Willpower, Medicine, and Warriors

         I remember first meeting Colin and his wife in my office. He stormed in with his wife and practically demanded to be treated even though I was just concluding a visit with another patient. The point of telling this is because Colin is a man of action who lives his life by proactively doing not trying. He either does or doesn’t and he lives his life that way.
          I felt Colin’s senses examining me when he asked for my explanation of how the acupuncture worked. I explained it to him in Chinese and Western terms, and he was of course as skeptical as his wife, who is a doctor. I explained my background and how and why I got into Traditional Chinese Medicine.
          I was also a martial artist since the age of 12, officially studying with my first mentor Shaolin Master Tsong yuan Ho in Pennsylvania. I loved the theories and principles involved in understanding traditional martial arts. I personally felt that to improve my abilities and kung fu levels, I had to understand the theories and manipulation of "qi", inner strength. The study of healing would lead me down this path. Thus, I became an acupuncturist and herbalist in addition to a martial artist.

        To further enhance my sensitivity to qi and healing I then dedicated my martial arts practice to studying "Taiji" under Master Zhang Yun. After completing my acupuncture training and becoming a disciple of the Yin Cheng Gong Fa internal martial arts family, I began my journey, as Colin would call it, as a warrior-healer. My warrior spirit doesn’t let me quit, my healer spirit tells me to slow down and pace myself. My taiji spirit often teaches me balance.
          Colin’s arachoiditis has been one of the most difficult lower back injuries to treat that I've encountered. He is always on severe pain killers, which have many side effects and he never gets complete relief from the pain.
Colin has tried many treatments and utilizes everything at this disposal; he even had an electrical device implanted in his hip that shoots electrical impulses into the nerves in his spine and he did it because he wanted to be more functional for his family. He is a father and husband and cares deeply about his inadequacies towards his family.
          When I began treating Colin, I had high hopes of being the "magic bullet" of his disease. Many, many times I am.
I incorporate every acupuncture technique on Colin from needling the his body to bleeding his toes to sticking ear acupuncture points in his ear lobe; everything helped but none of it had long lasting effects. We try and try and I admit even I get frustrated because my needles, my art, could not repair the spinal tissue of the arachnoidal membrane.
          When I treat Colin, I definitely give him clarity of mind and exceptional pain relief, however the effects of a session only last for a day. All the other days he is in constant pain. Sometimes Colin sees me 3 days of the week. I figure if he sees me 3 days a week for 52 weeks then I gave him a day without pain for almost ½ a year and this make me, and more importantly him, feel a little better.
          For now, this is our victory. It's good, but together, we'll do better. We keep trying; and he impresses me with his own warrior-like, unbreakable willpower to never give up!  Colin has put his heart and soul into a body that exists beyond all of our physical bodies. The website he created with Anne, has helped him to express and show his many abilities, which he has learned in his life that made him the powerful man which he still is today. I enjoy treating Colin because it feels like two different tribal warriors combining our wills and experiences to find amazing solutions.
          I treat many people in my private practice and I use Chinese medicine because it taps into the body’s natural healing tendency. What I do is figure out how to encourage the body to heal itself more rapidly.
         Chinese medicine has existed for 5000 years and before was only available to the Emperor of China and the elite upper classes. Thankfully today it is offered to everyone in China and now to the west. Here it is often considered an alternative therapy but in China it is considered THE therapy. People in China survive with less pharmaceutical drugs then their western counterparts because of Chinese medicine. If you had a very bad cold would you want a cup of tea or a cocktail of drugs replete with side effects.  What if you didn't have a choice. Those side effects are cause by poisons. Does Nyquil make you better, or does it just knock you out. It's loaded with alcohol, which of course is a poison when taken at high levels. It's tough to poison yourself with tea.

Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.

Please email me at claytonshiu@gmail.com  if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Clayton Shiu
Check out more about me at:
www.harlemhealingarts.com

Comments

[Colin]

Okay, enough about me. Let's talk about you. What do YOU really think about me?

[michael jones]

Really great article! Thank you for it! I've learned some essential information about acupuncture benefits here! I really want to thank to you for the wonderful post!