By Chia Chia Cheng, L.Ac.
I was practicing Vinyasa yoga in a group setting one morning when my instructor casually posed this question: Are you strong enough to let go? I simultaneously heard this as I felt my body answer yes.
What does this look like in everyday life? What beliefs do you have about who you are and the life you live? How do your choices and actions reflect your beliefs? If you feel at ease it’s likely that how you are living matches with your values. If you are feeling stressed out, then maybe not.
Do you dread the hustle and bustle of the “most wonderful time of the year”? The traffic everywhere you go, a longer to-do list, doing things that you don’t want to do, sleeping less because you’re doing more, etc.
It’s been declared year after year that December is the month of joy and wonder. Yet, you wonder why you’re doing so many things that don’t bring you joy.
I love practicing Chinese Medicine because it heals as well as guides me to living well. One of the teachings of Chinese Medicine that I love is the presence of yin and yang in everything.
How Does Yin and Yang Teach Living Well?
Yin and yang is the co-existence of opposing, yet, complimentary forces. Yin exists within yang. Yang is born out of yin. Yin and yang are the duality of truth. You can see this in nature.
The moon is yin, yet the tide that it influences is yang. A tree is rooted (yin) and its growth is perpetually outward and upward (yang). A baby is curled up and still (yin) to rest and crying with force while flaying their arms and legs (yang) when they need care.
How do you experience the presence of yin and yang?
Throughout the year you have lived the duality of opposites. When the leaves start dropping that’s when the duality of opposites turns up its intensity. In the PNW you’re making the transition to less sunlight, less daylight, a big drop in temperature, and a significant rise in barometric pressure. (Welcome back, rain. You may have more pain as a result.)
Your experience of physical pain increases, you are more anxious than usual. All of the sudden your back hurts (when it hasn’t for the last 6 months) or you notice neck pain and stiffness when you wake up in the morning. Maybe you’re waking up with a headache. What’s going on? Why now? You were fine just two months ago.
When you have smooth circulation in your body, energy in all the areas of your being causes you to feel relaxed and settled. When your circulation is blocked, that’s when you feel back stiffness or neck pain. Or pain in your elbow, knee, or foot. This blockage can create pain in any area of your body.
Stress causes blockage. Stress is what produces that kink in your garden hose. There is reduced or no flow as long as the kink (blockage) exists. You have to toss that hose a few times to release the kink. If it’s really stuck, you have to walk over and untwist the hose to rid the kink. Sometime getting rid of the cause of your pain will require you to do extra work.
What Is the Purpose of Pain?
Pain is a survival mechanism to keep you safe. Pain is also information, signaling a disharmony between where you think you are and where you really are in the present. Pain also serves as a reminder to be gentler with yourself.
Pain happens. Pain doesn’t discriminate. It’ll show up when you least expect it and where you least expect it. Sometimes pain happens because you didn’t see that one thing coming. Or you did and just kept going. Pain is your body’s way of asking you to pay attention.
Are you strong enough to let go? To let go of your belief that pain should not be happening to you? To let go of the belief that you should be “better by now”? To let go of your belief that the pain you feel is going to be here forever?
What Is the Role of Inflammation?
Inflammation is what happens to cells before healing can occur. It is as a necessary stage of healing. Ideally inflammation happens in a short period of time, with high intensity, and moves onto the next stage. This can mean a few hours or a few days.
Inflammation causes pain. Pain is the result of inflammation. If you have pain, that means you have inflammation.
On the contrary, the absence of pain doesn’t mean you’re not experiencing inflammation. There are other signs such as acne, psoriasis, headache, loose stools, etc. (Did you know? Acne on your butt is a good indicator of inflammation in the large intestine.)
If you’re in chronic pain, you are experiencing chronic inflammation.
In Western Medicine “chronic” is determined to be any condition that lasts for more than 3 months. The time limit for chronic inflammation in Chinese Medicine is shorter than that. Meaning that inflammation lasting longer than a week is considered impaired healing by the body and at increased risk to become a chronic condition.
What Is an Incomplete Inflammatory Process?
