The Point Post June 5 July 8, 2014 From Elemental Acupressure
Just a little note about sharing : We LOVE sharing acupressure with you and your animals. Just please remember that this material is copyrighted material. So if you want a friend to see this, please send them to our website or our Facebook page.we will be very happy to send this to them! Why? Because it s the right thing to do. But you already knew that, didn t you. Thank you! And for you and all the animals you touch, I wish you great health and vitality, ---Susan
Hello again, Dear Readers, It has been a month (!!) since I sent the last Point Post. In that time we have been super busy cooking up all sorts of good things for you but quietly, in the background, and with not much to show for it on the outside I just know that you will love what we are working on but for now, I ll just have to say trust me and leave it at that. Just know that I have been thinking about all of you and making sure that what we have going on in the background will be worth your patience and understanding. But now it is back to work on the outside. By that I mean I am once again ready to write up all those things that you love to share with your animals. Acu Tips. Acu Points. Cool theory that lets us better understand those magnificent critters that share our lives. As always, if you have a question, I REALLY encourage you to ask. So ask away! But without further ado, here is the Point Post. There are only two posts from this week but I hope you will find them fun and useful. I also include the link to an interview I did with Asia Thayer s online radio show, The Awakening Zone. If you haven t listened to it, give it a go! We talk about acupressure stories and points and so much more. Have a great week! ---Susan
A Special Welcome to our New Comers I also wanted to share a special welcome to our new readers! If you have subscribed during the last month, all you have received is radio silence. So sorry about that! We are so honored to have you on our mailing list and we are eager to share great acupressure with you in the weeks, months and years to come. Since you are not familiar with how we roll, I had better repeat our reason for being here. We have been sharing acupressure with animal lovers just like you for over 20 years. We have traveled all over the world, working with hundreds of students and clients and we see one common desire no matter where you are from: you all want to see your animals thrive using methods that are safe, simple and effective. Acupressure fits the bill perfectly. The reason acupressure is still around after all of these centuries is that it WORKS and it does so in ways that ANYONE can do. Just press some of the points I ll show you and watch your animal sigh with pleasure. The response is unmistakable. No placebo effect. No hocuspocus. Just the body s natural healing ability doing its thing. And you activate it in the comfort of your own home (or at least at your friendly local stable ). How cool is that? Pretty cool, if you ask me! So on a regular basis (I try to do it weekly but it isn t always successful ) I get the Point Post to you so you can dive in and give acupressure a try. I ll teach you techniques and points and lots more. All you have to do is put your hands to work. Want to dive in deeper? Try one of our online classes! From beginner level to advanced theory, we ve got something for everyone who loves animals. Acupressure, shiatsu, EnergyWork, anatomy you name it. When you are ready, we are here for you. In the meantime, stay in touch. Let us know what YOU want to know. Join the fun at our Facebook page or just read the cream of the crop here. And remember: Healthy and Happy, that s our goal. I ll bet it s your goal too. We are really excited to have you here so you can use acupressure to help you get there. ---Susan
Did you hear the interview in June? In late June I did an interview with Asia Voight from The Awakening Zone. If you didn t have a chance to hear it, you can catch the reply here: http://bit.ly/1jmqns8 We talked about all sorts of interesting things having to do with acupressure, healing, energy, and so much more. Give it a go!
Q and A: Chi and conventional medicine Link to the original Facebook post: http://buff.ly/1iwwznq Chi and modern medicine: reconciling traditional and conventional approaches to health Here is a question from one of our students and frequent FB readers. Eva writes: I have had a question running through my head for a while regarding the differences between contemporary medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. You say that when a horse is happy, this is the Chi sparkling in his eyes. Chi is the energy of life etc. My mind still has the reflex of looking for a logical explanation. Maybe he is happy because he was just running, or just ate or etc So he is happy because his body secreted endorphins or whatever. How do you manage to balance out things observed in Chinese medicine with things observed in contemporary medicine. I find I always have this reflex to use scientific logic. So I feel a block. I feel like I need everything to be clear in my head before I can fully embrace the TCM theory. I respond: Wow. Great question. Let s dive in! In our modern world we tend to rely on the RELIGION of SCIENCE to explain things. And in many, MANY places, this is a good thing. I LOVE science! But even science has some limitations. And describing consciousness is one of them. We can experience
