Acupuncture for Anxiety
Emotions are physical. They happen in our bodies. They are created by our bodies. They sometimes happen to our bodies.
Emotions are specific movements in the body, specific physiological cascades and relationships running from head to toe.
Anxiety is a knotting of movement. An acupuncturist finds the places in the body that are knotted, unties those knots in the muscle, blood and nerves. By regulates the turbulent movement of emotions, acupuncture helps the body relax so that the mind can settle.
What Does Acupuncture Do? Or, What’s the Point?
I have answered this many different ways over the years. It changes depending on who I am talking to, how I personally have been thinking about it, and the context of the discussion. My perspective on the question, “What does acupuncture do?”, after years of pretty dramatic transformations, has by now settled somewhat, so I will take another stab at an answer.
Natural Treatments for Seasonal Allergies
It’s warming up. With the thaw of spring, comes the pollen and dust that triggers seasonal allergies, sinus congestion and pressure headaches. Over-the-counter medications for allergies may help you survive the day, but they are not long-term fixes.
Acupuncture is highly effective for not only managing the symptoms of seasonal allergies, but also retraining the immune system to be less reactive so that the allergy itself fades away.
Science of Stretching
Stretching is widely accepted as a good thing to do, but the question is whether there is a right way to do it. Do you reach and hold it? Do you bounce? Do you get a trainer to do it for you?
The answer lies in the difference between static and dynamic stretching.
Acupuncture for Insomnia
There are many reasons why someone might not be sleeping. Acupuncture treats insomnia very effectively whether it is caused by stress, anxiety and worry, acid reflux, hot flashes, pain, frequent bathroom trips, or even those inexplicable nights when you are just staring at the ceiling.
Acupuncture for Migraines
Acupuncture can immediately get rid of a migraine headache. If the headache is present at the moment of the treatment, we actually focus our work on the feet. Very often, when someone has a migraine headache, their feet are tight and cold. By warming and relaxing the feet, blood descends out the head, and then the nervous system can settle. This combined with manual massage techniques on the arms, shoulders and neck, can clear up even a severe migraine headache.
This is the first step in healing from chronic migraines.
Second Clinic Location in Downtown Dartmouth
To mark the start of spring, I joined Kinesis Health Associates, a multidisplinary health clinic on Ochterloney Street in downtown Dartmouth, NS.
Taking appointments Tuesday 9-7 and Friday 9-5.
Adjusting to Winter: 6 Tips to Stay Healthy in the Cold
Winter can be hard in the temperate zone. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who feels this way. I get soft in the luxury of summer sun, going out the door wearing whatever I feel like, taking a lazy bike ride to work, strolling through a park on my way to somewhere, or nowhere, with so much vibrant life all around. But in time, that ease gives way as life cycles into death and hibernation.
Tai Chi in Daily Life
Movement is life. The choreographed movements of Tai Chi help our bodies re-learn more natural ways to move. This brings more life into our bodies, and with that, more health, strength and focus.
Breathing
Mindfulness is not simply to observe, but to remember the truth of what you are observing.
Breathing becomes more than breathing. It is a rhythm pulsing under every experience in life, reminding you that you have a body, you have emotions, you have a mind. Reminding you that your breath is a tool to focus yourself on joy, pleasure and tranquility. Reminding you of the truth of impermanence, to “give up greed and distress for the world”.
Flow and Counterflow: Health, Humans and Natural Environments
We are constantly interacting with the rhythms of our natural environment.
The cycles of day and night (circadian rhythm), the four seasons (circannual rhythm), and the monthly lunar phases are the three fundamental cycles for life on Earth. We know that creatures of all kinds, from birds to insects to mammals, change their behavior based on daily, monthly and seasonal cycles.
As for those weird animals called human beings, those cycles continue to affect our physical and mental physiology, even when we try so hard to fight against them.
Meet Us: Henry Claflin
I followed a thread that began as a kid studying Zen seated meditation. This thread eventually took me to learn Tai Chi with one of the most exceptional people I have ever met, a man who opened the door for me to East Asian medicine.
There I found a philosophy of medicine, of healing, and of living, based entirely on harmony between humans and the natural environment they live in.
What Does “San” Mean?
San is the Chinese word for three. It is written as three horizontal lines stack one on top of the other. In the old books of East Asian medicine, numbers had a special importance. They organized information, and in so doing, shaped a way of thinking.
The number 1 is Dao 道 “Way”. This is the unifying principle of reality, the way that all things are in nature. Dao is that water always runs downhill. Dao is that hot air hitting cold air generates wind. Dao is that the Earth cycles around the Sun and the stars rotate precisely through the night sky, year after year without wavering in their paths. Dao is that every living thing proceeds from birth to growth, to death, and then to birth again, a part of something new…