青柳診所手記41

我的不少病人都催着我寫我的診所手記，但我因為工作忙，總是一拖再拖。還有的人問我們能不能搞一個靜思班專門教大家靜坐和能量療法？這是我和大師兄有一天樂於做的事情，我們也在朝着這個目標努力着。但現在時機還是不大成熟。

上個月診所最大的亮點就是幫助一個還有三天就到預產期的婦女催產。她已經累得多日沒有睡覺了，體力非常不好。她只希望孩子快點生下來。我們用氣功、針灸和中藥幫助了她。我給她做氣功時，她說明顯地感到子宮在收縮。大師兄給她在至陰穴扎針時，她說她可以感到孩子的體位正在發生變化。第二天一早，孩子就在醫院順利生產了，幾乎沒有什麼曲折。孩子的爸爸從醫院給我們寄來照片，那是一張一出生就會微笑的粉紅色的臉！

最近得呼吸道疾病的人比較多，而中藥，就是此時大顯身手的時候了。人們往往認為中醫只能治療慢性病，其實在急症方面，中醫有着不可忽略的優勢。我們的診所，在這方面，已經積累相當經驗了。

當然對於慢性病，中醫也能夠起到很好的調節作用。我今天想特別談到的一點就是慢性痛症，因為作為一個治療師，我們每天面對最多的就是病人的疼痛。表面上看起來這些痛症幾乎都是來自於身體方面的疼痛，比如肩膀、脖子、腰、腕等等，但漸漸地，隨着臨床經驗的增多，我發現其實大多數的慢性疼痛不過是以肌肉骨骼關節這樣的表面症狀體現出來，而其最根本的原因，還是跟一個人的生長環境，成長經歷，情感世界，人生態度，性格嗜好等等有直接的關係。

這些慢性痛症看上去就如一座座形態相仿的冰山，而我們看到的痛，遠遠不足這座冰山的10%的體積；剩下的那90%，它還在黑暗的海底里藏着呢。而作為一個醫師，我們也不能潛游到海底里去探個究竟，我們能做的也只是從浮在水面上的冰塊去揣測水下大約是什麼樣的形狀。

正如世界上沒有兩片一模一樣的樹葉，世界上也沒有兩種一模一樣的疼痛。

喜歡懷疑的你，也許會問：難道我的肩膀痛不是跟我的不良姿勢有關？或者跟使用電腦手機等過久有關？

當然有關。但像這一類的疼痛，在改變生活方式和工作方式以及進行了適當的治療之後，它應該就已經大為減弱甚至不復存在了。

我說的是那種無論你如何改變，似乎也無法緩和或根治的病痛。

你相信嗎？每一種負面的能量，無論是來自於哪裡，甚至來自於你幾乎已經忘卻的童年，都可能在你的經絡里留下一個瘀滯點？這些瘀滯點積少成多，最後讓我們的氣血能量大大受阻，然後就變成了你今天揮之不去的疼痛或病症？

要去掉這個令人煩惱的問題，或者至少跟它和諧相處，你必須學會重新組裝自己的能量場。

我大學快畢業時，曾經因為一次巨大的車禍，幾乎全身粉碎性骨折。我也因此而差點失去了生命。後來醫生好不容易把我挽救回來，他們同時告訴我的是：從此你會在輪椅上度過餘生。

經過了好幾十個小時的大手術，在病床上躺了整整十個月，我的纖弱的身體從上到下都打着厚厚的石膏，手腳都不能動一動，連手指頭都不能動。翻身當然不可以，甚至廁所都是在床上上的。那麼年輕的我，身體卻要面對如此巨大的疼痛，心靈的疼痛就更不用說了。那時我唯一能做的就是看着窗外小小的一角藍天，微笑、呼吸，感恩自己竟然活着。那時，我不能動自己的身體，卻可動自己的腦子。每天，我都在腦子裡回想我生命中發生過的一切，問自己是否有什麼可以修正的地方。如果有，我就默默思考將來該如何去把它們修正好。如果我認定那是我所無能為力的事，我就把它們同着我的祝福一起埋葬掉。那，是我生命中的一個特殊時期，也是我學會重新組合自己的身心能量的時期。

十個月再下地，我用的是拐杖，沒有用輪椅。再過了一兩年，我恢復得非常好，至少從外觀上看去，沒有誰看得出我曾經歷過一次可怕的巨大的創傷。

如果你現在問我，能不能夠幫你緩解你身體的痛苦？

我當然能。可是，我必須誠實地告訴你：如果你想真正療愈你自己，永遠告別你的疼痛，你只有學會審察你的生活，重新組合你的能量場。疼痛並不是懲罰，而是一種語言，一種語言在喚醒我們去了解自己身體和心靈的需要。

每一種慢性病症或者疼痛，它的後面都有一個令人心酸的故事。作為故事主人公的你，必須學會去解讀這個故事。當你學會解讀它，你已經是一個全新的你了，你不但可以療愈自己，也可以幫助別人踏上他們的療愈之旅， 你相信嗎？

Whispering of Willows 41

By Dr. Anna Zhao

https://whisperingwillowclinic.com/

Some of my patients inquire when I will publish my next Whispering of Willows, but I sometimes put it off.  I responded something about being too busy with work, of course. Some people asked if we could set up a meditation class at out clinic to teach meditation and energy healing therapy. This is something that both Dr. Daniel and I would love to do one day, and we are striving towards this goal, but the timing is not quite right yet.

