Connect the Dots

The Chinese New Year is here. This year is the year of the Wood Dragon. In the Chinese calendar the next wood dragon year will be in 60 years. In the roman calendar years never repeat...

Conflict in the world creates conflict inside. When you are in one consciousness it is impossible to change to another.

If I find myself arguing in my head - I have no chance of finding quiet outside of me.

I'm aware of the struggle, and I keep trying anyway.

May we all succeed together.

There is only one side in this conflict - the side of peace.

Please share so we can change the paradigm.

Please listen,

Please share,

We can rise and unite.

The Western world is still quite skeptical when it comes to Chinese Medicine. Even Chinese medical practitioners doubt the full power of their own profession. It's ok to try to understand how it works, but sometimes there's an added attitude that goes with that skepticism - or even dismissal of "old" ideas.

What do we "give" when we forgive? What do we get when we forget? These words are unique to the english language - but maybe we can learn something about these concepts.

Some seek acupuncture for pain or a specific illness. In which case the role of both parties are simple - I have pain, you take away my pain.

But pain and illness come from areas the patients are unaware of. The role of the practitioner, therefore, becomes a bit more complex.

Healing is uncomfortable.

When you are comfortable you don't change. Life provides us with interactions that serve as mirrors and can provide insight to the way we act - sometimes we might not like what we see... that is uncomfortable .

מוקדש לעפרה, מהלב.

There might be many reasons to the choices we make in life. We might aspire to live a healthy life. We take advice from experts, listen to opinions and form our own. Are we aware of why we make the choices we make? Can we see our true motivation? and most importantly - is it actually healthy for us?

We think that we gain weight by eating - but we actually gain weight by dieting. This is because the body gets panicked when food is not coming...

Many expect one acupuncture session to resolve the issue they came with right away. When that doesn't happen people might say: I've tried acupuncture, but it doesn’t work.

What should be the expectation? How quickly can an issue be resolved?

Living according to nature sounds like a great idea, until we need to turn on the air-conditioner. Comfort is not always natural... is it making us sick?

Many seek acupuncture to aid with fertility issues. It can definitely help the biological processes in the body, but it can also help with some psychological issues that might be the cause of the challenge to conceive.

Everyone knows this quote. Be the change you want to see in the world. It is important also for our body and for our health. Imagine walking in a peaceful world. Walking in a relaxed manner. There is no threat lurking. This creates a harmonious environment not only in the world - but also in your body.

What happens in our body when we are stressed? Why is there no "healthy stress"?

Our body is not designed to sustain the fear of survival for a long period of time. When it does - it deprived of nutrients and rest.

We all experience stress. Anything from a deadline at work to getting stuck in traffic can make us stressed. But different people stress from different things, so is stress real? If it's real - it should be objective.

The reality is that stress is the relationship we have to events. It's made up, but the effect it has on the body is one of imbalance and disease.

Can we shift this relationship?

Hello everyone.

I am back. I've missed you.

I took a long break to settle in a new place. New places bring about new and also old challenges. Challenges you thought you already dealt with and resolved. But the journey continues, and like a spiral, goes up and up and up, seemingly repeating old patterns just to discover how far we got in our life-long quest for healing.

Journey is a quest, a search. Most times journeys end where they've started... But the traveler is no longer the person who took the first step. This episode is about my personal journey.

"And God said let there be light". The world was created with a word.  

The Words we choose reveal our outlook and attitude about our life, our selves and our bodies. 

The last two Heart Palaces are the Palace of Wisdom and the Palace of Home. These last two teach us that the present moment is free and full of possibilities and that we belong and are loved.  We very often have difficulty accepting the present moment, and wish it would be different.   

The idea of home is the idea of belonging and feeling connected.  

In this episode : the palaces of Travel and Career. 

Travel expands your view beyond your self. It causes you to meet different ways of life. How would you face the challenge of encountering other ways of being? 

And Career introduces the challenge of acquiring knowledge. Do you know all that there is to know?  

We continue our exploration of challenges with the Palace of Children. It is also known as Palace of Creativity. 

Leaving a legacy is something we all want. Creating something that would outlast our physical life and will continue our lineage. It can be children and it can also be a work of art, or something we build or change in the world. But achieving it might be a challenge. 

How do we relate to money, possessions and property. Can we ever have enough? Can we be generous with others?  Can we be in an independent relationship that is not based on need...  

We continue with more "Heart Palaces".  In this episode Wealth, Prosperity and Relationships.  

Life is about growth. In order to grow we need to go through lessons and learn from them.  According to Daoist philosophy there are 9 Palaces - also referred to as Heart Pains - that ones master through out the soul's journey. 

In this episode - the first Palace - Health. 

Blood is a vital substance in the body. It needs to circulate properly around the system. Lack of circulation can cause stagnation and stasis. 

In Chinese medicine stuck blood also means stuck experiences and stuck emotions... how do we make sure it keeps moving?

Since the body, the mind and the Spirit are really one thing, it is impossible to separate the disease from the feelings and emotions that come up in the process of one's illness. In reality, no two people have the same condition exactly for this reason. 

