I'm very pleased to publish the first case study from my Washington DC acupuncture practice. "Jennifer" is a 28-year-old patient who came to my office in April with lifelong insomnia, which had been getting worse in the past 6 months. Read her case study to see how acupuncture, Chinese herbs, diet and exercise changes, and "sleep hygiene" adjustments helped her completely overcome her insomnia in 2 months. If you or someone you know could use help with insomnia, you can set up an appointment anytime by using our online schedule, by calling us at 202-297-7404, or ...
A patient in my Washington DC acupuncture practice asked me the other day about how to take his herbs. He was taking the herbs based on the Sexual Health for Men Over 40 herbal protocol that I featured in my last newsletter. (By the way, he had already started on the dietary recommendations in the article and was experiencing excellent results.) As I was writing down the dosages for each herb, I realized some important insights I had gained over the past years of using herbs that I wanted to communicate to him, but we didn't have time because it ...
I hope everyone is enjoying the first glimmers of spring in the DC area. I'm seeing signs of spring in the neighborhood around my Washington DC acupuncture office. Traditionally, in many cultures, the beginning of February is considered the beginning of spring. (The equinox on March 23 is actually the peak of spring energy.) This is why the Chinese start their new year in the beginning of February. Gong Hay Fat Choy! Or in Mandarin, Xin Nian Kaui Le! 2011 The Year of the Rabbit If you really ...
Just before the holidays, a patient of mine asked me a simple question: What do you eat? She was interested in changing her diet to improve her health. We had talked about including more whole foods, vegetables, protein, high quality fats from real foods, fiber from whole food sources, and so on. So, I was beginning to list out all of the recipes I use for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, when all of a sudden, two Sundays ago in the New York Times, I ran across a short article that seemed like it was practically written for ...
From The Transparency of Things, by Rupert Spira www.rupertspira.com Pages 34-36 Meditation is not an activity. It is the cessation of an activity. . . However, in order to understand that meditation is not an activity, we first come to the understanding that it is the cessation of an activity. This understanding is a very efficient tool for undermining the belief that meditation is something that we do. Once we have fully understood that meditation is not an activity, the activity that we previously considered to be meditation will naturally come to an end. ...
Unusually for me, I found myself fairly wide awake last night, around 2:45 am, and I started wondering how I was going to get back to sleep. I remembered that my mom had mentioned a book by a woman who had tried all the western and alternative cures for insomnia, and had finally found that qigong was the only thing that really helped her. I have to say that I like the title: Wide Awake: What I Learned About Sleep from Doctors, Drug Companies, Dream Experts, and a Reindeer Herder in the Arctic Circle, by Patricia Morrisroe As a ...
Rupert Spira, in his book, The Transparency of Things: Contemplating the Nature of Experience, explains in greater detail exactly what is involved in the process of welcoming difficult emotions. He also connects this process to the deepest spiritual perspective. From The Transparency of Things: Contemplating the Nature of Experience, by Rupert Spira, pages 240-242. Italics in […] are my commentary. Questioner: What part do feelings and the body have to play in this investigation [of Consciousness and Presence]? Rupert Spira: Much of the mind’s activity is designed to avoid feeling. For instance, any form ...
Why do many people turn to meditation? They are interested in relieving their suffering. Suffering comes in many forms – physical, emotional, and mental. As I mentioned in a previous article about finding a meditation style that is right for you, there are many meditative approaches to healing on all three of these levels. In this article, I’d like to discuss a form of meditation that I’ve found to be very helpful for the emotional and mental levels of suffering. It centers around the concept of welcoming, or allowing things to be just as they ...
When I first started meditating and studying spiritual philosophy in earnest, about 12 years ago, my goal was spiritual enlightenment. I clearly remember, in 2000, participating in a group meeting at the Heartwood Institute, a holistic healing training center where I was doing a work-study program right out of college. Everyone in the group was stating their life goal, and I boldly pronounced that my goal was “Self-Realization,” or enlightenment. At the time I think I had some vague concepts about what enlightenment was. They were mostly centered around ideas of a blissful ecstatic awakening experience, after which I would know ...
In my Washington DC acupuncture practice, I often see clients who are fighting a cold or flu. According to Chinese Medicine, it is essential to address a cold or flu from the very first early-onset symptom. Why? In normal cold and flu season, a Chinese herbal formula can stop the cold or flu in its tracks, not allowing it to progress beyond a tickle in the throat. Sometimes, of course, herbs may not stop the disease entirely. However, the course of the disease will most likely be shortened and symptoms decreased by applying timely initial treatment. The Concept of Immunity in Chinese ...
