Natural Therapies

Relaxation/Stress Reduction Ear Point

/ Amy Buckley

This auricular (ear) ‘acupuncture’ point can be used to produce a relaxed feeling all over the body, reduce anxiety, reduce stress, become more grounded, and produce clearer thinking.  It is excellent for situations where you know you get stressed – presentations, tests, flying on airplanes, etc.

The energy point is easily accessible and can be activated by pressing on it or massaging it (no acupuncture needle needed!).  Massage this place on both ears for at least 30 seconds for best results.  For on-going stress relief place a seed at this point as described below.

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Energy Medicine & Pregnancy II

/ Amy Buckley

The most well known Energy Medicine used today – Chinese Medicine has many specific body points and herb formulas used to support all stages of pregnancy.  Two of the most widely used points for pregnancy are located on the feet.  The first point is found at the base of the toenail on the little toe of the mother.  If the baby is Breech then activating this point will cause the baby to reposition itself. This point has been used for thousands of years in China, just for this purpose.  The point can also work if one twin is not positioned correctly.

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The little toe point is best utilized for breech presentation in week 34 – 37 of the pregnancy.  And using heat (from an herb called moxa) on the point daily is the best way to activate the point to get the fetus to turn.

The second pregnancy foot point is located behind the exterior ankle.  This point on the Mother’s foot can be used to start labor or progress labor if it has stalled out.  No drugs are needed – just pressing the foot point or applying heat to the point will start the labor process!

Interested in finding out more about these gentle birthing techniques?  Click on the Contact tab and request a consultation at Silver Mountain Health or talk to any Chinese Medicine Practitioner, Acupuncturist, or other healthcare professional trained in Chinese Medicine.

Energy Medicine and Pregnancy

/ Amy Buckley

Yes its safe!  I have several patients in various stages of pre-pregnancy/pregnancy/post-partum and they all wish they had started Energy Medicine sooner because of how much it is helping them.  Energy techniques are gentle and non-invasive.  Besides inducing a feeling of relaxation (that lasts for days after the treatment), Energy Medicine can help resolve issues at all stages of this unique and challenging time.  Fertility problems, pregnancy back pain, fatigue, breech presentation, inducing labor, postpartum depression, lactation issues, baby jaundice, failure to thrive – no issue is too great or too small for Energy Medicine.  Screenshot 2017-10-19 12.33.30

Pregnancy is a huge time of growth for the Baby and the Mother.  There is no better time to get extra help keeping both Mother and Baby balanced and healthy.   This post is the start of a series of blog posts on Energy Medicine in Reproductive Health.  Follow this blog to be notified of new posts.

 

The Shen 神

/ Amy Buckley

    In Chinese Medicine the Shen is energy located in the center of the chest. The Shen is said to be the equivalent of the Emperor or Empress and as such he/she is in charge of all the other organs in the body (which also have ‘jobs’ in the Emperor/Empress’ Court).  When the Shen is present in his/her Palace – located over the physical heart, then the Shen can be seen in a person’s eyes and in their face.  The Shen indicates the overall health of the body.  

    Through energy balancing the Shen (and the body) becomes healthy and happy and the ‘face’ a balanced person shows the world can be strikingly different than the face they had when they were ill/imbalanced.  To illustrate this concept I’ll share here an email I wrote to a friend that I was doing energy balancing with:  

Hi,

I wanted to make sure I mentioned this before we got too far away from yesterday…
But I saw what I would describe as your Shen being fully in your body yesterday – and it is so amazing.

You’ve said in the past you can’t see or feel the difference but to me it is so striking, so amazingly different. So much so I feel I have to tell you about it.

What does it look like?  I’ll try to explain…
Mostly I see it in your face.  And it is definitely like how seeing people’s Shen has been described in class.  Your skin tone has more color, more yellows and pink tone rather than blue and beige.  Your smile is much broader and wider. Which then makes a difference in your cheeks and the overall shape of your face…being rounder/softer shapes.

And your eyes are the nexus of it all.  They are so alive and full of joy.  They seem to be so many colors at once.  And actually when I see this in you and look in your eyes it’s so captivating I loose track of what I am saying; 

And the feeling you emit is open, inclusive, and warm.  Other times you lead with your boundary layer but at these times it feels like your heart and compassion are shining out from beyond your boundaries and that’s what greets people in the world.  Your boundaries are still there, but underneath.

It’s really incredible. And I’m so reminded of the line in that Chinese poem I showed you….  ‘When there is light in the Shen, there is beauty in the person’.

When I see what I feel is your Shen in you, like yesterday…..You are so beautiful.
And I mean that in the most celestial way.
It’s that Universal beauty you may have seen when you look at the night sky, far away from city lights…the beauty of thousands of stars forming the Milky Way….a beauty so great that it fills you with awe and wonder.  And you are immediately captivated and speechless.

