When is Enough, Enough?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty,

and the pursuit of happiness.

The United States Declaration of Independence

The pursuit of happiness.

When you are in pursuit of something, you either do not have that which you seek or you feel you do not have enough. Some things you can measure and count, like money. But does having enough of that stop us from pursuing more? While other things you may pursue cannot be measured, like happiness.


Our country was founded on this principle and we even have successfully exported it the world over; it is engrained in the very fabric of our modern culture. We seek; we strive. To be fair, without this indomitable spirit, this country would not have progressed and advanced as quickly as it has. It is part of what makes us unique and special as a people. But there is balance in all things. We strive to put food on the table, clothes on our backs, a roof over our heads, and a few bucks in the bank for rainy days and retirement. Yet along the way, we get conditioned to believe that more is better: more food, more clothes, a bigger house, and a larger pot of cash in the bank. Happiness in the present moment and contentment for all we do have get lost in the pursuit for more; enough is no longer enough. We continue to seek to fill the void in our hearts with things that don’t have a chance at fitting.

Stop reading this for a moment and tune in to your breath. Notice… we inhale… for more; we exhale… for less. And right there in the middle is a space of stillness, of contentment. It is the sweet spot between more and less. It is enough.


In my office, I sit and listen intently to my patients. I piece together their stories with their symptoms and work to find a path toward relief. And when they lay down on my table and rest with the acupuncture needles in, they get an all too unique opportunity to lie still during their busy, seeking day. And no matter the message I am communicating with my point selection, one theme is always present: you have everything you need right in your own body. You heart beats by itself, your breath flows in and out by itself. Much of your body processes occur without your intervention. Yet, something gets in the way. Something pulls us out of balance.

The longer I am in practice, the more I see my role as helping to remove obstruction. When given the chance, the body, the mind and the spirit know what to do. When I can encourage stillness, when I can encourage my patients to simplify, to do less, to sit still more, greater health can be recovered and balance can be found. One of my teachers told me that when his patients ask him what they should do, he replies, “Do less.”

Sure there are many among us that truly lack for the basic necessities of life. But even for them, enough can be found in the love they have for their family and friends, the breath they have in their bodies, and the joy they have in their hearts for what they do have. And there are those of us that are fortunate to not be suffering for material needs. Yet we suffer still. It is the suffering that comes with the never-ending pursuit for more.


Take a moment. Sit down, close your eyes and take a deep breath.

Inhale…
Pause and listen…
Exhale…
Pause and listen.

Enough is actually enough.

When Enough is No Longer Enough

So, we’ve established when enough is actually enough. But when is it not enough? When do we need to strive for something more? When do we challenge ourselves to get out of our stagnant rut and reach for change?

Enough is no longer enough when it represents old patterns that no longer serve us. It is easy to default into familiar habits out of laziness or apathy in making the changes we need to make in our lives because change takes hard work and effort. Is that something we are up to?

In the realm of health, many of us get so comfortable with what has been usual for us that we mistake it for being normal. (See my 2009 post called “Usual vs. Normal”). For example, we have had this low back pain for months now that we “just deal with.” Either we pop an Advil and go about our day, or we let it handicap us to the point of keeping us from living the life we want to live. It becomes our excuse for not engaging with joy in our lives. We let issues like these linger. And the longer they go unaddressed the harder they become to treat and the more daunting the task seems to be. Do we deserve to feel better? Does hobbling around reinforce a low self-image? Have we had enough yet?

Whether it is low back pain or something as complex as many varied forms of addiction, when we perpetuate old destructive patterns, we often do so because we are not yet ready to break out of those old routines, that albatross of old self-definition. Who would I be if I no longer drank? We become complacent enough to believe “I’ll change tomorrow.” Yet what does it take for that tomorrow to actually come? When have we had enough? When do we embody the change we deserve and need?

The answer to these questions is completely individual. My role with my patients is to see where they are at, where they wish to get to, work within those confines and at the same time challenge them with just enough of a stretch to see the task ahead as attainable and doable. It takes patience and time to change old patterns.

