, lives in Sydney.

Geoffrey taught an acupuncture course that had classes twice a week for a year. He had been trained by a Barefoot Doctor and so the course was practical and contained nothing we didn’t need. (This was before the government had started controlling training and the association had started their attempts to control the field.)

After this I studied a government approved course. It took more than twice as long and we didn’t learn as much as I had from Geoff. This was partly because so much that was irrelevant was taught. (There are colleges in Australia where the bulk of the “acupuncture” course is western.) It was also because some of the teaching was so bad. One teacher simply read a textbook out to us (Macioccia’s for those who know about acupuncture textbooks) and this was the course for that term. She did noting else! And we were paying for this! That this should pass for teaching, and that we were expected to pay for it outraged me. There was however one teacher who genuinely cared about teaching, students and acupuncture, Patsy Wilcox. We are still good friends. She runs an acupuncture and qi gong practise in Brisbane.

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yin and yang: physical

July 11th, 2007

One of the major concepts at the foundation of acupuncture is yin and yang.  This concept pervades acupuncture (and the rest of Traditional Chinese Medicine as well as Chinese culture generally).  It is very broad and can be a bit slippery.

The best way to get a handle on what yin and yang means is to experience it.

Lets start with the physical movement.  Other posts will deal with the emotional, mental and spiritual.

A Physical Exercise to Experience Yin and Yang.

Yin is associated with the front of our bodies and going inwards.  Yang is associated with the back of our bodies and going outwards.

Begin standing with your feet under your hips and your knees a little bent (not locked) and your head resting lightly on your shoulders.  Now begin to curl up, eventually (if you are flexible enough) curling into a ball.  If you aren’t terribly flexible just do as much as you can – the important thing is to get the feeling of withdrawing (you can do this by moving very little).

Then begin to uncurl, moving outwards and upwards, eventually with your legs spread and your hands reaching toward the sky or ceiling.

Then gently return to standing with your feet under your hips and your knees a little bent (not locked) and your head resting lightly on your shoulders.  (If you don’t like standing you can do it lying down – though the difference may not be as noticeable).
Do this a few times until you feel the different qualities of going inwards and moving outwards.  This is one part of the experience of yin and yang.

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Online Education

July 10th, 2007

This is a longer than normal post.  It is a review of the only book I have found to deal well with on-line education.  While not of the quality of EricSotto’s When Teaching Becomes Learning on classroom teaching it is still very good.  The book is:

Lessons in Learning, e-Learning and Training: perspectives and guidance for the enlightened trainer by Roger C. Schank. John Wiley and Sons.  2005  280pp+index+xvii

Introduction

This is an easy to read book on the important topic of training and addresses online training in particular.  Roger Schank writes well and uses lots of illustrations (sometimes these are a little forced or stretched).  Many of the chapters end with a section, called “Jump Start Your Thinking” or “Jump Start Your Training” where the question, “So What?” is answered.

It is not a how-to manual,
which would take you through the steps of designing a curriculum, but is about how to approach writing a good curriculum.

Quibbles and Problems
(skip this part if you just want the positives to take from it)

1. There is a particular kind of intellectually nimble yet down to earth style that comes from American academics.  This book is written in that style.  It has its virtues: clear argument, a solid research base and accessible writing.  My only problem is that the tone gets on my nerves after a while.

Part of the agenda is to promote the virtues of his own approach and so is partly a very sophisticated marketing leaflet for his company.

2. It is written for corporations and universities.  If you are a small business person like me and want to use this book it will take some adapting.  We can’t just go out and employ experts as consultants.

3. If this didn’t start out as a collection of pieces it certainly reads like it.  This leads to some repetition and left me wanting something more systematic and detailed at times.

The Big Ideas

1. Never tell anyone anything: people learn by doing.

He tells a nice story about when he fell into this trap and was surprised that the students weren’t able to do what he told them.

There is a major qualification to this rule.  Once someone is an expert then telling them something about their area of expertise is pretty fine.  For beginners it is disastrous.

2. Make the curriculum a story made up of stories.

He calls his approach “story centred curriculum” abbreviated to SCC.

The curriculum as a whole is to be structured as a story which will take the student from where they are to where they are functioning in a new way in their situation (whether workplace, academia or private life).

The curriculum, itself a story, is also effectively a collection of well chosen stories, sequenced to lead people to learn how to do a particular action.  Each of the stories has a point – something that tells how an expert addressed a problem or what to do in a particular situation.

