Freedom for the Soul

Instead of Nov. 24th as the support group start date we’ll begin meeting on Saturday, Nov. 17th. Forgot about Thanksgiving…

Filed under: 5 Element medicine, Cleansing on November 5th, 2007 | No Comments »

Beginning Saturday, November 24th, I’m offering a FREE cleansing support group!

What inspired this, you ask? Recently I decided that I myself need another round of parasite cleansing and a serious ongoing maintenance routine, because we all pick up stuff all of the time without knowing it. I also decided that I want to do some kidney cleansing in the winter and liver and gallbladder cleansing in the spring. As I was getting excited about this I realized how great it would be if my patients who are interested did the cleanses along with me. And the cleansing support group was born.

I expect that during the fall parasite cleanse we’ll meet once a week for 3-4 weeks. At our first meeting I’ll outline what the cleanse entails, and you can purchase your materials then (or beforehand on the web if you wish). Then we’ll begin the cleanse as close to “together” as schedules allow, and we’ll meet as needed along the way.

I’m so excited about this! I’ll be sure to post more about the cleanse as we get closer. If you want to participate, please email me. Even if you don’t live in the Athens area, we may be able to arrange for you to meet with us via phone. Don’t hesitate to join us if you’re interested.

Have a great weekend! Love.

Filed under: 5 Element medicine, Cleansing on October 27th, 2007 | 1 Comment »

Well, it took me a little longer than I thought to post this update. Here’s how to give yourself an abdominal massage, which is a great way to support your health.

First, let me begin by saying that there are perhaps a dozen or more systems of abdominal diagnosis/palpation in existence. I’m presenting the one that seems most appropriate for you to use on yourself at home. If you feel the need to consult with a licensed practitioner about anything you experience during self-abdominal palpation, feel free to contact me and schedule an appointment.

Step-By-Step Instructions

1. Begin by breathing deeply into your lower belly. First, place your hand on your lower abdomen, beneath your navel. Your goal is to gently, without “trying”, move your hand up as you inhale. Continue breathing deeply in this way until you feel very relaxed and at ease.
   Most of us, when we take a deep breath, breathe only into our chests/diaphragms. But have you ever watched an infant breathe? If you watch an infant breathe you will see the area below the navel inflate first. Next, the diaphragm inflates, and lastly, the chest inflates. The breath is exhaled in the opposite order - chest first, diaphragm second, lower abdomen third. This is how we all breathed when we were born, but somewhere along the way we stopped. Why did we stop breathing from our lower bellies? As young children we felt many, many emotions, and not all of them were ours. When we encountered difficult, scary, or painful emotions at times it was difficult for us to be present with them. So we suppressed them, and they often ended up in our lower abdomens. I’m sure you can see where I’m going here…breath is life. When we breathe into an area of our body we are present with it, we feel it. So once we began putting emotions in our lower abdomens we stopped breathing there to avoid feeling them. As you begin to breathe deeply into your lower abdomen today you may begin to experience emotions, memories, belief systems from the past or present. Just stay with them as they come up - keep breathing - and they will finally receive your presence, which is what they need to complete themselves. Once you breathe through them they may be fully processed, and have no need to linger with you any longer. Woohoo!

2. Now that you’re relaxed, begin by gently touching the area above your navel. Notice the texture and temperature of the skin. Notice how the area feels. Does it feel alive, very alive, or just barely alive? If you’re not sure about any of this, it’s okay, for now just try.

3. Begin to press down, about an inch into your abdomen, as you exhale.
   If you feel a strong resistance, notice it. If you feel emptiness under your fingers, notice it. Either way, breathe into whatever you feel, and stay as present as you can.
   Release your pressure as you inhale.
   So as your belly relaxes during the exhale, your hand presses into your abdomen.
   As your belly rises during your inhale, your hand rises with it,
   holding the intention that any unhealthy energy be released as you do so. Do not press with force, and try to be patient with yourself. This is an exercise in self-love - touch your abdomen as you would touch the person most beloved to you. Never try to press through a spot that feels hard, or force a spot to relax. Gentleness and deep breathing are the keys to the releases you experience.

1. Now, use the image above as your guide.
   Traveling along the midline (the vertical line that splits your abdomen into 2 equal left and right halves),
   palpate down from the area below your breastplate all the way down to the top border of your pubic bone (usually this is below the top border of pubic hair).
   DO NOT PALPATE YOUR NAVEL! It’s just too sensitive, so just go to the rim on all sides.

2. Great job! Okay now go back up to the area under the breastplate, below your ribs.
   Place your hand about 1-2 inches to the LEFT of the midline, depending on your size.
   Palpate from here all the way down to the top border of the pubic bone.

