June 24, 2022

In the last issue of AIM, I discussed the importance of boundaries. In this article, I’d like to go to the other end of an entirely different spectrum and discuss the type of boundaries we place on ourselves that are dangerous. These self-created boundaries often hold us back from reaching our highest potential and experiencing all that life has to offer.  Come with me as I share some real-life stories, offer some strategies for going beyond limiting beliefs (which we all have), and tell you why I believe it’s even more important that we, as healthcare professionals, learn how to effectively master this. Years ago, my best friend was inspired when she attended a Leukemia Society charity event. She went home with a strong desire to run a marathon. She called me the next day and asked if I would run a marathon with her since I had already completed a few.  I was a bit skeptical, to say the least, because at the time of this conversation she was living in New York, smoking almost a pack of cigarettes a day, didn’t really exercise, and hadn’t ever really run for distance.  Fast forward three years from that conversation and through a series of unlikely events, my best friend found herself living four doors down from me in San Diego. She quit smoking, started exercising and we began running three to five days per week.  We started off slowly by running/walking a couple of miles, and gradually increased over time. I still remember when we crossed the finish line at the Rock n Roll Marathon in San Diego. As she cried tears of joy and amazement at what she had just accomplished I remember feeling honored to be witness to her transformation and dedication to getting out of her comfort zone and pushing beyond any self-limiting beliefs that came up. Consequently, my best friend has run over five marathons to date and has since experienced a physical body and health potential she didn’t know existed.  There’s a bit of back story that makes this story even more potent. Her father was a cancer survivor and when she was inspired to run a marathon by attending the Leukemia society charity event her “why” for running the marathon was very strong. While she wanted to become healthier, not ever get cancer and feel better about herself, she also wanted to run the marathon to raise money for cancer.  She had extremely strong “what” and “why’s”. By focusing on those and not the details like how this will happen and when the Universe conspired to manifest it for her by giving her even more than she asked. Originally, she just wanted me to meet her at a marathon and run it with her. Instead, the Universe presented her with a job opportunity on the West Coast, she moved out, met the love of her life, got married, and had me and several other running partners.  Remember, the how will always get in the way of a good what.  Therefore, it’s your job to stay focused on the what and the why’s while allowing the Universe to take care of the how and when. And if your what and/or why’s are tied to service to others, I believe it amplifies your ability to manifest your dreams and desires. While my best friend may have had doubts, she never once said “I can’t do this.” Sadly, this wasn’t the mindset of another friend of ours.  She repeatedly told us she couldn’t run because “I have bad ankles.” “In fact,” she would say “I’ve always had bad ankles. I’ve tried everything to fix them, and nothing will work.” So, we ran without her.  After some time, this friend with the “bad ankles” had so much FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) that she came to me privately and asked if I could do acupuncture on her ankles. After one 30-minute treatment, her ankles were miraculously cured. In fact, she has gone on to complete three marathons and three half Ironman races! By the way, my acupuncture was not a miracle. Rather, removing her limiting beliefs and negative self-talk is where the miracle, ability to run distances and achieve such things was hidden all along.  “Argue for your limitations and they are yours.” ~ Richard Bach from the book Illusions. I’d like to share one more story before offering you steps you can take to bust through any lingering limiting beliefs and deliver you to a life beyond your wildest imagination. This story is more aligned with the limitations we place on ourselves around our careers and private practice. A practitioner came to me saying that she wanted more patients. Quickly into our coaching session, we realized she didn’t want more patients (she was already seeing 50 patients per week) she wanted more money. As we explored further, she admitted that she secretly wanted to leave the field of Chinese medicine altogether – that she was burned out after nearly 20 years of private practice and seeing an average of 50 patients per week for over 10 years.  When I asked her what she loved to do in her spare time she shared with me that she enjoyed doing interior design for a friend of hers who rents out Airbnbs. She also shared with me that she and her husband had a nest egg of money and that a far-fetched dream of hers was to open her very own Airbnb and decorate it Zen style with a healing atmosphere. I asked why she didn’t do just that – buy a property that she could turn into a Zen-like healing sanctuary Airbnb and advertise it as such.   “I can’t leave private practice,” she said.  “Why not?” I asked.  “Well, um, I don’t know. Who will take care of my patients? They will never let me leave.”  That’s when I invited her to write her own permission slip to follow her dreams and open her own Airbnb. I