We really have been busy – it is not just my excuse. The highlight in our hectic times of late was helping to induce labor for a lady who was only three days away from her due date. She was exhausted from a lack of sleep and her physical strength was deteriorating rapidly. She wanted her baby to be born as soon as possible. We helped her along with Qigong, Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. When I was doing Qigong on her, she said she could clearly feel her uterus contracting. When Dr. Daniel gave her a needle in her small toe, she said she could feel the baby's position was changing. Early next morning, their baby was delivered smoothly at the hospital with no eventful complications. Later her husband sent us a picture of a happy content newborn – such a cutie!

Recently, we have encountered an increase in respiratory problems.  It is a good thing that Traditional Chinese Medicine is quite effective in dealing with this kind of issue. People sometimes tend to regard TCM as an alternative way to deal with chronic diseases, but actually, TCM has quite a few techniques and advantages to treat such urgent conditions.

No doubt, TCM does help with chronic diseases. What I want to talk specifically about is chronic pain, because as a therapist, it is often encountered – almost daily. On the surface, it seems that these pains are identical differing only in their location - shoulder, neck, lower back, wrist, etc. But gradually, with my increasing clinical experience, I realized that most of what we call chronic pain is not as completely physical as we would like to think. Our body does demonstrate chronic problems in our muscles, or tendons, or joints, but these are only the façade of the real cause. Much of this chronic pain we have, directly or indirectly, stems from our foundational years as we matured – our childhood, our living environment, our emotional state, our attitude towards life, our personality, our likes and dislikes, etc.

Many types of chronic pain appear like similar shaped icebergs, but this iceberg barely shows 10% of its volume above the water. The remaining 90% is still hidden unseen in the dark ocean.  As a medical practitioner, we can't peer directly to find out what's really going on. All we can do is surmise from the ice floating above the water to determine what kind of conditions lurk beneath the dark water.

If no two leaves are alike in the world, there are no two identical pains.

Being skeptical you may ask: Isn’t my shoulder pain related to my bad posture? Or due to spending too much time with my computer or mobile phone? Of course it's related to this. But a pain like that should ease after changing your lifestyle, work habits, and appropriate treatment.

The kind of pain I’m talking about is a chronic lingering pain, that no matter what you do, you can’t seem to shake it off or get free from it.

I believe that every negative energy, no matter its origin, even from your almost forgotten childhood, can leave an imprint, or what TCM refers to as a stagnant point, in your meridian. These stagnation points once accumulated sufficiently form a blockage in the blood and energy system, eventually manifesting as a lingering pain in your body.

To liberate yourself from this kind of pain or lingering symptoms, or at least learn to coexist with it, you must learn to reassemble your own energy field.

When I was about to graduate from college, I was in a huge car accident and suffered comminuted fractures all over my body. I almost lost my life because of it. The doctors managed to bring me back to life, but also frankly told me: from now on, you will spend your life in a wheelchair.

I endured dozens of hours of major surgeries, and was kept in a hospital bed for ten months. My body was covered in heavy plaster from top to bottom. I couldn't move my hands or feet, or even my fingers. Nor could I turn over. Even the toilet work had to be done in bed.

I was very young, and had to face such excruciating pain in my body everyday, not to mention the mental and emotional pain. The only thing I could do at that time was staring at the window where I could see a small corner of blue sky. I simply taught myself to smile, and to breathe, and to be grateful that I was alive. When pain limits moving your body, please tell yourself: “fortunately, I still can move my braincells”. That is what I did at that time.  Every day I meditated and visited the depths of my soul and used my time to re-examine everything I could recall in my life experience. I faced everything squarely, and for those I could fix, I developed plans to work on them in the future. For the ones I could not repair, I gave them blessings and buried them for good. That turned a nightmare time into a most particularly beneficial era when I learned to regroup my energy.

When my trembling feet retouched the ground after ten months, I used crutches, but not a wheelchair. With the passing of another a year or two, I recovered so well that, at least from a distance, no one could tell that I had experienced a terrible and devastating accident.

If you ask me now: Dr. Anna, can you help me relieve my pain or chronic conditions?

Yes. However, I must tell you honestly: If you want to truly heal yourself and say farewell to your pain forever, you have to learn to reexamine your life and learn to reorganize your energy field. Pain is not punishment, but a language that beckons us to pay attention to the needs of both our body and soul, and reveals in quiet moments how to make these repairs.

Behind every chronic pain or problem, there is a heartbreaking story. You are the protagonist of your life story; you must learn to interpret it. Once you have learned how, you will be transformed. By then, not only can you heal yourself, you can also lend a hand to those on their healing journey. Isn’t that a cool thing to do?