A new year greeting at the turn of the season

After what feels like a very long summer with an abundance of warm and sometimes, very hot, sunny days with unending blue skies and sunshine (yes here in the UK!!), we are gently moving into autumn and the changes that it brings.

It is the week leading up to the Jewish New Year, which is a time for reflection, especially the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the day of Atonement, where we account for our actions during the past year and reflect on where we strayed from our upright path and values. It is not about punishment or self-flagellation, but an opportunity to reset and recalibrate… to set new resolves of how we would like to do things differently in the coming year. It is also a chance to set new goals and to consider what is important to us and how we can ensure that we make this a focus in our daily lives.

Although, I love the warmth of summer, I enjoy this time of change, with the colours turning into rich golden browns and yellows and seeing the fruits that nature has magically produced and continues to provide each year. So, just as nature provides nutrition for us and fruit that has been slowly growing from their little seeds, are now ripening on the trees, In this way, the seeds that we have sown in our life, continue to ripen and bear fruit.

I recently had Covid, having amazingly managed to avoid it for the last two and a half years, in spite of being in clinic throughout! I was lucky to not have really severe symptoms, but it was a reminder to me how important it is for us to give ourselves time to recover when we have been unwell. Our lives are very busy and we often operate at quite a fast pace. As a practitioner, who has treated a lot of clients with Long Covid over the last two years, I had to take heed of my words and the conversations that I have had with others, particularly around the importance of pacing oneself on the road to recovery. It was an opportunity to slow down, to retreat a little bit from the world and to listen to my body and to the little signals it gives us as to where we are with our vital energy. I even chose to cancel a work trip to Barcelona (with its opportunity to have a little blast of hot weather), where I was due to go to facilitate and participate at an annual Toyohari Japanese acupuncture workshop with colleagues (many of whom I hadn’t seen for more than two years). It was a difficult decision to make, but I knew in my heart of hearts that it would take a lot of energy and I still wasn’t feeling hundred percent. On the plus side, it meant, I was able to spend a little time with my son (who I hardly saw all summer as he embarked on yet more adventures around the globe) and was able to take him up to university to start in his second year. It reminded me that even when we think we are missing out on things, new opportunities open up and unexpected other experiences reveal themselves.

Although this is not the new year for many people, it is the start of academic years for those who are studying or have children at school, college or university. This is therefore a time for new beginnings as well as consolidation of learning.

In this past year, I have consolidated new learning, have embarked on new training and have explored how to integrate these new skills into my clinical work.

I completed my Certification in Intention Tapping – a variation of EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) also knows as tapping. Having to submit case studies, video recordings and evidence of my own tapping work was a wonderful focus and very helpful for my own learning and development. Tapping is a wonderfully powerful technique to help with not only mental and emotional issues but also physical ones. It is also a great tool for helping to identify what is important and what might be holding us back from moving forward in all areas of our life. Not only do I work 1:1 with people in person and on Zoom, I also teach how to use tapping on a day to day basis as a self-help resource. For more information about tapping go to the EFT page on this website: https://japaneseacupuncturelondon.com/treatment/eft-tapping/

You can also read about how others have found tapping helpful for anxiety, phobias and many other things: https://japaneseacupuncturelondon.com/testimonials/

I have also been exploring a new style of acupuncture – Neo Classical Acupuncture – which has dramatic effects on unblocking energy stuck in the meridians and organ system, thereby releasing it back into the body for better physical and mental/emotional functioning. I never cease to be amazed at the myriad ways we can read the body and get it to respond so immediately, with deep relaxation on all levels including release on the abdomen and often immediate change to symptoms.

I very much look forward in this coming year, to continue to serve my clients in the best possible way.

I wish you all lots of vitality to do what you most enjoy.