Today I had my eighth acupuncture treatment. It was the second treatment from my new acupuncturist.

I don’t know the age of my new acupuncturist. I think she is around my age, which is good for me. She is just right age for me. Not too young nor too old.

Since she seemed to be open and flexible, I discussed about my honest feeling about her last treatment. It was treated on my back, and hooked with the electric devise. I would like to try the traditional Chinese method, which is treated on my front body, from head to toe.

She pleasantly accepted my request. I liked today’s treatment.

***

On my last visit, she recommended me to do Tai Chi or Ki Gong exercise daily. She also shared one Youtube link of Qigong practice. I started doing this exercise daily. I have done this for three days so far. It is only 18 minutes exercise, but I already get sore mustle here and there in my body. I think this is good for my body.

8 Brocades Qigong Practice created by Mimi Kuo-Deemer

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I went to the local post office. This is not a big city, so it usually is quiet.

Yet, today was different from normal days.

Even when entering to the parking lot, there was a long waiting line for people trying to find a vacant parking spot. After waited for a while, I finally could find the parking space and parked my car.

Now, it was time to wait for a long waiting line for the checking counter.

Before me and after me, I was surrounded by many customers who were holding several gift boxes to be sent.

I almost forgot that we are now in the holiday season.

I hope my letters will be delivered safely to my Japanese family and friends, as well as my Navajo parents.

I know my family spirits will take good care of my letters. They always deliver my letters to my loved ones safely.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Once in a while I feel lonely, even though I have a great family and friends whom I can fully trust.

In the daily life, I run into some people who speak different language from mine. With this expression, I am not focusing on the physical language. Yes, they speak English and my mother tongue is Japanese. But there is more than the physical leveled language. The language I meant is the method to communicate from heart to heart.

There are people who don’t think and feel the same way as I do. They have completely different mindset as mine. Even though I talk from my heart, they don’t understand my true intention and wish. They simply ignore as if I don’t exist. I cannot write down in details, but you know what I really mean, right?

That is why I feel alone. I feel like I am an alien here in this planet Earth.

Have you ever heard the song You Are Not The Only One by Buddy Red Bow?

His song touches my soul. It is soothing to know that I am not the only one who feels lonely. There should be somebody who completely understands my language. I will meet them and reconnect with them someday somehow.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

The trash collection regulation is different between in Japan and America. I needed to adjust myself to the new regulation when I moved to America.

Back in Japan, the regulation was much stricter than that of America. I needed to separate trash into seven different types. Every time when I was about to trash something, I needed to check the regulation guide book. I needed to buy and use a special trash bag that was specified and sold by the City. The trash bag was semi-transparent garbage bag and the content was visible from outside.

Here in America, the regulation was not strict at all. The City provides the residents with a 96 gallon trash can. The collection track picks up the trash twice a week. I often saw huge unfolded cardboard boxes sticking out from the trash can in our neighborhood.

That being said, this casual environment was slightly improved this year.

The City revised the trash regulation. We are now asked to put all the trash in a bag. All the trash needs to be inside the can. Any trash intruding from the trash can is not collected. They also changed the collection frequency. Now it is picked up only once a week.  

I support the new regulation. This new regulation will improve the people’s way of trashing. It will contribute on reducing the household garbage. It will be a baby step to contribute to preserve the Earth.   

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today was my daughter’s birthday.

Our day started from the early morning; 6 am. It was cold morning so that we urgently needed to go bathroom.

After we came back to bed, we spent almost three hours in bed, cuddling each other and watching funny videos together. It is our ritual way to spend our weekend morning together in a nice cozy bed.

I took a look of my cell phone. The cell phone monitor showed I got many unread messages in my LINE account, email inbox, and text inbox. They were full of birthday wishes to my daughter from my Japanese parents and Navajo parents, along with my Japanese friends and local friends.

Among them, it was a cute little surprise. My daughter got a birthday wish from her BFF, who moved and transferred to another school last year. I was grateful for the fact that an 8-year-old-girl remembered my daughter’s birthday. Maybe she marked it on her calendar? It was very thoughtful of her remembering my daughter’s birthday.

After breakfast, we went to the grocery store and got a birthday cake. This is actually our third birthday cake. Starting from last Friday, continued with Saturday and today, we kept eating a birthday cake (new one, every day). We sang a birthday song three times in a row.

I guess it’s fine. Our daughter’s birth was a great happiness for my husband and me. She totally changed our life, into a great one ever.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

On my last acupuncture treatment visit, my acupuncturist mentioned about Chinese life cycles.

As per the wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), we start a new cycle on every certain years. Women mark a new cycle in every seven years, while men mark a new cycle in every eight years, as it says “Women seven and men eight.”

The rough explanation of the women’s life cycle is as follows.

At age of 7, her adult teeth start switching from baby’s ones to adult’s ones. Her reproductive system starts to develop.

At age of 14, her first menstruation appears.

At age of 21, her adult teeth development completes and her body grows to full height.

In the next cycle, the fourth cycle of age 21 to 28, her fertility ability reaches at the peak. This cycle is the best time physically to give a baby birth.

On the next cycle, at age of 35, her physical peak condition starts declining. This cycle is still good for giving a baby birth.

At age of 42, she starts to have white hair.

At age of 49, her menstruation dries up (menopause).

***

I am 48 years and 9 months, and I am close to my next stage of life cycle.

My acupuncturist told me to be aware of the transition in physical and mental status when entering to a new cycle. I will need to put more attention and care to my physical health than before in order to maintain my good health.

I am looking forward to a new cycle. I personally believe, after menopause, which is a termination of reproduction, women will become much more aware of the spiritual aspects than her younger years. Thus, in the upcoming cycles, women can focus on spirituality more than ever.  

