Acupuncture Denver Blog

Please join us starting this Thursday for a wonderful, intimate community Vinyasa yoga class with Becca Neville. I've heard rave reviews of Becca's teaching and know she brings warmth, attention to detail and an open heart to her classes. This week will be the first of the on-going Thursday night classes. The class will start at 6pm and end around 7:15. Please bring a mat, a water bottle and wear appropriate yoga clothes. You can purchase a 4-class pass for just $40 or come for a drop-in rate of $12. Please pay at the front desk prior to class time (so be there a few minutes early!) or register and pay online here if you prefer to pay ahead of time.

We hope to offer more and more small, intimate yoga classes, wellness workshops and support groups in our new healing sanctuary space. Please let us know if you would like to offer a class in our space or if there is programming you'd like to see offered by us. We are excited to expand our offerings and create more community, healing and connection with you!

I am gripped by the images coming out of the Horn of Africa (Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia) right now. Up to 2000 children are dying daily and millions of people are at risk due to the current drought-- the worst the region has seen in 60 years. The political situation in Somalia makes the crisis even more acute and life-threatening there.

It's easy to sit back or turn away when we are faced with suffering on a massive scale like this. But each of us can make a difference by giving to aid organizations and by raising our voices to spread the word. Since my son is from Ethiopia and he still has birth-family living in the Southern region of the country, this emergency feels very close-to-home and close to my heart in many ways.

As part of our commitment to giving back, Acupuncture Denver donated $500 to Unicef today.

Ways you can make a difference right now:

1. Donate to Unicef.

2. Sign one.org's petition to urge world leaders to step up the response to this crisis.

3. Read and share this article and videos from Unicef with friends and family.

In gratitude,

Jane

A recent study from the European Journal of Integrative Medicine showed that TCM treatments (individualized acupuncture and customized Chinese herbal formulas ) improved pregnancy rates and live births in women undergoing intrauterine inseminations (IUI) at the Fertility Research Institute in the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center.  As the first published study to evaluate the influence of acupuncture and herbs on IUI treatments, this was ground-breaking research. And the outcomes were pretty significant and impressive!

I was so happy to see that rather than just administering  a “cookbook” standardized acupuncture point prescription on every patient like we’ve seen in so many acupuncture/ IVF transfer studies, this study used custom Chinese herb formulas and acupuncture treatments in conjunction with artificial insemination. This approach is much more real-life in terms of reflecting how Chinese medicine is actually practiced.  Any experienced TCM fertility specialist knows that coming up with an accurate TCM diagnosis and treatment plan and basing acupuncture and herbal prescriptions on that diagnosis is what determines patient improvement and positive pregnancy outcomes.  The outcomes of this study were pretty impressive. Pregnancy rates in the acupuncture/herb group were 65.5% vs. only 39.4% in the control group (IUI with no TCM treatment). The live birth rate was also higher in the TCM group (41.4% vs. 26.9%). It was also pointed out that the average age in the TCM study group was 39 years vs. an average age of 37 in the control group.

If you’d like to read more, here’s a link to the entire study. Hopefully, as we have seen clinically, more outcome studies like this will be published to validate the efficacy of TCM interventions in the treatment of infertility.

I so enjoyed leading our first meditation class and session in the new healing sanctuary at Acupuncture Denver today. It's always good to recall meditation instruction for myself and to spend time sitting in a group.  It was a great way to spend sunday morning!  We will continue to offer meditation classes/sitting practice on  last Sunday of each month. Please see our classes page for more information. As long as there is no class happening, all of our patients are also welcome to use the healing sanctuary space to do sitting meditation before or after their treatments. It's a great way to ground, calm the mind and touch back into basic sanity. Also, if anyone is interested in sitting together weekly, we can make the space available during a time that will work for a small group. So let us know!

Samatha, or calm-abiding meditation is one of the most powerful ways we can begin to tame our minds and infuse our daily lives with more stability, mindfulness and open-heartedness. While the practice seems daunting at first (sitting quietly, not moving, following the breath and labeling thoughts), it becomes a wonderful refuge from the day-to-day "monkey mind" we grow so used to tolerating. Taking 5-20 minutes out each day to sit quietly in samatha meditation can have a profound effect on our lives. Please join us for the next session in August and feel free to call or email if you have any questions. It's thrilling to be able to share tools and practices for healing ourselves in this wonderful new space. Hopefully, bit by bit, we can all help make the world a healthier, saner, more peaceful place by growing in mindfulness and awareness together! The generous participants also donated over $50 to support the new building renovation fund for the Orgyen Khamdrolling Buddhist Center in Denver. Thanks everyone for your generous contributions!

We just had an amazing time at Colorado's first Fertile Soul retreat last weekend. It's been about 6 years since my first retreat and I was so glad to be back to soak in the comfortable waters of yin-based healing (and the awesome pool at Interlocken Omni). We had an incredible group of courageous, vulnerable, strong, beautiful women (and one brave man) there to share in the long weekend of healing, sharing and inspiration. While we spent some time discussing obstacles to fertility and focusing on "treatment" as Randine pointed out in her recent newsletter, we spent more time going inside to explore the deeper roots of healing and transformation. I am continually in awe of Randine's wisdom and ability to hold space in a way that can open our hearts and enliven our souls. Sharing stories, laughter, tears, dance and connection is what makes the retreat experience so valuable for all of us. So many of the women came to the retreat feeling weary from carrying years of disappointment and sadness on their shoulders. But what transpired in a mere four days left everyone feeling connected, free and inspired to be exactly where they were in their lives. More than one person expressed how fortunate they felt to "get their life back" and how being together that they had "cried and laughed more than they had in years." It was a profoundly healing experience for me and Merry as well. I am so grateful to have Merry on the journey with me as a friend, acupuncture associate at the clinic and healer. I know the rejuvenation we both experienced will only deepen our connection with all of those we touch on their fertility journeys as we move forward. Dipping into those deep healing waters at retreat is like taking a long drink of water when you didn't even realize you were thirsty. So wonderful....

I want to thank all of the participants for their courage and vulnerability (and for being brave enough to do Trance Dance with me!!!).  And I want to thank the Fertile Soul staff for making the retreat experience so smooth and effortless. And of course I want to thank Randine, my friend, mentor, and soul-sister for all she has shared with me over the years. For those of you contemplating a retreat, don't hesitate to take the plunge and sign up! I'm happy to be attending another Fertile Soul retreat in September with my fellow affiliate and best friend, Donna Huber in Omaha. Can't wait for more....

Welcome to the beautiful new Acupuncture Denver site and blog! The creation of our improved website has been months in the making and we are so excited to finally launch. Our blog will be hosted on the site moving forward, but if you would like to read our past blog entries, please visit our old blog site anytime. I look forward to becoming more active on the new blog and to inviting guest bloggers and other Acupuncture Denver team members to write more often. 

Another exciting piece of news is that Randine Lewis and The Fertile Soul team are arriving in Denver today for their first local Fertile Soul Retreat in Colorado. There are still a few spaces available, so if you are interested in signing up last-minute, contact me for details. Merry and I are both excited to be participating in the retreat and know everyone attending is in for an amazing experience. We can't wait! 

Please explore our beautiful new website and leave comments here on the blog. I look forward to writing more about what's going on at the clinic as well as sharing my inner musings on health, healing, personal transformation, and living life to the fullest. Yay!