{"id":588,"date":"2016-10-11T14:26:13","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T04:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/?p=588"},"modified":"2016-10-11T14:26:13","modified_gmt":"2016-10-11T04:56:13","slug":"my-illness-is-my-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/?p=588","title":{"rendered":"My illness is my friend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rock-hole-blue-lake\"<\/a>Yesterday I received the news that one of my most influential teachers, Bob Duggan, has passed away. Bob was an acupuncturist but he was also a wellness visionary, seeing ways of bringing health and healing outside the treatment room.<\/p>\n

In 1991 I was fortunate to be part of a group of 20 who made up the SOPHIA training in San Francisco. Bob, along with Diane Connelly, Julia Measures and John Sullivan, made seasonal trips from Maryland to teach us about using the wisdom of the Five Elements to support change and healing in all areas of life, not just in the treatment room. My own path owes a great deal to this training. My acupressure courses, my books and my direction in life were profoundly influenced by Bob\u2019s view of the world.<\/p>\n

When I received the news about Bob\u2019s change of vibration, I went Googling and found a short interview with him from 2009<\/a> which I recommend to you. In it he tells this story:<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve practised acupuncture for 35 years now and some 30 years ago a man came back into me and he said, \u201cI never thought asthma would be my friend.\u201d I said, \u201cCharlie what are you talking about, asthma is your friend?\u201d And he said, \u201cWell before I came to you I was in and out of the emergency room, I was constantly on prednisone. Now I pick up the wheezing about three days earlier and if I pay attention I realise I\u2019m overtired, I\u2019ve had too much caffeine, I\u2019m having a fight with my wife. And if I change the life circumstances I don\u2019t ever get an asthmatic attack.\u201d That story has stayed with me. I\u2019ve told it to virtually every patient since then and found that people say to me, \u201cMy body\u2019s very smart.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This reminds me of what I already know but try to forget. My headaches are my friends, my neck stiffness is my friend, my insomnia is my friend. These symptoms are kindly pointing out the ways that my life is out of balance. I just need to investigate and find out what needs to change, whether it is what I\u2019m eating, what I\u2019m thinking, what I\u2019m feeling. Or not feeling.<\/p>\n

As a practitioner it reminds me that my role is to support my clients to discover these things for themselves. And that if I simply \u201cfix\u201d their problems and nothing more, then I am doing them a great disservice. If I help them to turn off the fire alarm without finding the fire that triggered the alarm, then the change that the alarm is suggesting will not happen.<\/p>\n

Thank you Bob Duggan for your wisdom and guidance. Thea Elijah called you a radical healing provocateur. I hope that you continue to provoke healing in whichever dimension you inhabit.<\/p>\n

\"bob-duggan\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I received the news that one of my most influential teachers, Bob Duggan, has passed away. Bob was an acupuncturist but he was also a wellness visionary, seeing ways of bringing health and healing outside the treatment room. In 1991 I was fortunate to be part of a group of 20 who made up … Continue reading My illness is my friend<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,2,80,89,81,12,37],"tags":[263,236,27,91],"class_list":["post-588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asthma","category-five-elements","category-headache-2","category-insomnia","category-neck-pain","category-pain-relief","category-psycho-emotional","tag-asthma","tag-bob-duggan","tag-headache","tag-insomnia-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=588"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":593,"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions\/593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}