Call for guest writers at Deepest Health
Hey everyone,
The summer is wrapping up for us at NCNM, which means a ramping up of school-related activity for me. Add to that the fact that my best friends are getting married (and both my partner and I are in the wedding) is a recipe for light content here on Deepest Health. So, I’d like to put a call out for guest authors. I’m particularly interested in offering articles from guest authors on the following three topics:
1. Back to school : Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine students all over the US and elsewhere in the Northern hemisphere are heading back to school. What advice do you have for them? This can range from product reviews to lists of “must have” books and supplies, etc…
2. Basic information from a unique perspective : For instance, what can you tell us about some commonly used acupuncture points, but put a twist on them using the classics?
3. Clinical stories : If you’re a storyteller and would like to share some of your most poignant lessons, whether in the classroom or clinic, I’m happy to publish stories like that as well.
Criteria for authors - I can’t publish just anything on Deepest Health, of course. A site’s got to have standards, after all. :) You need to be able to write in English with a reasonable degree of accuracy and have decent flow. You need to be able to proofread your articles and come up with engaging titles for them. You need to be in the field of Chinese medicine, whether as a student, teacher or practitioner. I reserve the right to say no to anyone. I will probably receive more requests than I can publish, but may keep folks’ names on a list to contact if another guest writing opportunity arrives. Let me know if you would rather I not put your name on that list.
Benefits of being a guest writer - If you run a blog or website, the benefits of being a guest writer are numerous. Deepest Health gets a fair amount of targeted traffic, and because a link to your site will be provided in the text of the post, you will get visitors heading over to your site to learn more about the person behind the article. The link will also provide some “link juice” from Google, helping your search engine rankings. Even if you’re not a website owner, you will be able to get your name and your writing out there for folks in your field to read. You will also obtain the massive personal benefits I get from having a blog - chief among them solidifying what you know and exposing what you don’t… a benefit that usually only comes from writing.
If you would like to write an article, and meet the criteria, please send your article along with a statement about who you are, where you go to school/teach/practice and any other relevant information to deepesthealth @ gmail . com (without the spaces). It’s critical that the article not be published anywhere else on the web, so don’t bother sending me rehashed content. If I choose your article, I will let you know and we can go from there!
One more note, folks : I will not be able to put together my regular Friday podcast this week. I’m so sorry! I will return to normalcy next week, no worries.
Thanks,
Eric
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Tags: articles, author, Blogging, guest-post, Learning, rest, students, summer, writingRelated posts
20 benefits I have enjoyed since having a blog focused on Chinese Medicine
As a follow-up to my previous popular post about Why all natural health care practitioners should have a blog, I thought I would put forward a list of the benefits I have noticed so far in having my blog about Chinese medicine. I want to create this list because I feel that there could be so much benefit to patients if more health care practitioners would face their fears and put their thoughts out there. This is particularly true in the field of natural medicine, because there is so much low-quality information on the Internet about various natural healing modalities. By flooding the Internet with high-quality personalized content, we can be a force for change in the minds of the world’s citizens. A noble goal! Now, the list.
- Connections with peers : I have a lot of good friends at school and in the Portland acupuncture and herbal medicine community. I wouldn’t trade those connections for anything. However, it’s really wonderful to be able to connect with Chinese medicine students and new practitioners all over the world. Some of those connections seem to be bearing real fruit that will enrich my life for years to come. Lesson - if you want to network within your profession, become a blogger!
- Connections with patients and future patients : In the post I linked to above, there was some discussion about whether blogging is an effective way to bring in patients. I won’t really know until I thoroughly test it, but I have found that my current patients at the clinic enjoy reading my thoughts. At least one patient has rescheduled because she received her email update and it reminded her to reschedule! In the end, though, it’s really about helping to educate patients about the power and promise of Chinese medicine. Lesson - If you’re interested in keeping in touch with your patients, consider blogging and having them sign up for email updates!
- Free critique of my own ideas, refining my thinking about Chinese medicine : Many people are afraid to write about their thoughts concerning Chinese medicine. I’ve never supposed I have all the answers. Sometimes (gasp) I’m even just wrong. But, you really don’t know what you don’t know until you write about it and put it out there. It can be scary, but exhilarating and I truly believe I have grown as a student and scholar by blogging. Lesson - Want to be an expert in your field? Write about it and pay attention to corrections and criticism.
- Writing practice : I guess this is self explanatory, but it’s always easier to learn how to write by … writing. :) Lesson - If “you’re not a writer,” the best way to become one is to start writing. It’s funny like that.