Each story should be chosen to fit a role in the situation that the student will eventually function in.  For example: if the role to be learned is a teaching role then stories from teachers, students and supervisors will be relevant; if a salesperson then stories from other sales people, managers and customers would be included.

3. If it’s not about telling; then its mostly about practise.

This isn’t as true for experts but it is very true for beginners.  People learn by doing and get better by reflecting on their doing and then doing again.  Imagine trying to learn to drive by reading a book!  And there are many areas that are far more complicated than driving a car in which we train people.

This requires not only time.  It also requires structured activities which allow people to learn the component parts of any complex activity and that lets people discover what they are doing – correctly and incorrectly.

Nice Aspects

1. He realises that e-learning (or learning or training) won’t solve every problem for everyone.  He tells some quite pointed and funny stories about what online learning or training in general won’t fix.

2. He does provide the relevant theory that his approach is based on.

This means that you can follow up on stuff that interests you and, if you wish, think about how else this could affect your online education.

3. He does recognise that high quality computer simulations and programs can be incredibly expensive – sometimes even beyond the resources of universities and corporations.

This is a nice touch of realism if you are devising an online education course.  His response, briefly put, is that a story-centred curriculum can be almost as good and far cheaper.

In Summary

  • This is a great book for helping you think about how to start designing an online education course.  It is thorough, readable, stimulating and practical.
  • As long as you aren’t looking for a how-to manual then it is very worthwhile and will reward you with a wealth of insight and should lead to a very high quality piece of online education.

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yin and yang: receptive and creative

July 9th, 2007

One of the meanings of yin and yang is the receptive (yin) and the creative (yang). This is elaborated in great detail in the I Ching.

Here is a simple exercise to experience the receptive and the creative.

With a paper and pencil begin doodling. Don’t try to draw anything, just be interested in how the pencil behaves. The colour of the marks it makes, whether it is soft or scratchy. How the colour of the marks can vary, what happens when the pencil goes over marks that are already there. Just spend time playing with this pencil on this piece of paper.

Now begin to draw a line that you like. (You can be more ambitious and draw a figure if you are experienced but a line is enough). Keep going while ever you like the line. When you stop liking the line stop drawing. This may have flowed easily for you, but don’t be surprised if you find it difficult.

Try doing this a few times alternating receptivity (yin) to the materials of paper and pencil and the making of something with them – a line that you like. This is the yin and yang parts of the creative process. There are other aspects to – receiving inspiration (yin) and making it on the paper (yang) is another part of the process.
Once you are familiar with this process you can examine other aspects of your life from this perspective.

  • Where do you feel comfortable being receptive?
  • Where are you comfortable being active?
  • Are there some people you like just being with?
  • Others you prefer to do things with?

Would you say there are parts of your life where you need more yin or more yang?

If you do find an area where you feel you need more of one of these qualities, then see if there is a complementary area where you need more of the other quality.

Seeing the dynamic of yin and yang in our lives can turn our lives into one long creative act – our life can become a work of art.

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Acupuncture Terminology and Translation

July 6th, 2007

1. Terminology
Whenever people get together to talk about something they develop special words.  Acupuncture is no exception.  Acupuncture has special words (or normal words with special meanings) that you need to understand if you want to talk about acupuncture.

With acupuncture these words are usually easily understood because they talk about our health and experience.  So we can find out what the words mean fairly easily.  There aren’t many words that are very abstract – like you would find when people talk philosophy, or very obscure – like when chemists or physicists get together.

Most of the words in acupuncture refer fairly directly to what we can experience for ourselves. 

There are words like:

  • “qi” which is the experience of energy, or
  • “liver” which means a part of our body and sometimes a kind ofdrivenness (due to the theory about what this part of our body does).

For me this terminology that refers directly to our experience is part of the great genius of acupuncture.  And it makes it far easier to learn – you don’t need to learn a foreign language (like Latin in western medicine) to understand acupuncture.

This means that I am against terminology which moves away from our experience. 

Amongst acupuncturists there is a move to do this – to invent a special medical terminology to replace the simpler language.  I regard this as entirely counter-productive.  It makes acupuncture harder to understand and learn (and we need lots of acupuncturists and don’t need to place anything in their way to stop them learning).  Just one example will have to suffice.  There is a term for a function of  the Lung channel in Chinese Medicine it is “descend and disperse”.  This means that the qi is sent down the body (to the organs below the lungs) and then dispersed to these organs.  The proposed replacement for “descend and disperse” is “depurative downbearing”.  The individuals responsible for this travesty (and other similar ones) are called Wiseman and Ellis.  They have translated Chinese texts in this way and then published a dictionary to the special words they use in their translation.  For me a translation that needs a dictionary to read is no translation!  My preference is for simple words that refer directly to experience.

