Uncategorized – Page 6 – Medford Acupuncture & Herbal Clinic

Good Neighbors

Written by Ann Zimmerman on October 31, 2019. Posted in Uncategorized.

by Clark Zimmerman, L.Ac.

When my wife and I moved to Talent 13 years ago, we came seeking a slower and more relaxed life. After growing up in Indianapolis and then living in Portland for many years, I was more accustomed to the pace of city living. I had a lot to learn about what slowing down really meant.

One day I was running a little late to work so I started to speed. I quickly caught up to another car and began tailgating it. After feeling frustrated because I was getting to work late, I decided that there was no safe way to pass the car in front of me, so I slowed down a bit and accepted the situation.

When I got settled in my office and opened the door to greet my first patient, he said “It looks like you were running a little late to work this morning.” I was a little perplexed with his statement until he immediately followed with “that was me you were tailgating.” I felt quite uncomfortable. Then he smiled and said “Let me give you some friendly advice: You aren’t living in the city anymore and this valley is smaller than you think. Just pretend that everyone is your neighbor. That way you will think a little more about the things that you do.” His smile told me that I was forgiven, but the advice he shared has stuck with me.

As the world becomes busier and we connect more online, we seem to have less contact with the people around us. Fewer people know their neighbors, fewer people shop at the corner store, and fewer people move around without their eyes glued to their phones. We are becoming more isolated, even though so many of these tools promise to make feel more connected. We may be more networked, but we are becoming less connected. When we get our information about people from a social media feed, or we get our products through the mail, we don’t always realize the true cost.

There are a lot of positives that come from connecting with people in person. Rather than living in sound bites or snippets, we get to have a more complete experience. We get to see all of a person when we are physically with them: their gestures, their expressions, their eyes. Often times when we can’t see all of a person, we start to fill in our own ideas of who they are. This is a less authentic picture that is often full of inaccuracies. The less we know someone, the more likely we are to misjudge, mistreat, or fear them. One of the reasons that people have such a fear of clowns is because when they are wearing all of that makeup, you can’t see their true face. When we don’t really see people we are more likely to fear them. We make up stories about how they are different and thus not entitled to the same respect and love as the people in our family or “tribe.”

Many of us put on our best face if we are around friends or neighbors. We realize the importance of keeping the peace with people we have regular contact with, or those we may depend on in difficult times. We tend to behave differently when we are anonymous. Whether we are driving down a busy road or leaving comments on an online forum, being anonymous can lead people to behave in ways that are less considerate and less patient. We can get so caught up in our own experience and challenges that we lose sight of the impact of our words and actions. This seems to be becoming more common these days. As the world gets more crowded and the pace of life picks up, it can be challenging to see the people around us as people, rather than as a faceless crowd of “others”. We can have less capacity for tolerance.

If however, we imagine everyone around us as a dear friend or neighbor, a daughter or a grandson, something seems to change. We see them more as people, and less as interference. We see the cars on the road less as traffic, and more as people that are stuck in cars just like we are. We have a little more patience and care to give to situations because we are all in it together. With this in mind, I think one of the greatest things that we can do to help the world is to lift up our heads and connect with people face to face. Not just people who are like us, but people we come across everyday. The more we are willing to meet different kinds of people, and spend a little uninterrupted time with them, the more we begin to realize that we are all pretty similar, even though we have differences. This begins to widen our circles of who we consider to be neighbors, of who we consider to worthy of our love and respect.

I leave a little earlier for work these days. I enjoy the ride more thanks to the patience and advice of my good neighbor.

The Bud

Written by Ann Zimmerman on July 25, 2019. Posted in Uncategorized.

I was recently at a women’s writing group where we watched a performance by Lizzo, a voluptuous, female pop-star, expressing an uninhibited freedom to the masses with her sexy, voluptuous body. She strikingly exuded self-confidence, unabashedly allowing her whole being to shine while she sang and danced on the stage. From her example, I felt a sense of permission to break free from my own limited body images formed early in childhood and the narrow images of beauty often displayed on TV, the front covers of magazines, and the modeling my mother demonstrated. I was taught early in life that thin was the goal and that it was going to be a struggle to reach that goal. Lizzo’s ability to comfortably inhabit her female form spoke to the capacity we each have within us to accept our unique body and genius–to let go of the chains of cultural conditioning, to stop comparing ourselves to other people’s bodies, and to claim our inherent “Bud” of beauty.

