It’s Great Having Acupuncture Students in the Series

Steve — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:11:18 +0000

… because students are SO studious, and want to be clear on the info. I think it was Sesame who showed me an illustration of the L.I. sinew channel that connected all the way to the upper thoracic spine. My comment at the time was that I use it all the way to the medial margin of the scapula, but was not really connecting it to the spine. A more complete answer is that it flows over the areas that either activate or restrict the yangming movement of the arm – medial flexion over the chest with the arm extended. I’m now seeing that it can go further medial, but it does not connect directly to Dumai.

We plan and the Supreme Being Laughs

I realized shortly after the sinew release demo that I have to keep my hands on the demo model, just as I would with a patient. That’s what I get for using my hands to gesture when I present ideas. And, I’m not even Italian! Well, even my Jewish heritage has a fair amount of talking with one’s hands, so I guess I come by it honestly, so I’ll have to pay particular attention during clinical demos. It may work during the lecture, but definitely doesn’t while demonstrating those releases. Yet, it appeared that most of you were able to successfully use those sinew releases.

Some people (possibly including Desiree) will need channel divergence treatment rather than sinew treatments. Work with the sinews for now — both with the releases and needling approach we discussed, and see what you can do with them. That will prepare you well for the class on channel divergences in just less than three months!

I’m also glad Justin and Carrie encouraged me to do an actual demonstration of “chiseling” needle technique, rather than just explaining it and modeling the movement. I’d been a little concerned in the environment of the class it might be hard for demo models to feel the propagation of wei qi. So much for my thoughts… Practice that needling technique, and we’ll get into others in coming weekends. However, I must warn you. I’m not particularly focused on needling techniques — part of any technique is for the physical sensation in the patient, and part of their value is in focusing the practitioner’s intention. I’ll talk more about that during the second weekend.

I’m ready to discuss — to help you work with the sinews. Who wants to start?

San Diego Channel Series Begins

Steve — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:35:15 +0000

Wow!

Thank you all for coming, and contributing to the start of what I hope will be a great series! Enjoy working with the ideas we discussed, and post questions and comments relative to the Sunday seminar — the first day on the primary channels — after this posting. I’ll respond to some of them online through this blog, and others I’ll address next time we meet. We still have another day on the primary channels. Can you believe it? I’m hoping to learn some more names, so we’ll be able to have more “connected” communications in this forum.

I’m particularly interested in hearing ideas on how you believe this series will work best for you. I have a lot of ideas to discuss during the second day on the primary channels, and can certainly make some room for responding to your questions. Have a good time experimenting with “pulse feedback,” and using that process to better understand how to read the specific struggles of the embodied spirit.

Grace: I’m sorry I wasn’t able to complete the communication with you after reading your pulse. Staying completely present with that during breaks is a little challenging, as I have other things on your mind. I do have some thoughts (which I won’t share in this forum — probably with just the class, but not on the internet), and you may end up as a workshop “demonstration model” for the second weekend.

Desiree: It’s entirely possible that you could be a demo case for the third weekend.