2. Translation

Acupuncture works much the same for all people everywhere. 

All people everywhere experience roughly the same things and are helped in roughly the same way by acupuncture.  This means that, strictly speaking, translation of the acupuncture terms from Chinese is not necessary.  We could come up with our own words, in whatever language, from how people describe their experience and their experience of acupuncture.  This would take a lot of work and lots of time.  Fortunately this work, over several millenia, has already been put in – by the Chinese.

There is a huge wealth of acupuncture resources still awaiting translation from the Chinese.  In the last few decades this treasure has begun to be unlocked by translators.

We then have the choice about which translations to use.  My own preference – as stated above – is to use words that refer as directly as possible to experience and that are in everyday use.  Anything else makes learning acupuncture more difficult than it need be; and so is to some extent restricting the practise of acupuncture and is indirectly impeding people’s healing.

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Acupuncture’s Philosophy

July 5th, 2007

The philosophy underlying acupuncture is not terribly difficult. 

There are relatively few concepts to be understood.  Their power and usefulness comes from how they refer to key parts of our experience and how these terms are related to each other.

There are two main concepts that underlie acupuncture:
yin and yang, and
the five elements (sometimes called the five phases).
Here I’ll give a brief introduction to each.

1. yin and yang

yin and yang are the complementary opposites that make up the whole.  Any whole can be seen to be made up of yin and yang aspects.  Thus one day is made up of day and night, humanity consists of male and female, a book consists of paper and ink.  The subtlety of this way of thinking is that yin always contains a little yang and yang a hint of yin.  (This is pictured in the diagram of ‘the fish in the circle’, the ‘eyes of the fish’ being the opposite colour to the body of the fish.)  Thus there is some light (yang) at night (yin) and some shadow (yin) during the day (yang); each man (yang) has softness (yin) and each woman (yin) has resoluteness (yang), the ink (yin) contains some of the paper (yang) and the paper (yang) contains the ink (yin).

A good place to begin to understand yin and yang is the chinese characters.

The characters for yin and yang are of the shady and sunny sides of a hill. 

Yang is the sunny side and yin is the shady side.  So yin can mean: cooler, darker, rest.  Yang by contrast is warmer, lighter, active.

These characters are also a reminder that the same side of the hill can be sunny or shady depending on the time of day.  A person is more yin when resting or sleeping and more yang when awake and active. 

In our human experience the terms are usually relative
- something is more or less yin rather than absolutely yin or yang.
(Absolute yang is heaven and absolute yin is earth, while alive we are a mix of these two – the breath and the earth in the biblical image.)

This quickly becomes complex because each quality or part of a person or object can be classified into yin and yang also.  Thus a bodily organ like our heart has its structure (the muscles and so on which are yin) relative to its function (pumping the blood and so on) which is yang.

I hope this gives some idea of how these simple terms can be used in a subtle and diverse way.

2. the five elements

The five elements are:

  • water
  • wood
  • fire
  • earth
  • metal

These elements are used to classify just about anything, the seasons, animals, parts of our body and much else.

These elements can also symbolise the phases in a process of transformation.  Water symbolises the ability to adapt, and stillness.  Wood symbolises growth.  Fire symbolises full development.  Earth ripeness and metal contraction.  The cycle then begins at water once more.

When the elements are used as a classification system.
Different parts of our body are classified according to the elements.  Examples are: our kidneys belong to the water element, our liver to the wood element, our heart to the fire element, our stomach to the earth element and our lungs to the metal element.

These two systems – one a phase in a process and the other a classification of things – are used side by side.  They are somewhat different.  There is no idea that our kidneys will transform into our liver for instance.  However the flow of energy between these parts of our body does follow this cycle.  The kidney energy (something like libido) supports us taking initiative (wood energy) which leads us to activity (fire energy) which may lead to reflection and learning (earth energy) and then finishing with this experience (metal energy).  This is the cycle of nourishment and growth.