What is a Bud?

One definition, is a form put forth in a small growth that develops into a flower, leaf, or branch.

Saint Francis’s wise words on a Bud:

“The Bud stands for all things, even for those things that don’t flower, for everything flowers from within, of self-blessings; though sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness, to put a hand on the brow of the flower and retell it in words and in touch that it is lovely until it flowers again from within, of self blessing. As Saint Francis put his hand on the creased forehead of the sow, and told her in words and in touch blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow began remembering all down her thick length, from the earthen snout all the way through the fodder and slopes to the spiritual curl of her tail . . . the long, perfect loveliness of sow.”

How does this relate to your health? In every way.

The Bud cannot be, if we do not put ourselves beyond the limiting images and beliefs of our childhood, culture, and self. If you have forgotten how lovely you are, let someone remind you. You deserve to feel good!

Expanding Your Comfort Zone

Written by Ann Zimmerman on January 31, 2019. Posted in Mental and Emotional Health, Uncategorized.

by Clark Zimmerman, LAc.

Years ago, my wife and I spent some of our honeymoon in Fiji. Most of the time we stayed in a small village called Lavena that was on the edge of a large jungle forest preserve. Though the village had no running water or electricity, the villagers were some of the most content people we have ever met. In so many ways Lavena was the picture perfect paradise that you dream of when you think of a tropical honeymoon getaway. The jungle was wild and alive, the ocean was an otherworldly aqua, and the water was so clean that you could drink it straight from the creek as you swam underneath the waterfalls near the village. However, about a week into our three-week stay, we had a rude awakening: there was a massive hatch of a tropical fly. Suddenly flies were everywhere. It reminded us of videos we had seen of people in impoverished areas of Africa, where the flies would cover peoples faces, crawling in their ears, mouth and eyes. All of the sudden everything we did seemed like an invitation to be covered in flies. It was nearly too much to bear. The locals didn’t seem to even notice. Since they had lived with this as a part of their reality, they had developed the ability to go about their life with minimal bother. It got me and my wife thinking about how specific our comfort range had become.

Traveling to undeveloped countries makes you truly realize how spoiled most of us are in the United States. We live in homes with running water and electricity; we heat and cool our rooms and our cars; we eat food that suits our particular tastes; we sleep in comfy beds; we bathe and wear scents to cover our odor; we wear headphones to hear what we want to hear and earplugs to block the things we don’t want to hear. We control just about every aspect of our environment to make life as comfortable as possible. Most of the time this makes life easier. But what happens when we can’t control our surroundings? For most of us, if something feels uncomfortable, we fixate on whatever isn’t just right. A picnic becomes too hot to enjoy; a walk in the snow becomes too cold; food is too spicy or unappetizingly bland; too much noise or silence can overwhelm us. We have narrowed our range of comfort to a point where almost everything feels uncomfortable. It makes me wonder sometimes if all of these comforts are more of a blessing or a curse. I am not suggesting that you disconnect your air conditioning, but just as you stretch your muscles to keep them flexible, it is a helpful exercise to stretch your comfort zone from time to time. Stretching your comfort zone can be helpful in a few important ways. It can make you more appreciative of all the comfort you enjoy. It is like when you go backpacking and sleep on the hard, cold ground and eat instant food. When you get home your bed feels like heaven and a simple meal can taste like a gourmet feast. It can also help you maintain resilience so you are better able to withstand times when things aren’t as comfortable.

No matter how much you try to control your environment, things periodically will not go according to plan. If you don’t occasionally practice being uncomfortable, the slightest deviation in your day can ruin an otherwise beautiful moment. You can do this by letting yourself get a little hot or cold, fasting part of the day or getting up extra early and watching the sunrise. Just ask yourself what discomfort you are the most adverse to and lean into it once in a while. The benefits will most likely outweigh the cost.

It took a while, but my wife and I finally settled into the flies in Fiji. Once we stopped complaining about them, we figured out times when we could go out when they weren’t as thick. Then after a few days, they thinned out and became much less noticeable. In the end, we thanked the flies as reminders to keep continuing to expand our comfort zones.