Death has played a big part in what I am today. I was 12 years old when my grandmother died. As the oldest grandson in a Chinese family, I had a special role to play. On the day of her funeral, I was among the family members that had to fall upon Ah Po’s bed and symbolically mourn her passing. During the funeral service, I had the task of placing stacks of paper money on her body as it laid in view in her coffin. Then I’d collect this money to be burnt so that she could have it in the afterlife.
This was my first encounter with death. It wasn’t so much that we were close. I was more just flipped out because I couldn’t rationally understand why we were here to live and then to die. It just didn’t make sense.
When I tried to imagine what it would be like to be dead or to not exist, I just got sick to my stomach. I remember eating candy bars to deal with the scary emptiness and even remember having pain in my belly from it.
From that time, I vowed to find the secret to eternal life. I wanted to find the elixir for the fountain of youth. From then on, my life has been about finding the secrets to health and longevity.
When I went to college at the
me, I don’t get paid enough to be analyzing all of your every minute of
time we spend together.Yeah, but sometimes I am a bit curious and I pay
attention, but nah, I really come to Toastmasters mostly for fun and
self-development.
My
job as a psychiatrist can be as dramatic as figuring how to handle a
seriously suicidal individual or how to stabilize a highly psychotic
individual. But it can be just about being a
sounding board for what is going on in someone’s head, to giving
someone some perspective on how they are approaching some of life’s
problems, to being a coach about how to set things up in life to avoid
the same dysfunctional patterns that keep recurring.
And,
yes, I’ve been doing a fair amount of medication management also as my
training has shown me that medications do work and can help people when
they are having trouble coping on their own.
I enjoy doing psychotherapy with individuals that want support in achieving their goals. I enjoy working with couples to make their relationship work. I have a special interest in the areas of death and dying, spiritual issues, and living with chronic pain.
Part of the reason I’ve specialized in chronic pain management, is that this is one area that benefits from a holistic approach. I’ve been interested in alternative and complementary medicine since I was in medical school. At that time, I could relate to only one professor in the public health department because he had lived in
I taught the first massage class at the
I’ve been teaching free taichi classes for all these years and we’ve got a wonderful spot at
I get a chance to try to eat unusual things, whether it be pheasant,
sea cucumber, or grub worms.I was kidding a little about grub worms.so
far I haven’t been offered them prepared in any palatable way.
My interest in alternative medicine is really geared towards what I call self health. I teach a free class because then no one has a reason to not be healthy.at least not for lack of money.
Taichi is an art. It’s about integrating your mind and body so that you can personally cultivate your health. It balances the chi, the vital energy in your body, so that your organs and tissues will be healthy.
I consider diet an important part of a health regimen. I am more concerned about the energy of foods rather than the nutrient or caloric content. Of
course, as a psychiatrist, I value people knowing themselves and
consider this also important because of the integral connection between
mental and physical health.
I also encourage people to learn a self-massage technique called daoyin. This is a Chinese approach to help the flow of chi in a similar way that an acupuncturist tries to balance energies in the body.
I’ve put together a system of body work. I don’t mean car repair, but a hands-on treatment to help people experience the chi. I call it Chi Body Cultivation. It’s a way of coaching people to tune into the energy so that they can cultivate it on their own.
I am in the process of patenting a massage tool that I’ve invented. I gratefully accept any tips in this area as business is not my best suit.
I am pleased to be a member of this group. As I am focused on a lot of things health-related, sometimes I miss out on the regular things like football. But
just to reassure you that I enjoy singing karaoke, and a good beer and
even a cigar at times, and boogie-boarding at the Wall can’t be totally
ruled out. Please use me. I am at your service.