Let’s take another example. When I advise patients on diet and nutrition, the only goal I know I can realistically achieve is to help my patients develop awareness around their food choices. How do the foods they eat affect their health? If they have allergies and chronic sinus infections, how does dairy affect them? If they do not know or have a hard time believing me and the mountains of research pointing to the connection between the two, then I ask them to eliminate it from their diet for 3 weeks and then reintroduce it by itself. They can then tell me how it makes their sinuses feel. No amount of external preaching or research can make someone change until they experience it for themselves. Once that awareness hits, they now have an empowered choice to make: continue eating dairy despite the obvious sinus congesting effects, or realize that it is not worth it, that they have had enough. Feeling better becomes worth changing an old habit.

The arc of change is sometimes long and slow, and sometimes dramatic and sudden. What pushes someone over the edge of change, only they can determine. But one day, one bright and sunny day, they wake up and realize that enough is no longer enough—they do in fact deserve more.

Resonance in Healing

One of the most stable geometric structures is the equilateral triangle. All three angles provide equal support. Turned on any of its sides, it is equally stable.

I see healing and the practice of medicine the same way. There are three angles that all have equal input, equal responsibility, and equal importance.

Angle 1: The Doctor

Who are they? Do they have a passion for their work? Do they come recommended? Are they insatiable in their desire to learn and educate themselves? Do they themselves look healthy? Are they willing and able to say the most important statement a doctor can say: “I don’t know, but I’ll find out for you?” We are talking about the quality and integrity of the person here. Choosing someone who you feel comfortable with in guiding you toward greater health is a challenging decision. But when you find the right fit for you, you know it without question. And you are excited about beginning a relationship that might see you through a health crisis, one that can adapt and blend with the ups and downs you may experience in your health through the course of your life.

Angle 2: The Medicine

Knowing what medicine to choose for what condition is not easy. Increasingly scarce are the General Practitioners, the Family Physicians. Increasingly, Western Medicine is moving toward greater specialization. The body is a complex thing and does require deep and profound understanding of each system to begin to grasp the entire being. But lost in this is the ability to see the person as a whole, to see how all the parts connect. This is where doctors practicing complementary medicine have stepped in. These include acupuncturists, naturopaths, homeopaths, and more and more Western physicians breaking outside of the mold.

Know your audience. When consulting a surgeon, expect surgery to be their advice. If that is not something you are interested in, seek a second opinion. Yet, if surgery is ultimately what you need, then that is what you need. Some people come to me expecting me to nay say all things Western. But if you need your hip replaced, acupuncture is not going to offer you much help other than to prep for the surgery and recover faster from it. Know what each discipline’s strengths and weaknesses are. When you have an acute condition that has a proven Western treatment, that is an excellent way to go. But when you have a chronic condition that involves lifestyle, diet, and nutrition, a more complementary approach is often better.

Angle 3: You, the Patient

There is no excuse for getting a bad haircut! You are sitting there awake, examining in the mirror the work being done. Did putting on the smock make you lose your voice?

For some reason, when people seek help they default into a subservient role. I want my relationship with patients to be 50-50. I encourage them to be educated, knowledgeable, and ask as many questions as they can. Never simply take my word for it, or anyone else’s for that matter. You are your own best physician. We have at our finger tips these days immense amounts of information. Yes, it can be dizzying and hard to know what to believe. That is where your doctor comes in. Let them respond to you. Let them answer your questions and help you make sense of what you have read and heard. An empowered patient makes the doctor step up their game. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

With all that information, how do you choose the right approach for the condition you have?

Resonance in Healing

There are lots of ways to fix someone. You have recurrent headaches and come to me with one full boar. I needle a point in your foot and it goes away. Done. Fixed. But has healing taken place?

