Today’s guest is acupuncturist Rachel Brumberger, here to talk about acupuncture and Chinese medicine and how you can use those principles to do some self-care at home right now. Rachel began studying acupuncture in 2009. She has earned a master in acupuncture, a master of Oriental medicine and a postgraduate certificate in women’s holistic health—all from the Maryland University of Integrative Health. She co-founded Third Space Wellness in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, about five years ago. Then, in 2019 she started Rachel Brumberger LLC, which is the home of her clinic, writing projects and wellness for workplaces. She now has her own practice for clients in downtown Bethesda, Maryland. Rachel explains the concepts behind acupuncture. It’s whole body medicine, recognizing that the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual are all connected. Therefore, acupuncture can help with a wide variety of ailments, including migraines, menstrual disharmony, back pain, sleep issues, anxiety, depression and infertility. Even though I dislike winter, the past two years as we have come out of winter, I notice I feel more blah than usual. I don’t feel like myself. So, two years ago I decided to go to Rachel—who I had received acupuncture from before—just to see if she could soothe me. She knew exactly the feelings I was talking about as we changed seasons. As Rachel explains, human beings have seasons just like Mother Nature. It’s common for people to come out of winter—which should be a slow, hibernating season—and feel strange or blah. “We reflect the season, and sometimes our bodies need a minute and need a little help catching up to that movement so that we can move into it with more ease. As we regulate the energy within the body we’re basically synching up to the nature around us.” As we’re all dealing with new and enhanced feelings that can change daily during this coronavirus pandemic, Rachel asks us first to pause and acknowledge our feelings. Sit with your emotions before you try to “do” something about them. Rachel compares emotions and feelings to waves forming in the ocean. Picture yourself at the beach and how the waves come in, crest, go out and come back. Our emotions are like that. And it’s important to allow your feelings to come in like waves before you try to fix them, label them, judge them, stop them, heal them. This could mean watching a sad movie and crying through it. It might mean laughing, yelling or crying with a partner or a close friend on Zoom—or it might be a very private thing you do by yourself. Take a quiet moment with no work, no kids, no phone, no immediate responsibilities. Clear the space and sit with your thoughts and feelings. Some people find it easier to do this at night when the rest of the world is quiet. After you do this for a bit, then you can begin to think about self-care tools you can try. Right now, there is a lot of noise in our world, especially for those people who are being asked to be on video chats all day long. Even extroverts are recognizing they need some peace and quiet right now. “We can’t really go anywhere too much and yet it still feels loud, too loud, to do our feelings.” There is no shame in having a wide range of emotions. Acknowledge that you are a human and that these are the emotions that humans experience. If you weren’t supposed to have a full range of emotions, you wouldn’t. Humans are built this way. That helps to not judge yourself. Recognize that if a friend was experiencing these feelings you would not judge them about their emotions. So, why judge yourself? “There’s all kinds of fascinating dynamic emotions people are experiencing right now that they maybe never had before, or never this big, or not for a long time, so it can be very confusing.” Can you listen to yourself and your emotions—with love and respect—and not judge yourself right now? Now, what are some of the tools we can use? First, come back to your breath. Start by lying on the floor or at leas