That’s what I saw yesterday when I looked at you.

-Amy.

The Science of Energy

/ Amy Buckley

E = mc²

Don’t let this equation scare you – it just says Energy is equal to Matter. Let’s step through it together…

E = Energy, also called: Qi, Prana, Ki, Vital Force, intangible stuff

m = mass, also called matter, Yin, tangible stuff

c² = a constant squared, in this case the constant is the Speed of Light: 299, 800, 000 meters/second.  Yes, 300 million meters per second.

What if we rearrange the equation?   Then  matter = Energy/speed of light².

You are made of matter.   So you are Energy divided by the speed of light².

YOU ARE ENERGY.

So you are made of energy and you are made of matter.  Which part of you – the matter side or the energy side is easier to change?  Let’s think about it this way:  A 250 pound football player stands in a room.  That is quite a lot of matter standing in the room.  And how easy is it for you to change or move the football player?  It is not easy.  Now put that football player in a room with a martial arts master – some one trained to use energy to move his opponent.  How easy is it for the martial arts master to move or change the football player?  Very easy.

Now let’s put an injured or sick version of you in a room with a Medical Doctor (MD), trained to heal you by changing your matter – bones, muscles, cells, etc.  How easy is it for the MD to change you?  Not easy, the MD needs to run tests and put you in a specific category (diagnosis) in order to know which drugs, surgery, or physical therapy to use.  Instead let’s put you in a room with an Energy Practitioner (me, Amy Buckley) trained to heal you by changing your energy.  How easy is it for me to change you?  Very easy – no tests are needed, just your symptoms and feelings about what is wrong.  Additionally, I am trained to feel your energy (no special equipment needed).  I can feel areas where your energy is blocked, stuck, slowed, or nonexistent.  And then I use energy (qi) and light touch on your body’s energy points to change your energy issues.  Essentially I have an energy conversation with your energy.  I am trained to ‘speak’ in the language of energy to explain to your energy what is wrong and how to change.

You are energy, so changing your energy issues changes and heals you.

The Energy of Food

/ Amy Buckley

In my experience I found food to resonate with certain emotions or actions.  Below is a list I compiled.  If you are eating with intention, eating for healing purposes, or just curious… try eating a food below and see if you agree with my assessment.

Food Description
Apples Surprise
Beans – all Despair
Beef Contemplation
Beets Humble
Broccoli Expansive
Brusselsprout Mysterious
Butter – all Love
Cabbage Lonliness
Carrots Happy
Celery Clarity
Cherry – Dark Death/Chaos/Yin
Cherry – Light Life/Order/Yang
Chocolate Yearning
Chocolate – Dark w/Carmel Orgasm
Cocoa Satisfaction
Dill Softness
Eggs Renewal
Fish – dark Truthfulness at rest
Fish – white Truthfulness in motion
Ginko Tea Qi (energy) for Chakras 4 and higher
Gliadin Frightened
Gluten Fear
Grapes – dark Passionate stillness
Grapes – light Passion in motion
Italian parsley Clean
Kale Firm
Kumkwat Cheerful
Lemon Denial
Lentils all Insulting
Lettuce Heavenly/The Dao
Molasses – Blackstrap Piqued
Molasses – regular Mildly interesting
Olive Oil luscious
Onion Strict
Pineapple Interesting
Pork Wisdom
Potato – red Sex with sensuality / Yin Energy
Potato – white Sex w/out love / Yang energy
Potato – white w/skin Balanced Sex/Kundalini energy/Yin&Yang energy
Potato red w/skin Sex w/love
Rice Joy
Salt Tonify
Sauerkraut Togetherness
Strawberry Satisfaction
Sugar – refined Mind-blowing
Sugar – whole Intriguing
Tree sap Life
Whole Wheat Afraid
Wine – dark Bitterness
Wine – light Overjoyed
Yams Love

Help! Something is (still) wrong with me!

/ Amy Buckley

Feeling like something is wrong with you?  Been to many ‘doctors’ or ‘experts’ and still feel not quite right?  Don’t let people try to convince you it’s in your head!  Below is some collective wisdom from my 5 and a half year journey back to being 100% healthy.  According to regular medical doctors I was ‘doing everything right’ – exercise, eating healthy, taking vitamins, sleeping well, etc.  Yet I was still massively sick!  It turns out western medicine, the only kind I knew when I got sick, is only looking at one aspect of our (very complex) bodies.  Read below to see if you have covered all these ways to investigate your body.

