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The stats show that about two-thirds of us make New Year’s resolutions. My guess is that the majority of the other third can’t help but think at least a little bit about 2009, too. It’s natural. We’re thinking about getting organized and making fresh starts. Out with the old. In with the new. We feel the need to grow, change and just get better at what we do.

The challenge is that these are pretty big projects, and it’s easy to bite off more than your practice can chew. Instead, I like to think of one principle to focus on in the coming year. It’s a bit like herding - I need one idea that can guide all those tiny details, decisions and actions in the right direction. Each “cow” might have its own unique path and nature, but at the end of the year, I want all those bovine bits to arrive at the same place.

The guiding word for this year? SERVE.

Why Service is Everything in Practice

It’s hard to be the cheapest in this industry. Or to have the biggest selection. It’s not usually that helpful to be the fastest, either. So how do you compete?

The truth is you’re not really competing with the practitioner down the road, you’re competing with a preconceived notion about what health care is. You’re competing with ideas in the minds of prospective clients. Things like “free”, “covered by insurance” “requires an MD”, “needs a white coat”, and “happens in a hospital only”. These are ideas that pop up when someone needs care, and they stop people from choosing you.

So how do you compete, and grow? In this industry, you can best compete by providing incredible service, all the time. You grow, in other words, when you serve. It’s the word for this year, but it’s probably the word for every year.

As Gandhi said:

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.”

What We’re Doing About It (and You Can, Too)

We have two pushes on for the year to help us serve better.

1. Project 52: We’ve been rolling out a big service push at our office - it started back with the parking bowl phenomenon, really, but our niche has always been high service, and I want to take it up a notch. We’ve started what we call Project 52, which is our goal to make one customer service improvement every week all year. It’s fun, it’s tangible, and everyone gets on board.
2. Random Acts of Service: Sometimes an opportunity appears to go that extra mile. We’re going to try to seize more of them. A client is an avid reader? We send them a book that will really help them. A client loves the warm slippers we provide in a treatment room? We mail them a pair. These are little things that we don’t do for everyone, but that we do when we know someone will really love it. It feels wonderful to do it, and it’s great for business.

The great thing about this stuff is that it’s inexpensive. I bet most of our Project 52 ideas will be free (so far they are) - they’ll be tiny tweaks and improvements that really aren’t hard or costly.

People Who Can Help YOU

Here’s some 2008 gratitude and some 2009 well-wishes to the people out there who are doing their best to serve YOU so you can better serve others. I think these folks are an important part of what we’re all doing to help people get better. I’d say most aren’t making millions doing this - they’re just jazzed about helping you so you can help others. You should pay them a visit. They’ll help you serve.

To all of the following, in no particular order: thanks for all you do to serve, and thanks for the great interactions we’ve had in the last year. (If I’ve missed you please let me know!!)

• Acupuncture Clinic Marketing
• The Healthcare Marketer
• Alternative Growth Streams
• CAMLAW Blog
• Chinese Medicine Notes
• Professional Practice Success
• Acupuncture Business School
• IntegrativePractitioner.com
• Advance My Practice
• Chinese Medicine Tools
• Marketing Matters
• The Healthcare Marketing Connection
• Create a Thriving Business
• Insights for Acupuncturists
• Natural Medicine Business Success
• Community Acupuncture Network
• Build Your Dream Practice
• AltMD Pro Center
• Holistic PR
• The Acupuncture Marketing Blog
• TheBodyWorker.com
• The Integrator Blog
• DC Practice Tools

To all of our regular readers and visitors, and to practitioners everywhere: Thank you, and may 2009 be as remarkable as you are.

-Dan and Tara

Post from: AlternativeHealthPractice.com

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1. The Best Acupuncture Practice Management Resources on The Web
2. Acupuncture Marketing Blog Roundup
3. More Acupuncture Pricing Debate

Christmas is one of the nicest times of year, when we spend time with family and strengthen our bonds with friends.

What is it about Christmas? I think on some level, it allows us to recapture some of the magic of childhood. We remember gazing in wonder at the tree, the magic of the lights, the wonderful smells, the sounds, the excitement.

The Joy of Christmas
Christmas is a holiday that contributes to much joy and contentment. It can be a great booster for emotional/mental health, as well.