There are countless anti-aging tools, supplements, modalities and biohacks out there today, many of which are super expensive. However, over the past fifteen years of teaching, lecturing, and practicing within the realms of anti-aging, longevity medicine, peak performance, cosmetic acupuncture/rejuvenation and what I now refer to as “Radiant Aging” I have uncovered five things you can do that can reverse aging AND they won’t cost you a penny.  In this article I’d like to first explain the concept of Radiant Aging then provide you with five things you can start recommending to patients and do yourself to slow down the hands of time. What is “Radiant Aging”? Simply said, it’s accepting the fact that we are all going to age and therefore instead of fighting it like we fight so many things in society, we lean into the aging process with grace, wisdom and see it for what it is: the opportunity to give more. As we age, we live out our “Hero’s Journey”.1 We essentially go through life experiencing ups and downs and it’s in the challenging moments when we are tested that we grow and come through the other side with experience and wisdom. The wisdom from that experience as well as the “how we made it through” are the gifts we share with others. The more we go through challenges and hard times, the more gifts we then have to give to others.  Think about it. Many of us came to Chinese Medicine because of a challenge in life which was solved with this incredibly powerful medicine, so we then dedicated our careers to offering it to others. So, that’s the first part of “Radiant Aging” – adopting a different perspective on it or “Flipping Your Flaws” as my dear friend Renee Airya Chan2 says.   There are some amazing discussions from Ram Dass3 on the topic of aging. He reminds us that we are all going to age so why not do it gracefully and with a happy heart rather than fight it. Do the leaves on the oak trees fight the Autumn season? No, they become beautifully radiant as they turn from green to wonderful hues of orange, yellow and gold.  Something that occurred to me about this phenomenon of leaves changing into beautiful colors in the Fall time is that the longer the leaves stay on the tree, the more gorgeous they become.  Can it be that the more we stay connected to our source, God, the more beautiful and radiant we will become? Something to think about for sure. In fact, in a study of Centurions (people who live into their hundreds) called Power 9, the 4th commonality is a strong spiritual belief in a higher power/God4.  Back to the leaves… In the Fall, as the leaves age, they become so beautiful that many of us take long drives in the countryside just so we can see the turning of the leaves. Be like the leaves: age radiantly and perhaps people will take long drives to see you! This leads us to the question: “Ok, so how can I age radiantly?”   While I’ve found an almost countless amount of biohacking methods and tools for slowing down and reversing the aging process in the body, here are five of them that do not cost any money. 1. Forgiveness I put this first because I honestly believe this is the most powerful of the five and has the most impact on every aspect of your life. It may even be the most difficult. However, I can say from over 25 years of clinical observation and a lifetime of personal experience that forgiveness – letting go of resentment, anger and negative emotions is the key to not only the fountain of youth but to healing and optimal health.  Lester Levenson5 was literally given a few months to live. He went back to his NY apartment and decided he wasn’t going to accept this fate. He sat in that apartment all weekend and examined his life. It was full of anger, resentment, fear, attachment, victimhood, and a plethora of negative energies. Slowly he began to let things go.  Lester lived another three decades and went on to share the gifts of his hero’s journey through what is called the Sedona Method. If Lester Levenson can use forgiveness to reverse a fatal prognosis and failing physical body, imagine what it can do for the aging biology of your body.  A Course in Miracles (ACIM) is a text and workbook that can help with forgiveness. The Bible and many other spiritual texts point to forgiveness as the key to a fruitful, well-lived life.  Like many of you, I have experienced some extremely painful periods in my life, many of which were in my childhood and came from abusive relationships that left me feeling unworthy of love, unwanted and insignificant. Three of the things that have helped me let go and genuinely forgive have been ACIM, the Bible and the work of John W. James, who founded the Grief Recovery Method6.  I attended the Grief Recovery Method program when my mother died unexpectedly from a heart attack. It was one of the only things that helped.  Years later, I went on to complete the training to be a certified Grief Recovery Method facilitator. The entire process of the Grief Recovery Method guides you to forgiveness, even if it’s an inch into the direction of forgiving someone or something for not being better, more, or how you had hoped it/them to be. If you are still struggling with letting go of some aspect of your life, the Grief Recovery Method may be a resource for you. I’ve offered a few tools to help with landing you in a state of forgiveness but there are countless others. The urging here is for you to find a technique or method that works for you, that will help you to release the toxic feelings, emotions and thought that are undoubtedly showing up