2′ and Still Snowing!!!

While I’m stuck here in my woodland, winter, wonderland, watching the snow pile higher – snow on snow on snow – I’ll write a snow-blog!

I’ve been writing about how it really is already spring according to the Chinese, and  it is really hard to believe that at the moment.   I also know that “looks can be deceiving!”  Spring is the energy of new life, new beginnings, and a vision for what is possible.  “Gate of Hope”, and “Bright and Clear”, and “Wilderness Mound” are points on the Liver and Gallbladder meridians,  pathways that carry the Chi in the body representing  the Wood element and spring.  What beautiful images those names create, giving us hope, clarity, and a place on which to stand from which to gain perspective on our surroundings.

The snow right now is at least two feet and another six inches is expected over the course of the day.  I am at the bottom of a 300′ road where no plow has been. Even when the plow does come, I will have much snow to shovel.  I am aware of how little control I have over any of this, and how Mother Nature really is in charge! 

This, actually, is a metaphor for life, is it not? Perhaps this is a time for reflection on other ways in which this same lesson from nature manifests itself.  Don’t we sometimes find ourselves in situations over which we seemingly have no control, feel stuck, see no way out, and where our own strength seems to have run out?  Sometimes we find ourselves saying, “It’s hopeless,” or “I can’t deal with this,” or “There’s nothing I can do?”  Do these thoughts or statements open life up or shut it down?

Just like we know the spring will show itself again, it might be helpful to look at any situation in our lives the same way. The older we become, the more perspective we have on how life does change, and even young people can look back and see how even the tightest spot, the worst grief, the biggest loss, and, yes, even the happiest moments, transform into something new.  The platitude that “This too shall pass” is absolutely true.  The sun will shine again, just as surely as it will rain; the same sun we long for will create a drought from which rain will be a blessed relief; a relationship ends and, surely, another one will appear; one person dies and another new life begins.  The cycle of life continues. How we choose to look at it will open life up for us, or shut it down. 

We can be dismayed over being snowed  in, and wondering how we’ll dig our way out, or we can see it as an opportunity for play or time to be quiet and reflective inside.  Life shut down, or life opened up.  May life open itself with all its beauty and wonder during this 2010 blizzard!

The Chinese New Year and Why New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Work!

The Chinese New Year begins on February 14 in this year of 2010.  The New Year is not a fixed date on the calendar, like our January 1, but varies according to the lunar calendar. This year is the Year of the Tiger.  Check out this link to read about tigers and their significance: http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/2010ChineseHoroscope.htm. 

For the Chinese, the new year is the beginning of Spring!  The date can fall anywhere from late January to early February, so, take heart, those of you who think Spring won’t arrive until March 20 – it’s already here!

The spring season in China, is the season of the Wood element, the time of year when, after a long winter’s rest and deep quiet, the hibernating creatures are ready to spring forth from their caves; begin, once more, the hunt for food and keeping up with their young. The creatures of the human sort are full of energy for new ideas, plans, visions of what the year will bring. The Wood is about long-term vision, goals, stretching our minds to embrace what life has in store for us and stretching our muscles and tendons to enable flexibility in our lives.

Here in the west, we have a custom of making new year’s resolutions…things we would like to accomplish, projects we would like to tackle, plans for improving our lifestyle.  For many of us, they fail miserably around March when our efforts peter out.  Our gyms are filled to capacity beginning on Jan. 2, and our weight loss clinics have lines out the door. But soon the elipticals and treadmills stand idle, and the chairs in the weight loss programs are emptier again.  Why is this so predictable?

When the new year arrives on January 1, in the west, we are in the dead of winter. If we live by the laws of nature, of which we are just as much a part as the birds, bears and vegetation, winter is the time for deep rest and renewal…hibernation! It is a time of being rather than doing.  We need this time of quiet and rest to renew ourselves for the active seasons ahead. When we try to take on new regimes, make big changes, begin new projects, we are maybe just not ready.  Our bodies want more sleep, our minds want to be still.