There is another cycle into which the elements are arranged, this is the cycle of control.  In this cycle the elements are arranged in the order:

  • water
  • fire
  • metal
  • wood
  • earth

Thus water controls fire, fire melts metal, metal cuts wood, wood holds earth and earth channels water.  Thus our stillness (water energy) stops our activity becoming manic (fire energy), our activity (fire energy) stops our firmness becoming overly rigid (metal energy), staying firm (metal energy) will stop us taking too many initiatives (wood energy), our initiating (wood energy) will stop us getting stuck in reflection (earth energy) and our reflection will guide libido (water energy).

This is only a very brief introduction to this part of acupuncture’s philosophy.  There is a great wealth of material on the elements and how they apply to all aspects of life (food, exercise and interior decoration to name only three).  But I hope this has been enough to give you an idea of how these simple ideas can be used with great subtlety and power.

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yin and yang: rest and activity

July 5th, 2007

Reflecting on Rest and Activity in our Lives.

One aspect of yin and yang is our activity.
Throughout the day we move from rest (yin) to activity (yang).
Firstly there is the move from sleeping to waking.  Then throughout the day we alternate (hopefully) times of rest with times of activity.

  • Take a moment now to think about your day so far.  Reflect on how rest and activity have alternated throughout your day.  Notice how this can occur even in very short amounts of time (such as taking a step).
  • Now take some time to reflect on what assists you to relax and what helps you be active.  Does rest help with activity?  Are you readier to rest after being active?  Are rest and activity related for you?
  • Imagine what a day would be like where you had enough rest and enough activity.

Would it mean short of long bursts or rest and activity?  Would it mean including different things for you?  You could imagine too what it would be like over a
longer time span – a week, a month, a year, or even your whole lifetime.

  • Do you think you need to be more yin or yang?  If you think you need one, will the other make a contribution?  (Will activity help if you need more rest?  Is being well rested needed to support your activity?)

The interplay of rest (yin) and activity (yang) in our lives can be very subtle.  It is a valuable way to examine ourselves and our health.

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Learning Acupuncture

July 4th, 2007

Learning acupuncture can seem daunting.

 There seem to be many details and lots to do all at once.  This is mostly because the courses that teach acupuncture are badly organised (yes, I am in the midst of writing a better one.  That is part of what this blog is about).  This article is about finding your way of learning if you are studying acupuncture somewhere else.

To find your own individual way of learning there is only one way.

That is to remember how you have learned things in the past.  Make a list of ten things you have learned  – a variety is best, (things that took a long while or  were quick, things that were easy or were hard, different areas of your life – sport, friendship, speaking your native language etc).  Examine these things to find out what helped you learn and what didn’t.  Then look for common elements about how you learn best.  You will then have a list describing your own way of learning that you can apply to learning acupuncture.

When I do this I find that what helps me learn best is clear and simple instructions: just do this, just keep doing that.  So with acupuncture I look for the vital skills and concepts.  The details that I use I’ll remember and anything else I can look up.  Others of course are the opposite.  A friend of mine at acupuncture college loved the details – all the ins and outs of the different points were what he loved.  My approach to learning was completely useless for him.

I’d also like to give you some general approaches to learning.  The most useful I have found is three styles of learning:

head,

heart

and hand.

  • Head means ideas and abstractions,
  • heart means people and feelings,
  • hand means moving and doing.

All of these will usually be part of learning.  However each of us usually has a preference.  The more we can use this preference the easier our learning will be.  Because acupuncture has ideas, it is about healing people and the concepts refer directly to our experience it can be learned pretty easily by a person with any of these preferences.

If you are a head person like me it will help to organise the concepts.  My way of doing this is: health, sickness, treatment.  Health consists of the channels (and their organs) and vital fluids, sickness is what interferes with health (the devils and thieves) and treatment is diagnosis, point selection and needle technique.  There are only about 40 ideas you need to know (yin and yang, the five elements, the 12 channels and organs, the six devils, the six thieves, the four examinations plus a few miscellaneous).

Forty can seem like a lot but it is only one idea a week for less than a year.  It can also help to write a brief bit about the idea and stick it up where you see it frequently – above the sink, on the back of the toilet door, wherever.  In this way it becomes part of your life and not something you have to sit down and focus on – it can be a lot easier.

If you are a heart person it will help to learn with and about people.  Talking over the ideas with others can help (as long as you just don’t confuse each other).  It will help to think about how the ideas affect people, how you can use them to understand people, and how you can use them to help people.  You can imagine helping someone reorganise their life or imagine saving someone’s health by using this acupuncture point (or combination of points), you can imagine saving someone’s life with you diagnostic skills.  The more you can practice on people or think of how it affects your friends and people you know the easier it will be for you to learn.

