The Energy Book

Preface

Qi, Energy and Battery

BBQ, Coffee and Energy Drinks

Five Level of Health State

River, Meridian and Acupuncture

Two most important steps to maintain optimal energy

Gate of Wind

Cold and Warm Food

Myth of Overweight

Emotion Container

 

Preface

As a native Chinese, I saw and took some folk remedies done by my grandparents living in the countryside, long before I attended the systematic study at a traditional Chinese Medicine College. To me, learning Chinese medicine is somehow a very easy subject that I was familiar with since childhood. However, following my studies, life brought me to Dubai to practice Acupuncture and Chinese medicine, and I have now been living her for a decade. During my earlier years of practicing Acupuncture and Chinese medicine, I was always faced with the challenge to try convey an understanding of Chinese medicine to a multicultural audience. Chinese medicine terms like Yin, Yang, Qi and Meridians seemed foreign and difficult for many to understand. Gradually, by using many analogies like computers, cars machines which people use in their everyday lives, made it easy for people to relate to and for them to understand what I was trying to explain about Chinese medicine.

With the analogies that I mention below, I am trying to explain, in a simple way, answers to some of the most common questions that I get asked by my patients every day.

Qi, Energy and Battery

The Chinese character for 'qi' (pronounced as Chee) is the same word used for air or gas, and is thought to have the same properties as these substances. Qi can be interpreted as the 'life energy' or 'life force', which flows within us. Sometimes, it is known as 'vital energy' of the body. Our body has two types of qi supply to ensure that the body works, whenever we need it, in the same way a computer works with two types of power supplies. A computer uses the main electric supply most of time, but when the electric power is not available, the computer operates on a battery, the 'backup energy'.

The main energy of our body is called Gu qi, literally the energy of grain, generated by the food we taken and the deep sleep we get. The 'battery' of our body is called Gan qi (literally the energy of our liver), and it is stored in the liver. It works as an energy reserve for our body, mainly used for emergency purposes. For example, the body draws on this 'backup energy' when once faces a survival situation i.e.: being trapped in situation when one doesn't have access to any food.

Feeling tired when one wakes up is one of the most common indicators of low level of main energy Gu qi. A way to recharge this main energy is through healthy eating and resting well. If we ignore these signs of tiredness and keep going for whatever reason: a job is too important to slow down; a party is to exciting to miss. By then, the body switches the energy supply to the backup energy Gan qi. The 'back up' energy provides the same level of strength and the switch between these energy works so smoothly that we often don't realise that our body actually has a shortage of energy supply.

Thus a misconception is developed: "our energy is an endless resource, when we feeling tired, and if we get one night of good rest, our energy will come back again." Many people choose to challenge their emotional and physical limit all the time, and think that no matter which type of energy their body is operating on, they will be fine.

However there are many side effects from 'operating' on backup up energy which harms our overall health and wellbeing. These side effects can range from:
" Having a restless body and mind
" Lack of concentration
" Emotionally agitated
" Irritability
" Unable to rise early in the morning
" Waking up still feeling exhausted
" Feeling exhausted all the time
" Having food cravings, especially for sweet sugary foods
" Heightened energy at bed time, which causes difficulty to fall asleep or shallow sleep
" Low immunity
" Reckless driving behavior

So, 'backup energy' works on our body in the same way a 'back up' battery works for a computer - lasting for a limited time period only. The size of battery varies for each person, some may last three weeks, and some may last 20 years. While our body's main energy is rechargeable, the backup energy battery is non-rechargeable. Once the battery has run out, symptoms like what I have mentioned above will set in. And, once the battery has drained out completely, panic attacks can happen.

During a panic attack, some people have a near-dying experience from their heart constantly racing and thumping as if the heart is about to stop. According to Chinese medicine, panic attacks will not kill you, but it's a critical sign of the body's energy running on empty, in the same way like the red light flashes on your car dashboard when the oil tank is empty.

Acupuncture is one of the most powerful therapies I have known to shift the energy resources back to the optimal state. A series of 5-6 acupuncture treatments would 'shut down'the supply of backup energy, and help the body to recharge the main energy efficiently. A great detail of how our main energy recharges will be discussed in the later chapters.

BBQ, Coffee and Energy Drinks

Coffee and energy drinks stimulate the release of 'backup energy', which easily causes restless and irritation, and more tiredness in the same way a charcoal lighter does.

