If you feel you don't have enough energy to do all the things you want to do, have a close look at your spending habits:
Nowadays "deficit spending" - spending money which one doesn't actually own but loan - is a widespread phenomenon, and the media suggest that it's a good idea. Many people's credit card balance is constantly near the limit. What happens is that people end up paying a lot more for the stuff they buy, because they have to pay a lot of interest.
Now what does that have to do with your personal energy?
Our patterns and habits in how we deal with things and other people and ourselves are fairly consistent throughout. That means that our money handling habits are very probably the same as our energy handling habits.
So take a moment to think about how you're spending your energy: Are you saving some for when things get rough, or are you constantly spending all you have?

Today, a young man asked me in an email whether chiropractic care was helping his back problems or not -- he'd been seeing a chiropractor for 4 weeks. Here are some thoughts on what could be happening when you think a given treatment -- be it conventional or complementary medicine -- doesn't work for you:

It is possible that the treatment really isn't helping:
The diagnosis could be wrong, and thus the treatment tries to fix something that "ain't broke", or the diagnosis is right, but the treatment is wrong. Kinda obvious this won't work...

The more common reasons why a given treatment doesn't seem to work:

The treatment is right, but you're undoing the effect because you are unaware of your own contribution to the problem.

If you keep hitting your thumb with a hammer, it'll hurt -- again and again -- until you stop hitting it. Many health problems are a direct result of our doing something wrong. Pain is one way of telling us to stop, and we'd better heed that warning. In my opinion, a good healthcare provider should try to find out how your problem arose, so they can advise you how to avoid it in the future.

It's working, but your body simply needs more time to heal.

Most health problems that have persisted for a long time don't just go away overnight. Be patient with yourself. Do mention it to your healthcare provider if you think you're not progressing. I expect a good healthcare provider to have enough documentation of your diagnosis, your symptoms and their severity that they can evaluate your progress.

Also, check whether you're resting enough. Unless you're with a certified miracle worker -- please forward me his or her details, I still need one in my network -- your body needs time and energy to heal. It does that best when you're resting.

Resting, by the way, means just that: resting. Doing nothing. Sleeping. Possibly meditating. Resting is NOT exercising, it's NOT watching TV, and it's NOT doing housework either. It's RESTING. Sorry to be so persistent, but that's how it is.

The treatment is working, but you forgot how bad your former problems were.

This is normal and happens very often. Most people (including us healthcare providers) forget their symptoms and how much they bothered them as soon as they are gone, and thus it can seem as if a given therapy is not working, even if it is. This is the other reason why good documentation is so important... 

What to do if your treatment doesn't seem to help:

First, second, and third: speak with your treatment provider. Nothing substitutes for communication. Most of us are in a helping profession because we want to help people. We can do that best when we know what's happening. Speaking is a brilliant way of relaying information -- both ways!

Isn't it funny that you "catch" a cold? That's quite an active thing to do, after all. Here is a simple strategy to help you "drop it" before it catches on. All you need is an electric hair dryer.

Take your electric hair dryer, turn it on and use the hot air to warm that area of your shoulders and upper back. The easiest way to do that is to stick it under your shirt or jersey, at the back, pointing upwards. Be careful not to burn yourself with the hot air, and don't let the hairdryer's air inlet be obstructed by your shirt. But this is not rocket science - you'll get the hang in half a minute.

It is important to keep blowing the hot air until you feel your back and shoulders relax with the warmth, which takes 1-3 minutes.

That's all.

Now comes the explanation why that works:

The first signs of a typical cold (what the Chinese call "wind-cold") are: Aversion to drafts, feeling chilly, sneezing or a runny nose and tightness around the upper back and shoulders.
When you notice these, it is not too late to get it out of the system before it gets lodged there.

Located in the nape of the neck and the upper back are the "Gate of Wind" and "Grasping the Wind" acupoints. What happens when this area gets cold is that the shoulder and back muscles tighten and breathing gets shallow. Warming the area allows the muscles to relax again, circulation of breath and Qi is re-established, and everything is of the very nice. "Sweet as", like we say here in New Zealand.

Here's something for the idealists among us, and for those who might want to join our ranks:

The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

What do you do when someone starts crying in your presence?
Maybe it's best to not do anything, but just be there, like in this poem that really resonates with me:



If I should suddenly well up and over,
Let me cry.

I have century's tears deep-frozen
Your voice, warm - touching my name -
Could salt the frozen clouds to burst.

I've felt the melting
When your voice calling
Gathers me to something meaningful.

In this world of senseless transiency,
If you should say my name
And I should cry
Do not question why.

Let me cry:
It won't be you who makes me cry,
But you who lets me.


(If you know who wrote this, please let me know.)

Dear blog readers,

When I'd just managed to get back to weekly blogging, the blog suffered from abandonment again. Now I'm back, and hopefully, there won't be much to disrupt the blogging schedule for a while.

The reason for the blog's abandonment, and the more personal style of this entry is this: Shortly after a cancer diagnosis, my mum died on January 28, and I went overseas to be with my family for a while.

I reckon that most people, when they are faced with the diagnosis of a serious, possibly life-threatening disease, either for themselves or for a loved one, at first don't know what to do or how to react. Friends and family members who've faced a similar situation can be a big help. If no one like that is around, it might be helpful to read in a book like the Handbook for Mortals, which addresses a wide range of themes e.g. Living with serious illness, Talking with your doctor, Decisions about resuscitation, The dying of children, or Enduring Grief and Loss.
After all, books are (still) written by real people, and reading is like a dialogue in which one person speaks a lot, and the other not so much...

