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Updated: May 14, 2023

Do you know anyone who experiences stress on a consistent basis? Could it be you?

No matter what your health goals are — whether it’s pain relief, more sleep, weight loss, or hormone balance — chronic stress can work against your progress. And even though you can leave an acupuncture treatment feeling wonderfully grounded and centered, life often creeps back in and you can end up feeling tense, anxious, exhausted, and burned out.


What if you could fundamentally change your relationship with your nervous system to feel calm and confident, no matter what’s going on in your life?


My friend, classmate and fellow acupuncture colleague, Brodie Welch, L.Ac., M.S.O.M., is offering a game-changing online subscription.


Brodie’s been practicing Chinese Medicine, yoga, meditation and qi gong for over 13 years. She is an amazing wealth of information, especially as it relates to educating patients on self-care. She’s assembled an awesome toolkit of the most clinically effective strategies — bodymind bio-hacks like breathing, qi gong, and meditation; along with practical info on acupoints, essential oils, diet, and lifestyle — to empower you to change your relationship with stress and anxiety. The course is designed to fit into the cracks of your busy life.

“I think most all Westerners would benefit from having the amazing tools in the Calm Yourself toolkit” – Jennie Cramer, Corvallis, OR

Like all good acupuncturists, we’re interested in getting to the root of the problem, not just managing the symptoms. So this course also comes with reflection sheets that help you identify the thought and belief patterns that keep you stuck in stress patterns, and the not-so-helpful behaviors that we fall into — things like relying on caffeine and sugar to get through your day, or letting your Inner Critic say mean things about you.


Her lectures are dynamite – really informative, clear, and very human. She really understands what it is to live our modern, stressful lifestyle, and her class is wonderful at teaching you ways to cultivate the much needed Calm to balance it. And the last module of the class delves into the science of habit change and gives you strategies to make it all stick.

“It was a life changer for sure!” – Kay Graven, Corvallis, OR

This course was made for you if:

  1. You get that there’s a connection between how you’re living and how you’re feeling.

  2. You’re interested in learning body-mind strategies.

  3. You’re willing to let go of the idea that self-care is selfish.

  4. You want to start a practice of meditation, qi gong, or yoga but haven’t been able to make it stick.

  5. You’re interested in learning more about yourself from a Chinese Medicine perspective.

You can take the course in your own home, at any time, at your pace.

“I  learned how good it feels to be as good to myself as I am to others. It doesn’t take away from my life.  It adds to it.”- Susan Richardson, Corvallis, OR.

Dawn Potter, AP, Dipl.OM

Updated: May 14, 2023

You know that voice in your head that is always chattering away? The one that is usually telling you something is wrong? Or will go wrong. Or that you aren’t good enough in some way? Or that your house, car, job, boss, spouse, family, or life situation are somehow bad or in the wrong, or not enough, or too much? You know what I’m talking about; we all have it.


Lately, I am finding it increasingly important to address my “monkey-mind” (as the Buddhists call it, referring to its restless and uncontrollable quality), and get real about all the unhelpful bull-pucky that it spews on a regular basis. I am convinced that being aware of the incessant blithering in our heads, and consciously shifting our inner conversation, is vital for finding contentment and furthering health on many levels. Yes, you heard that right – the ceaseless chatterbox in our minds is likely negatively impacting our health.


This is because that mental conversation has a subconsciously programmed “default” setting to focus on something we think is wrong, something we DO NOT want. To put it succinctly, it is complaining.


This inner complaining is the biggest source of the stress that we feel. We all have stressful events and situations in our lives; but it is the monkey-mind constantly regurgitating the negative thoughts and feelings about those situations that perpetuates and compounds our experience of stress.


Plus, it actually creates more to complain about. It is self-perpetuating. Take this example…

It is 2 am.  You woke up and can’t get back to sleep:

What do you do? You tune in to your monkey-mind complaints…

“…darn it…why am I awake… I have to get up at 6…of all the days this week, tomorrow is my earliest day…why did it have to be tonight…this is so unfair…I have such a busy day tomorrow … maybe I have too many blankets on …what time is it no…how much sleep time have I lost…this is so frustrating….”


Does this sound familiar? What am I focused on here? That I can’t sleep and how awful it is that I can’t sleep. I’m thinking about what I DO NOT want. In no way is it helpful. In fact, the big irony is that listening to the monkey-mind complain is actually keeping me awake!

Once I become aware of my mental complaining, and its uselessness, then I can consciously choose to focus on something else: perhaps some soft music, the sound of the cat purring, or my own breath; and this is when I can fall asleep easily.