Remember the last time you had a BBQ? You might have noticed that your BBQ would be ruined if you use the charcoal lighter all the time, the unstable flame would burn the food from outside, but wouldn't cook the food well inside. That is what happens when you drink coffee or energy drinks to relieve your exhaustion. It sets off an instant 'boost' of energy, and keeps you going for a while. But, you notice the loss of concentration and calmness, because the side effect of 'backup energy' has taken over.

When the charcoal fire is diminishing, you pour some charcoal lighter liquid on top of it. That gives an instant big flame of fire, but it dies out very quickly. You also notice that the charcoal is burned out quicker if you constantly add the charcoal lighter. The same happens when you try to use the stimulants like coffee and energy drinks to boost up your energy. It seems to work well but the feeling is very temporarily. So remember that coffee and energy drinks stimulate the release of 'backup energy', but they drain the energy tank faster because it's a quick fix solution that only lasts temporarily.

As mentioned before, the only way to recharge the body's energy properly is to sleep and eat well in the same way you put more charcoal in the fire. It takes a little while to heat up the newly added charcoal, but offers a steady, balanced and long lasting fire for the BBQ.
Above all, there is no bad food in Chinese medicine, including coffee and energy drinks, but a bad choice at the wrong time. It does damage to the body's energy and health if you drink them while the energy is low to try elevate exhaustion. It's adding spice to our life if you drink them when your body has ample stock of energy.

As a Chinese, I still prefer to rather drink my green tea from my mom's tea garden.

Five Levels of Health State

Looking into the different levels of energy and 'battery usage', we could divide a person's health state into five levels.

1. Stage One (Good health state)

Balance is the key word to describe people in good health state: Balanced usage of energy resources, well-proportioned body shape, good manner with a healthy diet and sleep pattern. Few chapters later in this book and my other article: "the balance of summer and winter" discusses the lifestyle balance in more detail.

For now, I will list six recommendations that help you to have good health:
1. Sleep well: Sleep all night through to help you feel refreshed when you wake up in the morning.
2. Eat well: A good appetite satisfied with a regular amount of healthy food.
3. Bowel movement: The bowel should feel emptied thoroughly when the job is done.
4. Good urination: The first urine in the morning should be a large quantity, and be light in colour. Urinate 5-6 times throughout the day by drinking a good amount of water.
5. Hands and feet are naturally warm: face and body are generally cool, no matter whether you live in Dubai or Alaska.
6. Yang sign: an abundant energy flow in the body.

2. Stage Two (Low immunity state)
The main reason of the body's main energy supply going low is often due to insufficient sleep - going to bed too late and not having sufficient rest. Also, too little, or poor digestion causes low production of food essence from food. In this state our immunity is about the same level of the strength of external evils. When the external evils attack, the body is able to raise the alarm and initiate the war.

However, the battle is not a quick war like the first gulf war (Sand Storm), but a nasty long term war, like the US invasion in Iraq. For example, for a healthy person, when there is a cold attack, he just has to sneeze it off, but for the low main energy person, he would fight the cold at nose (running or blocked nose), throat (sore throat) and body (fever, body ache). Many people who are considered weak in their health, because frequently suffered cold, flu, hey fever, or allergic sinusitis. In fact they are only in the low main energy state, but not yet in the stage need overuse backup battery to maintain health.

3. Stage Three (Battery Overuse state)
When the main energy continues lowing to a certain level, the body starts to overuse the backup energy. People in this state would be considered excellent in their health: have endless energy, doing the work of 2-3 people and still have plenty of energy to party until late, with no sign of any health problems. They all have a signature mark: the later the night, the better energy they have. A large group of people, in particular young bachelors, fall in this category. You may understand this scenario from previous reading: they are operating on the 'backup battery'.

In Chinese medicine, they didn't fall sick because they are strong, but they have no energy to fight. When a building has a power cut, the backup power station will keep the supply to the lighting system and stop operating the air conditioning. The same happens when our main energy is low and backup energy is constantly used. Our body starts to use the limited energy to maintain the most important body function, like cardiovascular system and muscular system to keep the normal daily life, but the less important functions like the immunity and detoxification will be ignored. Thus, body is not responding to an external evils attack like fight a cold, or fails to eliminate body's waste efficiently.

People in this level of health state would catch a cold or flu as soon as they reach the hotel room on their holiday. Once a holiday starts, people sleep more and feel more relaxed mentally, the main energy starts recharging and the 'backup energy' stops operating - the body has more energy to flight and detect body's health problems, although as the body hasn't had sufficient time to recharge fully, the symptom of a cold or flu can start because their body is only in Stage 2. Once they return to work, their energy level is drained because they haven't allowed sufficient time to recharge to the optimum energy level (Stage 1), so their body isn't able to fight off the external evils, which then takes their energy level back to Stage 3, and once again, they start feeling drained and like they need another holiday.