The Chinese new year, on the other hand, is the perfect time to take a new direction.  Life is reawakening, the sun rises a bit earlier in the sky, and goes to bed a little later…we have more available light to work by. We can almost feel the quickening of new energy in our bodies, and the hopefulness in our hearts that the beginning of another cycle brings. What could be more supportive in nature than the bursting forth of new life all around us?  The excitement of this movement pushes us into activity, and we are bound to have the best chance to accomplish new goals at this time of year!

So, now when someone asks you about your new year’s resolutions in January, just pull the covers over your head and answer, “give me another month and I’ll let you know!”

Under the Snow, Spring is on the Move!

Many of us, here on the East Coast, are experiencing another big snowfall as I write this.  Where I live, we already have almost 5 inches on the ground, and it’s still snowing hard!  Remember those spring-like days of just a few days ago?  Well, that wasn’t just spring-LIKE – that was spring, showing itself!

For the Chinese, Spring arrives in early February, usually coinciding with the Chinese New Year.  It is not a date on the calendar, but an energy that emerges, gradually and subtely, deep beneath the snow, the hardened ground, unseen at first.  It is a movement, not a fixed date. It is about light, and stirrings, reaching upward, emerging. The little vines and seedlings are beginning to creep and crawl under the ground, rising toward the surface. Here, in the west, we say it’s spring when we actually see the first daffodils, crocuses, or forsythia buds.

Within our own bodies, stretching our tendons and muscles and imaginations, the beginnings of new plans, and new ideas all are the expression of spring energy bubbling to the surface.  In fact, as the movement of spring begins inside each one of us, just like it is beginning beneath the snow and frozen ground, some of us experience what is referred to as “spring fever.”  An acupuncture point on the bottom of the foot (ouch! ahh!), which is a spring point within the winter pathway, is named, “Bubbling Spring.”

Spring fever usually means some itchiness to get outside, to experience the warmth of the sun again.  For some of us, feelings of irritability, impatience, grouchiness, headaches, aching and painful muscles flare up.  Many of my patients at this time of year, come in complaining of feeling these things. I explain to them that this is spring expressing itself within them, and is, to some degree, perfectly normal.  A little adjustment with an acupuncture needle, in Bubbling Spring or another well-chosen point, will flip the re-set button.

Look for the signs of spring in nature and in your own body.  They are everywhere.  The light has changed just a bit, the air has a different feel, the birds are singing a new song, and, closely studied, the buds are beginning to form.  I have already heard reports locally of daffodil and forsythia sightings…and it’s not even February! 

Think of the famous YinYang symbol.   If the white area is spring/summer and the black is Fall/Winter, notice how there is a little bit of one inside the other.  So, inside the dark/winter side is a little smidge of the light/spring. It is always there, even if sometimes we can’t see it.  As the small white circle grows and grows, it eventually takes over and becomes it’s opposite.  Yin and Yang is always moving – from one to the other, ever changing, ever evolving. Just like us, just like life.  Isn’t nature wonderful?!

Work That’s Not Work

The fact that I can get up every morning and look  forward  to going to “work” after 15 years is wonderful!  I love what I do.  Practicing acupuncture combines the best of all worlds into one fulfilling job.  

Every person who comes to me has a unique story, and a unique set of circumstances which tells me who they are at their core.  The concern with which they walk into my office, is first and foremost a doorway through which I can reach into that core.  It is an honor and a privilege to be allowed  into their world, where I look for the opportunity for healing.  For each person, that opportunity is different and unique.  After all, symptoms are pointers…that’s all.  In Western medicine, our symptoms ARE the disease.  They must be eradicated. In Eastern medicine, symptoms are messengers pointing to a deeper disturbance within that particular individual.  Do Not Kill the Messenger!  Although some  may be loud and obnoxious, and others  more subtle, we must respond to the underlying message with an action, so the messenger can go away. By killing the messenger, the patient has lost the chance to hear the message it has for us.