The Law of Attraction:

Much has been written about the Law of Attraction recently. It says that we attract into our experience that which we think about most, be it good or bad.  And, that the more emotionally charged those thoughts are (again, good or bad) the stronger the attraction of that situation into our lives. (If you are not versed in the Law of Attraction, do a Google search; it is very interesting.)

Most often the Law of Attraction is described as a phenomenon of subconscious or even spiritual manifestation.


Whether or not you subscribe to the spiritual aspect of the Law of Attraction, the fact remains that negative thoughts produce very tangible stress chemicals in the body which invite mayhem; wreaking havoc on every system of our physical bodies, making us more susceptible to pain, inflammation, dysfunction and illness, and doing nothing good for our mental & emotional state.

In addition, these stress chemicals and negative emotions trigger reactive behaviors in us that further harm our physical bodies and mental outlook.


How about another example…


Feeling Fat:

Ladies, how many of you are not happy with what you see in the mirror?  Most of us have very negative monkey-mind, complaints about our bodies.


When you look in the mirror, what is your mental conversation? Are you grateful for this AMAZING, living, breathing, moving body which is a miracle of science and engineering, with all of its automatic chemical messaging, electrically pulsing, fluid pumping, cell dividing, self-healing, energy producing, idea forming, memory recalling, fact learning, emotion feeling, offspring making and tissue building functions?


Are you in awe of this mind-blowingly complicated masterpiece of life, forged of water, earth and air, which has the ability to sense, react to, affect and interact with its environment and with other living beings, providing us a vehicle through which to appreciate the beauty around us?

Or do you think your thighs are too fat?


And, when you are thinking about how fat your thighs are, do you feel inspired to treat this incredible, dynamic, body-mind-spirit complex with love, nourishing food, fresh air, adequate rest and movement that feels good and energizing? Or do you feel badly about your body? What happens when we feel badly about our bodies? We feel compelled to wash down a bag of Cheetos and a box of Cinnabons with a 2 liter of Diet Coke, while lounging on the couch watching Netflix.


So now, along with the stress hormones, our arteries are pumping with high levels of trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, refined sugar, artificial chemical additives, saturated fats, sodium, and preservatives, all of which increase inflammation and oxidative damage to our organs and tissues. Not to mention, we’ve made our thighs even bigger! We have created more of what we DO NOT want by listening to and reacting to our monkey-mind.


A Perpetuating Cycle:

Of course, there are countless other examples of reacting to the inner blithering that leads to many other dangerous (even illicit) behaviors, in an attempt to escape the bad feelings that our own thoughts have created. Addictions of all sorts often have their roots here: alcoholism, substance dependency, food addiction, sex addiction, and adrenaline-rush seeking.* Even behaviors that seem healthy to the casual observer could be taken to unhealthy extremes when used to escape the monkey-mind.


These escapism behaviors, though they provide a temporary respite, simply reinforce the bad feelings. It is a vicious feedback cycle that we all get stuck in to some degree or another. The more we are caught in this perpetuating loop, the more it saps our energy, vitality and sense of wellbeing.


Can we Stop the Monkey-Mind’s Complaints?

It is nearly impossible to stop thinking about something. For instance, if I say, “Don’t think about a lion wearing a Santa hat,” what comes to mind? A lion wearing a Santa hat, of course. Our suggestible subconscious minds do not acknowledge the words “no”, “not”, “don’t”, “won’t”, “never” and “shouldn’t.” So, telling our monkey-minds to stop complaining is ineffective. Typically we end up just complaining about our complaining. Instead, we need to shift our focus to something else: something positive that we DO want.


Several years ago I purchased a series of hypnotherapy CD’s. The set included CD’s for weight loss, insomnia, success at work, etc. After the initial relaxation exercise on the weight loss CD, the therapist started making simple statements aimed at shifting the subconscious thoughts and reactions about food:

“My body drops excess weight effortlessly”…“I eat only when I am hungry”… “It feels good to exercise daily”… “I do not overeat”…


…WAIT…WHAT??  Did he really just say, “I do not overeat.”? The subconscious mind doesn’t understand “not” so the focus of that statement is overeating, which is something that we DO NOT want. He should have said, “I eat only until I am pleasantly satisfied,” changing the focus to something that we DO want. I turned off the CD and never listened to any others in the series.