4. Stage Four (Low energy and battery state)
When a person keeps living a fast paced lifestyle and doesn't allow for sufficient rest and sleep, the main energy lowers further and the battery begins to drain out ( this may take one or twenty years). People might feel tired, agitated, restless, and have difficulty to fall asleep or wake up feeling still tired. If they pay a visit to the conventional doctor, most probably they will be considered perfectly healthy because their medical checkups and blood tests would be normal! Some people simply put their symptoms as the result of "been overly stressed". In fact, the amount of stress they deal with in their daily life would be fine if they were in the stage 1 ( good health state). But, when their energy level is so low ones stress and emotional issues are magnified resulting in a disproportional response of emotions, such as anxiety, aggression, depression, short tempered, irritability.

5. Stage Five (Exhausted energy and battery state)
If people ignore all the warnings from their body, or simply consider they are in perfect health because their medical reports say so, and doing no positive steps to restore their energy, they will end up in the state of exhausted energy - they have depleted their main energy supply (Qi) as well as their backup battery energy supply.

People in this state have lost the energy to supply most of the body's systems, and have no protection for the major organs. Panic attack usually happen in this stage. It is the critical sign that the heart, the most important organ, has been affected, which was able to be protected in the stage three (Battery Overuse state). Because the exhaustion of the main energy and backup battery energy, the self-healing process becomes problematic. Food cravings, bloating and insomniac pattern stops the body from recharging the energy. The tiredness and restless cause more cravings and sleep problem. A vicious circle starts unless some powerful healing method likes acupuncture or Chinese medicine is involved.

The good news is that throughout thousands of years of practice, Chinese medicine has documented the complexity of our health and disease in the view of energy flow and balance. A good acupuncturist or Chinese medicine doctor will be able to initiate the healing process by restoring and recharging the body's energy.

River, Meridian and Acupuncture

Qi works in a similar way to the flow of water in nature. A balanced flow of qi is often in Chinese medicine likened to a clear, flowing river, whose movement is undisturbed throughout its course. Should this flow become affected through drought, flood or pollutants, then changes occur which may well threaten the river's integrity, its course, its inhabitants.

The "river" of the human body is called meridian, where qi flows within. There are 12 principal meridians, linking the internal organs and spreading different areas of our body surface, like a giant web. The flow of qi in the meridian system concentrates or 'injects" in certain areas of the skin surface. These areas are very small point, otherwise known as "acupuncture points". Although acupuncture points are located externally and superficially, they can affect the internal functions of our body. There are 761 acupuncture points, and each point belongs to a particular meridian that connects to specific organ.

An illness of physical body or excessive emotional disturbance interrupts the free flow of qi, which cause an obstruction at certain meridians and/or overflow on the others. An Acupuncturist works on the obstruction in the meridian in the same way a plumber works on the blockage of drainage. After assessing the location and type of disturbance of qi flow, an acupuncturist "flushes" the blockage or diverts an overflow of qi by insert needles at the acupuncture points. For example, if a patient complains of a headache at the temple, nausea, irritability to light. An Acupuncturist will analyze these symptoms and take some additional checkup procedures, like look at patients tongue and their wrist pulse. If the patient has a red tongue with a yellow coating, fast and tight texture of pulse, the acupuncturist is able to identify that the overflowed liver's qi and a blockage at gallbladder meridian is the cause of the headache.
Needles will be inserted at certain acupuncture points, maybe at the legs and toes, to flush the blockage of the gallbladder meridian and reduce the excessive flow of liver's qi. Once a free and balanced qi flow is restored, the symptoms of disease reduce or disappear, thus the health returns.

Overall, acupuncture and many therapies that stimulate the acupuncture point, like acupressure, EFT (emotional Freedom Technique) is not cure a disease, but flush the blockage of meridian and restore the flow of chi, thus the symptoms of disease may reduce or disappear completely.

Two most important steps to maintain optimum energy level

1. Good Appetite
Living in this part of world, we are not lacking of food and nutrition, however, many are too busy to even remember to eat regularly or too busy to select the right food.