Healing occurs when there is resonance between all three angles of the Healing Triangle; it is when You find the right Doctor using the right Medicine. When the Doctor resonates with their Medicine, the Medicine resonates with You, and You resonate with the Doctor, healing can occur. So long as there is resonance between all three, I honestly believe that it does not matter what the remedy is. It could be something as benign and unpredictable as a rock for all we know.

Ahh, but how do you find that resonance?

• Trust your own innate intelligence and ability to make the right health decisions for yourself.
• Do you homework and choose the Medicine that makes the most sense to you;
• Choose the Doctor that listens well, empowers you, and offers a treatment plan that is consistent with your vision for your own health path; 
• Get second opinions;
• When your questions are answered and you feel confident proceeding, trust in the choices you have made; 
• Allow yourself to receive the help you have asked for;
• When you feel it is time to change course, let your Doctor respond to your needs and adapt. If the resonance continues, you will know. If it does, it may be time to find someone new.

Health can be defined as the ability to adapt to your environment. It requires flexibility, knowledge and a desire to heal. All around you are choices for treatment. Only you can decide what is the best course for you, what resonates with your body, your mind and your spirit.

You are your own best physician.

Which Style is Right for You?

Someone recently asked me which style of acupuncture—Chinese, Korean, or Japanese—yields the best results. Good question.


Styles do not make results, acupuncturists do.

In general, there are a few very broad-stroke differences between Japanese, Korean and Chinese needling styles. Japanese style acupuncture tends to be non-invasive with only very mild stimulation; very outwardly gentle. Korean styles tend to be more vigorous in stimulation. They also have a unique system of hand acupuncture that I understand to be very effective. Though needling the hand can be a bit uncomfortable for patients. And Chinese styles seem to be everything in between.

What we learn in school is called “Traditional Chinese Medicine” and is an amalgam, a distilled version of the 4000 years of medical history that can vary with every geographic area in China. The Chinese government in the 1950s realized they could not care for their population using only Western physicians, so they re-introduced Chinese medicine in a pared down, well-defined and teachable program that is now taught in schools around the world. We all start with this basic foundation in the medicine, but once we graduate, many of us begin to explore the innumerable traditions in search of styles that we most resonate with and that we find most effective for our patients. Once I, as the acupuncturist, find a system that makes sense to me, then I stand a better chance of having it work for my patients.

From the patient’s perspective, the most obvious way that they may feel a difference in style is in how vigorously their acupuncturist seeks to elicit the “Qi” (pronounced chee, which means energy) sensation—that dull, heavy achy feeling at the site of the needle. That sensation means that the point has been well-stimulated. Clarifying for the patient what they are experiencing or should expect to feel is of the utmost importance. They need to understand that the qi sensation is an okay feeling to have. But a sharp, shooting, burning sensation is not. When that occurs, it simply means that we have gotten too close to a blood vessel or nerve and we need to relocate the needle. Some patients love that qi sensation and others simply do not. I never want a patient lying on my table in a state of anxiety—it is counter-productive. I always work within my patients’ comfort level. Always. The only time I am aggressive with needling is when someone is in acute pain and I need to strongly off-set that pain. And when you find the right point, acupuncture works 100% of the time. To see the look on a patient’s face when needling a point in their foot gets rid of their migraine within seconds is priceless!!!

The bottom line is always about getting results. Liking the acupuncturist is wonderful, but if they do not get results, then you are paying them for stimulating conversation! As much as my patients may like me, if I am not addressing their chief complaints effectively enough in a timely manner, then my rapport with them can only go so far.

There are of course other reasons why one might choose one style over another, but that is where we get a bit technical. Some styles are better suited for acute issues, some are better for constitutional balancing, while others are best for more psycho-emotional issues. Chinese Medicine is an enormous world and it is as varied as the acupuncturists are who practice it.

In the end, be assured that none of us do what we do in the style we do it if it did not work most of the time. My role is to continue to be insatiable in my quest for better skills and deeper knowledge to get more reliable and consistent results. Your role is to decide whether or not you connect with me, the style I practice, and get the results you are looking for.