If you are a hand person you will understand by moving and doing.  Unlike much western schooling acupuncture lends itself to this style of learning (though this isn’t understood by those who organise the colleges).  Acupuncture speaks about our experience, of hot, cold, dry etc of qi (that feeling of liveliness) and the organs with their command of the different parts of our lives.

Here are some examples, yin and yang can be experienced by opening and stretching and then curling up.  The five elements pertain to different movements and senses.  In acupuncture even these very abstract parts of the theory refer to our experience.  You can learn the channel pathways by tracing them on yourself and others – there is even a qi gong routine that follows these pathways.  Learning diagnosis and treatment probably won’t be hard for you.

Learning acupuncture can be easy for anyone if they can find their best way of learning.

I hope this has given you some ideas about how learning acupuncture can be easy for you

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Introduction to this Blog.

July 3rd, 2007

Acupuncture – it’s strengths and weaknesses and what I am doing with this blog.

This blog is about acupuncture.  There are some things I obviously can’t do online – like show you how to put in an acupuncture needle.  So this blog is about the theory of acupuncture.

However the best way to learn anything is to experience it.

So, this blog will guide you to experience what acupuncture theory is about.  This means that you will be doing most of the work.  You can read what is here for interest but the full benefit will only be gained by experiencing what acupuncture is all about.

Acupuncture is important.  Acupuncture can make an important contribution to solving our health funding crisis.  This is because the technology (an acupuncture needle) is very cheap.  A big contributor, if not the major cause, of the health funding crisis is the cost of technology (this includes the pills as well as the machines).  Acupuncture widely used could bring down the cost of health care dramatically.  This is a major concern for all of us.

Acupuncture can’t do everything.

Acupuncture grew up in the context of the village, while western medicine grew up on the battlefield.  So the western genius for medicine to my way of thinking is shown in surgery.  Acupuncture (and the rest of Traditional Chinese Medicine) grew up in the village and so it is especially good at the normal everyday problems, the chronic health problems and the problems of aging.  As it happens these problems (chronic health problems and the problems of aging) are the problems that we in our aging societies are going to have to cope with.

Acupuncture also isn’t the way to maintain your health.  Good food and exercise, maintaining the sense that you can make a difference in your own life and having good friends, are the foundation of good health.  Chinese Medicine also has much wisdom to offer on food and movement (qi gong).  Acupuncture’s value is as a therapy when we get sick.  It sits between everyday health and the kind of emergency medicine that is practiced with brilliance in operating theatres throughout the world.

Acupuncture isn’t community health (yet).

The other great gift of the West to health (apart from surgery) is public health.  Sewerage, immunisation and so forth are what has created the longer lives that we wealthy westerners now enjoy.  Acupuncture is practised byindividuals on individuals, it lacks this community dimension.

An advantage of acupuncture is that the emotions are integrated into it.  (This can happen in western medicine but is quite rare.)  To my way of thinking this needs to be altered slightly: it is my opinion (which most acupuncturists disagree with) that the emotions are seen as a problem in acupuncture theory.

So acupuncture is not surgery and its not public health.  Acupuncture is an individualised treatment that excels at treating the everyday, the chronic and the problems of aging.

To address our health funding crisis with acupuncture will mean many, many people practising it.  My contribution is to put out as much information as possible in public so that others can learn and take it up.  That is the purpose of this blog.

Later, if there is demand I will run some courses that will teach acupuncture quickly and effectively.

If you wish to know about a particular aspect of acupuncture theory please let me know.  If I know something of value I will do a post about it, if not I’ll try and find a useful link for you.

This blog is a series of exercises – they guide you to reflect on your experience in the light of acupuncture theory.  So, this blog is mostly a series of instructions and questions – you will be doing the work.  With the limits of theinternet this is all that is possible and I hope you understand and can bear with these limitations.  I will do my best to give clear instructions and ask useful questions.  If you are willing to put in the complementary effort of self-examination you will achieve a whole new way of viewing your health.

My way of speaking of the different aspects of our lives is: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.  This is entirely my own way of speaking.  It does not come in any way from Chinese Medicine.  It is simply the most convenient way I know to pay attention to parts of our experience and not have to talk about everything at once, which can become very complicated (either being very abstract – ‘my self in metal phase’ etc – or very convoluted – ‘when I am angry-blood-flow-increased-focused’).

Wishing you a new world of health as you learn acupuncture.  Evan

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