The most important sign of a good digestion in Chinese medicine is good appetite at meal times, especially at breakfast. The hunger at mealtimes indicates the digestive system is ready to work: the saliva and stomach juice has secreted, the movement of stomach and intestine has increased and the sense of smelling has intensified. That leads to an efficient digestion and a prompt metabolism.

However, some people see a healthy appetite as their worst enemy in their battle of weight gain. They have a false impression that the strong appetite leads to overweight. But, a good appetite is neither equal to overeating nor the excuse of overeating, which cause excessive calories intakes and create overweight. Remember the last time you see how a teenage eat? They eat like a horse, unbelievable skinning and incredible energetic. A strong appetite is the foundation for such an optimal metabolism. There will be a special chapter addressing diet and obesity in the later part of the book.

A good eating pattern is another important factor to ensure a good digestion. There is an English idiom: "eat like a queen for breakfast, a king for lunch and a pauper for dinner". The same has been suggested by Chinese medicine doctors for a few thousands of years: if we divide ones daily food into six portions, eat two portions in the morning, three portions at noon and one portion in the evening.

Simple logic is behind this idea. In the morning, the body is waking up and ready to work. A nutritious breakfast wakes up the digestive system, so it could start generating energy for the day. By noon, the energy from breakfast has been used. We feel hungry and ready for another boost of energy through a good amount of food at lunch. In the evening, the body slows down and gets ready to rest; it requires little energy. A smaller portion of food intake would be sufficient. An empty stomach at night helps to recharge the main energy. With thousand of years of observation, Chinese doctors conclude that a deep sleep at night is an obligation for the food essence to turn into body energy. A full stomach at night makes the digestive system work continuously, which stops the body from been able to rest fully.

2. Golden hour for sleep
Men, like many other animals have built-in biological clocks that keep the body in step with the rising and setting of the sun, which is called circadian rhythm. In Chinese medicine, Chi flows through the meridians in a well defined circadian rhythm, in which the qi flow is strongest in different meridians at different times during a standard 24-hour day. For example, the lung meridian is dominant between 3am and 5am. If there is a disease of the lung it should manifest itself at these times, as indeed it does; the worst time for a sufferer from bronchial asthma is usually in the early hours of the morning.

Let us look at another example. As the diagram shows, Qi flows through the stomach meridian in the early part of the day (7-9am). A recent French survey showed that an accident driving to work is much more likely if breakfast has been missed. That confirms this ancient Chinese wisdom that the energy required by the stomach, during the morning, has not been absorbed and therefore the body is not in a healthy state because it has 'missed breakfast'. Perhaps this is part of the origin for the idea of having a large breakfast, by both the tradition of Chinese and English society.

Our body still remains the same like a thousand years ago, so does our energy flow. The ancient Chinese have noticed man can't recharge energy (qi and blood) at all hours during the 24 hours cycle. The best time for energy recharge is from night until 1:40am at a deep sleep state because man woke up at dawn and slept after sunset in the primitive times. However the evolving of science and technologies has changed our life style forever. With the discovery of electricity and so inventions like internet, 24-hours TV channel, late night parties, we breach our natural discipline of sleeping severely, and miss the most precious hours of energy recharging.

We can never sleep like our ancestors, but it could help if we are in the deep sleep in the "golden hours" between 11pm-3am. These are the hours the qi flow is strongest at gallbladder and liver, which are most effective for restoring digestive chi and detoxifying body waste. You may not be able to sleep every night before 11pm, but you at least can sleep earlier at weekend and do some catch up of sleep. However, it is sad to see many people do exactly the opposite. The weekend means don't need wake up early for work, so entertaining or night clubbing till late becomes a common practice. They have completely lost their chance for an efficient recharge of their energy, even slept till midday.

An afternoon nap and meditation are other powerful recharge options. A nap in the afternoon for no more than 20 minutes recharges energy but if it last more than 20 minutes, the body shuts down the energy release therefore you will feel more tired and sleepy. A 5-minute work-break meditation is as powerful as a 20-minutes nap in recharging energy. For the good start of meditation, I recommend the website: www.learningmeditation.com. It offers many short meditation audios as start point and a list of books if you want go further.

Above all, there are no fancy or complicated steps to recharge our energy. If we respect our body's signals, like rest when tired, eat when hungry, our body will work for us smoothly for a long time. The idea length of 'service time' is 120 years according to Chinese medicine.

 

Gate of Wind
Chinese Medicine attributes the cause of most diseases to external cosmological factors, called the "six evils", namely wind, heat, dampness, dryness and cold. The six external evils do not affect every person in the same way. Indeed, exceptionally healthy people are not adversely affected by any of them.

