 If you give a hungry man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime." Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM) is whole person healing. We all possess a divine spark called Shen / Consciousness. When we awaken to this spark there is an experience of aliveness that pervades our entire consciousness. This experience of being alive extends to every cell in your body and beyond. This information or energy of Life is called Qi. It conducts and co-ordinates the extraordinary functioning of the body. Qi infuses the spark of life through every aspect of the physical body such as cells, enzymes, organs, nervous system, digestion, brain activity, hormones etc. The holistic healing model is expressed elegantly as Shen - Qi - Jing. I prefer to express this as Mind-Information of Life-Physical body. The importance of these three components to your overall wellbeing & health is roughly in the ratio of 70-20-10. So if you only focus on the physical body whilst ignoring the rest then you only get a possible 10% of outcome. When you involve energy healing with physical methods, you get a possible 30%. When you involve your Shen / mind you can max out the potential for deepest level of healing. I use this model to assess the capacity and extent of healing in all my patients. It is from this premise that I start from with all my patients / clients. Through the process of impactful conversations I point you to what is already there so that you can arrive at your own insights. It is only really through insights can lasting change to your life and health occur. Through expertly applying acupuncture we guide this awareness of Life to healing. Focussed instructions in qigong, dietetics, and guided meditation empowers you to make your own medicine. This is not a replacement for the advice and care of your family doctor or specialist. Most people seek my expertise when other systems have failed. The Principle that Powers Life Consciousness is the principle that underpins Life. It is all there is, the ground of Being if you will. We are alive because we are conscious. When we awaken to this fact, we begin to heal deeply when we start to live life from inside out. When we take consciousness as the starting point, we will awaken to the fact that actually live inside the experience of our thoughts, not the experience of circumstances. Feeling is a barometer to thinking, it indicates the inner weather. It guides you back to the fact the it’s your thinking, not circumstances, that create the feelings. The usual reaction to this is to control thinking, overlaying negative thinking with positive thinking. Yet this works for a while. Then you need to keep adding further thinking to prevent you slipping back into the negative thinking. This method is like moving around the furniture and only works up to a point. The inside out way is simply to know that it’s just a thought. This thought arises from the boundlessly creative expanse of consciousness. And there are plenty of thoughts that are created. So you do not need to control your thinking with further thinking - ie putting more thinking on top of thinking, aka overthinking. Just acknowledge it’s presence and wait for it to pass. It will. It always does. Just knowing this you become aware of a space and immediately experience to peace in the presence of mind. Within this space is the possibility for fresh and new thinking, or insight. This insight changes everything. Just be present and wait for the apple to fall…it will…it always does. As we deepen our awareness and marvel at this principle that directs Life, we shall discover other remarkable things about life and our experience of peace, satisfaction and contentment deepens. There ensues better health, heightened performance, and evolution. Why we get sick From this point of view, we get sick because we ignore the signs and symptoms of dis-ease. This dis-ease arises from the fact that we rarely truly experience a sense of coming home, being at peace. When we do we put it down to some other reason and we return to the usual habituated thinking and ways. These habituated and largely learned ways make us lost in the thinking that our feelings are caused by external circumstances, by our limitations. They cut us off from being present to and marvelling at the “plenum of space” within and all around us, consciousness itself. That despite everything, we have always been and will always be part of the divine and limitless spark of consciousness that powers Life. At any moment we can awaken from the sleep of habituation. We can choose to look beyond the thinking into the creator or thoughts and feelings, into the limitless space of consciousness itself. Implications to Health & Healing Classical Chinese Medicine know this intimately and has mapped out in detail how the divine spark of consciousness, Shen, plays out in our physical body. The relationship between divinity and humanity creates a dynamic relationship that has a quality of movement called Qi. This Qi animates all the physical processes. Qi is transmitted through channels of energetic flow throughout the body as part of the sacred geometry of the body. When this dynamic is functioning well, there is a state of homeostasis or normal physiological functioning. The channels that govern moment by moment normal functioning are called the Primary Channels or Meridians. You see these channels depicted in all the charts associated with acupuncture. These primary channels govern the transformation of food & drink into the creation of fluids, blood, hormones. They are responsible for the maintenance of normal function of the organs and circulation of these substances to nourish and sustain life. However the creative intelligence needs to maintain the primacy of life, or the beating of the heart / Heart / Sovereign, from toxins or pathology. For this other channel systems, not normally depicted in the charts, come into play. The Channels of Humanity The channel system that protects the primacy of life, supporting the essential function of the primary channels, are called complement channels. They consist of the Sinew, Lou, Divergent and 8 Extraordinary Channels. These channels function to keep pathology away from the primary channels. These complement channels therefore function to maintain humanity. The Threats to Humanity / Pathogenic Factors There are numerous pathogenic factors (PF’s) that can threaten our humanity. These can be classified according to how the body reacts to the pathogens External
