Trauma Training Tip September came in with the breath of Fall here in the U.S. mid-Atlantic. Open the windows, turn the air conditioning off, breathe that crisp, cool air. Oh my goodness, what a delight after the hazy, hot and humid weight of Late Summer. Fall is the season of the Metal Element in Asian medicine, the time of the Lung and the Colon. The growing season is rapidly closing. The air actually feels thinner now. We, and all of nature, are preparing to rapidly fall into the quiet, dark, yin time of year. Classical Asian medical texts refer to the …
August News ‘n Views
Trauma Training Tip August. The air feels thick and heavy. It’s Late Summer, the Earth season in the world of Asian medicine. It’s 2020. We’re coping with an out-of-control CoVid 19 pandemic, the highest unemployment numbers since the 1930’s, and long sought-after and slow-coming transformation of our social contract on race. Many of us are feeling a chronic rumble of uncertainty in the Earth below our feet – and for some of us, genuine “quakes.” The Earth Element governs our guts and our capacity to “Digest the Gristle.” When we feel threatened, our Sympathetic nervous system needs all our energy …
July News ‘n Views
Trauma Training Tip When our biological urge to protect and defend is thwarted and left incomplete, that urge remains in our tissues. Healing requires us to access those places where a collapse or freeze state has been hidden away and helping it thaw, mobilize, and find clear voice. Our qi or “energy” and our blood are then better able to nourish, vitalize, restore, renew, find power, and enhance life. We will likely feel more spacious on the inside when we are not braced against an historically held freeze response. We are witnessing this phenomenon in our nation’s body. The release …
June News ‘n Views
Trauma Training Tip I confess when CoVid first came, I experienced a lot of fear and desire to isolate… that grew into despair as I witnessed the burden it was placing on people challenged to quarantine – elders in nursing homes and those living on the streets and in prisons, the disproportionate deaths in Black, Brown and Indigenous people, and the many migrants who, without access to paltry support from the federal government, were forced to choose between dying of CoVid and dying of starvation or exposure. Then George Floyd was murdered. African Americans who were dying of CoVid at …
May News ‘n Views
Trauma Training Tip Nature is transitioning from Spring to Summer in fits and starts. Blossoms are giving rise to fruit. In spite of the chaos created by CoVid, the sun still rises and sets, day turns into night, spring into summer, inhale becomes exhale. There is a rhythm and predictable movement in nature. Bringing our attention to what is in fact predictable can help us find a sense of manageability and comfort in uncertain times. In “normal” times, summer – as the time of the Heart – calls forward a vibrational demand to connect with others and to find and express love. …
April News ‘n Views
Trauma Training Tip Feeling a little cranky lately? Here we are, cooped up in our homes, with a massive and insidious wall of virus blocking our dreams, hopes, and aspirations for the coming year. We can’t even begin to imagine the many ways our future will be different. While we are all having to respond to an invisible threat in our midst, some among us – those working in the service industries, those who can’t quarantine themselves in crowded conditions – like homeless shelters, prisons, or densely packed low income housing complexes, and those with pre-existing medical conditions are facing …
Covid-19, the Five Elements of Acupuncture and Asian Medicine and the Self-Protective Response
The Metal Element, which includes our Lungs and our Colon, is the Element most profoundly impacted by the Covid 19 virus. The classical literature of Acupuncture and Asian Medicine[1] refers to the Lung’s function as “receiving the inspiration of the heavens”. It helps us find the presence of a spiritual guide in turbulent times. These same texts refer to the Colon as being responsible for “the drainage of the dregs”. It helps us let go of what is no longer useful. Together, they regulate the coming and going of inhale and exhale, receiving and letting go and all the rhythms …
March News ‘n Views
Trauma Training Tip Our blood is the substance associated with the Wood Element, and in particular the Liver Organ. When we experience “too much, too fast, with inadequate support,” our heart communicates a sense of life threat to the kingdom of the body via the blood pulse. The blood carries the Heart’s message of pending threat to every corner and crevice so we can respond in a comprehensive and coordinated way. One of the many roles of the Liver is to “restore the blood.” It cleanses it of toxic substances and restores its inherent regulation. If the blood is overwhelmed …
February News ‘n Views
Trauma Training Tip The Lunar New Year on January 25, 2020 marked the beginning of the Spring or Wood season in Acupuncture and Asian Medicine (AAM). Sap starts running in the trees, we feel a spring in our step, and the promise of spring fills the air. The Wood Element mirrors the role of the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS), which supports our capacity to “get up and go.” AAM ascribes the spiritual quality of benevolence to the Wood Element. Our SNS is always “on” and available to fulfill its function to protect and defend us by helping us orient to …
January News ‘n Views
Trauma Training Tip Our bones and teeth are the tissues associated with the Water Element. Researchers at Columbia University, using mice as subjects, have made some fascinating discoveries about the role of our bones in the self-protective response; and in whole-body regulation. Their research focuses on the role of osteocalcin, a bone-derived hormone. They conclude that the stress response is initiated by osteocalcin, which then signals the adrenal gland to initiate the “fight or flight” signal in the body. Osteocalcin is clearly a “Water” hormone. Their research demonstrates its role in supporting pre-natal brain development, cognitive functions such as learning …