The body has a "gate of wind", which is the most vulnerable area for the "six evil" attacks in Chinese medicine, such as coldor wind evils. The gate spreads at the back of neck and inner part of upper back. Be precise, the base of skull is the upper edge of the gate, the line of the lower points of shoulder blades is the lower edge and the width across the inner edges of both shoulder blades. In acupuncture, there is a point named as "gateof wind", located at the 1.5 inch beside the second thoracic vertebra process, the center of the gate (see picture as point I).

In the normal circumstance, our skin and hair pores adjust well for the dominant season. For example, in the winter our skin is tightly closed to prevent the heat loss and prevent cold attack the body easily. During the summer, our skin opens more, so does the hair pore for an easier perspiration that keeps the body cool. Diseases of the six evils are most likely to occur under suddenly changes of weather or temperature.

During the summer in Dubai, the constant temperature changes from the scorching heat outdoors to full blown air conditioners causes a big hazard for keeping our gate/skin well protected. Our skin is in shock all the time from the change of extreme temperature. Let's look at a common scenario: the moment we walk from the car park to a shopping mall, our hair pores were open and ready to sweat from the heat, but as soon as we walk into the mall, the strong blaze of AC blows the cold wind to the skin. This cold wind stops us sweating right away, which goes deep inside the body through the pores before it closed quickly. To make the things worse, many women wear sleeveless tops and expose the entire upper back. So their 'gate of wind' was the most susceptible to cold and wind evils. Because the cold went straight deep into the body, for women the deepest organ is uterus, painful period and heavy clotting happens. It's the sign of coldness stagnating the blood circulation of the uterus in Chinese medicine.

Meanwhile, the ice-cold changing rooms in health clubs are another common place for cold-wind attack. Again, the skin is open and gym clothing possibly wet from sweating during exercise. As soon one walks into the changing room the dampness of cloth and the cold from AC will go straight in the body. Easily strained or sprained muscles and tendons at exercise, even potential arthritis attack are the result.

As the extreme temperature change is inevitable in Dubai. The best way to help yourself is to wear sensible clothing and cover the skin well. For shopping malls and offices, always carry a shawl and put it on as soon as you feel cold wind blowing on you. One old Chinese saying: avoid the cold wind that blows on your back like avoid your worst enemy's arrow. For the exercise situation, wrapping yourself with a dry tower as soon as the workout is over, at the shoulders and upper back, before enter the change room would be highly recommended.

I would like to give a special warning to people with long hair. If you do not dry the hair thoroughly after a shower and walk into a cold place, you would be at high risk of cold attack from the back of the head and neck, thus occurs headache and neck pain.

Cold and Warm Food

A friend of mine visited china recently, impressed by the beauty and culture of China, but with one complaint: there is no ice in any restaurants during his entire trip. "People drink hot tea all the time even in the hottest summer", he was shocked. Indeed, putting ice in the water or drinking chilled water is not part of the Chinese culture.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine it is the spleen responsible for moving and transforming the food we eat. The stomach rots and ripens the food and the spleen transforms and transports the refined Food Essence into energy. One common hazard of the qi of spleen is eating too many cold foods. Our stomach works like a hot pan, to contain the food and cook on it. It is far easier to cook warm food than cold. It is particular worse if putting ice in the hot pan.

The modern man has consumed too much cold food since the invention of refrigerator, like cold drinks and ice-cream. Beside cold temperature, cold foods include raw vegetables, salads and fruits. An excessive consumption of cold foods tends to create cold in the spleen and stomach and ensuing epigastric pain. This is especially worse for person who already suffers from weak Spleen Qi. It would cause bloating, no matter how small the portion of food is; doziness after meals and water retention.

How to know if a person's spleen Qi is weak? Looking into two simple signs: No appetite at mealtimes or food doesn't have much taste. Whenever I see patients with weak Spleen qi, I ask them to avoid raw vegetables, salads, fruit, cold drinks and ice-cream for a few weeks until the spleen Qi has restored by acupuncture or Chinese herbs. To make a meal warm, Chinese cooking usually includes many warm ingredients like ginger, cinnamon and pepper. Instead of a raw salad, lightly cook the vegetables to help the spleen Qi extract food essence more efficiently. If food or drink has been stored in the refrigerator it should be allowed to heat up to room temperature before being consumed.

