What I've been doing

[D Rusak]

SO, I want to provide an update on where I've been the last year+, I have not been on the forum much obviously. I guess there is some self-importance attached to this posting but I think it is still appropriate to post because I want to be involved in meeting up and better come out of the woodwork here, both because of interest and now that I will hopefully have a LITTLE more free time to do so.

I had some crazy times of moving back and forth (and then back!) to a new city. The last move back here involved enrolling in acupuncture/traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) school sort of on intuition and what research I could do. It was a big risk but it's really worked out well, I didn't know a ton about Chinese medicine when I started but by and large it really works well and helps a lot of people. I am lucky to have a couple of teachers more of the "call it like it is" type who aren't "believers" in anything, they just look at what works, throw out what doesn't, regardless of what the prevailing trend is or what traditions are, etc. Very similar to the mindset here at SOTT so I really try to take as many classes with that sort of professor as I can, those who really get you to think and not just memorize/regurgitate information. I am really happy to be using my "brain" again after several years in the music profession (we use our brain obviously, just in a different way) and to be in a field where the positive benefit to our "clients" can be seen much more quickly and directly!

I still feel my knowledge is very basic though (our teachers say our 12 semesters of school are just the ABC's and I believe them!) so I haven't posted/written any articles here yet. I hope to do so in the future.

Last 2 years I had the ability to live in nice places and learn a lot about gardening, which I love but also it's a useful future (and now!) skill. There is a local community garden which I try do volunteer at when I can. I have recently decided on a new project which is converting a van into a camper, sort of crazy but exciting to me, and quite reasonable here in warm Southern CA (actually several others at my school do it too). This includes learning some basic construction, electrics, plumbing, and solar power skills, again things I've always been curious about (I've always dreamed about building my own house though I never expected it to be on wheels!). So far my project is under budget and going very well, and my friends are really supportive. And obviously I will save a great deal of money which reduces stress too!

Besides saving money to be able to start a practice when I finish (I have NO idea where though), I am able to use that money to travel, which has been a dream of mine. I am doing this travel cheaply and trying to relate it to my studies (ex- I am going to do this volunteer/research project on herbs abroad in two months, study traditional massage technique later this year hopefully if I can save up!) or music (I still do some gigs but am trying to take the next step in some of the world musics I play and have learning opportunities abroad that I couldn't do here). Also I am able to afford to travel to auditions for classical music now, which I wasn't able to do when I was working in music full time (I was just staying afloat, and also just thought I wasn't good enough). I took 3 auditions last year and did well in all of them, I was even runner-up in one which really surprised me! Starting to clear out some very negative self-worth programs here and replace it with new data. If I can win a small job somewhere I will try to start a medical practice in that city, and network from there.

I am WAYYYY less stressed and calmer than this time two years ago, I am able to think so much more clearly, which benefits everyone, ha! I am doing something I feel like is and will be useful to people. I am taking out student loans which is NOT ideal obviously, but I am trying to get the most out of it, doing things I've always wanted to do and getting an education that hopefully will enable me to both help people and be a good obyvatel when I finish.

Since I'll be saving quite a bit of money with this whole camper thing, I won't have to work quite as much I hope, so hopefully I can be back on the forum more often.

Thanks again for all the support from everyone here!

 

[Mrs. Peel]

SO, I want to provide an update on where I've been the last year+, I have not been on the forum much obviously. I guess there is some self-importance attached to this posting but I think it is still appropriate to post because I want to be involved in meeting up and better come out of the woodwork here, both because of interest and now that I will hopefully have a LITTLE more free time to do so.

How's your diet? Are you doing EE also? :)

 

[ajseph 21]

That's good news to hear you are studying TCM. If you wouldn't mind me asking could you provide some basic information on what you've learned while studying?

 

[TheLostBoy]

Nice! Glad to hear that you are making progress, and in more than one arena it would seem!

The van/camper idea sounds pretty cool, especially if you use solar power and so on to make it entirely self-sufficient! And music is, imho, great to utilize because it is using your brain, but in a way that promotes health (depending on how personality as a musician ties in), by and large.

I'm also interested to hear how EE and Diet relate to your progress over this past while!

Overall glad to have another member back in action when they can! Keep us posted! :)

 

[D Rusak]

I've been doing EE since it was first talked about on the forum. It sort of has been a little static for me for some time now, honestly, but I can't say I'm not getting good results or something...just the biggest changes often come when you start a new program? I've also played trumpet for wow, almost 20 years now! and do a specific breathing program for that too, and have done yoga off and on for years, of course EE is not exactly the same but I've been moving a lot of air for a while, again so maybe not so drastic result after doing EE. It's hard to comment since I've been doing EE since before my "bad" times and right through it to better ones now. I would definitely recommend it to patients though!

Diet I have not gone all the way to meat only with as started to be discussed here, I am at paleo. I started with the meat/fat only thing last year and I seemed to get some worse symptoms, gained weight and lost muscle tone, started having edema after flights which was very new and worrying (the flights COULD be a factor as well, I mostly don't go through the machine except 1 or 2 times I was really late for a flight and never had adverse effects from flying before), started to have worse concentration again, foggy mind, etc. It could be detox as well, this is something I considered, but I decided I would be okay with plants AND meat for the time being. I eat plants I grow and go to the farmer's market for veggies and meat and the odd fruit like berries if I'm in a special occasion mood (with whipped coconut cream, mmmm).

Again as I mentioned, I feel like I'm just at ABCs with the Chinese medicine stuff, I want to write a quality comprehensive article and really get things straight and well-worded for the "layman", to explain concepts well. But the major thing I like are the principles of moderation as opposed to extremism or ascetism, and the idea of getting the body back to a state of balance, as opposed to the western idea of battling/eradicating pathogens.