Here are the layers of the body that can be contributing to a problem and who can help:

  • The MD‘s (medical doctors) will be checking your physical body organs to see if they can diagnose anything.  Very often, if you don’t fit a commonly accepted diagnosis or disease category they can’t help you.
    ND‘s (Naturopathic Doctors) also diagnose physical body organs but can offer alternatives when you don’t fit into any medically accepted disease category.
  • Call a Chiropractor to see if any of your bones are out of alignment and causing the trouble ….ask me if you don’t know why this could cause digestive distress, emotional issues, muscle aches, behavioral problems, etc.!
  • Fascial Planes – someone who is trained in Cranial Sacral Therapy or Reiki can check this important structure which is all over your body. Fascia is the way your body maintains it’s physical shape and is your body’s communication highway.  Communication problems within your body equates to physical problems that you can feel.  Often if chiropractic changes ‘won’t stick’ then a patient is sent to get their fascial planes worked on and then the chiropractic changes stay in place.
  • Energy – Energy Medicine Practitioners, Acupuncturists, (some) Massage Therapists, and Shiatsu Practitioners, work with your body’s energy systems (which have been used and documented for over 3000 years) to fix the body, mind, and spirit. To be more specific:
    • the body = all items listed in 1. – 3. above
    • the mind = emotions, thought patterns, behavior, etc.
    • the spirit = how balanced and connected we feel in our lives

As you can see, to save yourself time and money, you may want to start with a practitioner in this Energy category – since they can work on all body areas at once.

Does Acupuncture work?

/ Amy Buckley / 1 Comment

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared, in 2003, that it does – in valid clinically controlled trials.  They have posted some of those scientific studies on their website as well as an 87 page report detailing their own findings on Acupuncture.

Click on the link below to see for yourself.   (2018 update – WHO changed their website and I can not yet find where they moved the report; but I’ll put the WHO link below anyway).

Here is an opening to one of the WHO report pages:

“Over its 2500 years of development, a wealth of experience has accumulated in the practice of acupuncture, attesting to the wide range of diseases and conditions that can be effectively treated with this approach. Unlike many other traditional methods of treatment, which tend to be specific to their national or cultural context, acupuncture has been used throughout the world, particularly since the 1970s”.

WHO website link.

Straight from the website are 27 diseases/disorders that WHO found scientific evidence which supported/”proved” that Acupuncture was good for (see below).  And on their site this list is followed by another list of 63 conditions which scientific studies have shown benefits for, but broader studies are needed before WHO will call those diseases/disorders ‘proven’ to be effectively treated by acupuncture:

1. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture has been proved-through controlled trials-to be an effective treatment:

Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
Biliary colic
Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)
Dysentery, acute bacillary
Dysmenorrhoea, primary
Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)
Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)
Headache
Hypertension, essential
Hypotension, primary
Induction of labour
Knee pain
Leukopenia
Low back pain
Malposition of fetus, correction of
Morning sickness
Nausea and vomiting
Neck pain
Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction)
Periarthritis of shoulder
Postoperative pain
Renal colic
Rheumatoid arthritis
Sciatica
Sprain
Stroke
Tennis elbow

Sinus Infection

/ Amy Buckley

My husband gets recurring sinus infections every 12months or so.  While we are working on a long term solution to this we had to find a better short term solution other than antibiotics.  I had him try a general Chinese Herb combination and found it works quicker and better than antibiotics!  There are several Chinese Herb combinations to use depending on your individual symptoms so it is best to go to your Acupuncturist/Chinese medicine practitioner to get what’s best for you.

The company for the Chinese Herbs I use is Kan Herb Company.
I’ve bought the herbs many times from MomEMineral.com (also on e/bay).
And now I found Healthsuperstore.com to have many of them for even cheaper.  Otherwise you have to go to a healthcare provider to get them.

Bi Yan Pian is the one to get for Sinus infections.
Get at least the 2 oz. size  (watch out the company is phasing out the 4oz size)
Store in your cupboard.
Shake before every use.  Bottle will tell you how many drops to use.
Put in water and drink.  You can also put it in tea or juice.
Use three times a day (I’ve found that 2 times isn’t enough for me or the kids).

Many formulas come in pill form too but it takes longer to have the desired effect.

My husband, Todd, has the same reactions as when he takes antibiotics….that is within 24hours – when it ‘hits’ him, he has to go laydown/sleep, then his sinus swells more while his body is fighting the bugs, then  36 -48 hours after he started the herbs he starts to feel better (often he feels normal by then).

Use it until the symptoms are gone and then for another 3-5 days to make sure all the critters are dead and gone.

Let me know your experience with it if you try it 🙂

Great Quote

/ Amy Buckley

"The cell is a machine driven by energy.  It can thus be approaced by studying matter, or studying energy.  In every culture and in every medical tradition before ours, healing was accomplished by moving energy."

-Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Nobel Laureate in Medicine