Regenerative Effects Of Acupuncture & OM

By Margaret Sheehan,

Licensed Oriental Medicine

When I first met tai chi Master Fu Shu Yun, she was in her 80s. I immediately thought, that’s how I want to be when I am that age. She moved like a young gymnast. Her eyes were bright and clear. Her smile lit up the gymnasium. Her skin was radiant.   

Grandmaster Fu Shu Yun 1993

One of the first things I noticed when I went to China was how older people looked and moved. Their hair might be white, but they demonstrated amazing strength and flexibility for people of their age. How did they achieve this kind of health and vitality as they aged?

Oriental Medicine- Healing from Within

First and foremost, I learned that the Oriental Medicine (OM) perspective is about learning to care for your body, mind and spirit. A balanced diet, exercise, and balanced lifestyle are all essential to preventing disease and slowing the aging process. If we abuse our body with drugs, alcohol, too much exercise, not enough exercise, improper diet, not enough sleep, we will age more quickly. It’s all about balance. With that said, balance is difficult to achieve in our modern society, and we all go through periods of time where our life is way out of balance. Acupuncture, Meditation, Herbs, Qi Gong, Tai Chi and manual therapies can help us maintain balance through challenging times and restore balance when we are healing from physical or emotional crisis.

Tai Chi and Qi Gong 

This approach to exercise and breathing is based on aligning your structure, cultivating qi and circulating blood. The postural alignment taught in Tai chi and Qi Gong enables you to let your bones hold you up and your muscles relax and move around them. The subtle electric charge created by correctly bearing weight on your bones stimulates bone building cells and generates more bioelectricity (Chi).

The deep abdominal / pelvic breathing regulates the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and can help to regulate blood pressure, digestion and other stress responses. The gentle rhythmic movements move lymph and stimulate blood circulation to the smallest capillaries. The repeated patterns of movement help to stimulate the brain.

Meditation

Tai chi and Qi gong are sometimes referred to as moving meditation. There are many different forms of seated and standing meditation. Taoist and Buddhist are two that I am most familiar with. The Buddhist approach I learned from Thich Nhat Hahn was to transform negative thoughts and replace negative thought patterns with more positive ones, like weeding a garden. The Taoist approach I learned from Master Wang Yen-Nien was more about aligning structure, deep breathing and mental focus to cultivate chi and blood and circulate them through acupuncture meridians. 

Looking good and feeling great!

Acupuncture treats many different conditions and does so by stimulating our body’s self-healing, self-regulating mechanisms. Nowhere is this more obvious than with facial rejuvenation acupuncture. This treatment is based on the principles of Oriental Medicine and takes into account the whole body and how it is functioning, as well as the face and what it is reflecting. It is designed to help the whole body look and feel younger by restoring balance so your body can heal itself. When Chi is moving through the channels in your face it holds things in place, stimulates collagen production, balances circulation and can help resolve chronic conditions like sinusitis and TMJ.

This treatment involves acupuncture in specific areas on the face, neck, body and ears, according to an individual’s aging process and concerns. In our office, the whole person is evaluated and treated in order to bring out their individual innate beauty and radiance. While it cannot reshape one’s nose or chin, it is a more subtle rejuvenation that can remove years of stress from one’s face, safely and naturally, while improving health.  

Aging is a natural process happening to us every day. We pretend that it isn’t happening and prop ourselves up to look younger through surgeries, hormone replacement and cosmetic procedures, but these can have detrimental effects on us. The sooner we cultivate and circulate our vital energy and fluids the longer we will preserve our health and vitality. OM practices can add years to your life and life to your years, if you take the time to do it! For more information call 610-431-2008 or visit www.omowc.com.