Mental and Emotional Health – Page 9 – Medford Acupuncture & Herbal Clinic

Taking time to heal by Ann Zimmerman LAc.

Written by Ann Zimmerman on September 25, 2013. Posted in Immune Health and Balance, Mental and Emotional Health.

Depending on what needs to heal, we have differing capacities to be patient and allow the healing process to take place. Occasionally, life gives us no choice but to lay in bed with a head cold. Sometimes there is almost a relief in feeling the permission to totally give in to healing. However, most of us choose to power through at the first inkling of being OK: quickly testing the waters with how much we can get away with without setting back our progress.

Giving your body and heart enough time to heal from trauma or illness is truly a very individual and tricky act to balance. Depending on our age, cultural upbringing, work, and family pressures, most of us feel a kind of internal pressure to heal quickly and get on with it. After all who wants to be in any type of pain?

Work and Play by Ann Zimmerman, LAc.

Written by Ann Zimmerman on August 5, 2013. Posted in Immune Health and Balance, Mental and Emotional Health.

Work and play is the balancing act of summer. This time of year the beautiful weather, blooming flowers, fresh cherries, long days, etc are truly a joy, one that most can recognize and feel deep in their being.

Free time often includes spending time outside and packing the schedule with all the things you can do in this time of year. People tend to be more social and eager to gather and our lives get really busy, the weekend warrior awakens in full force.

So there tends to be a buzz about having fun, new experiences, expansion, yet we still have to “chop wood and carry water.” This saying refers to maintaing the basic mundane aspects of life…..working your job, balancing the check book, cleaning the toilets, keeping a budget, tending to your low back pain, etc.

Wired & Tired

Written by Ann Zimmerman on October 4, 2011. Posted in Immune Health and Balance, Mental and Emotional Health, Stress and Fatigue.

WIRED AND TIRED

by Ann Zimmerman, LAc.

The combination of feeling both wired and tired is one that we see daily in our clinic and seems to be a current cultural trend. Many of us, especially women, tend to have trouble unwinding or being restful, even at night. The combination of symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, and insomnia are way too common.

Our culture considers success to be a measure of how much we can get done in a day or how much money can be made. This fast pace combined with the ups and downs of life’s stress has many people feeling wired and tired.

In Chinese medicine the inability to rest, to be still or to sleep well at night is a reflection of lack of YIN energy. YIN represents literally the shady side of the mountain, the Talent/Ashland side versus the sunny Medford side of the valley. Our YIN represents our quiet, still, moistening, substantial, anchoring, slower side of ourselves, versus the opposite of these qualities, which is the YANG.