Thrive Acupuncture and Wellness

Stanley wants YOU to help him find a forever home! He's getting older and realizes how much he ENJOYS belly rubs and being inside when it's cold and rainy - now that he's allowed those strange 2 legged critters to pamper him! Let us know if you have any possible parents looking for a (kinda feral) fur baby!

What Is Mine To Do Right Now #7: Give this mind experiment a try by asking yourself with curiosity What is mine to do right now? and listen for your answer. Let me know how it goes!

What Is Mine To Do Right Now #6: "Being in the moment introduces you to a new world. Being in the moment connects you to your true identify. This connection brings you peace and contentment. You are no longer a victim of your thoughts, rushing here and there, to the past or to the future, but at peace with the quiet strength inside of you.... This state gives you clarity, calmness, and allows insight to emerge. This peace is our birthright." --Elsie Spittle, Nuggets of Wisdom

What Is Mine To Do Right Now #5: Why does this question help the world? Most people are affecting change locally. Even the people working on large-scale global change toggle back and forth between influencing locally and globally. Locally may be right in front of your nose. For me most of the time it’s my patients, my husband, friends, and family. When I get back into balance and am in service of those people, that’s the best I can do to get my good intentions to ripple ...out into the world. Sometimes locally for me means local politicians, organizations, or my spiritual community. What is yours to do right now will change from moment to moment. Know that it’s totally ok if what is yours to do right now is local or even personal. The world could use more people who are clear on what is theirs to do in that moment AND then put their whole heart into doing that.

"Your experience does not create your state of mind; your state of mind creates your experience. In other words, your state of mind, or mood, varies and your perception of life tags along for the ride. When your mood is high, your old house is a time honored classic. When your mood is low, it’s a godforsaken money pit. And while that makes sense to most people, still they often wonder, So what? What am I supposed to do with the realization that my perceptions are created fro...m inside of me?" --Garret Kramer, The Path of No Resistance, why overcoming is simpler than you think If you're interested in exploring this understanding and how it can be helpful to you right now among all the uncertainty, come check out the community that is looking at wellbeing from the inside out. The more you take a breather and look in the direction of hope, common sense, and wisdom, the more effortless it is to fall into this space no matter your circumstances. We hope you’ll join our quiet revolution. The first month is free so you can check it out without any pressure! facebook.com/events/592244078350424?acontext=%7B

Stanley wants you! To come visit Thrive soon. Friday morning slots are available for existing patients

Sending so much love to the community and all the people helping us with fires once again! We're in the office today, treating those that can make it in. Jules and Christina are both lucky to have homes that are safe and are happy to be doing what we can for the community. The air in the office is really good, and we have the same welcoming relaxing vibe you've become accustomed to. Everyone is getting stress reducing and lung supporting points in addition to whatever we are working on. Patients that have come to their appointment have told me it felt good to take a moment to take care of themselves. We gotta take care of ourselves so we can help our community--whether it's neighbors, family, friends, strangers--together is better!

Another day with clean air had me feeling like this when I got out of bed! I made sure to put down my paperwork yesterday evening when I was done seeing patients and went home to spend time outside. A little gardening, eating dinner outside, and some nice conversation with my husband. All things I love. And they seemed even more precious after prolonged poor air quality! What are you going to do today to make sure you get outside for some fresh air and Vitamin D?

Was I the only one throwing my windows open, yelling "Fresh Air!" last night? http://gph.is/1qK6Md6

We’ve been known to say that it’s possible to effortlessly thrive regardless of circumstances. And we mean it. Even Now! If you want to know more about what we mean, please join us on our weekly Zoom conversation on Tuesday afternoons. Last week we discussed an inside out movie projector metaphor and deepened our conversation of personal and impersonal thinking. You want to explore this metaphor less with your intellect, more beyond the words for a feeling, understanding, ...or insight. Listen like you would listen to music, for what you enjoy and feels true for you. It seems like we're taking life in objectively from the outside in like a camera capturing what is going on around us. But really we're creating our experience from the inside out like a movie projector. The projector brings the movie to life with both the inner workings of the projector an the power plug. The projector is the life force (aka God, Universe, Qi, Quantum Field, Mind) that is the formless energy that is the source and intelligence behind life. Thought is the film reel that has different movies on them. The film is the creative potential for infinitely different ideas, images, memories and perceptions. Consciousness is the movie screen that allows us to see the movie. Consciousness is the awareness that brings our thoughts to life as feelings. Our thoughts get projected out into the world and we see it like a movie and experience it like it is happening to us. If an orange dotted happy film reel is playing, you will get an orange dotted happy movie. If a thick purple sad film reel is playing, you will get a thick purple sad movie. 100% of the time. Some movies come from our personal mind or intellect. We've stored them and play them over and over. Other movies come from the impersonal mind or the formless. We all touch that formless space from time to time. You can trust that impersonal mind is available to you at all times, no matter the circumstances. If you're interested in exploring this understanding and how it can be helpful to you right now among all the uncertainty, come check out the community that is looking at wellbeing from the inside out. The more you take a breather and look in the direction of hope, common sense, and wisdom, the more effortless it is to fall into this space no matter your circumstances. We hope you’ll join our quiet revolution. The first month is free so you can check it out without any pressure! facebook.com/events/592244078350424?acontext=%7B

