As 2021 draws to close I’m happy to be here.
A few years ago I completed the 360° Breathe Wellbeing course with Andy Roberts, founder of Breathe London. (Andy attended my qigong class at Morley College over 15 yrs ago and went on to become a brilliant mindfulness coach at Breathe Australia, offering courses in corporate, universities and charity sectors.)
As well as giving up sugar and processed foods for a month, another task was to write down 3 good things that happen each day. I have continued this little gem of positivity and advocate it to my mother, students, patients and friends.
One of the 3 good things that happened to me this year is that I still have my sashide (right, needle-holding hand for Toyohari Japanese acupuncture) and I’m here to tell the tale. Some of you may have met my fluffy tabby cat (who shall not be named and shamed) sunbathing among the bamboos during my online Moving Qi-gong classes. One evening last summer I was stroking him and must have startled him from a bad dream as he clamped my hand with his canines in an uncharacteristic way. Two days and three A&E hospitals later I spent 2 nights overlooking Hampstead Heath at the Royal Free watching the bacterial infection track down my arm, then miraculously abait with a course of intravenous antibiotics and minor clean up surgery. A lovely lady opposite me almost lost her finger through a little cut from a rose thorn or splinter whilst gardening.
I’m grateful to the amazing staff at the Royal Free and experienced being a patient in a hospital where I have worked as an acupuncturist, tuina practitioner and now qigong teacher at Maggie’s (formerly Cancerkin) charity for the last 8 years.
Tips to pass on:
keep surgical spirit in your medicine cabinet to use immediately on any bite or cut (rose thorns or splinters)
reflect upon 2021 and 3 things that make you glad to be alive
write down 3 things to look forward to in 2022