When your body doesn’t have the necessary raw materials needed to move through the inflammatory process and onward to healing, it gets stuck. This is why inflammation becomes chronic.
Using acupuncture decreases the unpleasant side effects of inflammation, primarily swelling and pain. Acupuncture also increases circulation of blood to bring healing to affected areas. Adding nutritional and herbal products to your treatment plan can assist the body in completing the inflammatory process.
How Can Acupuncture Restore Circulation and Decrease Inflammation?
Acupuncture causes movement of qi and blood in your body. Inflammation occurs when there is a high concentration of nerve and cellular activity in a focused area. By bringing qi and blood to areas of inflammation, acupuncture helps the body get rid of unwanted particles and delivers helpful raw material to build and restore.
Acupuncture reduces stress by restoring balance in the body and mind. Inflammation is a type of stress response. By reducing inflammation acupuncture also reduces your experience of stress.
In my practice I use whole food nutritional products by Standard Process. Doing so helps your body incorporate acupuncture in a deeper way. When you take products formulated to promote specific tissue repair, such as Ligaplex I and support your adrenal system with Adrenal Complex, you will experience faster healing.
High quality herbs by MediHerb are effective in reducing inflammation without causing deficiencies of important vitamins and minerals for proper body function. Turmeric Forte is formulated to pass through the digestive tract intact so you get 100 mg of active curcuminoid (anti-inflammatory factor) per tablet. It also crosses the blood brain barrier and thus, is affective in reducing inflammation in the brain. (e.g. concussions, TBI, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s)
What Can I Do to Support the Inflammatory Response in My Body?
I thought you’d never ask. Now that you have, be prepared to hear the answer you won’t like.
You can support your body’s effort to move through the inflammatory process by doing two things. The first one is to breathe intentionally. The fastest way to change blood chemistry is through the breath. By increasing the presence of oxygen in your blood supply, you are feeding all your cells this vital molecule.
Intentional breathing includes exhaling with conscious effort. Your body will naturally take in more air when you exhale fully. Try this by actively pulling in your belly button towards your back as you exhale. Check in several times each hour with your breath.
The second thing is to eat clean. This includes drink as well. Filtered water over bottled water that has been sitting in plastic for months. Green tea for antioxidants and digestive support is a warm winter option. Always spend a little more on teas. If you’re paying a few bucks a box, chances are you’re getting the tea that’s low quality and thus, low in nutritional value.
Sugar stored in cells and floating in the blood supply causes inflammation. If you’re not burning off the sugar with physical activity, your body moves sugar out of the blood stream and stores it in the cells. Sugar sitting in your body’s cells causes inflammation. It’s not meant to sit in your cells!
Reduce your sugar intake. Or better yet, cut out sugar all together! This includes alcohol, my friend.
Alcohol is sugar in fermented form. When you drink alcohol you are taking in sugar and often in unknown amounts. When’s the last time you saw sugar in grams per serving printed on a label of alcohol? Drinking alcohol temporarily increases your blood sugar levels, then drops dramatically. Alcohol also disrupts your liver’s ability to regulate blood sugar levels. (The liver stops releasing glucose, which is how the liver regulates blood sugar levels.). If you drink alcohol with out eating, you’re setting your body up for a double dip in blood sugar levels.
What Is the Point of This Article?
Are you strong enough to let go of unrealistic ideas about your body? About who you are? Are you strong enough to let in the truth of where you are at in this moment?
Pain is a necessary teacher. (yin)
Being in pain sucks. Yet, it is part of life. (yang)
The feeling of being alone in your pain can feel worse than the pain itself.
I have gone through struggles with my own healing. Those struggles have taught me that being in pain is part of the human experience. Whether that’s physical or emotional. What helped me through my pain was having someone guide me through it.
Sometimes you just want to be seen.
When you work with me, one who understands physical pain and the emotional pain that often shows up with it, you will have faster and complete healing.
As they say in Na’vi, “Oel ngati kameie.” I see you.
Don’t wait another day to give acupuncture a try! I can help you get back to living a pain free, active life in 60 days. Contact me today to learn how we can work together to create more comfort in your heart and body.
