It’s always been important to me that my courses have transformational value all on their own. Over the years I’ve seen so many people come to my courses who weren’t really interested in being practitioners – they just wanted healing and understanding of the connections between mind, body and spirit. And for the practitioner oriented students it’s important to be working on your own healing so that you can hold space for others. So in addition to all the the techniques learned and the balancing received in the course, I also want the information to be relevant to people’s lives. I recently got some great feedback on just how powerful this approach could be.
One of the last times that I taught Ancient Wisdom and had time before and after the course for some private sessions so I really got to know several of the participants on the course. And I’ve got two really cool stories about the transformational power of attending the course. Both stories are about the how this course empowers people to understand their health challenges and take positive action to get better.
One person had suffered from long-term chronic fatigue despite leading a very healthy lifestyle and eating a very conscious and healthy diet. I see this all the time – people doing all the “right things” and still struggling with their health issues. The frustration over not getting better when you are trying so hard often leads to either depression or anxiety as an additional problem. Taking the Ancient Wisdom course really helped this person to see how all of their health problems could be seen as a weakness of energy (Qi) reserves. And to see how our mental attitudes affect our ability to make Qi and keep our reserves up. The practice sessions in the class really help to integrate the information on an energetic level so that a deeper perspective shift is possible. Our private session also helped this person to see how their boundaries both at work and at home affected the ability to make and store Qi. The bottom line is that the person experienced such a dramatic improvement in both energy levels and mood that our follow-up session was focused more on deepening spiritual growth rather than on physical symptoms. After years of trying different therapies, this one weekend was a huge turnaround.
The other person was going through a very difficult period emotionally and had to take medications to manage their symptoms. A local Accunect practitioner recommended that they take the upcoming Ancient Wisdom course in order to have a whole weekend of energy balancing and to learn some ways to help manage their problems naturally. The person felt much more balanced by the end of the course, and was able to understand how their symptoms were related to Yin deficiency – which makes it understandable and manageable. Yin is the calming energy in the body and the mind. It’s not a western concept so we don’t know how to properly measure it in western medicine. But thousands of years of observation in Chinese medicine tells us that when you don’t have enough Yin, you’re restless, irritable, frustrated, have insomnia, disturbing dreams and may be prone to either panic attacks or angry outbursts. That covers a lot of the symptoms of what we label as mental illness; the more severe the Yin deficiency the stronger and more upsetting the symptoms. But labeling something mental illness only creates more depression and anxiety – because it seems hopeless. When you can see the issue as a basic energy imbalance that people have been successfully treating for thousands of years, there’s hope.
Back to the story. After the course and the private session, my client was much more grounded, calmer, able to sleep better, and more able to function on all levels – and is now weaning off the medications under the supervision of the prescribing physician. Instead of looking forward to a lifetime of medical symptom management, they can look forward to making empowered choices and having a full life. Which you rather hear? That you’re suffering from an unpronounceable, incurable medical condition and may need medication indefinitely, or that your energy is out of balance, and here’s what you can do to help it get better? Just getting a scary diagnosis is enough to make you feel anxious and a bit crazy.
Pretty cool changes for a weekend course. And reaffirms what I’ve long said is that the biggest takeaway from Chinese Medicine course is hope. Chronic fatigue isn’t “officially” curable. But Qi deficiency can be healed. Mental illness isn’t “officially” curable, only manageable. But Yin deficiency can also be healed. I know which perspective I prefer.
Ancient Wisdom provides a condensed course in Chinese Medicine theory AND a way to balance the acupuncture meridians without needles. It is instantly usable by anyone, and is open to anyone – we teach muscle checking and balancing techniques in the class for people who haven’t taken another Accunect course. For professional acupuncturists, the course provides a way to get “outside the box” insights into patients as well as a way to treat patients who prefer not to be needled.
Visit the calendar page to see when Ancient Wisdom is being offered next.