Kim's Blog

After completion of last week's NUHS exit exams, it was time for some fun! This weekend my family and I went to the Brookfield Zoo. Since I was a child, I have enjoyed going to the zoo. In addition to seeing the animals, this weekend many companies, families, and volunteers were decorating their sponsored Christmas trees.

Lining the walkway of the zoo were hundreds of Christmas trees. While we were walking around, we had the opportunity to see Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts hanging handmade ornaments on the trees. The kids smiled with excitement as they hung their carefully crafted ornament. 

I have included pictures of some of my favorite handmade ornaments. Many of the decorations had a theme of recycling and environmental awareness. Two of the pictured ornaments are a decorated container and a decorated soda bottle. What creative ideas! I'm excited for my family to make these, too!

We didn't stay until dark, but saw thousands of holiday lights ready to be lit once the sun set. This is the season for Brookfield Zoo lights. The zoo is normally a wonderful family environment, but with the holiday spirit in the air, patrons were even more friendly and happy.

I felt fortunate to have this opportunity to relax and laugh. I have learned through my scholastic journey that it is crucial to stay focused on studying and schoolwork, but it is equally important to take time to have fun and enjoy the journey.

My mom is a retired college professor. Growing up, I remember her telling me at the start of each semester, she would tell her students that they needed to study and keep up with the class work. She would follow that with sharing they also needed to do at least one fun thing a week to help them balance out all the hard work. I have integrated that as one of my personal philosophies!

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4^th of July celebration. Thank you to all who have and are serving our country! Thank you for helping preserve the independence we all recently celebrated!

This 4^th of July, I had the pleasure of celebrating at a lake with my family. Being surrounded by family and water caused me to think about the earth's elements and how they relate to AOM. A major school of thought in AOM is the theory of the Five Elements. This is a very involved theory. 

One aspect of the Five Elements is that all the acupuncture meridians are linked to elements. For example, the kidney and urinary bladder meridians are considered the water element. As a result, these meridians can be treated with water elements and hold the nature of water in many ways. 

By being able to be treated with water, these meridians can be tonified (strengthened) or sedated (weakened) using the element of water. All primary meridians contain points that are considered water points. Using the Five Element Theory, these water points can be used for many functions, including affecting the kidney and urinary bladder meridians.

Additionally, being surrounded by the water element is believed to strengthen the kidney and urinary bladder meridians and thus strengthen their functions. For example, since I spent much of the past week on a boat as well as swimming in natural bodies of water, my kidney and urinary bladder meridians were tonified.

I also ate a fair amount of seafood, which is also believed to have the water element. In AOM, food often has the element of its environment. This food also aided in the tonification of the kidney and urinary bladder meridians.

Furthermore, the kidney meridian is believed to contain our prenatal jing. Jing is our primal energy that we have when we enter this world. Much of our jing is believed to be derived from our parents. Jing is similar to the biomedical understanding of genes and DNA. I believe that as a result of being with my family all weekend, my kidney meridian was further tonified. I believe it could be tonified as a result of being with my family because we have a comforting and loving relationship. As a result, I believe this is nurturing to my kidneys since it houses my prenatal jing.

Just as we had our first snow fall of the season this week, NUHS had its first week of the classes for the new trimester. The AOM student body feels like it is growing in a positive way with every new trimester. I had the pleasure of meeting the new clinic AOM observers this week. I also have had the ability to meet additional AOM students throughout the campus.  

Every trimester I seem to notice the same thing about AOM students--we love coming to our classes and clinic. Simply by being around my current friends/students and the newer students I met, I could feel the rooms being filled with enthusiasm. This positivity creates such an invigorating energy throughout the AOM department. I find a little extra boost in positivity is always pleasant to be around.

I think some of my favorite things about returning to classes are reconnecting with all my friends, returning to clinic and receiving the syllabi from my new classes. I always feel a sense of excitement during the first classes of a trimester. I find myself filled with a new sense of anticipation when reading each class's syllabus, as I realize within a few months, I'll have a grasp on all the knowledge outlined in it.

While it was wonderful to have returned to NUHS last week, I was rather happy to have the extended holiday weekend the first week back. It has helped with the transition of being on vacation mind-set to returning to a studious train of thought. It has also been very helpful with my schedule change in my home life. From my experience and those shared of my fellow students, returning to school after being on break can sometimes feel like a rather large adjustment for those at home, especially children. Fortunately, this extended holiday weekend allowed for extra time to readjust!