Welcome to It's Just Stuff's #whatsonyourmindwednesday guest blogs. Every week #TeamIJS is inviting one of our Preferred Partners to share what is on their minds as it relates to the services they provide and the connection to helping anyone struggling with organizing and executive functioning skills.
This week we are so happy to introduce Dr. Noah Goldstein, acupuncture and Chinese medicine specialist. Our COCTC aka Chief of Chaos to Calm has been a patient of Noah's for the past several months and has seen significant improvement regarding some inflammation in her hip for over a year as well as treatment for insomnia. She jokes that it takes getting needles stuck all over her to sometimes force her to get a much-needed nap. We love that Noah has a very calming influence on Beth...she tends to run nonstop every day for clients and definitely benefits from Noah's expertise. If you live in the Greater Boulder area we highly recommend contacting him for a consultation...you will not be disappointed!
Decluttering for Better Health
Our environments shape us as much as we shape our environments. One of the fundamental tenets of Eastern Medicine is that flow is essential for health. Said differently, stagnation is one of the major causes of disease. As an acupuncturist, I look for blockages in the energetic flow of a person’s body and seek to unblock those blockages. As a coach, I help people identify blockages in their perception or the circumstances of their lives and help find solutions. What I can’t address for people are impediments to flow in their environments. This, however, is precisely what Beth and the team at It's Just Stuff does. Clutter, messy closets or rooms, and disorganized stuff in storage are exceedingly common. They also have a significant, but subtle impact on our well-being. Like a nagging pain we’ve had for so long we don’t even realize it’s impacting us until the accumulation in our space weighs us down and hinders our capacity for ease. Stuff comes into our lives incessantly. Our ability to let go of that stuff is governed energetically by the lungs and the large intestine according to Eastern medicine. These two organs are about bringing in things from the world (air and food) and letting go of what we don’t need (CO2 and, well, to put it mildly, our poop). They also manage our relationship with grief, the emotion we experience when we let go of things. From the lens of Eastern medicine, deep belly breathing exercises can help promote the health of the lung and large intestine and support our ability to let go of things we no longer need. The wisdom of these organs is about letting go of form and holding on to the essence. Basically, what this means is that when we’re having trouble letting go of a piece of clothing, or a lamp, or our college essays stored in the attic, what’s really going on is that we’re afraid of losing the memory of those experiences (the essence) so we hold on the items (the form). Recognizing this creates an opportunity. We can find ways to ensure that we keep the memories without keeping the stuff those memories are attached to. I also like the Marie Kondo practice of saying thank you to all the items we’re letting go of. This to me exemplifies reverence which is the virtue of the lungs and large Intestine. Somehow expressing the respect we have for things in our lives before we let them go makes it feel that much easier.
Believe it or not, different seasons have a different psycho-emotional impact on us and we can leverage the energetics of the seasons to accomplish things more effectively. There’s a reason we’re familiar with the idea of “spring cleaning". Because the energy of the spring and summer is all about growth, there’s an intuitive awareness that we need to clear away, clean and make space in order to be able to make growth.
As we make our way deeper into the spring, edging towards summer, now is the perfect time to clear away, sort through, and let go of things that are no longer serving us to hold to.
You’ll most likely end up feeling lighter, brighter, and spacious internally, as your home environment becomes more organized. Give it a try and see what happens.
Noah Goldstein is a Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. He provides heart-centered soulful care through his private practice Heartseed Health. He also loves gardening, hiking, running, camping, and spending time with his family.
Contact Information:
720-432-7850
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