TCM Kongress
Phew - I could have written a post daily last week (if I had only had the time). The 40th annual TCM Kongress in Rothenburg, Germany was again the best week of the year. It is so inspiring to be in the same place as some of the greatest minds in this medicine. One of the amazing lectures that I was able to go to was Jeffrey Yuen’s “Cultivating the Healer Within”. He did this talk also at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine Symposium in November, 2008. You can listen to some of it here: http://chinesemedicinetools.com/jeffrey-yuen/jeffrey-yuen-cultivating-the-healer-withinHis biggest message in all of this revolved around non-judgement. This was not focused on non-judgement of the patient, but instead non-judgement of the dis-ease process that happens to be a part of the patient’s life at the moment. This in fact was a lot of what we learned all week. Our own preconceived notions about certain disease processes can lead us to treat differently and can also lead us to do treatments that are more palliative than healing. The patient does not have to believe in acupuncture for it to work. The patient has to believe in the possibility of changing their current condition for any healing modality to have effect.
There was a lot of talk this week about the phenomenon of spontaneous healing and questions about why we study less the people that have been able to change their conditions and more about the people who are still suffering. Don’t we think that the spontaneous healers might have something in common? What if we could recreate that and show our patients that path? Would their be an instant decrease in disease and discomfort?
A study was done in New York that was eventually not published because various medical journals deemed it to be not important enough. The study was focused on people with multiple personalities and serious health issues. It was found that in one personality a person could give a blood sample and come back as HIV positive and that same body, as a different personality could give a subsequent blood sample and find no traces of HIV. The same went for a man who, as one personality was an insulin dependent diabetic and as a second personality, not. Now, I am not suggesting that we all go out and find ourselves a couple new personalities, I am simply asking everyone to remember that disease is not static. Your body is changing all the time. Skin cells change every 2 - 4 weeks, liver cells - every 5 months, red blood cells - 120 days. You are in a constant state of change. The thoughts that you have here and now today will effect the cells that are being created right now. You can change those thoughts, habits and patterns tomorrow and start sending your body a new message.
So, the basic idea today is for all the practitioners out there to remember that we are searching for health in our patients, not illness. Our mindset can help or hinder our patient’s outcome. We need to remind ourselves and our patients daily that we believe in the ability of the human body to heal itself. Sometimes it needs a little help… that is what we are here for.
Search for health and you will find it.
much more to come…..
September 01 2009 09:13 am | Articles