I could never count how many things I learn in a day

I miss being able to sit down and work on articles 2+ hours a day. Sometimes it was a little wearing - honestly - but I felt like I was connecting with people and working through ideas that plagued me. It was good! Now, it’s harder. I spend so much time working on school stuff I find it very difficult to create the larger articles that you are used to. I manage a couple a week, but that’s not enough! :)

I’m going to try to keep producing a couple of the denser articles a week (more if I can) but I want to be able to keep the dialogue going since there’s so little conversation about Chinese medicine happening on the Internet. Plus, I’ve come to enjoy the world spanning connections and ability to work through difficult issues. To make content production a little more frequent, I’m going to try writing something every day about what I’ve learned. It may have to do with theory, practice, business or other related topics and I’ll try to make it interesting enough to read. My hope is twofold - that I can keep the content rolling this way and that people may feel a little less intimidated about making comments. A few folks have told me that such long, detailed posts sometimes make them afraid to comment! :D

Let me know if this new format works for you or if it doesn’t.

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Today, I’ve been studying for an upcoming Acu-moxa points final with Dr. Qin. In the course of studying I’ve come to think about what constitutes a Classical study of Acupuncture - and will finish an article up about that soon. In general, we’ve been learning about classical techniques in interaction with patients, insertion and manipulation of needles as well as a few specialized techniques like needling through joints (so fun). I’ve tried to think about what is different from this than from what I perceive to be taught at others schools and in many acupuncture books. I think aside from the fact that most of it is rooted in the Classical Chinese Medicine texts the key is the level of detail applied to every facet of treatment.

In so many Chinese medicine clinics and in the teaching of so many doctors, the level of care is not significantly higher than one would expect from your average Western family practice doctor. Sure, the standard questioning is by its nature deeper and the treatments are gentler and more likely to be effective for most of the conditions average people face. But in terms of the attention to treatment, single minded focus on the needs and outcomes of the patient - the quality is similar. I think these things are important. What we’re learning is to be focused on our treatment, to be wholly focused on what is in front of us. In service of this, we are told to attend to our self-cultivation, to be lifelong scholars and to do everything in our power to be pure of heart.

After this, we are told to work on developing our needling technique. There’s no plopping of needles in the patient and then abandoning them without a word for 20 minutes, then a hasty return to remove the needles. There is intentfulness, the treatment is carried out not just in the selection and stimulation of points, but in every flick of the wrist or finger, in careful manipulation, in thinking about seasonal energies and in intense observation of the patient condition and experience. If the patient is left for a while, it is for a reason and the intent for the patient’s healing is still held.

There’s no doubt that this is more consuming of energy and time. In some situations (disaster areas, very busy practices) it may be difficult to accomplish this. But we must do it to the best of our ability given our environment. For the vast majority of American acupuncture practitioners, there is no excuse for half-hearted needling. We’ll see if I change my tne once I have a full practice - but these lessons are piercing deep and regardless of how well I do on my test, I think I get the point. No pun intended. ;)

Eric

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Tags: Acupuncture, content, deepest-health, education, Learning

October 7, 2007 · Filed Under Acupuncture, Learning, The profession

2 Comments

New content organization for Deepest Health

I received some great feedback via email in reply to my post about content categories. It’s not so easy to write a blog like this one, not least of all because the available posting topics are so many that it can be a bit paralyzing when I sit down to write. So, at the suggestion of a couple of readers and some of my blogging mentors, I am going to follow the lead of most newspapers and provide regular “columns” that rotate weekly. This will help me to hit all the topics that readers have said they would like to see as well as giving me a little nudge on a foggy Wednesday morning when I’m not quite sure what I want to write about!

Classical Texts (Monday) - Delving into theory from a Classical point of view. Something like this post about the Neijing and its recommendations for physicians.
Food and Drink (Tuesday) - Discussion of Chinese dietetics, with suggestions and recipes. Like this post about the Top 5 Underappreciated Benefits of Tea.
The Profession of Chinese Medicine (Wednesday) - Primarily for students, but also useful to practicing professionals - everything from study tips to book and material reviews to conference reports and information about the AAAOM. An example: This post about the scope of practice for CM physicians.
Fun with Theory (Thursday) - Although theory is woven through many of the other categories, here I will discuss it explicitly. Much of this will be organ systems related for a while, but will also include thoughts about five element, six conformation, wen bing, san jiao and other systems of differentiation. One example is this highly popular post about the Chinese organ system clock.
Herbal medicine (Friday) - Here I will do features like Herb-of-the-week and, eventually, combination or formula of the week. You can see my first Herb-of-the-Week post, on Cinnamon Twig as an example.
Acupuncture (Saturday) - I might work on a point or point category of the week feature, or I might just discuss issues around acupuncture and related arts. So far, the best example of this kind of post is in my introduction to acupuncture and related arts.
Not on a particular day (or on Sunday) - Various reviews, more meta posts (like the one you are reading now), news posts, link posts and anything else that comes up.

Hopefully this format will help me to stay organized as well as providing my readers with all of the content they requested. Thanks for your help! Tuesday’s food-related post will be coming soon!

Eric

Tags: Acupuncture, Blogging, content, deepest-health