consciousness personally we ALL do! We can measure consciousness in some ways. We can watch consciousness (or the lack of it) when an animal dies and we see that the consciousness has passed. So we can DESCRIBE and EXPERIENCE consciousness but science has yet to EXPLAIN it. We might not like that truth. But it is true none the less. There are sooooo many things we can't explain yet. Doesn t make em less true though For example, science has tried to nail down a definition of the moment of death. Scientists can t agree on the exact point of death because they don t really agree what death IS or what consciousness is. But we ALL agree that death happens, right? Whether you believe in reincarnation, heaven/hell, or nothingness after life, we all know that death of the body does indeed happen. Even if we can t explain it. And surprisingly, this lack of ability to explain consciousness and life does not negate it. It just means we are still learning about our world. Religion and contemplative thinkers come as close as we can, but they don t all agree either, do they? Slippery stuff, consciousness! We see the same challenge when we try to nail down chi. Chi or life force energy or prana, mana,ki, spirit call it what you will but while we ALL experience it and accept that it MUST exist, we do not know how to explain it. It is still too slippery. What exactly is chi? Hmmmm We see its effects every single day. Like consciousness, we live it! In fact, consciousness and chi are really the same thing. Here are just two ways we see chi in action: 1: That sparkle in your animal s eye as he dances with pleasure at seeing you walk toward him? Yes it has a physiological component but it is chi that drives the physiology. Those endorphins we have running around our bodies, are also triggered by a chi response the energetic states of being happy or sad or hungry or sick all trigger physiologic responses but they originate with the chi, not the body. 2: We press an acupressure point and watch the animal close his eyes in pleasure and give a big yawn. Or we press the same point on another day and feel the animal tense involuntarily. The chi at the point either releases (first case) or is stuck and is asking for release. So sometimes we can call chi by one of its scientific names perhaps a metabolic or any other physiologic response, for example but these are just TYPES of chi. The larger question: what is chi? That is still one that we have to understand intuitively, instinctively. We have to FEEL the answer and KNOW the answer but we cannot (yet) unfold the answer with our logic. By know I mean KNOW in our gut, not our brain. Mr. Spock might not approve, but Yoda would agree wholeheartedly. Oh yeah, Yoda would think with his heart, FEELING the answer, instead of thinking it through with his (quite capable) brain. Every time we do acupressure we do the same. Whatever we believe, or DON T believe, the points work. We may not be able to explain acupressure, but we can absolutely watch its effect. We know that with animals it is not just a placebo effect. It is chi that allows the dog to relax to HT 1. It is chi that allows the horse to yawn as I press PC 6. And for most days that is enough for me.
On those days that I want to know WHY and all of the other big questions out there? Well my guess is that meditation and contemplation will probably take me closer than scientific thought. At least for now So to this student I say: thank you for a GREAT question! It is ALWAYS good for long time teachers to stop and ponder WHY we have these things at the foundation of our practice. These are basic things that most of us accept but it is GREAT to consider WHY we place that block of thought at the foundation. And questions like this help newcomers understand our work AND it keeps us always questioning, making sure that we are not just taking in an idea just because it is popular within a group of practitioners. Now that you are here at the bottom of this lengthy post, what do YOU think chi is? How do YOU experience it? Post your feelings in the comments! I'd love to hear what you have to say!! We posted TWO ways to access the chi note. This one is a pretty image from a colleague and I can t resist posting it again. Here is your quote for the day. It matches our NOTE on chi energy. If you haven't read the NOTE yet, I invite you to read it here. http://buff.ly/1iwwznq This image is from a colleague who paints amazing full sized work and has just launched her etsy site for small (and affordable!) small paintings. By Tara Flores Found at http://buff.ly/1iwwxwi
Tips for successful acupressure with puppies and other bouncy won't-sit-still animals Link to original post: http://on.fb.me/1n51kjb A student wrote today asking if it is possible to work with a very young dog. She has been practicing her acupressure points with a puppy and is finding it hard! The puppy keeps wanting to play and does not seem able to relax. She wanted to know if she should persevere and what to expect if she does. I responded: OH yes!! It IS possible to work with a puppy. But I am not saying it will be easy!! Working with a puppy takes patience. You are actually training the puppy to receive attention and handling like this. If you think of it as a training session, you may find that you have more patience with the process. By the way, these approaches work for ALL species, including children!! (Tips start on the next page)
Here are a couple of additional tips: 1: Work with the puppy when he is pooped out! That means giving him a full play session before you try to do any acupressure. It is a LOT to ask a puppy to sit still. Stack the deck in your favor by getting him tired. You don't want to over exercise him! But a good and playful session is just the thing to wear him out and put him in the mood for some relaxation time. 2: Work when there are no distractions. Few puppies will be able to stay still if there are other animals or activities calling for his attention. 3: Make your sessions SHORT! That means starting with only one point on one or both sides and working up to 5-10 minutes over time. There is no hurry! You have YEARS to train the dog how to respond! Again, consider it a training session and you may find it more satisfying. 4: Use points like HT 1 (see Resources, below) to relax the puppy. The majority of puppies are not getting acupressure because there is a health issue so you usually don t have to focus on fixing something. Just give him some feel good points to calm his mind after that romp with his favorite toy. Good choices are: PC 6, HT 1, HT 7 and PC 7. The links to posts showing those locations are on the next page. Basic Acupressure How-to: http://bit.ly/1ohzdi0 To learn more about acupressure for puppies, adult dogs and any other type of animal you may have in your midst, visit: www.elementalacupressure.com MORE RESOURCES PC 6: http://on.fb.me/1k3dfry (Ignore the text about digestive issues and skip to the instructions) http://on.fb.me/tr1j4s HT 7 and PC 7: http://bit.ly/1pxt1ab HT 1: http://bit.ly/1xohndq http://on.fb.me/1tks1dh http://on.fb.me/1mwpub3 That s all for this week! Let us know if you have any questions or feedback!! And remember we LOOOOVE seeing photos of you and your animals! Feel free to share what you are up to!