Love Your Lungs #8: A week ago when I wrote this series of posts I said we're in a marathon not a sprint. But it turns our we're in the air quality X-Games--extreme sports edition. I know the poor air quality feels overwhelming. But it's not too late to start taking care of your respiratory system- it's actually the perfect time. Take some time to make a plan for supporting your respiratory system now and through any future bad air quality.

Love Your Lungs #7: Conscious breathing: Take a few minutes every so often to take some calming, deep breaths. Give thanks to your lungs for all the work they do. In Chinese medicine, the lungs hold onto grief and sadness, so think of what you want to release as you exhale and then inhale peace and serenity. Essential oils, such as eucalyptus, rosemary, geranium, cinnamon, and peppermint, support respiratory health and perk up your spirit. We have some inhalers with blends of essential oils that can easily fit in your pocket or purse and allow you to quickly give your lungs some love.

Love Your Lungs #6: Detox: In addition to particulates, the smokey air contains gasses and toxins that get in your bloodstream. The first stop for blood purification is the liver, so I focus my detox efforts on the liver. I've been drinking Traditional Medicinals EveryDay Detox tea. They have a few different flavors and you can buy them at Oliver's and Whole Foods. Other easy liver detox support includes: o warm water with lemon to start the day o green leafy foods... o sour or fermented foods (try fermenting your overabundant garden veggie with these small batch recipes) o cutting back on caffeine, alcohol, sugar and other things the liver has a hard time processing. If you have specific concerns or sensitivities to detoxing I can prescribe custom herbal formulas to support your individual needs. See more

Love Your Lungs #5: Air Purifier: If you’ve lived in Sonoma County over the past 3 summers you probably already own at least one air purifier for your home. Is it time to replace the filters? A few patients in the market for another have asked me what I recommend since we got more for the office recently--there’s one in each treatment room to help clean the air of viruses and now also smoke. I chose the Winnix 5300-2 because it moves a lot of air and has good carbon and HEPA filtration. https://www.winixamerica.com/product/5300-2/ One of the main things you want in an air purifier is to move a lot of air through it. The more air it moves the more it purifies. We got ours off amazon, but you can shop around for them.

Love Your Lungs #4: Masks: I know we all have mask fatigue, but if your air quality is moderate and you’re going to be outside, it’s a good idea to put on a respirator mask that filters the particles. There’s also a lot of confusion about if it’s ok to wear a respirator mask or if we can buy them since we want to make sure health professionals have access to them. We had a small supply of 3 lightly used N95 masks in the back of our cupboard so take a look around at home...--now is the time to pull them out. If you don’t have any N95s or you want to get some more, you can buy KN95 masks without any special health provider qualifications. I know they have them at amazon and Friedman's. KN95 masks are very similar to N95s. The main difference is that the straps go around your ears so the seal is not as tight, but they do have a wire you can shape around the nose to get a good seal. Want to make your masks last longer? I use a washable cloth mask on top of my KN95 masks at work to keep the outside of the mask clean so I can reuse the masks a few times. The cloth mask on top also helps keep the KN95 in place for me. I tie the cloth mask behind my head so I don't have too many things behind my ears. If the cloth mask has ear straps, I string a ribbon through and tie that behind my head. I put each lightly used KN95 mask in a paper bag to air out for at least 72 hours between uses. See more

Love Your Lungs #3: Stay Inside When Possible: Make conscious choices about when to spend time outside. We’ve had about 2 weeks of "spare the air days" in a row. We’re in a marathon, not a sprint. If you consider the long term exposure to particulates and toxins in the air, your decisions will probably be more cautious. If the air quality is less than ideal, stay inside as much as possible with the windows closed and an air purifier on. Where I live, the morning tend...s to have better air quality so I’ve been getting out first thing to tend the garden. If you don’t have central A/C, like so many houses in Sonoma County, it may finally be time to buy a portable A/C unit. We did a couple summers ago and it was a life saver over the past couple of weekswe could keep the windows closed but still have at least one place in the house that was a comfortable temperature during a heat wave. Find a way to exercise indoors. I love exercising outdoorsthat’s one of my main motivators for exercisebut it’s empowering to have the option to exercise indoors. That way I don’t feel like I have to compromise by either choosing exercise in unhealthy air or not exercising at all. I’ve been doing online Pilates and my husband brought our bike trainer into the living room from the backyard. See more