Through this process of deciphering, the patient teaches me what it is she needs, and I learn more and more how to help her.  The patient learns how to recover her own ability to heal through seeing where in her life her symptoms are pointing to needed change or behaviors.  Together we learn so much about how to heal.

So, every day is a new possibility to learn about healing.  There are no recipes, no formulas, no one-size-fits-all treatments.  Each time a patient walks into my office is a new chance to be creative and insightful.  Each patient is new each time they come in for a treatment and I therefore never use the same treatment.  It’s so amazing!

Our healing center is beautiful.  The 12 practitioners all work together in a big brick house with a welcoming front porch just a few blocks from the main square in Frederick.  People passing by who finally venture in always say how often they have looked at our house and thought it looked so nice and inviting.  Inside, we have a big welcoming living room, with music and living plants and soft lighting.  Each office inside is unique, decorated by each practitioner.  So, the environment in which I practice is like being at home.  Some patients come in earlier than their appointments just so they can spend time reading, or closing their eyes and relaxing.  Our space is a little oasis in the midst of the busy world outside.

So work for me is a pleasant and creative way to spend my day.  I appreciate and value each and every person who comes in for treatment, and I am thankful that this beautiful system of medicine can be a catalyst for not only healing our symptoms, but healing our lives.

You can visit my website at www.acupuncturewithkate.com

A “Dreary” (?) Day

So many cold, rainy, cloudy, or windy days are labeled “dreary.”  The meteorologists all say it…..”today is going to be rainy, and cloudy, but tomorrow will  be nice with lots of sunshine…”. 

As I wrote in my “About” section, words are powerful tools.  They have the power to heal, and the power to destroy, to shut life down or open life up wide!  Just that little “but” in the meterologist’s statement says, “the rain and clouds we’re having today are NOT nice weather.”

So a day can be made “dreary” or “nice” for us by the speaking of a few words by someone else.  Hmmm.  I say, this happens everyday with many speakings.  Reflect on your day and see if the success or failure of this day to be a great one might have had to do with the words spoken which had an uplifting or a downshifting effect on you. 

In the weather example,  when we hear such a forecast, most of us will agree with them…”oh, darn, rain again,” or “oh, yuk.”  And we leave the house with an attidude of disappointment, dismissing this day and waiting until tomorrow when things will be “better.”

What if the weatherperson said, “Today will be a great day, with lots of rain and some clouds - a perfect day with much needed moisture .”  Would we begin our day a little lighter in ourselves, a little more positively?  I think so.

Believe it or not, this is where illness begins! Perhaps this is even where SAD (seasonal affective disorder) began, from which the pharmaceutical companies are making lots of money!  If we are surrounded by negative thoughts, or encouraged to perpetuate them, our energy drops, we become less resilient, and our very cells will respond negatively.  Positive, hopeful thoughts will produce cells that thrive and flourish! It’s very simple.

I suggest a little practice on your own with weather before you begin trying to apply this with your other experiences.  Just listen to the weather people each day this week.  See what they say and what effect it might have on you.  If it’s rain or snow in the forecast, try reacting the same way as if the forecast had been for sun and warm temps.  I have done this and have gone from being someone who really only loved the sunshiny days and even lost patience in the “dreary” ones to, now, when someone says to me, “It such an ugly rainy day today,” I usually respond with, “It’s a beautiful rainy day.” This anchors in my body the experience of rain as not only acceptable, but welcomed.  I find rainy days now to be great opportunities to curl up, read a book, stay inside at lunch and get some work done, or write a letter to someone.  I love the sound of rain as it falls in the woods, on the roof, on the pavement, on the windows. And if there’s thunder, even better!

Watch yourself the next time it’s a rainy day…is it “dreary” or “beautiful?” You get to choose. And when making the beautiful choice, just see how much better you will feel, and how much more successful your day will be!