My interest in Traditional Chinese Medicine

Background

I come from a medical family.

My mother is a retired neonatologist and my sister has a herbal medicine practice in New Zealand.

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However, my own interest in medicine did not begin until 2003. I had an accident in South Korea and suffered from 3 cracked ribs. The hospital doctor gave me some strong pain-killers and advised me to rest for 6 weeks.

Luckily, a friend introduced me to an acupuncturist.

I missed one day of work and was pain-free after 3 weeks treatment.

I decided then that I needed to learn more about natural medicine in order to become a more natural person.

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First steps

I started by studying the Japanese art of Reiki for 3 years.

My Reiki teacher was a tendai buddhist priest in Kyoto, Japan named Hyakuten Inamoto. http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~reiki/english/index.html

Reiki was founded there in 1914 by Usui Makao.

I once visited a small temple on the top of Mt. Kuryama where he discovered Reiki after meditating for 21 days.

Digging deeper

Reiki is a 'hands-off' form of healing therapy.

I decided that I needed to learn more about the science of natural medicine 'inside' the body.

In 2007, I began studying Traditional Chinese Medicine through http://www.ontcm.com/

Now

I teach English at the Chengdu University of TCM and continue my studies with the help of medical professionals here.

The future

My goal is continue teaching and studying in Chengdu until I become a proficient TCM practitioner in some form of tuina, acupuncture or herbal medicine.

With that knowledge I aim to dedicate my energy towards caring for the needy people of this world.

I believe that TCM is the most practical and cost effective way.

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Further reading

http://www.chinesemedicinetimes.com/forum/showthread.php?t=520

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Thesaurus

• neonatologist (n) - a medical specialist in premature baby care
• tendai buddhist (n) - a form of Japanese 'pure land buddhism'
• meditate (v) - to sit quietly and think about life/religion
• hands-off (adj. phrase) - not touching something, limited participant
• proficient (adj.) - competent, experienced
• needy (adj.) - someone who cannot care for themself