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Last night I stayed up late to finish sewing a Santa dress for my daughter. My daughter happily went to school with the new dress.

She brought 24 cupcakes to school and celebrated her birthday in advance with her classmates. She received lots of birthday wishes and hugs from her classmates.

She found out her teacher’s birthday was the same day as hers. It’s nice to know they share something in common. It was a nice surprise information.

When she came back home from school, she found another wonderful surprise in our mail box. It was an airmail envelop from her Japanese friend. It contained a heartwarming letter and a cute birthday card. It was very nice of her to remember my daughter’s birthday.

The address part of the envelop was blurred. Maybe it was raining when she mailed it. It was miraculous that this letter was safely delivered.

My daughter had a wonderful day today, as her pre-birthday.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Every Thursdays my daughter attends the art club after school. Our husband and I walk to school to pick her up, and three of us walk back home. We enjoy this walk every Thursday evening.

After the club, the art teacher personally gave me some information. It was the information about the upcoming art drawing contest. The art teacher highly values my daughter’s art talent. She wants my daughter to apply her art work to the contest.

My daughter recently applied her artwork to IKEA kids drawing contest. So, this will be her second participation in a contest. The winner will be awarded a $100 gift card. The winner’s art work will be their website with the full name and the grade.

While we were walking back home, we enjoyed watching a beautiful sunset.

My in-law sent me a picture of their land. They just had enough snow entirely covered their property. I wish we were there and drink a hot cocoa together.

I appreciate every moment of our peaceful days. They are all precious moments.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I have been working on making a Santa dress for my daughter. I could have worked much faster if I didn’t have watery running nose.

For these couple of days, I have been suffering from sore throat and running nose.

At first I thought I caught a cold. But some of my local friends told me it was probably an allergic reaction to cottonwood trees.

They can be right.

There are a whole bunch of white fluffy stuffs floating in the air, which I didn’t notice until today. Also I noticed other people are having the same symptom as mine.

This might be my first time to have an allergic reaction to cottonwood tree. I never noticed this bunch of cotton thingy floating in the air in this area. It reminds me of Rapid City, where I saw cotton staff floating in the air.

I hope I will get over from this allergy so that I can finish making the dress by this Friday.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I had an acupuncture treatment six times so far.

As for the first three treatments, my body reacted great. The improvements were obvious in my glucose numbers as well as in my emotional uplifting. As for the latter three treatments, however, I did not see any obvious improvements.

I discussed about it with my acupuncturist. She said it was normal. According to her, many clients experience great improvements on their first couple of treatments, and then, they experience the plateau phase which they don’t see any obvious improvements for a while.

Maybe she is right.

That being said, my intuition says my body have gotten used to the same protocol. These six treatments were done in the same protocol with using the same acupuncture points. As a matter of fact, there are some medical articles talking about my intuition might be right.   

Since my last acupuncture treatment in September, I have been thinking about exploring a new acupuncturist with a new protocol, just like having a second opinion.

That is why today I had my seventh acupuncture treatment with a new acupuncturist.

***

The new acupuncturist offered me a different type of protocol.

The previous acupuncturist’s protocol is to insert needles on my front side of body. She used 35 to 40 needles. The needles were thin (very fine) so that I hardly felt pain when being inserted. It was treated from head to toe.

Contrary to that, the new protocol was to insert needles on my back side of body. The number of needles were less than the previous one. Maybe around 10 on the body (shoulder blade, lower back, and upper ankle) and 5 in the ear. The new protocols were Electro-acupuncture (A small electric current is passed between acupuncture needles) and The Ear acupuncture (auricular therapy). I felt the needles were bigger and thicker so that I could feel a slight pain when being inserted.

I cannot tell which is better for me, at this moment. I was satisfied that I could experience a new protocol.

***

Here is the memo that my new acupuncturist gave me.

 

Diagnosis from tongue

Lung: Heat

Kidney: Yin Vacuity (陰虚) with Heat

Jing (精): Vacuity (虚)

— I never heard of the word of Jing. Based on my Internet research, jing is stored in kidney and represents “essence”. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) it is one of the Three Treasures Sanbao 三寶, along with qì and shén. I guess jin is like vital energy, and I am lucking the vital energy.

 

Diagnosis from pulse

Wiry, forceful, deep

— I never heard of these expressions of pulse. Based on my Internet research, it represents “congealed blood (凝固血)”.

 

Recommendations

Exercise: Tai Chi exercise on daily basis

Foods: low-fat, high fiber, raw fruits and vegetables, cooling foods, roots such Mexican yam, yam, radishes, potatoes, carrots, melons, cucumbers, beets, turnips, taro, pumpkin, wheat, mung beans, winter melon, celery, pears, spinach, sweat rice, soy beans, tofu, squash, burley

Book: Healing with whole foods: Asian traditions and modern nutrition by Paul Pitchford — I already ordered this book. Looking forward to reading it.

Hot bath: regulates pancreatic function

Chrysanthemum tea — I never took this tea. Maybe I will look for it in the local grocery store and try it.

 

Avoids

Excessive vitamin B and C, strong aroma, strong spices

Water with ice — It has been my daily habit to drink lots of water with ice. The acupuncturist recommended me to switch to room temperature water, as extreme cold water puts too much stress in my stomach. I never thought of that, but she is right. I will stop putting ice in my water.

***

PS: Five days has passed after the Electro-acupuncture treatment. I didn’t see any improvements in my glucose levels nor my emotional uplifting. I am going to ask my new acupuncturist to try another protocol on my next appointment.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