Description
It is so much more important, in the view of Chinese medicine, for a woman's menses to be regular, rather than necessarily 28 days. This regularity reflects the importance for a woman to be "the General of her inner world," such that no matter what is going on around her, her inner world is orderly. This perspective is a good point of departure for exploring the nature of a healthy Liver, and the nature of healthy Blood, which is interior, in relation to healthy qi, which is both interior and exterior. How does our inner world relate to our outer world? How is menstrual cycle health and fertility reflective of this relationship? This talk will explore menstrual health as reflection of the inner and outer world relationship via acupuncture strategies and commonly prescribed herbal formulas designed to regulate menses.
Objectives
By the end of the course, participants will
- understand what it means to be "the General of our inner world," and the relevance of this capacity to healthy menses (although men of course have this capacity also!)
- gain an experiential understanding of the difference between qi and blood, along with greater diagnostic sense of "blood" in self and others
- learn how to understand various common herbal menstrual formulas simultaneously in physical and psych spiritual terms
- learn how to embody and transmit the energetics of the various formulas, to aid both diagnosis and treatment outcomes.
Thea Elijah, LAc, has been a student of Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture for over 30 years. She is the former director of the Chinese Herbal Studies Program at TAI Sophia Institute and the Chinese Herbal Studies Program at the Academy for Five Element Acupuncture.
She has apprenticed and studied with some of the most influential Chinese medicine teachers in the West. Thea is also a Master Teacher of the Shadhuliyyah Sufi Order, and a teaching assistant at the University of Spiritual Healing and Sufism.
Thea maintains a private healing practice, incorporating her Chinese medical knowledge and heart-centered healing. At the request of her clients and students, she has developed a series of workshops teaching Whole Heart Connection (formerly Medicine Without Form). These open the student to “healing” situations outside of formal health care contexts, including family life, classrooms, activism for social change, and work within organizational structures. She currently teaches Chinese Medicine, Sufi Healing, and Whole Heart Connection across the United States. Thea is based in Southern Vermont, where she lives with her family.