What do you think about your large intestine? If your answer is “not much,” then you probably have pretty healthy digestion. If you have a strong opinion, it’s likely because you are in health care and know about anatomy and physiology, you are a big one for gut health, or–the least fun option–you have … Continue reading Large Intestine, East and West (Two Perspectives on This Vital Organ)
Are you thinking about your health goals and asking yourself if a health coach could be in your future? What about specializations? You might be wondering about holistic health coaching and how Chinese medicine could factor into the equation. If so, you have come to the right blog post for some answers and maybe … Continue reading Holistic Health Coaching + Chinese Medicine: Two Great Approaches That Go Great Together
“Breathe in… and breathe out… at your own comfortable breath pace. Allow your shoulders to soften and feel your rib cage rise and fall. [Pause] Breathing in and breathing out at your own comfortable breath pace, notice the sensation of your body against the mat. Feel your lungs expand. Follow the sensation of your … Continue reading Your Lungs, East and West (Two Perspectives on This Vital Organ)
Doing the same thing over and over generally tends to result in the same outcome over and over. That’s common sense. But when we are so immersed in our usual same-old, same-old, a couple things happen. One is that we lose our confidence and our ability to make meaningful change diminishes. Another is that … Continue reading Health Coaching for New Beginnings (Change is Good)
It’s getting harder and harder to mark the shift of seasons. Climate change may mean that summer goes on much longer than you expected where you live, or winter seems never-ending and that much more dramatic. But change they do, and my question for you, dear reader, is: are you ready for a new … Continue reading Transitions (Getting Ready For a New Season)
Our bodies are in an ongoing conversation with our minds and vice-versa. Sometimes, we listen and we hear. Other times, one or the other side does not get the message across until some damage has been sustained. As a practitioner of Chinese medicine (CM), I hold that we reflect our environment and our environment … Continue reading Mind and Body: A Conversation
Chinese medicine landed on American soil in the 1970s and a language to narrate it, in response, developed and took root. Fifty, going on sixty, years later, though, things are not the same and the words that once made one kind of sense either no longer do so, or they communicate something that may … Continue reading A Short Dictionary of Terms: The Language of Chinese Medicine
Back when I was writing my book, Chinese Medicine and the Management of Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (Singing Dragon, 2023), I read voraciously… Well, even more voraciously than usual. One area included the review of mind-body wellness narratives from a range of sources, including historical reviews and investigations produced by anthropologists. Medicine, whether allopathic or … Continue reading A Cure Within: An Acupuncturist’s Thoughts on Mind-Body Medicine
The foundation of Chinese medicine is balance. Everything we do seeks to achieve equilibrium in mind, body, and spirit. To achieve this outcome, your practitioner may opt for acupuncture, herbal medicine, nutritional guidance, manual therapy, and/or breath and movement practices in the form of tai chi or qigong. A lesser-known option in this project … Continue reading Magnet Therapy: How It Works, What It Can Do For You (It’s Amazing)
Tui na (pronounced “twee nah”) means “push” and “grasp” and it’s one of those very literal Chinese terms that seems simple but encompasses an entire universe. I love the bare-bones simplicity of this term. Pushing and grasping sounds like something you do when you’re kneading raw material for dumplings, doesn’t it? Chinese language has … Continue reading Push and Grasp: The Magic of Tui Na (Chinese Medical Massage)
