“All diseases are rooted in the spirit.”
--Chapter 8, The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic, Spiritual Pivot, 5th century BCE
This quote forms the foundation of Chinese medicine and how I think about disease and health. Our soul/ling has a curriculum in this life, and the living energy of the spirit/shen is charged with conveying that destiny/ming. In this way, illness can be seen as an opportunity to return to full wellness. The consciousness that contributes to disease is not the same consciousness that supports healing, says my teacher Jeffrey Yuen. Transformation requires a new sensibility, a new awareness, a new state of mind.
Our emotions, thoughts, beliefs and attitudes are essential components of this new state of mind. I support the evolution of your psyche by treating you as a whole person who is dynamically influenced over time by: a lifetime of experiences, your relationship to your self, individual anatomy and physiology, family lineage, society, history, place, environment and your sense of place in the world. This approach is relevant to our emotional state and to the fields of genetics, epigenetics, intergenerational trauma and inherited diseases.
I told Pamela that I had seen a couple of acupuncturists in my life and I wasn’t too fond of the needles; they would make me anxious. Pamela took that to heart and really approached me with such delicateness, and sensitivity, and she handles the needles with such care and a soft touch, so I can use this modality. The needles don’t hurt and they create a wonderful feeling of extra relaxation or some little bliss of 20 minutes where I can float away. So I have come to appreciate the sensation that needles actually provide in the moment.
