Meandering Thoughts for 2013

For those of you who know me well, or even I little well, you probably know that I don’t tend to take much time off of work. People are always telling me to take time off of work, relax, and have more fun.
And I was listening recently to an interview with Warren Buffett, and he was asked how many days a week he worked. He said that he went to the office 6 days a week and worked from home the other day. When asked why he worked so hard when he already had so much money, his response was that he loved his work.
So I enter my 2013 with the gratitude that for me, my work is not “work”. I was blessed to find a 2nd career path at age 28, when I switched from environmental planning to Chinese medicine. I stumbled on this path, yet on retrospect, it was not a stumble at all. Rather, I was guided. And like Warren Buffett, I love my work. What else would I do?
My work has so many aspects – helping people, using energy to heal, using intellect and intuition to find the right homeopathic remedy and herbs to cure people’s symptoms, discussing nutrition and nutritional supplements… and on and on and on. Hardly boring – always interesting and challenging. I am simply blessed with a career that I love.
I was discussing with my acupuncturist last month the fact that he and I are some of the only acupuncturists who have been practicing since 1983. Most acupuncturists never made it — it must have been especially hard to make it in the 80’s before it became popular and insurance reimbursement became commonplace. But I don’t remember any difficulties, probably because I was loving creating the clinic and workplace.
I did love my work as an Environmental Planner. It was really rewarding! I worked in Santa Cruz, CA and in Newport, Oregon. I had a sense of purpose. But issues with my own health made me seek the help of a homeopath and acupuncturist in Oregon, and the result of this inner work, coping with my mother’s health issues at that time, and a trip to Israel where I became an orthodox Jew, all led me to this new path.
So then in 1980, back in Los Angeles where I’d grown up, where I never ever thought I’d live again – I struck out on this new path – becoming a Doctor of Chinese medicine. And then after that a Classical Homeopath. All the time just following what I loved and what was helping me to heal on a personal level.

…..So this past holiday I did in fact take time off and traveled to Asia to study with Master Mantak Chia in Thailand. He has a fabulous retreat and spa center focused on Taoist healing practices – about 30 minutes outside of Chiang Mai in nothern Thailand. There I learned about some of the more esoteric aspects of Chinese medicine.
This was a fabulous trip. But more than that, I did my own, personal inner healing. They also have a spa and I received some specific types of specialized Chinese body work which helped to intergrate me and my body and spirit on a deeper level. I had quite a healing aggravation ~ and was most definitely down and out during the first part of the trip ~ having to take care of myself from far from home.
But I learned that I had the inner reserves to do just that – and that all the meditation and inner cultivation I’ve practiced was invaluable in keeping me centered, even when far from home.
I’m always amazed when I travel how I never am far from home. I bring my mind with me everywhere I go. And it’s always so interesting to me to watch how my mental process never really changes very much. Some of the content changes based on the external reality, of course; but the content isn’t nearly as interesting as what my mind does with the content, how my mind comments on it and processes it. The content is secondary to the process.
It’s kind of like having internet and email anywhere you go. It’s the consistency of life. And my observing my mental chatter, and content, and how my content organizes itself, is the interesting thing — not the outer changes, but observing the inner process and how the inner process works to process and create strategic change in the outer reality.
I’m attaching a few pictures of my trip to Thailand and at the retreat center. This center is open to the public, for those of you intending to travel to Thailand, by the way.
I met all sorts of interesting people, including people who tried to scam me in the streets (one successfully,) and people who showered me with incredible depths of love and understanding.
Did you, like I, receive over the last two weeks many blogs, giving advice for the end of the year and 2013? Have you noticed how everyone has become a professional advice-giver now with the web and email? So many people seem to think they know what we should do and how we should think. There is so much bravado!
But the only email newsletter I received over the past two weeks which I paid any credence to, was the one which said to turn inward, sit and be silent, and listen to your own truth.
Whether you use the tools of establised religion, or your your own, highly skilled intuition ~ it amounts to the same. Turning inward to connect to your higher truth. At times this still small voice within is loud and at times it is mute. When it’s mute, you can use your physical body and sensations, and the synchronistic events around you to be your guide.
What is that ache in your neck or sharpe pain in your back trying to tell you? Each of us has our own answer – and the answer will likely change from day to day, moment to moment.
If it feels like you could use a friendly face and encouraging words to support you in 2013 on your personal healing path, whether it involves spirit, physical issues, heart-centered healing, or helping your brain and mind to function with more clarity, I’d love to help you and work with you as a team.
I am really into what I do. In other words, I personally use supplements, herbs, acupuncture, exercise, meditation and classical homeopathy to help myself stay balanced and in greater touch with my greater life’s purpose. And I never deny the use of Western medications, X-Rays, MRI’s, blood tests, etc. as well — we need to integrate everything – that, my friend, is the definition of holistic!
It is a blessing to me and a gift to work with each person who decides to work with me in this holistic way, whether it’s also because your insurance covers my treatment, or whatever the reason ~ I consider it a blessing and a gift.
I wish I could say for certainty that 2013 will in some way create greater positive change in each of our lives. A part of me wishes I was on board with all the “positive affirmation people” who honestly seem to believe that all their affirmations will change things for the better.
But I’m more of the belief that if we allow in the dark side, and the shadow, and consiously work to integrate these difficult aspects into our lives, that instead of having to “affirm” our strengths, that instead, the dark, difficult, shadowy parts will transform into our greatest strengths. As Carl Jung says, get in touch with your dreams and all the difficult, unconscious images that arise for you. This is the way to true integration. Remember the Yin and Yang – they are equal in a healthy person. Denying the difficult stuff, only makes it stronger….
Acupuncture and homeopathy are the two best ways to help integrate the Yin and Yang, the difficult with the happy and fun. Laying on the acupuncture table, you can just feel the stress flow out of you. Your heart opens, and sometimes the tears flow freely. I remember during one of my first acupuncture treatments when I was about age 28 living in Oregon, I just spontaneously started singing. And when given one of my first homeopathic remedies I just started spontaneously crying. Yes – this stuff really works!
My blessings for 2013. Together – shall we make it into a truely transformational treasure?



I look forward to working with you throughout 2013.
*Acupuncture*
*Homeopathy*
*Chinese Herbal Medicine*
*Nutritional Counseling and Diet*
Dr Randy Martin, OMD, LAc, PhD, CCH
Doctor of Chinese Medicine, Certified Classical Homeopath

 

 

 

 

 

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Meandering Thoughts for 2013
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