the Acupuncture Works

Summer 2018

Needle Notes
Summer - The Fire Element - Heart and Small Intestine and Pericardium and Triple Heater Merdians

In the summer, the sun is high and life at its peak, full and flourishing. Young plants and animals mature. Summer's imperative: Flourish and rejoice. Create joy and connection.

Summer is the season associated with the strongest, most available yang energy of the year. The season calls for excitement, playfulness, passion, and being outside as much as possible engaging your senses. This is the time to get together with friends, have a BBQ, go to the beach and frolic in the waves, spend time in your garden and watch as the plants and flowers reach their full growth and maturity.

The Fire element is the spark from which all of life stems. The emotion associated with Fire is joy, which, in balance, represents an overflowing enthusiasm for life. An excess of Fire, can create hyperexcitability and restlessness, while a deficiency of Fire can produce a lack of joy and a feeling of apathy. The color associated with Fire is red; the climate of Fire is hot; and the sound connected with Fire is the sound of laughter.
In support of your seasonal summer wellness, be sure to ask us about Aroma Acupoint Therapy , Bach Flower Essence Therapy and Western Herbal Medicine. These are modalities that we have been using with great success and they are excellent supplements to Acupuncture treatments.
Acupuncture Point of the Season

Heart 1 - Utmost Source

This is the Entry Point on the heart meridian. It is in the axilla - the armpit - upon the axillary artery. This point is used when a sense of calm needs to be restored to the Heart, such as after severe trauma or shock. Typically, a person may need HT 1 when life presents itself as chaotic and uncertain.
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Wellness
connect easily with other people
joy, passion, friendship
fall asleep easily
trusting intuition
regular and stable heart rhythm


Out of Balance
uncomfortably shy or reserved
depression, lethargy, aloneness
difficult to settle at night
confused thinking
irregular heartbeat or palpitations
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Seasonal Recipe - Homemade Lemonade with Maple Syrup

4 C Water
4 Lemons
1/3 C Maple Syrup

Juice the lemons by hand. Try to squeeze every last drop you can out of them! In a blender, combine water, lemon juice, and maple syrup. Serve over ice if desired.

I made this for friends over the weekend and doubled the recipe. It was declared, "this is the best lemonade I've ever had!"
"The Summer Day" by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
Practical suggestions for cultivating the gifts of summer

  • Balance solitude with activity. Ask yourself, What gives me joy? What makes my heart soar? Then go do it!
  • Take time to replenish yourself: a walk in the woods, a cup of tea while sitting in your favorite chair, watching the sun go down, taking a retreat for a few hours or a few days.
  • Eat bitter tasting vegetables (the bitter taste feeds your Fire) such as endive, spinach and watercress. Enjoy the bitter taste of dark chocolate, black coffee and red wine. These foods can stimulate digestion as well as nourish blood and the circulatory system.
  • When it is hot outside, eat foods to cool you, such as fresh fruits. Drink cool spring water.
  • Remember that whatever makes you smile will nourish you.
  • Laugh more, especially at yourself. Lighten up!
Be Playful this Season!
 | the Acupuncture Works | 802-748-2020 | theacupunctureworks.com
offices in St. Johnsbury, VT and Hanover, NH