Akari Yokokawa, R.TCMP, R.Ac, RMT - Pregnancy and Lactation Wellness -

A week late to post, but I literally had a super bloody juicy day last weekend at Dr. Yvonne Farrell's course as a part of the 8-month mentorship about "Acupuncture for Surviving Adversity: Acts of Self-Preservation".

This module’s topic was Luo-Collaterals system.

Luo-Collaterals are the second layer of the 5 meridian/channel systems in Classical Chinese Medicine which deal with overwhelming input and experiences that one can no longer suppress and they start to take control of our lives. This channel system acts as a buffer in a way it pushes them into the blood and its circulation or creates some sort of lumpy-bumpy things on the body, so that those “harmful” things are kept away from vital organs. But eventually it gives in and shows up as symptoms.
When those are affected, it presents certain emotional and physical patterns (spider veins are one good example of this!) and noticed by the patient as it literally screams for help.

This system is definitely one of my favourite ones to study and treat, it does such amazing things to the patient that I don't think no other treatment options can offer. There’s no miracle but it does feel and look miraculous when treated!

And this learning is extra special for me as it was taught by Dr. Farrell.

Her teaching has extra emphasis on patients’ autonomy: we/care providers don’t get to decide what to do for them. We “know” it yet when it comes to facing our patients, we tend to start leading the session and treat the pulse or whatever we see. BUT her teaching constantly reminds us that the goal setting should come from the patient. She doesn’t say “treat the pulse”. She never endorses us leading the patients.

I felt so juiced-up after her class!
Maybe I’ll make a post about autonomy and empowerment because it’s SO important… I feel 80% of the treatment is influenced by those two elements.

Anyways, if you are overwhelmed by emotions and/or experiences and can’t handle it anymore, get acupuncture treatments from a Registered Acupuncturist. I must say it's our signature treatment that no other professions can really offer.

Akari

Wow, it's already seven days into the new year!?

The start of this year for the Japanese was a rough one as the country was hit by another mega earthquake followed by tsunami, then a huge plane crash…

And without much to say, hearing and witnessing things about what's happening in Gaza…

It has been really hard for me to feel grounded and don’t really feel like celebrating the new year.

So I’ve been just acknowledging that I am emotionally affected and sitting with it.

Many say that Japan is a safe country when it comes to crime rates and it is a beautiful place with very distinct seasons. But the flip side is that there are full of natural disasters. Every time we are hit by those (earthquakes, tsunami, volcano eruptions, typhoons, flooding, landslides etc. etc.) we are reminded that we cannot take anything for granted. Nothing is eternal and things keep changing. Here we say “Shogyo Mujo (諸行無常)”.

While we mourn, we also learn to accept, adapt, and rebuild. It’s not giving up or surrendering, but doing what we can… I have to remind myself that I have that “blood” in me, so I can also be resilient if I trust myself when I face adversity.

Anyways,,, new year resolutions?

As of writing this post, I’d like to make this year to be more connected to the gut, slowing down, and checking in (attuned with myself, my medicine, sun and moon, seasons,,, all that). I also plan to be more fluid - flexible and adaptable, then focus on being present.

Another big one is to allow myself to be vulnerable. It’s so hard when you are supposed to be a grown-up solo business person! Will see how this goes…

For social media posts, I am not sure how many posts I will or can make, but I plan to share resourceful things when I can :)

By the way, the photo is a rice porridge (congee) I made today. Traditionally, we eat congee with seven herbs on January 7th to restore stomach from the indulgence of the new year’s food. I didn’t have all the herbs so I made it my way!

In healthy,

Akari