Those who reach out to others experience the joy of Christmas expressed through true selflessness and the feelings their actions engender. In this sense Christmas can be therapeutic. When we reach out to others in kindness and consideration, we enrich ourselves.

* We can teach our young ones valuable lessons about giving and showing concern for others, modeling appropriate behavior.
* We can work on our own attitudes towards those less fortunate.
* We can try to expand our efforts at showing kindness.
* If time permits, we can volunteer.

If the world could practice Christmas year round, what a different world it would be: people united, people caring for others, people engaged in joyous and peaceful pursuits.

Many groups meet around the world to send out positive energy, using their thoughts to improve conditions on earth. Each person, however, can do the same.

This Christmas why not take some time to send out the joy of Christmas, using positive thought/energy and sending it into the universe? Each person can send out the intention for world tolerance and peace.

It takes baby steps but who knows what will result?

Merry Christmas everyone

Credit: jpkwitter

As Christmas draws ever closer, many of us embark on Christmas letters detailing the events of the past year. This helps others to get caught up on all our doings.

Tonight, I found myself composing a letter to a friend, which turned into a Christmas letter I sent out to a number of friends.

I described my experiences of living in Nova Scotia and settling into a Victorian home.

I've decided to share some of the Christmas letter with blog readers, to give others a glimpse of life here.

I’ve just had my friend/contractor doing repairs on my house, Roselane, so only got my tree up tonight. I usually like to put it up earlier so that I can enjoy it for a month or two (hey, if a little bit is good more is better!). Another contractor, who has also become a friend, (the good contractors always seem to become friends) gave me a beautiful antique mantle that I’ll get installed in the new year; however, I put it to good use by hanging stockings on it and placing cards on top. I found myself wondering how I ever got along all those years without a mantle and now believe everyone should have one.

This past year has been so interesting. I saw some good changes with a new roof, a new water-boiler, fixes in the floors and pending replacement of cracked windows, so I’m much snugger and warmer this winter--and understandably so, with a heating system in place!

We really only had about 9 weeks of warm weather but such is life in the Maritimes, with icy water making its way down from the arctic.

As my life has settled down, I’ve gotten back into playing my guitar again and have had the chance to enjoy some good jam sessions with different guitarists. My piano tuner was up in the area (he stays here each time he comes through tuning) and he and I sat and played and sang together for a couple of hours, which was a real treat!

And let's not forget the critters! I haven’t seen Molly Malone, my mama raccoon, and fear that dogs have frightened her off. I thought that “Stinky” had evacuated, as well. This summer, though, I was sitting out on the back veranda and he wandered into the yard. When he saw me, he came right over and up the steps. I stepped back into the kitchen, out of the line of potential fire. I don’t mind having a skunk living under my deck and have resisted others’ advice about evicting him; however, I’m understandably cautious. I think Stinky recognized me and hoped for a hand-out. I must add here that a friend left out a piece of pizza and Molly made off with it!

As you can see from all of this, life in Nova Scotia is never dull! I seem to make friends of those who cross my path, whether animal or human, and feel so fortunate that these interesting people and creatures have come into my life.

A Christmas letter can be a good way to bring others up to speed on your life.

Credit: manuere

My sister always has a laugh at my expense at my obsesssion with notebooks, which dates back to childhood. But now - ha! - notebooks are deeply cool, and fellow notebook obsessives blog about the best pads and pens they've tried. I am never short of notebooks for different purposes, but a notebook for taking along on garden visits has been a bit of a dilemma over the years. I've rather fallen out of love with Moleskine after my address book fell apart after light use - no good for something that needs to be toted around in all weathers,...

King of Wands – Jupiter
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and is almost a mini-star, with four large moons and 59 smaller ones in its orbit. It’s a cloudy, turbulent planet – its famous red spot is a storm that has been raging for hundreds of years. In mythology, Jupiter, the equivalent of the Greek Zeus, was the king of the Roman gods. His powerful aura and formidable leadership skills are reflected in the King of Wands, who has mastered the unpredictable, fiery energy of the suit. This King may be less spontaneous and eager than the Page or Knight, but he knows how to channel the creative spark of Wands into productive endeavour. If he turns up in a reading, it’s time for you to take charge and get your act on the road.

