Trauma Training Tip
Photo by Chris F via Pexels
Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.
– JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit, 1937
I can safely say that we have a lot of Yang energy in our world – from the pending inauguration on the East coast to Fires on the West Coast of the U.S. as well as wars in the Middle East, Sudan, and Ukraine. It’s time to cultivate Yin!
I have struggled over what to say in this January newsletter – I carry despair – too much despair. The wisdom I offer today is to encourage us all to bring the spirit of this hummingbird forward:
“Holding Up the Sky” – A Chinese Folktale
One day an elephant saw a hummingbird lying flat on its back on the ground. The Bird’s tiny feet were raised up into the air.
“What on earth are you doing, hummingbird?” asked the elephant?
The hummingbird replied.
“I have heard that the sky might fall today.
If that should happen,
I am ready to my bit in holding it up.”
The elephant laughed and mocked the tiny bird.
“Do you think THOSE tiny little feet could hold up the sky?”
“Not alone, admitted the hummingbird.
But reach must do what he can
And this is what I can do.”
– Margaret Reed MacDonald, Three Minute Tales: Stories from Around the World to Tell or Read when Time is short (Little Rock, AR: August House, 2004), 145.
This story appears at the front of The Tao of Trauma, along with this dedication, which I renew today.
“We dedicate this book to all the hummingbirds in our families, communities and workplaces, in the halls of government and commerce; on the land, sea and air. Wherever you are, we thank you for your service.”
Alaine’s Two Cents
Thankfully, Acupuncturists Without Borders is providing care for those affected by the LA Fires.
If you would like to volunteer, please email Carla Cassler at director@acuwithoutborders.org
If you need training, AWB is providing free NCCAOM approved Emergency training. 6 PDAs. Contact Christine Cronin at christine@acuwithoutborders.org for more info.
Can’t go to LA? Join me with a donation to AWB.
Check This Out!
Are you interested in more on the subject of inflammation – the experience of too much heat in the world?
Read Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice, by Rupa Marya and Raj Patel – or hear about it on Youtube.
Clinical Curiosity
Where is your clinical curiosity carrying you?
Send me a question or two and I will explore them with readers in this corner next month.
Q.
My patient is in her early 20’s. She is struggling mightily after 3 head injuries – two bicycle accidents and one skiing accident. She’s had to drop out of college, can’t concentrate enough to write the necessary papers, suffers from headaches and vertigo too. Her balance is “off” in a way that prevents her from engaging in the sports activities she loves. She feels like her life is untenable and is quite depressed about her future.
A.
Whenever there is a head injury, we should be concerned about both tissue damage to the brain tissue and the impact on the autonomic nervous system of a near death experience. Our ANS experiences injuries to our head as highly volatile. A similar injury to our foot will not have nearly the same impact as one to our head. She is likely suffering from element of both these phenomena. You will want to to support restoring balance and regulation in her autonomic nervous system in order for her inner physician to serve the healing of the brain tissue that may be bruised or injured. We need to work with both the physical injury to the brain tissue and her autonomic nervous system’s experience of her head having been injured.
She will benefit from working with her eyes. Because the eyes are extensions of the optic nerve, we can access the vibrational field supporting her brain tissue more directly. It is delicate and needs to be titrated very carefully. When done skillfully, it can be magical for people who have experienced head injuries.
So glad she has you!