Chinese New Year 01/22/23
Sunday, January 22nd marks the first day of the 2023 Chinese New Year of the Water Rabbit. Since it is based on the ancient Chinese calendar, the date of the New Year changes annually, typically falling on the second new moon after the Winter Solstice. Your Chinese zodiac sign is determined by the year you were born, not the month. There are 12 zodiac signs and five elements (Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, Wood), meaning that it takes you a full 60 years to go through every combination and come back around to the beginning of the cycle. Because the New Year can fall any time in January or February, if you were born in those months you need to check its date in your birth year in order to correctly determine your zodiac sign.
Rabbits are considered to be the luckiest of all the twelve zodiac signs. Like rabbits, people born under this sign are alert and quick so they can be witty and innovative. They are also gentle, kind, quiet, calm, and peaceful so they avoid fighting and arguing at all costs. To keep the peace they can be reluctant to reveal their minds to others and have a tendency to escape reality. Since the rabbit is the companion of the moon goddess Chang'e it is an auspicious symbol of hope, longevity, and purity. The strengths of those born under this sign include optimism, grace, generosity, and kindness, while their weaknesses include vanity, emotional instability, and passivity. Since this is a Water Rabit year, and water is yin, this combination of energies is predicted to lead to an especially harmonious and peaceful year. This is a good year for diplomacy and communication, with a focus on relationships and building bridges instead of walls. The Water Rabbit is also said to bring good luck and unexpected opportunities, so be open to new possibilities and don't be afraid to take risks.
Some important Chinese New Year traditions include sweeping your house out the day before to get rid of any bad luck left over from the previous year and opening all of your doors and windows at the stroke of midnight to allow the old year to escape and the good luck of the New Year to enter. Firecrackers are used extensively on this holiday to scare away evil spirits, send off the old year, and welcome the new. It is also important to use the day to set the proper tone for the year. For example, if you lend things out on this day, you will find yourself lending things out all year. It is also taboo to talk about death or the past on this day, to use knives and scissors (they may cut off your good fortune), or to wash your hair (you will wash away your good luck). Dressing in red on New Year's scares off evil spirits, and wearing new clothing symbolizes new beginnings.
Feeling The Change
Chinese medicine is based on a lot of Daoist concepts, including the idea that everything everywhere is always shifting and changing all together all at once. According to this philosophy, since change is an inevitable part of life, it is important to acknowledge it, embrace it, and go with the flow. As humans, we experience this in two significant ways: physical changes and changes in consciousness. Sometimes these changes happen bit by bit in increments so small as to be almost imperceptible. An example of this is how we go gray. Day-to-day the shift isn't very dramatic, but over time it is obvious and significant. These changes can also happen in phases. For example, even though our brains are 90% developed by age six, this process isn't complete until the prefrontal cortex matures in our late 20s. This is the part of our brain responsible for empathy, intuition, insight, and emotional intelligence.
In Chinese medicine, it is thought that the bigger, more dramatic shifts occur at regular intervals throughout our lives, like chapters, about every seven years. Western medicine recognizes a couple of these major events, namely puberty and menopause, though Chinese medicine recognizes many more. Interestingly, this theory aligns with the idea in biology that all of our cells turn over about every seven years. In other words, at seven you are a copy of an original, at 14 you are a copy of a copy, at 21 you are a copy of a copy of a copy, and so on. Each consecutive copy is physically less true to the original, resulting in the process that we call aging. However, with each replication, there also comes an evolution in consciousness. Over time our perceptions continue to shift and we become wiser and more true to ourselves. This is one of the greatest gifts of a long life - the wisdom gained over time through consciousness expansion.
I am now firmly in my fifties, a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. I am on the tail end of one of the biggest changes that I have ever experienced. This change is so big, in fact, that it is colloquially referred to in our culture simply as "The Change." What has been most amazing about this process is not so much the physical changes as the change in consciousness and the multiple ways in which this has manifested. The biggest one is that I find myself letting go of the concept of motherhood. I never had any children so this process has been interesting; it is kind of strange to realize that the bloodline ends with me. My thoughts about my mom, who died 15 years ago, have also changed. She is becoming more of an abstract concept, and I find myself feeling more self-reliant over time and less like I want the type of comfort and advice that only a mother can give. The smaller indicators of The Change have been just as interesting. I am letting my hair grow out for the first time in many years. I removed the skeleton key from my keychain, the one I've had since college when I shared an apartment with that friend I haven't talked to in a very long time. I am suddenly craving new music: I downloaded a bunch of stuff for my personal library and have switched the music at my office from new age to ambient. I spontaneously started doing yoga again after taking a couple of years off because at this point it's starting to feel more non-negotiable. I buried my sweet kitty's ashes in the garden under her favorite window. I've decided it's time to learn a new instrument and have chosen the electric bass. I finally took the leap and started volunteering at the hospice. I am generally feeling more sentimental.
It is said that as we age, time goes faster. I think part of this process is that over the course of our lives we stop living as much in the day-to-day and begin to see things more in terms of the bigger patterns. Our daily rhythms become more regular and fixed, we get better at sensing the seasonal shifts, we recognize the onset of a new chapter, and we see further and further into the future. The details and distractions slip away, we simplify, and we see the essence of life more clearly. I know that in my life there are many moons left, but only so many years, and just a handful of chapters. Though life is certainly starting to feel more finite, I am looking forward to the next big change.
Delayed Menstrual Cycles: Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Treatments
In addition to pregnancy, there are many reasons why a menstrual cycle may be delayed. These include conditions like chronic illness, excessive physical work, chronic bleeding disorders, too many children too close together, and excessive breastfeeding. The common denominator among all these conditions is that they are depleting in nature, using up the chi, blood, and nutrients that otherwise would have contributed to the building of the endometrial lining in the uterus. Other causes of delayed menstrual cycles include travel, emotional upsets, irregular diet, and long-standing emotional stress, all of which disrupt our natural rhythms and interfere with the smooth flow of chi and blood in the body.
