Spring Updates
Spring sprang sprung.
This year the Spring Equinox is March 20 at 2:24pm for those of us on the west coast. With Spring comes quite a bit of energy which is invigorating and sometimes overwhelming. Unless you are pregnant as this is a powerfully downward moving energetic point; if you feel too much Spring energy rising up, give a little massage between your thumb and index finger on out to the tip of your index finger. This is a powerful ‘metallic’ energetic area that can help to keep the ‘woodiness’ of Spring in check. Beyond that though, get outside and enjoy all the green rebirth around you. It’s been quite the Winter here in San Diego with so much rain and coolness. When this pre-Equinox rain eases up, let that Sun shine down on your shoulders and allow your eyes to bask in its reflection from all the lushness popping up.
Some updates:
41 Soups. This is silly but I know there are a few of you who chuckled at this family project of mine and want to know how it turned out. If you’ve been following my blog, you might know our family had a goal of making 50 soups this Winter season. As of today, the last day of Winter, we’ve made it to 41. It’s not like anybody was devastated though, lol. We had 41 awesome soups. I thought of David Goggins and decided to keep going and finish our 50 even if it’s after the Equinox and into Springtime. David Goggins is a retired Navy SEAL and ultra-marathoner. He helps people alchemize all the shit in their lives and turn it into gold. A colleague of mine suggested his book for our acupuncturist book club and I’m actually really enjoying it. He has done 100 mile races before where he couldn’t finish under the 30 hour time limit and so you know what he does? He finishes in over 30 hours. It’s just that simple. So we’ll get to 50 soups soon enough. He also had a great bit of wisdom regarding his turbulent and traumatic youth during which he experienced more than his share of abuse from not only his father but also the local KKK and other aggressors. He said something to the effect of: none of it was my fault, but it is my responsibility. Meaning that just because someone else did it to him doesn’t mean someone else is going to fix it. I liked that. I didn’t like it when I first read it because, well, my “inner bitch” as Goggins would put it didn’t want to take responsibility for healing from my own past traumas. But the truth has a way of winning in the end. This does not mean we aren’t there to help each other. It means that—as the late great Jerry Garcia put it so eloquently—that path is for your steps alone.
New Liniments & Balms! I’ve been working with tallow (beef fat), manuka honey, pine gum spirits, and a whole bunch of other resinous woods like palo santo. So expect some new sensorial experiences at your next appointment. I also will have some healing balm for you to purchase and use at home. It’s going to be great! With topical application of herbal liniments and balms, the herbs affect your bioenergetic frequency without even entering the body. Liu Lihong talks about this in his book, Classical Chinese Medicine. He describes how the ancient Taoists would regularly use herbs on the outside of the body along with acupuncture treatments. He goes on to say that many conditions simply would not heal without the external application of herbal medicine. Topical application such as liniments and balms is similar to acupuncture and other energetic healing modalities in that you use the energetic field of the herbs to affect the human biofield. The biofield is the quantifiably measurable field of energy that exists in and around everything in the universe, including you. These fields are all part of one another and communicate 24/7 across the cosmos. This is how a thought that you have can affect subatomic particles lightyears away. Another trippy thing to think about is that as you read this, you and I might swap a few electrons! Wild.
Perfect Face Oil. This has been a hit with the few patients that have been able to try it since I introduced it late Summer of 2022. I created this face oil to use with facial acupuncture patients. However, when my wife and other people tried it, everybody loved it so much that they wanted to use it daily and I couldn’t make enough of the stuff to satisfy demand. I jokingly (but kind of seriously) call it Perfect Face Oil in honor of the perfectionist patient who pushed me to make facial oil in the first place. Her stamp of approval told me it truly was, perfect. I’ve made another small batch and it will be ready in a couple more months. If it’s so popular why make a small batch? For starters, the ingredients are all the best I could possibly find and quite expensive. Also because there are no chemicals in my face oil, it has nothing to stabilize it or increase its shelf life so making a ton just isn’t a prudent option. Small batch is the only way. This next run is a base of green tea oil, raspberry oil, red ginseng root, forest-grown Kentucky white ginseng root & leaf, astragalus, goji berries, and essential oils of blue tansy, rose geranium, ho wood, Roman chamomile, and marjoram. All organic. It slides on beautifully and fully absorbs into the skin. The green tea oil has an astringent action that allows even people with oilier skin to use this product without feeling like it’s making their skin even more oily. The scent is fantastic.
That’s it for now.
Herbs marinating for 12+ months to become liniment for my patients.
See you at your next appointment.
—Jaime