3. Now go back up to the area under the ribs about 3-4 inches to the LEFT of the midline, depending upon your size. Palpate from here all the way down to the top border of the pubic bone.

4. Go back up to the area under the ribs one last time, about 5-6 inches to the LEFT of the midline, depending upon your size. Palpate from here all the way down to the top border of the pubic bone.

5. Okay, now go back up to the area under the breastplate, below your ribs.

6. Place your hand about 1-2 inches to the RIGHT of the midline, depending on your size.
   Palpate from here all the way down to the top border of the pubic bone.

7. Now go back up to the area under the ribs about 3-4 inches to the RIGHT of the midline, depending upon your size. Palpate from here all the way down to the top border of the pubic bone.

8. Go back up to the area under the ribs one last time, about 5-6 inches to the RIGHT of the midline, depending upon your size. Palpate from here all the way down to the top border of the pubic bone.

9. Now, palpate under your LEFT ribcage, working from the midline out to your left side.

10. Palpate under your RIGHT ribcage, working from the midline out to your right side.

11. Palpate from just above your LEFT hip bone (right above where it protrudes out in front of your body),
    down to the top of the pubic bone,
    across the top border of the pubic bone
    to just above your RIGHT hip bone.

Notes:

• It’s recommended that you do this routine once a day. I know that it sounds complicated now as you’re first reading it, but trust me, within a day or two you’ll have it down. Then, after you do this you can focus on particular areas of concern that you’ve found.
• It’s considered a good sign if your abdominal muscles relax as you’re working, creating equal tension between the right and left sides.
• If you find tense, tight, loose and/or tender tissue, palpate it again to confirm what you felt.
• If you find a lump, don’t press on it. Instead, work the areas around its edges. If one of the edges hurts significantly, work that until it’s released. Then you’ll probably find the lump significantly reduced. Most abdominal lumps are tense muscle tissue.
• Everything you feel is diagnostic, so if you find tension or emptiness in an area it does have significance. However, you do not have to know what it means in order to work with it and heal it. If you find an area that you can feel is really off, work with it until it’s better. Track its progress over the course of days or weeks, and I’m sure you’ll find it improves.

Well, those are the basics on abdominal palpation. If you have any questions, please leave a comment so that everyone can benefit. I pray that you have a blessed evening and a wonderful week. Take care.

Filed under: Chinese medicine, Acupuncture on September 25th, 2007 | 4 Comments »

Abdominal palpation provides a highly effective and fascinating way to diagnose and treat imbalance in Chinese medicine. It has a rich tradition in both Chinese and Japanese acupuncture (and probably Korean, as well), and there are practitioners today who use it with great success.

Unfortunately, most practitioners today do not use abdominal palpation. Recently, I have become reinvigorated with a love and deep respect for this ancient tradition, and I have been using it on everyone who comes in to my office. So far the results have been superb, beyond what I expected, and I am absolutely thrilled.

So what is abdominal palpation? It is, simply put, pressing gently into the upper and lower abdomen (sometimes extending into the chest) to see if there are spots of irregularity. Things I look for include:

• Overall temperature, skin texture and health, muscle tone and health and general level of vitality
• Temperature hot and cold spots
• Hard spots
• Empty spots
• Lumps
• Pulsing/Throbbing spots
• Distended spots
• Painful spots (and if/where they radiate to or from)
• And more

Beyond the sheer beauty of seeing how something so simple can be so powerful, I love this modality because it provides a way for you to care for yourself between treatments. I’ve been asking patients to practice it on themselves daily, and the results have been spectacular. After all, how often do you touch your own abdomen with the intention to heal and give love? And who touches your abdomen for you in this way? Everyone I’ve asked has said, “No one has ever touched my abdomen, not even me, with a loving heart and the intention of healing.”

The abdomen/chest houses all of your major organs. It is the center of your body, the center of your vitality, and from it flows blood, nutrients and more. Wouldn’t it be great if you knew a tool to care for your abdomen and your health, so that you weren’t as dependent upon doctors and practitioners?

Personally, I am totally into self-care. I feel that no one is responsible for my health except for me. It’s my job to make sure I’m getting what I need, not my doctor’s or my acupuncturist’s, or anyone else. Abdominal work gives us a way to work on ourselves every single day, and further our health, without any other intervention. Try it yourself and see!

I’m about to see another patient, so I have to go, but later tonight or tomorrow I will post detailed instructions on how to use abdominal palpation on yourself! All my love to you.

Filed under: 5 Element medicine, Acupuncture on September 18th, 2007 | 1 Comment »

Wow, I just started reading an aromatherapy book, Aromatherapy for Healing the Spirit by Gabriel Mojay, and I love it! It’s written by a five element acupuncturist who understands archetypal resonance medicine. The information he provides is exactly the type of information I use to diagnose and treat people - and that’s why I’m so excited. It’s quite rare to find books that teach this way.