Myth of Overweight

Many people complain about the same problem in their battle with overweight. No matter how hard the exercise they do, how little they eat, they can't lose weight. By the calculation of calorie balance, they used far more calorie out than in, but the body seems didn't respond to the "exercise+diet" format. In Chinese medicine, this is a simple problem: the body is in the state of low energy and battery.

Many of these people with overweight issues accompanied with constant tiredness, poor appetite, flat mood or strong emotion swings and bad sleep quality. In Chinese medicine, there are several blockages in their energy flow. First of all, the poor appetite indicates the sluggish digestion, unable to extract the food essence from food. Secondly, a disturbed sleeping pattern indicates unharmonious heart and kidney's qi, which stops the food essence, turn into energy. Thirdly, emotional distress indicates the blockage of liver' qi flow, and as a result it makes it difficult to recharge energy. So, the body is unable to recharge energy efficiently therefore it operates on the backup energy battery all the time. If the body, is constantly using backup energy, it believes that it is in survival mode, and will reserve as much of this energy as it can rather than use it. The body then shuts down the metabolism and retains whatever energy it can get.

A three-step approach addresses this issue in my practice. First and the most difficult step is to help the patient realize which state of overall health they are in, and the importance of their energy opposed to their weight. Second, using acupuncture and Chinese herbs to open up the channel of recharging, make sure patients eating well and sleep well till their energy back to optimal level. Third, using certain acupuncture points to suppress the appetite and speed up the metabolism thus lose weight.

The real issue of diet contributes to overweight is eating without hunger. No appetite at mealtimes indicates the digestive system is weak and food essence was unabsorbed properly from food. Bloating is caused by the trapped food essence at the abdomen region. Constipation and felt leftover after a bowel movement usually comes along when the digestive energy is weak, in the same way a worn-out housemaid unable to clean the dust out the room. Acupuncture and Chinese herbs would increase the intestine energy to the normal level. Once the eliminating energy back to normal, a big cleaning process begins. Few of my patient were shocked when they went for bowel movement six to ten times within one day, with a big quantity every time.

Be aware there is difference between a hunger and a craving. Hunger is the sensation of emptiness in the stomach and a grumbling noise, and an intensified sense of smell. If we haven't had a chance to eat, the hunger eases off after 5 to 10 minutes. A craving is a drop of blood sugar in the body, with a sense of allover emptiness and light headedness. If there is no immediate food supply, people may lose control over their muscle, the body might be shaky and sensation becomes dull. Because the sugar based food gives the fastest refill of blood sugar, therefore people mostly carving for chocolate or sweet.

Emotion Container

Many of my patients complain of irritability or the turbulence with emotion swings. The rational mind recognizes the issue as small but they can't control their disproportional response. For example, one mother shouts angrily at her children because they broke a window glass during the football game. Her rational mind knew that could happen and glass can be repaired, and there is no need to be so angry, but she can't control her reaction. In Chinese medicine, the problem is not of the broken glass, but her emotional container is full.

According to Chinese medicine, everyone has an emotion container to contain all the negative emotions. Worry, anger, sorrow and fear, name just a few. When the container has room, we handle the distress situations with rational mind and put our emotions in the container. We are reasonable and levelheaded. Once the container has filled up, a smallest stress would cause the overflow of emotions. We respond to the stress, no matter how small, with overflowed emotions. We become touching and emotional. A worse case is people appear to be calm and relaxed from outside, but boiling with emotions inside. This unexpressed emotion works like putting a heavy cover on the container. Their emotion container transformed into a pressure cooker. It would explode with emotions someday, and suffer with physical consequences like headache, stomach ulcer or even heart attack in a later stage.

The speed of filling up the container depends on two aspects, the size of container and the amount of emotion intake. The size of the container varies by each person. Some may have the size of a fishpond, one day's rain make it overflow. Some have the size of an ocean, months of heavy rainfall would not raise its sea level. In general, wise and humble person would have bigger size emotion container than those passionate and high eager person. A person lives in a high stressful life or with an oversensitive nature would fill up the container much faster than the person lives in a simple life or with high gratitude.

Acupuncture pricks many holes on the container, so the emotional pressure all leaks out. Meanwhile, the relaxation effect of acupuncture melts the cover off the emotion container. It happens many times that patient break out in tears as soon as I put the first acupuncture needle. Few months ago, one of my patients cried for four weeks after acupuncture treatment. It works so dramatic; never fail to surprise me even after 15 year of practice. Crying is good and is encouraged as it's the body's way of releasing many pent up emotions that need to come out. Have a heartily laughter also another good way to release the pressure from the emotional container.