Annual Practical Retreat with Students

AOM Acupuncture Practical Retreat - 2019 - 105 hours of learning, playing and growing with 1st year online students

The annual  practical retreat with our 1st year students was held between 28/09 and 14/10 in a large house in Kamares, a nice sea village near Patras (GR)  where we spent these days not only working on the practical aspect of learning acupuncture, but also on personal growth. It was with great emotion that we all met in 'flesh', after spending 'together' 10 months  online.Some were apprehensive about sharing a house with virtual 'colleagues'. Yet, in the laughter, the hugs, the flowing chatting and good humour, one could see from the start that things would have worked out amazingly well and that our annual practical retreat was going to be a great success!!!  

How was a day programmed?

During the two weeks of our annual practical retreat, we would meet every morning at 08:00 to sip warm water and lemon, to wake up the stomach (in Chinese Medicine the time of the Stomach is between 07:00 - 09:00). We would then meditate and set the intention for the day, looking at the sky and the  trees in the spacious, beautiful garden. We would observe their ability to bend gently to the morning breeze. We would try to discern their message:  flexibility, adjustability,  resilience and determination regardless of  external circumstances. Could we set the intention on relying on these qualities for our inner pace, so to allow Qi 氣 to flow smoothly and unhurriedly in our life?   Last we would do Qigong  氣功 and then breakfast, a good, healthy breakfast prepared by a couple of students rotating every day. Breakfast would always be a time of exchange,  of talking about feelings, impressions, and desires. What did everyone want from the course?    

What could be changed and done better? What had they gained from it, when thinking about the previous days?

Every day we would feel  the meridians and  mark their points accurately,  on the one hand by measuring the cun 寸 and on the other  by perceiving the  qi 氣 in each point.   We  would also spend time learning how to apply moxa  cones  and cigar to the points as well as some simple needling techniques and, of course,  the clean hands strategy.   Studying the meridians also included discussing the channel's narrative and what each channel contributes to the whole, both in the '5 Elements'  五行 and in the 'Chinese Clock' sequences.   The students were surprised to notice that  the 'Chinese Clock' sequence does not follow the the '5 Elements 五行', but interacts with them in a certain dialectic which, in turns, creates the fine equilibrium on which health is constructed on a substratum of change 易 within oneness.   Every day we would feel  the meridians and  mark their points accurately,  on the one hand by measuring the cun 寸 and on the other  by perceiving the  qi 氣 in each point.   We  would also spend time learning how to apply moxa  cones  and cigar to the points as well as some simple needling techniques and, of course,  the clean hands strategy.   Studying the meridians also included discussing the channel's narrative and what each channel contributes to the whole, both in the '5 Elements'  五行 and in the 'Chinese Clock' sequences.       The students were surprised to notice that  the 'Chinese Clock' sequence does not follow the the '5 Elements 五行', but interacts with them in a certain dialectic which, in turns, creates the fine equilibrium on which health is constructed on a substratum of change 易 within oneness.   Given the above premise, why should our students of Chinese Medicine discover the discourse of resonance, change  and oneness only after their initial foundation training, as it usually happens, and not before, as Sun Simiao and Zhang Jie Bing suggested? To learn this right from the word go creates a good clinical attitude: the understanding that one should not serve the needs of the body alone (the symptom), but facilitate the recovery of the equilibrium and resonance of each meridian (and organ) as well as  help it to fulfil its role when contributing to the rhythmic and smooth flow of Qi  氣 in the 24 hours and in the seasons.  And of course there is more to say on the above topic, but doing it here would elude the scope of this narrative.   Zhang Jie Bin, one of the most famous doctors of classic times, had asked himself: "What the relationship between  medicine and change is?" (Yi Yi Yi 易醫 儀 :1)*.    Observing that "Sun Si Miao had said [...] that "those who do not understand change, cannot talk about medicine" , he came to the same conclusions.  

What else did we do at our annual practical retreat? ​

We felt a person's  Qi 氣 by palpating  the meridians. This is an excellent way of making contact with a patient and also gather information about the flow of Qi in their body:  changes in temperature, nodules or resistance to a slight pressure can not only add understanding to a patient's condition,  but also, sometimes, point in the right direction when considering the appropriate treatment strategy.   We worked on simple diagnosis: how to detect a weak 'Element' and correct it?  How to detect a Zangfu's 臟腑 deviation from the norm  and  understand it?  

What else? Of course, we worked massively with emotions.

As the group soon realised, each student had come to the retreat with some unresolved issue, carried from home in a secret pocket of their suitcase. We worked with each person according to simple '5 Elements' 五行 diagnosis, looking for colour, odour, sound and emotion and exploring strategies of self-help informed by Chinese medicine. This made all the participants very enthusiastic, as they found ways of dealing with some stagnant and unresolved personal 'cliches' which coloured their vision of reality, and made them unable to observe an issue from more than just one vantage point, when attempting a solution.     In the end of the first year's practical retreat, the students were all called out to give a class on the Five Elements 五行 and on the Organs and Viscera (Zangfu 臟腑). Thus, also the theoretical part of this year's syllabus was repeated and possible gaps were filled. In this picture, one of the students explains the physiology of the Kidneys to the class. Then, all the other students stand up and take their turn in being the 'teacher', explaining the physiology of the Spleen, Lungs, Heart, Liver etc. with reference also to the 5 Elements 五行 and their attributes. Yet, the time we spent together was not only work. In the evenings we would go out to dinner to local 'tavernas' by the sea and enjoy a good meal of fresh fish and local vegetables, chat, laugh and bond, or cook at home and watch a movie. We even had a whole day off when we visited the charming small town of Nafpaktos, on the north shores of the Corinthian sea, had a meal and walked by the sea, looking at the boats coming into the small port and the light shining on the water in the horizon. See you in September, 2020, at the second year's practical retreat!!!!