King of Cups – Neptune
Neptune is the furthest planet in the solar system from the sun apart from Pluto. Because of Pluto’s erratic orbit it does actually become the farthest planet for 20 years out of every 248. The planet’s vivid blue colour comes from the methane in its atmosphere, which is even more stormy than Jupiter’s. Neptune in Roman mythology was the equivalent of Poseidon, Greek god of the sea. Neptune was known for his unpredictable temperament, notorious for flying into rages that manifested as storms at sea. The King of Cups is a little more in control of his moods. He rides the churning seas of emotion rather than being shipwrecked by them. He symbolises someone who has their emotions in check, but through awareness and self-control rather than repression. This King has not necessarily conquered powerful feelings, he just knows how to manage them.

King of Swords – Uranus
Uranus is unique among the planets of the solar system in that its axis of rotation is almost horizontal, as if it had been turned on its side. Its magnetic field is also strange – very powerful, and offset from the planet’s centre by a third. In mythology, Uranus was a Greek sky god, husband to Gaia. Uranus’s airy realm is familiar territory to the King of Swords, who represents mastery of the intellect. This King has the ability to be objective, clear-thinking and detached. His judgement is not clouded by emotion, bias, or wishful thinking. Mirroring Uranus’s unusual rotational axis, he has the ability to turn things on their head and look at the world from unexpected angles.

King of Pentacles – Saturn
Saturn is a large, gaseous planet with an atmosphere mainly of hydrogen and helium. It’s more than 700 times larger than the Earth, not including its famous rings. These stretch for thousands of kilometres and are mostly made up of ice. The Roman god Saturn (Greek equivalent; Cronus) was the father of Jupiter, King of the gods and had a rather bad reputation as devourer of his own children. The King of Pentacles is an equally powerful ruler but is usually a bit more beneficent in his approach to kingship. However, the devouring habit finds a parallel in the negative associations of Pentacles with greed and desire for material domination. But the King of Pentacles tends to exhibit mastery over the material world in a more positive way. He is canny and knowledgeable in deploying his physical and financial resources and we can call on his hard-headed business sense to keep us on track. This King can roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty to make sure our visions are not thwarted or shunted off track.

On December 5th, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) hosted its annual Phase II meeting in Washington D.C. in the U.S. House of Representatives Cannon Caucus Room. Its theme this year was "The Next Presidency and Congress." Distinguished speakers addressed the state of renewable energy policy today, presented a range of policy options, and made recommendations for the new

Geothermal — the tapping of steam from hot underground rocks — could provide a source of clean, renewable energy in parts of Africa where electricity is currently limited, according to an assessment by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Expansion of corn acreage to meet ethanol targets is reducing the ability of beneficial insects to control pests, a loss valued at $58 million in the four states studied (Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin), report researchers writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A female client of mine told me that her husband has passed away recently. He was not old of age. This couple had no children and after her husband’s death my client had no relatives left in this world.

Her husband was a teacher. One day at a party he suddenly lost the ability to speak, and he couldn’t recognize his whereabouts. It never happened before. Doctors diagnosed him with a brain tumor after that incident. And the tumor was removed surgically.

That’s when the battle again the decease started. In the beginning all was quite good. He was even able to go back to work, but within a few month his condition got worse. My client had to leave her job to look after her husband. They tried everything they could to help him get him better, but it was all in vain. In a few months he died while he was at a hospital.

I met this women before, and when I saw her this time I couldn’t recognize her. She became thin and looked quite unwell.

After he husband’s death my client got into a deep depression. She felt she no reasons left to live. Eventually this feeling became dull, but she still had insomnia, apathy, absence of appetite. That’s when she approached me looking for help.

Diagnosis

According to Su Jok theory, emotions of a sadness, which arise in a case of loss of a loved one, can be dominant and lead to depression, as all other emotions are suppressed.

On the energy level excess of the dryness energy (Lung meridian) was observed in my client.

Treatment

For the treatment of this case I used Su Jok technique for reducing of the dryness energy (emotion of sadness) and tonification of the heat energy (emotion of joy ).
In parallel when my patient lay on the bed  the Lung meridian was balanced by means of Jin Shin technique.
From my experience such combination brings very good results.

On the figure you can see the acupuncture points I used according to Su Jok theory.

After three session of the treatment my client regained her normal sleep.

At that same time she started to cough. Yet she had no cold. That confirms that my work on the Lung meridian was successful, as it shows a release of stagnation in the chest area.

The client still feels rather sad, but now she started to have optimism in her future.

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