The main treatment principle for delayed periods due to depletion is tonification via the use of acupuncture points and herbs that are nourishing, supportive, and replenishing. For example, if someone has a pale complexion, a pale tongue, and a history of light periods, we will choose points and herbs that tonify blood. These include points on the channels for the digestive organs, the system responsible for extracting the nutrients needed to make blood from food, and herbs like dong quai, which is naturally high in iron, a nutrient that is necessary for the oxygenation of blood. However, if someone has abdominal distention and breast tenderness, is feeling frustrated or stuck in their lives, and has a history of menstrual clots, then the main treatment principle would be to unblock the flow of chi and blood. Points used in these cases include Spleen 4, Pericardium 6, Liver 3, Liver 14, Snajiao 6, Kidney 14, Spleen 6, and Ren 4 and 6, all of which either move chi or invigorate blood in the lower abdomen. Formulas that are often prescribed for this pattern include xiao yao, a classical formula for PMS that moves chi and nourishes blood, chai hu shu gan, which moves chi and eliminates blood stagnation, or qi zhi xiang fu, which moves chi and strongly invigorates blood.
- CAUTION: If there is a chance that your menstrual cycle is delayed due to pregnancy the following acupuncture points are contraindicated as they can induce labor: Large Intestine 4, Gall Bladder 21, Urinary Bladder 60 and 67, and Spleen 6. All of the points in the lower abdomen and lumbar area are also contraindicated because they can invigorate blood in the local area.
- CAUTION: If there is a chance that your menstrual cycle is delayed due to pregnancy, herbs that invigorate blood are contraindicated. This includes dan shen (salvia root) jiang huang (turmeric rhizome), yi mu cao (Chinese motherwort), and yue ji hua (Chinese tea rose), hu zhang (knotweed rhizome), tao ren (peach kernel), hong hua (safflower), and fan hong hua (saffron). This also includes formulas like tao he cheng qi (Peach Pit to Order the Chi), sheng hua (Generating and Transforming), gui zhi fu ling (Cinnamon Twig and Poria), dang gui shao yao (Dong Gui and Peony), shi xiao (Sudden Smile), or huo luo xiao ling (Fantastically Effective to Invigorate the Collaterals).
Hospice Volunteering
I am really looking forward to starting my volunteer work at CarePartners' Solace Hospice this fall. This has been many years coming. I was first introduced to the concept of hospice as a teenager when my grandfather had cancer. I was struck by the straightforward way in which the staff addressed dying head-on as a natural part of life. Death is such a taboo subject in our culture; it was refreshing to see it reframed as a universal human experience, our final rite of passage. The focus on palliative care over treatment made sense, too. I believe it is a great kindness to help minimize the suffering of others in their final days.
In my practice, I have found my work with terminal patients to be incredibly rewarding. Though I primarily act in a supportive role, helping really sick people manage their symptoms has taught me more about what constitutes true healing than any textbook ever could. In a strange and paradoxical way, it has also taught me about what it really means to live. It wasn't until a few years ago when I was studying for my doctorate, however, that I decided to formally work in hospice. What inspired me was the realization that it is the most integrative branch of medicine. I have always felt that the more people on your health care team the better and that all therapies amplify and complement each other. This philosophy is openly embraced in hospice, with most facilities offering treatments like acupuncture, massage, prayer, and aromatherapy right alongside standard care.
In early 2021 I was able to formalize my growing interest in this field with a certification course through the National Association of Hospice and Palliative Care Acupuncturists. Because of the pandemic, the volunteer program at Solace was suspended, however, so I had to wait until quite recently for it to start up again. As of this spring, the program was back on and I was able to complete my training, orientation, and health check, finalizing my requirements for volunteering. In order to do this, I need to reduce the number of days I work per week, so starting in October I will be working Monday through Thursday instead of Monday through Friday. I will still be working full days Monday through Thursday as usual, 9:30 am to 6:00 pm. I am really looking forward to volunteering and thank you all for your support as I make this shift.
Chinese Medicine is Functional Medicine
Every so often a new buzzword comes into popularity in the medical community, with the latest being "functional medicine." Doctors can now receive special training in this and it is being touted as a new way to practice healthcare that can address the current alarming rise in chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes. In functional medicine, the main idea is to determine how and why illness occurs, both addressing symptoms and restoring health with treatments that target the root cause of disease. It does this by taking into account each patient's unique genetics, lifestyle factors, and disease presentation to create individualized treatment plans.
Though functional medicine is a new approach in western medicine, it is in line with the way that Chinese medicine has always been practiced. Like genetics, we consider what we call your constitution, with the understanding that we are all born with different strengths and weaknesses that protect us from certain types of disease but predispose us to others. We also consider the way that lifestyle factors influence health, especially things like diet and exercise. In addition, we try to determine the root cause of the disease, seeking not only to relieve symptoms but to also correct the underlying imbalance that gave rise to them so they are less like to reoccur. By identifying what we call patterns, the individual's unique set of symptoms, we can determine their biggest common denominators and craft an individualized treatment plan. Like functional medicine, we also seek to restore health, especially when it comes to treating chronic disease. We do this primarily with tonics, a special category of acupuncture points and herbs that optimize health by replenishing depletions and strengthening and normalizing the functioning of the internal organs. In other words, Chinese medicine is functional medicine. When it comes to buzzwords, Chinese medicine is also considered to be complementary, alternative, holistic, mind-body, traditional, integrative, and preventive medicine.