For me, talking with people from the hospice where I volunteer helped to deal with the initial shock. This is when you realise that half a world can be very far from home, when you can't just take the afternoon off to visit a family member in hospital...

There really isn't a "right way" to cope with the loss of a dear one, but I think when you're honest about what's going on, it helps to navigate those unknown waters. I found that out in several situations, like this one: After the funeral service, we gave a "memorial tea" at our home. When everyone had walked in, all eyes turned expectantly to me and my brothers. The silence was quite awkward, until I said something like "It's the first time anyone in my life died, so I don't know what to say in this situation either. I guess, please just help yourselves to tea and coffee, and have a seat..." That defused the tense atmosphere, and the rest of the afternoon went just fine.

Yes, it takes some time to adjust to the new "mum-less" situation, but life and death are really two sides of the same medal, and life was very good to me, too: I've just gotten engaged, and am very very happy about that. And I guess mum will enjoy coming to my wedding without having to fly economy class for 23 hours...

Here's a good tip on how to care for your health - it's free, doesn't require any equipment and helps to de-stress at the same time: Conscious breathing.

Andrew Weil has three neat and succinct articles on his website regarding breathing:

Breathing: An introduction
How the breath connects the body, mind and spirit

Breathing: Basic How-To's
How not to hyperventilate

Breathing: Exercises
A very relaxing breathing exercise.

Try it! What have you got to lose?

Laughing is good for your health.

For us healthcare professionals, it's even more important to not take ourselves too important, so here's one by Canada's inimitable Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie:
Klein's discount medical supplies - Your one-stop mail-order do-it-yourself home-surgery mega-store!

Like all satire (i.e. making fun of serious issues), this is not politically correct. Go Trolls!

If you can recognise a stroke, you can save a relative's or a friend's life by calling 111 immediately. It's easy to recognise symptoms of a stroke if you stick to the FAST rule (see below).

A stroke is what happens when of one of the brain's blood vessels gets clogged. The part of the brain that is usually nourished by this blood vessel is not getting enough oxygen to do its job and may get irrevocably damaged, paralysing parts of the body. So, time is of the essence, because every minute counts when it comes to brain damage!

Luckily, it's fairly easy to recognise a stroke by asking the person to "Smile, raise both arms, speak a simple sentence".
Call 111 immediately if a person fails these:

Now you don't have to run around and ask everyone these questions all the time.
Ask them:
-- after someone has stumbled or fallen for no apparent reason
-- if someone is suddenly disoriented or finds it difficult to speak
-- if a family member finds it suddenly physically difficult go get out of bed in the morning. (Not when they're just tired or hung over, silly!)

It's a really good idea to share this knowledge with your friends and family members. It could save their lives - or yours!

More information about strokes, stroke prevention, and what to do after you or a family member has suffered a stroke can be found on the homepage of The Stroke Foundation of New Zealand.

One piece of information is missing on the Stroke Foundation homepage, though:
Japanese acupuncture can be used both for stroke prevention (some reflex points become reactive about 1-2 years prior to an impending stroke) and for helping with recovery after a stroke.

A happy new year to all of you!

I'm back from the summer break, and new blog entries should now appear here pretty much every Friday. Do send me your questions! I like answering real questions, as they make sure that at least one person is interested in what I write...

But to this week's wisdom:
Less is more, or Sometimes nothing is better than less:
Fasting - voluntarily abstaining from all solid foods - is a great way to "reset" one's system.
No, I don't recommend it as a diet, although yes, you do lose some weight in the process.

What happens when you don't eat solid food for a couple of days is this: The body turns to its reserves (AKA "love-handles") and switches from "intake" (of food and nutrients) to "output" (of toxins and stuff it doesn't need).
Digestion requires about 1/3 of our total energy household, and as soon as that's out of the picture, the body starts to repair itself. Clever as it is, first the old and damaged cells are burnt up for "food", which results in the healing of damaged tissues and a feeling of rejuvenation.

Common "side" effects are - especially during the first two to three days: Low blood pressure and tiredness, and during the whole fasting time and 2-3 days afterwards an increased body odour and bad breath, signs of the increased detoxing.

The two most important things for fasting are regular emptying of the bowels (the least invasive help being an enema every second day) and breaking fast slowly and sensibly. After several days of fasting, the digestive juices have been absorbed by the body, and it has to start producing them again. As a good rule of thumb, after fasting you should eat very light and vegetarian fare for about 1/3 of the number of days you fasted.

Many people report feeling very fit and light after the third day of fasting. Some (me included) don't feel so dapper during their first fast - but from all I've heard from friends, fasting gets easier and better with each subsequent time you do it.

The "don't use it as a diet" disclaimer:
Fasting and then going back to bad eating habits is simply a bad idea and doesn't do much for your health or well-being.
The nice thing about fasting is that it refines your senses, and that it resets the sensations of "now I've had enough food to be satisfied", "now I'm full" and "man, I've overdone it". Thus, it's a lot easier to introduce new, healthier eating habits into your life afterwards.

And why would nothing be better than less?
Because - if you've purged or emptied your bowels on the first day of your fast - you're usually not hungry during fasting.
Amazing as it may seem to anyone who hasn't experienced it for themselves, it's true.
This is where it's different to diets (which I don't recommend either), where you deprive yourself of either a substantial amount of your food or of a substantial variety.

Or in a nutshell: Fasting doesn't hurt, and it gives you a wonderful sense of accomplishment. The experience of sustaining oneself without solid foods and independence is pretty cool already, but the knowledge that all that is possible simply because one has decided to do it, that's truly amazing.

If this has made you curious, I recommend getting a good book on fasting. It will give you more of an idea what to expect, what to do and what to avoid.