- Crash course in Internet marketing : Because I decided I wanted to grow this blog as large as I could and make some money with it, I had to start learning a lot about Internet marketing. I’ve consumed a whole lot of information on the subject and while I’m no expert, I’m happy to say I get it for the most part. Lesson - Blogging is a multi-skill activity that will expand your knowledge in many different respects.
- Staying abreast of trends in technology : I’m not obsessed with gadgets (really, I’m not!) or even Internet trends. However, in an effort to keep reasonably well updated, I do learn quite a bit about what’s going on and what’s coming up. I like feeling like I know what’s going on and I learn by doing - so running a blog (or three) is an effective way to keep up to date. Lesson - Similar to the one associated with #5.
- Higher standard of personal organization (more projects means more organization) : For some people, more to do means less organized. Naturally, this leads people to believe that they can become more organized if they just simplify their lives and take on fewer projects. For some people, this may be appropriate. In my case, I find that (to a certain limit) the more I take on, the more efficient I become at managing it. When I have relatively little to do, I actually become less likely to fulfill my basic obligations! Many people have asked me how I do what I do - to them I say that the event that most shaped my ability to do a lot was the birth of my daughter. This surely has many dimensions, but one of them was that because of the compression of my available time, I had to become better at managing my time. My schooling, blogging and other activities just add to this. Lesson - You’re capable of more. Maybe much more.
- A higher than average tolerance for thoughtless comments : If blogging doesn’t give you a thick skin, nothing will. I have been blessed to have a lower than average number of “trolls” and my comment spam catching software is quite effective, but I still get a few folks who think it’s fun to be intentionally antagonistic. You learn to ignore them. Lesson - Don’t let a few bad apples spoil the whole crate.
- Less tendency to goof off on the Internet : I know, I know. This sounds crazy. But, because I see being online as part of my job, I really don’t want to use it very much “for fun.” I get off as quickly as I can unless a good friend is online and interested in conversation. My friends who primarily use the Internet for shopping and email seem far more likely to wander the crazytube of the Internet aimlessly. Poor things. Lesson - You can learn to be productive on the Internet. Yes, really.
- Helping others gain study skills : There are lots of ways that I feel that my work on Deepest Health has helped others - and this is truly the greatest benefits I have received by blogging about Chinese Medicine. I’ve listed just three ways I’ve helped here, but there are others. Lesson - If you are a person who likes to help people, blogging is one way you can fulfill that divine desire.
- Helping others understand Chinese medicine concepts : Countless examples abound, from talking to people about the six conformations to talking about the organ clock and so much more. I really enjoy sharing what I’m learning with others. I learn so much in doing so.
- Helping to promote friends’ businesses and hobbies : I’ve promoted others blogs but also businesses like Paul Rosenberg’s Sacred Tea.
- Walking farther along my spiritual path : While I certainly would have made spiritual progress without this blog, the connections I’ve made and conversations I’ve had have really helped me move along. Because I feel empowered to discuss spiritual matters on this blog, it’s been relatively simple to use my blogging as a medium to walk my Path. Lesson - Technology does not negate spirituality.
- Money and other material benefits : Of course it has been nice to get some material benefits from blogging. I’m nowhere near making even a part-time income, but it grows with every lesson from Yaro I am able to implement. I have enjoyed receiving review copies of books and software as well. While I wouldn’t blog ONLY for the material benefits, they are nice. Lesson - Blogging can be profitable in more ways than one.
- Lateral networking : Because of the nature of the Internet, people run across Deepest Health from many different walks of life and professions. While I do come in contact with all sorts of people in the offline world, I generally keep within a certain group of friends and colleagues. The connections I have made with people in very diverse fields has helped me to think differently about Chinese Medicine, and I’m profoundly grateful for that. Lesson - Reaching out on the Internet helps you connect with the whole world.
- Ability to say, in conversation, “I’m a blogger” : A silly one, perhaps. But, it is always interesting to see people’s reactions. More often than not, they try to ignore that I said it. Sometimes, they ask what that means. Sometimes, they launch into a diatribe about Myspace. It’s entertaining. No lesson required.
- A greater appreciation for the immense diversity of our planet : This is connected to some degree with #15 about lateral networking. Again, because of the nature of the Internet, you just end up connecting with a wider variety of people than you would normally when you blog. Particularly when I use various forms of social media, I get a sense for what’s going on in Cairo or Melbourne or anywhere else. I understand the struggles that normal people go through in places different from my own. I also begin to see how similar we all are. Lesson - The world is a vast, fascinating place. You don’t have to pay an arm and a leg to connect with it.
