How Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Can Help You Achieve Your 2018 Wellness Goals

Boulder, CO

We all have aspirations. For some these dreams are like a quiet, gentle nudge; for others they are constant reminders at the forefront of our thought, driving every decision. Whether our dream is to create a warm home with a loving family, to build a business from the ground up, or to accomplish a challenging physical feat like running a marathon, preparation is imperative to accomplish our goals. I think of these deeper desires as an outgrowth of each person’s unique journey and call them heartseeds. Our world is woven together by each person’s contribution. My personal goal is to positively impact the lives of the people around me, through my work as an acupuncturist, in my role in the Boulder community, and with my family. I always set clear goals with my patients for what they want and help them find measurable results to help them get back to the life they want. Setting goals is pivotal in manifesting the reality we seek. I am always excited to hear what people want for themselves and it is wonderful to be a part of their journey. Some of our clients in Boulder are planning for triathlons or epic ski seasons; others seek reduction in pain, want to manage or overcome anxiety, or want to improve digestion.  I am here to support all of them, and you. It is rewarding to see people get the results they seek and the freedom they want. The end of the year is a good time to reflect on where we are, imagine where we want to go, and set goals accordingly. We all need support, encouragement, and inspiration to follow through and achieve what we set out to do.

Acupuncture and herbal medicine can help you achieve your goals by increasing energy, resolving stress, and encouraging focus and drive.

One way to ensure we accomplish our dreams is to manage and increase our energy. There are a number of different ways that acupuncture and herbal medicine helps promote vitality, and I use these modalities in our Boulder clinic. Our bodies create energy through digestion and metabolism. According to Eastern medicine, when the digestive system is not operating effectively our bodies produce dampness. Dampness causes the whole body to operate in a sluggish manner. It can manifest as feeling tired and heavy (after eating a large meal), headaches (along with feeling foggy), certain types of constipation and in chronic joint and muscle achiness often associated with fatigue. Acupuncture and medicinal herbs can strengthen the digestive system and “drain and resolve dampness.”

Along with acupuncture and herbs, I also offer suggestions on what foods will help your pattern resolve to our Boulder patients. For instance, dairy, fried foods, and excessive amounts of sugar lead to a sluggish digestive system while bitter greens, squash, coffee and tea drain dampness. We also have a dynamic and active aspect of our bodies called “yang”. Yang is characterized by warmth, activity, movement, and energy. When the body has adequate yang it rarely encounters issues with dampness. Lifestyle and diet can have an impact on your yang energy and acupuncture and herbs can help restore and revitalize your yang energy. When the body has more energy it can heal faster. If you want to climb a fourteener, recover from your workouts faster, or increase your endurance, you want your metabolism and yang to operate at their best. Maybe you would like to overcome anxiety,  sleep through the night, or put your socks on without pain. Big or small, every person’s goals are important, and once achieved, enhance the quality and purpose of life.

If you are already stretched thin from managing the day-to-day baseline activities such as getting your kids to school, cooking, cleaning the house, getting to work on time, and grocery shopping, it can be difficult to accomplish your long-term goals. I see commonly see this as a complaint from patients in my Boulder clinic. Acupuncture and herbal medicine are resourceful tools to overcome stress and transform your life. You can also find internal support from visualizations I share. Throughout care, my Boulder patients share their daily stressors and pressures. Some people feel overwhelmed by their schedules, struggle, or feel paralyzed by pressure. Many of these people come to treatment at our Boulder clinic for a physical complaint, but notice through their treatments, they are managing stress better, and in general, feel more positive.

How acupuncture and herbal medicine can help you overcome stress and pain

According to Chinese Medicine, stress arises when we feel stuck, when we do not know where to go or how to get to our destination. Some signs of stress are:  when we hold our breath, sigh frequently, hold muscular tension in our bodies (often in our neck and shoulders), and get angry or frustrated easily. Acupuncturists call this “liver qi stagnation.” Movement and exercise are important components of a healthy lifestyle that can help move liver qi and reduce the associated symptoms. Acupuncture treatments allow the mind and body to relax, stress hormones such as cortisol to drop, and breathing to deepen. In deep relaxation, openness and creativity arise and you have the opportunity to evaluate and assess each situation, free of obstacles. A previously stressful situation is now an exciting chance to exercise creativity. A positive attitude and healthy perspective are essential for hitting targets we have set ourselves.

What are your goals this year?

Have you ever noticed how hard it can be to have an intentional, focused conversation with a friend or loved one or to stay focused on an important task? The ability to stay focused and maintain resolve have become compromised in our culture by wildly distracting technological tools. Phones buzz in the middle of important conversations, emails and Facebook call to us while we are working, and at night the television invites us to relax without any communication with the person next to us. We are constantly bombarded with requests for our attention and energy. It is reasonable to devise methods to stay clear and focused. Ironically, sometimes as we push closer towards our goal, the drive to make it the last small stretch wanes because we run out of energy and we come up shy of the benchmark. How can we go all the way? In Chinese Medicine, the kidneys “store the vitality and mobilize the body. They also aid the memory, willpower, and coordination” (Huang Di Nei Jing Ch. 8). I seek to get to the root of the situation, to address the constitutional health so you can stand tall, feel strong, and have the drive you need and deserve.

I also think about the psychological impact of pain. It takes a certain amount of willpower just to make it through a day with pain. When we alleviate the pain, we increase the amount of drive available for other things. As a practitioner in Boulder, CO, it is amazing to watch local people in our community regain power in the their lives and accomplish their goals. Improving strength, drive, energy, and confidence plays a large part in feeling successful.

Set a wellness goal for 2018

Setting goals is crucial to achieve what we desire and ensures we offer our gifts to the world. Sing, code software, teach children, advise, knit, garden, write, operate, or parent.  Whatever your gift, share it! Creating goals helps us stay on track and continuously find ways to create and give. When life presents us with obstacles and challenges, it is important to have emotional and physical supports in place.  When in pain, we are quicker to snap, have interrupted sleep, and have restrictions in our social and work life; our energy wanes. Tools exist to renew and inspire us back to vitality. Acupuncture and herbs are powerful medicine, rooted in spirit and grounded in science. I share in clients’ joy when they reach optimal health and accomplish their goals.

Now is the ideal time to reflect on 2017 and think about what you want to create in the coming year. As a suggestion, create goals for several categories in your life; career, health, family, etc., and differentiate between short-term and long-term goals. Write down your goals; it frees your mind and creates space for possibility and direction. It gives you vision and inspiration for your life beyond your necessary daily tasks. Create action items and set a specific timeline. Put them in your calendar with reminders, and find a friend or family member who can help keep you accountable.

If you live in the Boulder, CO area and you’d like support you can sign up now for our special New Years offer:

Purchase 12 treatments and receive 18% off your first treatments of 2018!

• Plus 18% off herbal purchases for the entire year.

• Includes Coaching around your personal health goals

You can choose to spread the treatments out monthly to ensure year-long health, or condense them as desired.

Happy New Year!