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DIY Acupuncture
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I’m not suggesting you pull out the sewing kit and start randomly sticking needles in yourself. After all, as one of my teachers liked to say “Acupuncture is NOT just sticking needles in people. It is about using acupuncture points to get a certain response from the body.” What that means is that if you know where an acupuncture point is located, and you can stimulate it in a way that causes a response, then changes occur. Often profoundly so.
Many people are familiar with standard acupuncture chart that is found on the walls of most Chinese medicine clinics. These are the standard charts from which everyone here in the west begins their study of acupuncture. What is more difficult to find are the points of the “family legacy” traditions of acupuncture. These are either micro-systems, or family traditions of acupuncture that did not make it into the modern textbooks, and hence those of us in the west have very little exposure to these other forms of acupuncture. Of course, if you read some Chinese, it helps as it opens the books that open the door of access into those other worlds.
One of those other systems is that of Dong family, it is a Taiwanese strain of acupuncture that bears little resemblance to that of the mainland. It often uses little clusters of points in places which seem to have nothing to do with the problem at hand. These clusters not only can be powerfully therapeutic, but can also be used for self treatment.
For back pain, leg pain, foot pain, plantar fasciitis, bone spurs on the heel, finger pain and sciatica the Five Tigers are a Do It Yourself (DIY) cluster of points you should know about.
How to use them for yourself?
Watch this column for details!