- Better posture : Over time I’ve gone from sitting in a somewhat ergonomically structured plush office chair to a kitchen chair to my current seat - a simple short flat bench. Strange? I find that I am able to keep better posture when I have less support. I don’t know if this makes any biomechanical sense at all. Regardless, I have never paid so much attention to my posture as I have on long days of blogging. Lesson - Just because other people slouch at the computer doesn’t mean you have to.
- A greater than average tolerance for sitting in long, long, long classes and seminars : This one goes with #18 to a certain degree. Instead of making me less tolerant to sitting, blogging has increased my stamina when it comes to sedentary activity. I should note that while I do have long periods of sitting and writing, I do get up to do a couple of minutes of exercise about every 30 minutes. I will sometimes do this in seminars when it is possible (as when I end up in the back of the room and it is not very quiet). I’ll just get up and stretch my legs. But, in general, I find that my ability to sit when necessary is much increased, and this has been tremendously helpful in some circumstances. Lesson - Yeah, sitting all the time is no good, but you have to count your blessings.
- Greater finger strength for needling : I have fingers of POWER from all of this typing, I assure you. Seriously, though, I pay close attention to my finger health, which includes finger exercising. I don’t know if this has actually helped my needling, but let’s just pretend. Lesson - See lesson#19 above.
Thanks for reading,
Eric
Tags: Blogging, Business, fun, internet, Learning, lists, networking, organization, student, Technology, writingRelated posts
It drops deep as it does in my breath
I am in a state of heightened awareness as I sit down to write this post.
My breathing is deep and slow, without my direction. My posture is erect as possible but without strain. My vision is open and yet acute. I feel the air coming in to the edges of my nostrils. I feel it careen down my windpipe and alight on the left-side of my throat, where my dry cough originates. I get this when I talk too much: after lecturing for 8 hours without a break, which I do frequently. Suddenly I am aware of the stickiness, a sink of sorts, that draws the inspiration to that place. I am breathing. It appears before my mind’s eye. It is paler than you’d think, not red or inflamed. I can see the network of vessels visible under the thin mucous layer. I feel my chest expanding from the corners, in dark hollows . As I close my eyes for a moment, my shoulders drop. They’ve been folded into an origami crane’s tail all of this time. Now there’s clouds forming before the craggy precipice of my shoulders.
How can I understand my experience (recognizing that I do not need to understand it)?
Can it be the Oud I was compelled to wear today? Incidentally, Oud derives from the same tree that gives us the medicinal Chen Xiang: why not grab your Materia Medica and look it up. Feel the pages beneath your fingertips. Write down some notes long-hand, allowing your hand to teach your heart away from the abstraction that marks the computer keyboard.
Lung Qi opens into the nose; when the Lung is in harmony, the nose will distinguish the fragrant from the foul
That’s a simple statement. I have patients with multiple chemical sensitivities that can tell you the difference. But what about the things that we say unwittingly about others? What about the thoughts that waft before us?
Can this state derive from my son regaling me with plans to tour Tasmania to see the Eastern Rosella in the wild?
Can it be this passage from A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century
Purity is reached through the Absolute Water, the Water of the Unseen, that is, the Limpidity with which the visible world is flooded, Limpidity which is variegated in Its manifestation, One with Itself in Its seeming multiplicity, Self-manifested, Hidden through the intensity of Its manifestation, Absolute in Its relativity-this Water which is free from any taint and which availeth for purification…This restriction excludeth the waters of the sensible world and the psychic world, since both of these waters have suffered change from their original state. It is the water of the Spirit which fulfills all that the definition requireth, for This is indeed Absolute, being free from any taint, and remaining ever as It was, not adulterated by anything, not flavored by anything, not added to anything, not restricted by anything, with naught above It and naught beneath It. Here lieth the Truth of Absoluteness and it is only This that deserveth the name Water.
Simple Signs, Symbol Science
Really, this is the crux of the matter. The point of the last passage is not in the symbolism of water, just as my writing about the Lung does not affect my breath. It is rather, that the believer, no matter what symbolism he sees, still performs his ritual ablution, and is purified in it whether he recognizes the Absolute Water or not. Indeed it is the joining of the simple action and the unseen aspects of it that are the realm of the symbolic, but still transcend beyond it.
I guess, what we are going for has been aptly described by Heiner Fruehauf in his freely available papers at Classical Chinese Medicine. There he defines the concept of symbolique developed by R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz:
the highly complex science of synthesising the manifold layers of reality into a single crystal of meaning.
So what we’re going for is reconstructing the awareness that informs the science right where we are, and in doing what we’re doing. The next action, then, is to offer that glimpse to you, by whatever means necessary. Each of the things that informs my experience of this day, with all of its metal and Lung-oriented imagery could be a photo, a poem, a story, or an investigation of scents, tastes, sights, and sensations. Honestly, I haven’t written a complete poem since the week before starting acupuncture school. My photographic chops are nil (and I will not take pictures of people or many living things). But as for a spirit of experimentation and an inner attention to the senses, those I have in spades. Thanks for coming along for the ride….
Abdallah
Tags: heiner fruehauf, inspiration, lung, oud, scent, Science, sufi, symbolism, writingRelated posts
Symbolism, Chinese medicine and the birth of a new project
I’ve been working on a series about the Chinese medicine organ systems for the past few weeks. We’ve already covered the Lung, and then the Large Intestine in two parts. During that time, my understanding of the symbolism (including what’s available through the Chinese medicine organ clock) that is shot through Chinese medical literature has changed, deepened, opened up.
When I first started studying with Heiner Fruehauf, I was entranced by all the symbolism he introduced in his lectures at NCNM. I wasn’t sure if what he was talking about would bear clinical fruit, but I knew the ring of truth was there and I was resolved to understand it. Doctors that I worked with later put more or less emphasis on the symbolism, but regardless, the kind of imaginative and symbolic thinking was always a part of what they taught - because this kind of thinking is at the root of the development and practice of Chinese medicine.
What is a symbol? A symbol is something used to represent something else. It POINTS at something else. Generally, we use material representations to represent immaterial things - like how a religious symbol can be used to represent God, or human beings’ relationship to God. When I talk about symbolic thinking, I take it a bit farther. Everything can be a symbol. The human body is in resonance with the universe, in resonance with nature, and all of these things create a symbol field that points at something immaterial - the unifying concept behind all of those symbols. This is, of course, a quite Platonic concept. There is a perfect concept/idea of metal-ness, of which all METAL symbols here on Earth are only an imperfect representation. The fact is that the symbol field creates a kind of embodied conversation about this “concept/idea.” I want to point out that I’m not even sure that the Platonic idealist view of reality applies in the particular situation I’m describing, but many people will say that it does. For the sake of simplicity, let’s just say that all of the symbols I discuss are part of an overall embodied conversation that is attempting to describe a particular concept that may, or may not, be perfectly present anywhere in the world.
Confusing? Yeah, when I describe it that way it probably is pretty confusing. But, it’s important to understand. When I talk about the Stomach on the Chinese organ clock, you’ll hear me discuss the Dragon, Yangming, Earth, various acupuncture points and formulas, herbs and Classical passages, constellations, Earthly branches. What does all of this mean? It is part of a multi-sensory conversation attempting to define the Chinese medicine concept of the organ Stomach. But, it can go so far beyond that. Every time I walk out my door, I see Stomach. I see it in the muscle cars roaring past, I see it in the gourmet restaurants that dot my beloved city of Portland. I see it in the Earth yellow faces and wild smiles of friends and family, I see it in the high and dry Earth in mounds around the bike path. I hear it in certain songs, certain lines in movies. I hear about it in world news event reports. I smell it on the breath of my dog (gross!) and in my compost pile. Sometimes, the universe practically SCREAMS Stomach. It is a multi-sensory experience, a lived experience. Ultimately, all of this feeds back into me as a practitioner, my understanding of the human being and the universe, and bears important clinical results.
This is why it is so disturbing how some contemporary Chinese medicine practitioners have reduced “Stomach” to the Western medical organ. Of course, we can use that idea as part of the symbol field. How rich it is to include the information from Western medicine, but what a tiny little drop in the bucket it is - and how misunderstood. But, that little gripe is not what this post is about.
This post is about nothing less than the rebirth of Deepest Health. I am happy to say that Deepest Health is about to undergo a revolution in order to begin a revolution. A revolution of thought and feeling around Chinese medicine. You will still see the same great information that you’ve come to expect - but so much more. We want to create something that can’t be described in a sentence, but here are some half attempts by the project’s creators:
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Deepest Health in 150 words
These are making the rounds on the Internet - I thought the one for this site was pretty interesting. Enjoy! Make your own at : http://wordle.net
If you want to see it bigger - just click. Pretty fun to look at.
Eric
Tags: Blogging, fun, writing
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