Lifestyle - Food, drink, poor sleep, stress etc, ie modern life -> depletion of body’s resources and weakening immune function Internal - Overthinking, Unprocessed emotions, Genetics Layers of Qi in the Human Body Qi is a subtle form or energy which flows throughout the channels fo the body and integrates all the mental activity with physical processes. The Qi that is protective or guard us from external pathogens is called Wei / protective Qi The Qi that nourishes and contains the medium for feelings / emotions in the body is called Ying / nutritive Qi The Qi that conducts the unfolding of our genetic code is called Yuan / Source Qi. Complement Channels function to maintain humanity Invasions from external pathogens are met by the Sinew channels which conduct Wei qi. We commonly know this to be the immune system. Yet Wei qi is also involved in the sleep wake (circadian rhythm), the functioning of smooth muscles (digestive tract, urinary and reproductive functions), and all autonomic process, that is processes that are not under normal conscious control. Normal immunity is maintained through observing the foundations of health - maintaining a peaceful loving heart, food, exercise, rest and sleep. When the immune system malfunctions the pathogens invade deeper. So in order to protect the body’s function, the pathogens are held in a state of latency. This means that they are stored away in spaces that neutralises their effects on health. To make the pathogen latent, the body can create new space - such as new blood vessels, or lumps and bumps, to contain the pathogen and take them out of normal circulation. This creates Luo channels. Pathogens can also be pushed into the synovial fluids (joints) and gums. This creates Divergent Channels. Even the genetic material has space to store the pathogens. This can only be accessed by tapping into the Yuan Qi layer via the Eight Extraordinary Vessels (8EVs). Maintaining Latency to Preserve Humanity The creation of latency often gives rise signs and symptoms of dis-ease, but doesn’t usually disrupt the normal physiology. This is the reasons why laboratory tests and imaging techniques such as X-rays, ultrasound and MRI scans can often appear normal, yet the person can feel that something’s not right inside. This is the amazing role of the channel systems which keep everything functioning despite years of unaware living and often downright abuse of the body. Such is the benevolence of the divine spark that powers our life. When latency is lost in the Divergent channels and the pathogen begins to leak out, it gives rise to signs and symptoms of arthritis, chronic relapsing and recurring conditions, autoimmunity. When latency is lost in the 8EV’s this gives rise to signs and symptoms of chronic degenerative sickness such as dementia, Parkinson’s, cancer, severe autoimmunity etc… How I diagnose your condition So everything that you present with indicates the likelihood of how deeply the pathogen has penetrated. This can range from physical signs and mental symptoms, pulse, tongue, quality of speech etc. All these factors give us the probability of where the pathogen could be in your energy system. What it would look like to work with me Here's what it would look like when we work together :
Why I chose the bespoke approach As a medical doctor, trained to serve the sick within the NHS, I adopted a stress based system of tending to the ill and sick. It was to see the most amount of people in the shortest amount of time. It was really a fire fighting model, and whilst this was suitable for life threatening emergencies or life saving operations, it was not conducive for the vast majority of sickness that patients often presented with. Not to mention the impact on the health and wellbeing of the physician themselves. I observed so much fall out in the health, broken relationships, and addictions to cope with these constant and high pressure demands in both own and that of my friends and colleagues' lives. So it was that I undertook training in Classical Chinese Medicine. This worked so much better since I got to spend more time with patients. I saw a lot less patients but the quality of the interactions and medicine that could be administered was a real game changer. After 20 years as a medical doctor and advanced acupuncturist, I have discovered that people only ever truly heal when effective treatment is accompanied by a shift in mindset. Sovereign Health is a bespoke consultancy service for those with persistent or long-term health concerns, designed to get to the root of the problem and bring about real change. Since each person is different, the level of care and attention required is going to vary from person to person. When someone becomes very unwell through chronic sickness it is different from someone with an acute problem. If we compare to a building project, then treating those with acute issues are like repainting a room in a large house. However those with chronic degenerative sickness is often like a renovation project as the building has been neglected by long years of living hard, playing hard, or living a less than full life. These people require a lot more input and focussed attention to repair. Yet if you are motivated to become well and deeply heal then there is a possibility that you will transform your sickness either to become fully healed or to discover a vast resource of inner peace, contentment and and wellbeing despite the sickness. If this is you and you'd like to discover a way to heal from the inside out, then book in for a 20 minute conversation to see how we can work together. Comments are closed.
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