Do the Du

One of the tough things about this blog is admitting that I've made mistakes. It's embarrassing, but I'm hoping you can learn from those mistakes.

Suppose you have a patient laying facedown on your table awaiting the miracle of acupuncture for their back pain. Suppose they have a lot of extra tissue. I'm not necessarily talking adipose; sometimes laying flat just pushes muscle/fat/skin backwards. 

Q: What's the first thing you do before placing a needle?

A: Find the spine/Du channel

Q: Where is their spine? How do you find it? 

A: PALPATE! Palpate all you like until you're satisfied. Get in there with your fingers and feel! Unless, of course, palpation causes pain. My advice then is to guestimate from mastoid process to mastoid process, from acromion to acromion and from ASIS to ASIS to the center. You can always scootch their pants down and look for the intergluteal cleft, too.

• Do not trust the point that their posterior hairline makes. 
• Do not trust their spinal fusion scar. 
• Do not trust the Yin/Yang tattoo between their shoulder blades. 
• Do not trust the tag on their underwear. 

Trust your fingers. That is all.

It's a great life if you don't weaken...

I used to think that starting up a small business would look like this:

Now I realize, just like the rest of life, running a small business looks like this:

http://www.lynierose.com/2013/11/expectation-vs-reality-of-your-life.html

A friend asked me how it was going the other day. I answered that I realize that owning your own business is like a log roll. Just keep walking. You have to keep walking. Keep walking and you won't fall off. 

http://www.theactivetimes.com/log-rolling-sport-future

So the question becomes, how do you keep walking? (and walking and walking and walking and walking...)

1. Believe in your dream
2. Have a strong will
3. Start out with the right business plan, the right business partner, the right legal, financial, accounting and marketing support!
4. Focus on what's going right, instead of what's going wrong
5. See the dips and valleys for what they are: dips and valleys
6. Take time to recharge yourself by way of meditation, exercise, acupuncture, massage, eating right, and taking time off every quarter!  
7. Be grateful for what you already have
8. Visualize what you want to have
9. If it's broken, take the time, heartache and energy to fix it now, don't wait
10. Put one foot in front of the other and don't stop