Your New Year resolution must clearly communicate your goals to your inner psyche. Done right it works like magic, otherwise it won't. Follow these three easy steps to make your resolution:

1. DO MAKE A RESOLUTION  If there is nothing you want to change, improve, achieve, you don't need to make one. Otherwise you should because it is powerful magic. Don't shortchange yourself!

2. USE POSITIVE LANGUAGE  Set your goal in positive language. That means you will do something or achieve something.  Do not say you will not do something or avoid something. For example, your resolution is to stop smoking but since that is negative language you can say 'I will build fresh healthy lungs'. Just think about the benefits you're trying to obtain by breaking a bad habit and you can come up with a resolution in positive language.

3. IN FIVE WORDS ONLY  Allow no more than five words for a resolution. This way there is no room for qualification or equivocation and you will be communicating to your inner powers clearly. The resolution may be in the form 'It is most important for me to _ _ _ _ _', five words. The stop smoking example above has only four words 'build fresh healthy lungs'.

Happy 2017!

Most postmenopausal women experience vaginal dryness, itching, irritation or painful intercourse but few bring them up to their physicians and few physicians ask about them so they go untreated, according to a recent survey. The situation is different in Oriental medicine. Oriental medicine doctors usually ask detail questions about such signs and symptoms not only because they are considered important to treat but especially because they have diagnostic value: they reflect deeper constitutional or pathological states of Yin deficiency, wind, heat, dryness,damp or blood stagnation. Oriental medicine patients are also more attuned to the importance of subjectively felt symptoms and so are less hesitant to talk about them. This is good because acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine have very effective treatments for these problems and hormone therapy can be avoided.

In a recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism healthy females aged 18 to 45 were given daily doses of Lupron to drastically reduce their estrogen levels and create a state of ‘medical menopause’. Their depressive scores, reported sleep quality and number of hot flashes were recorded and compared to their baseline. It was found that depression was worse with poorer sleep quality and higher number of nighttime hot flashes.

The Yin includes Blood and Fluids. In gynecology the Yin can roughly be equated with estrogen levels. Menopause is the waning of the Chong and Ren when they are empty of Blood and Yin. When Yin is deficient the Yang loses its anchor and becomes unruly. The Spirit seeks its rest in the Yin Blood during the Yin time of the night. Here sleep is poor because the Spirit has no comfortable place to rest. Heat is Yang and unruly Yang expresses itself as hot flashes. The Yang depends on the Yin for nourishment and Yin deficiency will eventually subvert the Yang. Depression can be a symptom of Yin deficiency by itself or a combination of both yin and Yang deficiency. In Chinese medicine the symptomatology of menopause includes poor sleep, hot flashes and depression as confirmed by the study.

Even though it can be extremely uncomfortable Chinese medicine looks at morning sickness during early pregnancy as normal and a sign of health. Nausea and vomiting indicate reverse stomach qi flow caused by gestational activities. They indicate that qi and blood are strong and full in the mother. They indicate maternal health. Chinese medicine offers effective drug-free treatments for morning sickness that are safe for mother and child.

A recent JAMA article reports an association of nausea and vomiting during early pregnancy with reduced risk for pregnancy loss. One of its findings is that women with morning sickness symptoms tend to be 25 years old or younger. This generally agrees with the observation of Chinese medicine because qi and blood decline with age. The takeaway is that morning sickness indicates health, not sickness. On the other hand, women who don’t experience it shouldn’t worry. It does not mean that they will lose their pregnancy.

Dis-ease can be physical but it is also a state of consciousness. As long as a disease state of consciousness prevails healing is difficult. Even though the idea of getting stuck by needles is repugnant to some people, many find the experience pleasurable: deep relaxation, an out-of-the-body kind of sensation, some say it’s a ‘peaceful high’. Many of my patients come regularly for de-stressing, tuning-up and that wonderful altered-state experience. What is altered is the ‘normal’ state of disease and suffering. Physiologically acupuncture can induce the brain to release endorphins and enkephalins, the body’s natural painkillers but I’m also interested in a psychological understanding of the phenomenon and I would compare it to a hypnotic state.

When receiving acupuncture the body is aware of certain developing sensations. Consciousness is averted from external objects and guided inward where the experience is silence. This is most dramatically observed in externally oriented people. They may come into the office talking profusely about certain events or experience but as soon as the first needle is inserted they fall into silence. The mind calms down.

This inward orientation is focused on the here and now and once established it starts to intensify and expand. At the same time the common, awake state of external orientation which includes habitual patterns of thoughts and states of being starts to diminish. The result is an altered state in which the present moment can be fully experienced. It is consciousness freed from the ’normal’ state of mental and physical dis-ease and suffering. This altered state contributes to healing and positive change.

Lok-Kwan received training in hypnotherapy at the Milton Erickson Foundation and is a member of the American Society of Clinical Hypnotherapy.

My son Alex created this image for me to illustrate headaches. He developed a game called Giga-Robo and launched it two days ago to enthusiastic response. Take a look and spread it around: