Coreiki

Fall is a season of letting go 🍂

We turned 8 months this last week and it feels like our sweet boy is changing at an even quicker pace. Everyday I’m trying to hang on to my tiny baby that keeps growing and also keep up with life and business.

The grief that comes with this season of fall and the metal element in Chinese Medicine feels even more present this year.

I hit a wall over the weekend with fighting a cold and allergies and preparing for our second trip with Atlas. Our last trip, I felt like I was super prepared and had all the things together. This trip, I found myself frantically trying to get it all together and working. Interestingly, this trip was even smoother with a 4 hour flight and 3 hour time difference to Florida than our only 2 hour flight and 1 hour time difference to Colorado. So maybe we just had some muscle memory this time around?

We left San Diego during the 100 degree heat wave and will most likely arrive home on Sunday to hurricane rains- assuming we can get back.

Being a fall lover, I was really grieving it not feeling like fall and unable to really embrace it with fall and Halloween decorations before we left.

What this season is teaching me even more is the art of letting go of expectations and getting all the things done. Most days, I can only get a few things done on top of taking care of Atlas and the days I’m in the office, I’m fully focused on patients and doing whatever marketing and admin I can in between. As a recovering perfectionist, it’s a true test, but my mantra for these last few years as been “done is better than perfect!”

So here we are, a share for you on what’s my mind and heart at 8 months postpartum with my favorite human.

What are you letting go of this season?

Join us at Fern Acupuncture & Family Wellness for an afternoon of Qigong with Certified Qigong Master Healer, Fay McGrew

This 3-hour workshop is designed to support your immune system, move and strengthen Qi, calm the nervous system, and give you practices you can continue using at home.

Fay will guide us through gentle movement, breathwork, meditation, immune-supporting practices, and restorative energy healing. Everything can be modified and done standing or seated, so no prior Qigong experience is needed.

Saturday, October 24 | 1–4 PM
$75
Fern Acupuncture & Family Wellness
2210 E. Vista Way, Ste 2, Vista, CA 92084
Space is limited.

Register through the link in my bio ✨🧘‍♀️

It’s been an honor to get to support a surrogate in preparation for embryo transfer. Today was the big day! Please send sticky vibes for her and the intended parents ✨

Onsite surrogate and IVF transfers are one of the services I provide. Acupuncture leading up to and day of transfers can support a successful conception and ongoing care can support a healthy pregnancy and carrying to term.

Have questions? DM me 💗✨

I got hit with what felt like allergies which possibly could have turned into a cold at the end of last week.

I had another patient come in with something similar. I gave her the raw form of gui zhi tang which is an herbal formula containing cinnamon, white peony root, ginger, jujube/red date, and licorice.

This is a great formula to take at the first signs of getting a cold. I took it myself in granule (powder) form and laid low over the weekend and feel much better today.

This is a common formula we give at this time of year when the weather starts to change. It’s one of the simplest and easiest to drink as it is light and sweet and not too bitter.

Although we haven’t gotten fall weather here in southern California it’s interesting to see the fall illnesses still come out!

Two of the biggest things that have helped me heal my heart, Chinese Medicine and motherhood ♥️

I’ve struggled with anxiety since I was five. I’ll never forget running to the bathroom to throw up before my first piano contest because my nerves were so bad.

As I got older, tests and solo performances brought me to the same state. Interestingly, as a competitive dancer in a group, I got nervous but never to that point. There was something about community and not doing it alone that helped me stay calm.

The pinnacle of my anxiety was 2016–2017. I hit several breaking points and didn’t know how to climb out. I threw up from anxiety often and was so scared I didn’t feel like I could tell anyone about my soul crushing doubt, not even my therapist.

In 2017, I stumbled into Reiki and began to make a profound shift. My anxiety decreased and I finally slept after months of insomnia. In 2018, I started acupuncture and slowly gained clarity.

I made the shift I needed to be okay, but in doing so left myself and people close to me hurt and heartbroken. I still carry some guilt for this, and I am truly sorry.

When I found my husband, I felt an instant connection but was still afraid of big life decisions. When I got pregnant, although I deeply desired a baby, I was terrified. The extreme nausea and vomiting brought me back to fearful moments from my past. I didn’t know if I could get through it.

And once again, community carried me through. I leaned on my family, husband and friends. I didn’t have to do it alone. I also had Reiki and Chinese Medicine. I held on and am so happy I did.

Flash forward to this morning, bringing my baby to work and dancing around the lobby. I can’t imagine life without him now. I don’t understand the doubt I had.

I am 100% convinced that motherhood has healed my heart.

Do I still experience anxiety? Yes. But it’s different now. Life is clearer, and I know where I’m heading.

As my dad told me, I can now help others because of what I went through.

If any of this feels familiar, I’m here to be part of that community for you through anxiety, conception, pregnancy or postpartum. You don’t have to do it alone. I get it, and I will help you.

One of my favorite acupuncture points for pregnancy nausea is about an inch above the wrist on the inner side of the arm.

It’s called Pericardium 6 or Nei Guan, also known as the Inner Frontier Gate. From a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective it calms the Heart/chest and harmonizes the Stomach to relieve nausea.

From a Classical Five Element perspective it’s considered the gate to the heart. By opening this inner gate, it allows someone to reconnect with what is truly in their heart, especially when anxiety, emotional distress, depression or other barriers have made access to the heart more difficult.

This is the same point that c-bands or nausea bands stimulate. I myself had to constantly stimulate this point my entire pregnancy.

For those that are pregnant, I mostly only use it if it pertains to their element. However, it is sometimes needed for all those who also suffer from extreme or constant nausea. For those cases, I will typically put on a little acupressure tack or seed so that they can take their treatment beyond their sessions with me and also press it themselves to help alleviate ongoing nausea.

What other pregnancy related questions do you have related to Chinese Medicine and acupuncture?

The body heals at rest…

I say it over and over again.

It’s the main thing that acupuncture helps you do is rest.

It allows the body to step out of fight or flight and into rest and digest.

Who doesn’t need to relax?

Even if it’s not physical symptoms , most people experience anxiety, stress, overwhelm, insomnia, and other aspects of mental-emotional imbalance. Acupuncture helps by letting you rest. It’s simple.

Whatever it is, I’d love to help. Book with link in bio or check out www.fernacupuncture.com 🌿✨

It feels appropriate that I’d continue to re-introduce myself here, not just because it’s been awhile but because I’m over here re-inventing myself so much these days!

Hello again! For some of you, I’m a familiar friend or face and for some of you, I may be new.

Before anything, I’m prouder than ever to say I’m a mama to a sweet 7.5 month old named Atlas. It’s in this last week that it’s really hit me that everything I’ve worked so hard on myself to heal these last seven years has been preparing me for this, for motherhood. It is by far the most important job I have ever done and will ever do.

I’m also a Doctor of Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, Birth Doula, and Reiki practitioner. It has been my own self healing journey with anxiety and passion for my own health that have molded me into the practitioner I am today.

I am extremely passionate about women’s health, in particular the perinatal journey. This actually extends far beyond pregnancy.

My particular phase being 7.5 months postpartum is so often forgotten. Most women are considered healed from childbirth at 6 weeks postpartum. It’s around that time or even 3-4 months that people think you’re set and cruising. But postpartum can extend far beyond that, and I’d argue in some ways, forever. Pregnancy and childbirth stay with you your whole life.

Your children are an imprint of you and watching them grow is beautiful and also challenging and heartbreaking at the same time.

All of this! the joy, the sadness, physical pain or discomfort, dis-ease and beyond, require support.

This is where I come in. I am not just a women’s health acupuncturist. I am also a Classical Five Element practitioner, a style of acupuncture rooted in the spirit and in treating each individual for who they are.

I am here to see you beyond your fertility journey, your postpartum depression or anxiety, your pain or your autoimmune disease. I am here to see you.

I will sit with you and hear your story. I will hold your hand and your tears, and I will probably cry with you. Because this experience is just not meant to be lived alone.

This is what I’m here for. The good, the bad, the ugly. I’m here in the trenches with you.