(Originally published as an eight part series of articles for Imbue Pain Relief Patch) Part One Of the various approaches I recommend for pain relief, visualization and other mental techniques are the most interesting to me. Our mind has the power to stop the worst…
(Originally published as an article for Imbue Pain Relief Patch.) I was working an office job about 20 years ago with a nice guy about ten years my senior. We were getting to be friends, and this helped break up the dreary routine of the…
(Originally published as an article for Imbue Pain Relief Patch) It sort of feels risky to me, given how many yoga teachers I know, to say anything negative about stretching. Luckily, most of them are pacifists, so I don’t think they’ll beat me up. So…
From a Chinese Medical perspective, all pain is caused by same basic mechanism: stagnation. Blood, lymph, energy, food, or other substances are inhibited from their usual flow, and this feels uncomfortable – whether it’s the result of a crushing your finger with a hammer, cramming…
(Originally published as a three part series of articles for Imbue Pain Relief Patch) Part One As early as I can remember doing weight bearing exercise, I nearly always emphasized the “pushing” or contractive part of the movement. If I was doing a push-up, my…
In high school and college, I spent hours every day playing my guitars and writing songs. Music was the main outlet I had for the angst and depression I felt in my late teens and early twenties. In grad school, I began to emerge from…
(Originally published as a newsletter for The Dragontree Holistic Day Spa) I was recently at a workshop to study a particular style of Chinese pulse diagnosis with an expert in San Francisco. This form was brought to the U.S. by a doctor named John Shen,…
(Originally published as a newsletter for The Dragontree Holistic Day Spa) Part of The DragonTree’s mission statement is, “To seed our community with centered, peaceful, and healthy people.” We can only do so much to assist our clients during their visits here, so homework is…
As the big ball of fire we call the Sun makes its most prominent appearance this time of year, it’s a nice chance to explore the many literal and symbolic ways fire shows up in our lives. Fire was once a god of great esteem…
(Originally published as a newsletter for The Dragontree Holistic Day Spa) This spring I would like to encourage you to get in touch with the essence of the wood element. Early Daoist and Five Element Acupuncture philosophies see the world as a blend of five…
(Originally published as a newsletter for The Dragontree Holistic Day Spa) Addictions are a prevalent feature of modern American life. Tobacco, alcohol, coffee, pain killers, sleeping pills, television, porn, the internet . . . Humans are creatures of habit. While addictions undermine our sense of…
From a pretty young age, I had a sense of the divisiveness surrounding differences of religion, but it was hard for anyone to help me understand why. Especially since, aside from our labels, I couldn’t find much that was different between the Jews and Christians…
(Originally published as a newsletter for The Dragontree Holistic Day Spa) About five years ago, my wife announced that she was going to open a spa and asked me if I wanted to move my practice there. I had been practicing Chinese medicine for a…
I wrote this article (more of a list, really) around winter of 2002, after having been in practice for just three years. Since then I’ve changed my thinking a bit around some of my previous recommendations, and I’ve adopted some new ideas. So, this being…
Ah, summer. The warm, bright sun, birds chirping, bees buzzing, and the sound of ice cream trucks in the air. We crave cold, sweet things like lemonade, ice cream, popsicles, and gelato. Somehow the specialness of summer convinces us to let ourselves and our kids…
(Originally published as a newsletter for The Dragontree Holistic Day Spa) In the late 1950s, a psychologist named Lawrence Kohlberg proposed six levels of human reasoning, a theory now known as Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development. In a nutshell, Kohlberg explained that these six stages…
(Originally published as a newsletter for The Dragontree Holistic Day Spa) Bowel health is a topic that rarely comes up in everyday conversations. More often we talk about what we should or shouldn’t consume at the other end of the digestive tract. But let us…
(Originally published as a newsletter for The Dragontree Holistic Day Spa) Autumn returns us to our essence, moves us to eliminate what we no longer need, and reveals again what is most precious in our lives. Each of the seasons offers lessons about the world…
(Originally published as a two part article for Imbue Pain Relief Patch) Part One Many people who have pain or numbness in the wrist, hand, or fingers are told they have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) and may believe surgery is their only option. But CTS…
(Originally published as an article for Imbue Pain Relief Patch) Fundamental principle of pain #1: All pain is caused by stagnation. Blood that’s not moving properly causes pain (such as the pain of a heart attack, menstrual cramps, or any trauma that damages blood vessels). …
(Originally published as a twelve part series of articles for Imbue Pain Relief Patch) You can just scroll down to start reading or use these links to jump to a particular section: Part One – Intro to joint pain, what it is, the most basic…