When we are off, or sick we mostly want to get back to "normal". What is normal? Who dictates this "standard"? And if you ended up somewhere, don't you think your "Normal" got you there???

Nature is marvelous. It is here to guide and help us. There is a principle in Chinese Medicine that says that anything in nature that resemble an organ or a part on the body would benefit it. This is the Law of signatures.

Let's talk about identity. How do we know who we are? Are you your name? Are you your gender? Are you your ethnicity, race, or religion? And if we are not all these things, who are we really?

We spoke of Mind Body connection, but the Spirit is also part of the picture. It is said to reside in the body and through issues in the body we can learn about spiritual issues we might face.  

Sometimes after a treatment we start feeling worse. Acupuncture, as part of a healing journey, is meant to move old stagnations. Getting rid of pain sounds like a good idea, but that pain can reveal something you may have forgotten. Now that it was unblocked - are you willing to look at it? You can't just pretend you haven't seen it....  It's a process, and that process is yours. 

We all have closets. Thats where we put anything we don't want to deal with. The body also has closets. There we store any conflict that wasn't resolved. If we fail to resolve a cold or a virus it can hide in the body and become latent. 

It comes out of latency usually - when we are exhausted, stressed or sleep deprived. You know those issues that show up when you are stressed out? they have been there all along....

When we get a treatment we first communicate about what is wrong and what we need help with. Talking is one way of communicating this information.  But the body also gives the practitioner information via the pulse. 

Yes - the pulse at the wrist tells much more than just if you are alive... 

There are rules in nature. And the most ancient rule says that the only constant in nature is Change. Changes happen all the time. But most people don't like change, or might have resistance to change. That clash between what we want and nature causes pain.

Many do not like the idea of Binary when it comes to gender. It seems very limiting, and narrow to only have two ideas of gender roles. 

But everything in nature, every phenomena can only be understood in binary - or rather, through contrast. Check my project ichingofgender.com to explore your binary code of gender presentation. 

We always want to know, how long is it going to take - to get better, to heal?

At times it seem like it is hard, and difficult and long. Why is that? 

Acupuncturists do not like cold things. We don't recommend drinking icy drinks, and juices or eating salads. Why is that?  

Did you ever feel not quite like yourself? Have you had weird obsessions with things that never called your attention before? Those might be signs of a foreign energy that entered your field. In Chinese Medicine we call these ghosts.  

You are perfect, now change.  Well... doesn't this sound weird? Which one is it? Am I perfect or should I change???

Do you feel grounded? Are your feet and ankles align and support your every step?  There are three points located around the ankle that convey the idea of walking firmly on your path. Like all acupuncture points, they have unique names, poetic in nature, that explain this idea.

How do you feel about yourself right now? What do you think about the world right now? Where you stand on these topics shows up in your body as you literal stance - your posture, your gait. Energetically, the way you see yourself in the world is registered in these two channels Yin Qiao, and Yang Qiao, or in english: the Heel vessels. 

Guest House is a name of a point on the Yin Linking channel. The name conveys the idea of this channel. One meaning is reflected beautifully in a Poem by Rumi, with the same name. 

Continuing from last episode, the Yin Linking channel records the responsibilities and roles we assume as we went through cycles of growth. Growth cycles in the body occur naturally every 7 or 8 years. We move from childhood to puberty and from adults to elders. Each of these phases call for a personality shift of sorts. Can we stay true to our "Original Self"?

As we grow and our lives unfold, our body records important information.  

We don't need to learn how to do things twice. Once we learn it, the body remembers how to do it - like riding a bicycle. The channel of energy that recalls and remembers the activities throughout our life is called the Yang Linking channel or Yang Wei Mai in Chinese. 

If a movement is associated with a traumatic event - you might not be able to stop doing that action, until this channel is treated. 

The earliest energies to develop are also the ones that color our view of the world. Any imbalance that may occur early on in life can affect our future relationships. Our own yin and yang deficiencies can attract our exact opposite into a relationship that might end up being co-dependent rather than independent and healthy. 

After the Sea of Yin comes the Sea of Yang. 

The Governing channel helps us move about in the world, and gives us a sense of adventure and the curiosity to explore. This is a natural evolution after being raised with assurance that we are taken care of and everything is provided. 

This energy runs along the spine, this is the Du channel.

The first channel to develop right after birth has the frequency of wholeness, perfection and oneness. This channel is called Ren, that means Humanity. For most of us, the idea of being perfect is something unattainable - no one is perfect. 

But Ren is a channel we all have. We are born perfect. Somehow we just forgot....

There is a plan of you, before you became you. This plan is stored energetically in our body. The catch is, that the plan is unconscious... it's unknown to us. It is for us to explore and unfold. This blueprint is a channel of energy called the Chong. it is part of a set of channels that are our constitution. 

Sometimes we find ourselves stuck in a loop. The same thought keeps repeating in our mind, over and over and over. It can start after an interaction with a person, but long after that person is gone, the irritation lingers. This can have a physical effect on our body. In Chinese Medicine we call that reaction - Heat. 

Not an easy topic. 

Most people choose to avoid pain, numb pain, and really just want to stop the pain. But why is it there? What is pain?