You may be wondering what archetypal resonance medicine is. Let me give you an example:

You come in to see me and your main issue is that you have a fairly constant low-grade backache that flares up at times (especially when you’re tired). After talking with you I can tell that you’re generally overwhelmed and you’re scrambling just to keep the everyday aspects of your life from falling apart. You often feel scattered, and you’re aware there are a million things you should be doing, but you don’t have the energy or time to tackle them. You are somewhat in denial of this pattern, because it’s difficult to face the fear beneath the overwhelm. What if you can’t get it all done? What if everything falls apart? And the feelings of doom and despair pervade the air as you reluctantly reveal your secret. You grew up dreading the future, and now that it’s here you feel as if you’re always one step away from failure. You try to have faith in yourself, in the world, in God, but it’s hard to know that it will all be O.K. in the end.

The picture I just painted is an archetype - a personality profile. It’s a modus operandi, a habitual way of being that probably developed as a coping mechanism. The backache is just one aspect of that archetype - and it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The resonance aspect of 5 element medicine is simply this: from physics we know that every single thing is constantly vibrating. As a living, sentient being you are constantly changing the frequency at which you vibrate. Your moods change your frequency, as do subconscious physical realities you embody. Resonance is our ability and tendency to vibrate with the dominant frequency surrounding us. This is like when you’re in a bad mood, and then an uplifting song comes on the radio and you start to feel better. It’s because you began resonating with the frequency of the song, and the song had a happier, more loving, more peaceful, etc. frequency.

The five element practitioner’s job is to determine which of the 5 elements, or frequencies, you resonate with most frequently, often subconsciously. Then, the practitioner’s goal is to transmit the exact vibration you need for healing in every moment she/he is with you. It’s her/his job to be that uplifting/healing/peaceful/energizing, etc. song on the radio so that you can remember who you really are, who you are meant to be, and resonate with your highest potential. In that way you become your highest potential, because the more often you resonate with it, the more you become it.To this end the healer uses words, touch, acupuncture points, herbal formulas, aromas, and every other tool in her/his arsenal. It’s a beautiful way to give and to live, and I’m very grateful that I’ve been shown this way. It’s a true privilege and gift to be with people and let the healing flow through. It heals me, too, as it comes through to you. Life is good, God is good.

Have a beautiful night, and take an opportunity to feel the love and peace all around you. Much love to you.

Filed under: 5 Element medicine, Resonance medicine, Aromatherapy on September 12th, 2007 | 1 Comment »

Happy Tuesday. I’m re-reading A Cure for All Diseases by Hulda Clark, which, as always, is thought-provoking. For me, it also creates a bit of paranoia. Her basic premise is that all disease stems from parasites and/or pollution (not just air/noise/water/food pollution but toxic chemicals that surround us in our daily lives). When you really think about what she says, there is absolutely nothing the average person encounters in daily life that isn’t toxic.

While I feel there is a lot of truth in what she writes, at the same time I can become a little, shall we say, overconcerned about every possible substance I interact with. Have you read this book? What are your thoughts on it?

In acupuncture school I studied J.R. Worsley’s curricula of five element acupuncture based upon his apprenticeship with Japanese acupuncture masters. While that acupuncture style is the foundation for my thinking, I am always interested in learning more about my craft. Lately I’ve been studying and integrating other aspects of Japanese five element acupuncture into my treatments, and I love it!

One new way of treating that really inspires me are treatments based upon circadian rhythms. There is a way to calculate which acupuncture points are most open on your body at any given time, day or night. Treating points when they’re the most naturally open is a powerful way to achieve dramatic healing because you’re swimming with the tide, not parallel to it or against it.

I’ve been using these points on everyone I’ve treated for the two weeks or so, and I have seen some incredible results. I feel so awed when I can directly observe our connection to our natural world in such a powerful way. Truly, I feel blessed that these treatments are part of my practice and my life.

Have a wonderful day! I’ll see you soon, God willing.

Filed under: Nutrition, Acupuncture on September 11th, 2007 | 5 Comments »

Welcome to my blog! Its purpose is to communicate with you on topics concerning acupuncture, Chinese herbs, cupping, moxabustion, nutrition, healing, spirituality, etc. that I personally find fascinating, but my husband is tired of hearing about.

It’s true…the poor man, you just have to feel for him. I am often studying and integrating new techniques into my practice, and he’s my main sounding board. So, since these new insights affect you, the patient (or prospective patient), most I decided to share a little more about them with you.

My first “real” entry is to follow. Take care.

Filed under: Uncategorized on September 10th, 2007 | No Comments »