Having a Say in the Matter:

There are a large number of disciplines that we can use to alter our inner conversation. They may be referred to as “stress-relieving” practices because they refocus our minds away from the source of the majority of our stress, our monkey-minds. This creates a shift in our mental attitude and emotional state, releasing us, at least for a time, from the perpetuating feedback cycle discussed earlier. These practices allow our bodies a break from the assault of our stress hormones and unhealthy escapism behaviors.


These stress-relieving practices include, but are not limited to: hypnotherapy, certain forms of talk therapy, focused breathing, spiritual dancing/singing/chanting, guided relaxation, prayer, gratitude practice, meditation, and yoga. Many of these have been around for millennia, and are still practiced by people the world over.


These practices don’t directly address the monkey-mind. Instead, they redirect our focus elsewhere by using one or more of the following techniques:

  1. Making a conscious effort to focus on something we DO want (as in hypnotherapy’s simple, positive statements, certain forms of talk therapy, a request prayer, or creating a new possibility for our lives),

  2. Making a conscious effort to focus on something we are grateful for (as in a gratitude practice, certain forms of talk therapy, or a thankful prayer),

  3. Making a conscious effort to focus on something other than words (such as our breath, the rhythmic movements of a dance, or the resonance of sound in a song, chant or instrument.)

How do these practices differ from escapism behaviors? Escapism behaviors are automatic reactions to the monkey-mind. There is no conscious thought as to why we are doing them, and what long-term effect they are having. Nor are they truly reducing the amount of stress we are imparting upon our bodies and minds. We don’t feel a sense of inner peace or contentment afterward; in most cases, we actually feel worse.


In contrast, stress-reducing practices require conscious effort to refocus the mind away from indulging in and reacting to the monkey-mind. Plus, every one of these techniques has been proven to have beneficial effects on physical and mental health. And, after the practice, we feel a sense of peace, calm and tranquility.


Some Great Options:

Journal-writing can be quite helpful to work through inner chatter, as long as you then shift into writing/thinking about what you DO want, how you might go about creating that in your life, and perhaps even what you are grateful for. Gratitude shuts down the negativity of the monkey-mind very quickly.


Prayer is a powerful stress-reliever, and can produce even more inner peace and health benefits if you omit the words “no”, “don’t”, “won’t”, and “not” from any requests, keeping all statements simple and positive. Again, expressing gratitude is wonderful here as well.


Meditation is also amazing. The difficulty in meditation for most people is that they try to think about nothing, and all they hear is the monkey-mind. Instead, try focusing on something specific. For example: imagine a beautiful rose. Picture its every detail: the lines and folds of each petal, the colors, the scents, the soft, velvety feeling. Imagine it with as much detail as you can muster. That is a simple meditation; it takes your focus off of the incessant chatter.


If you have a smartphone or tablet, do a search for meditation apps.  Some of these can be quite helpful.


Yoga is my favorite practice lately. My body always feels great after practice, and the focus on the Ujjayi breath (or “ocean breathing”) is effective to quell the inner blithering. My experience of yoga can be summed up by my new favorite yoga shirt which says “Awareness, Consciousness, Harmony,” reminding me to have Awareness of my monkey-mind, to Consciously redirect my focus, and to enjoy the resulting inner Harmony.


Practice, Practice, Practice:

All of these stress-relieving disciplines require conscious effort to practice in order to reduce the impact of our monkey-mind. Of course, the chattering will pop in during your practice; so, as soon as you become aware of it, without judgement, simply redirect your focus back to your practice.

This is why it is called a practice! The more we do it, the easier it becomes. And the more often we practice, the more benefits we receive to our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.

As we approach the bustle of the Holiday Season, I encourage you to take time to practice some of these techniques. Even just a few minutes a day can make a world of difference in how you feel. Give yourself this wonderful gift.


Dawn Potter, AP, Dipl.OM

*If you are suffering with an addiction, it would behoove you to seek the appropriate professional help.

Updated: May 14, 2023

I see many different types of people and medical issues come through my door, and I often wonder what it is that has some people experience such incredibly dramatic, positive results, and others not as much.


Obviously some problems inherently will respond better than others. This is true for all therapies and conditions. But even with the same condition in similar types of people, I can often see wildly varying results.


I have come to the conclusion that it has to do with the future “possibility” that the person is holding in their mind, and “living in to,” meaning they are taking the appropriate inspired actions to create.


What do I Mean by Possibility?

Let me back up for a minute. In this context, when I say “possibility,” I am using a very specific concept from Landmark Education that I will do my best to describe. It is at once a vision, a goal, a dream, and a choice to make one’s life what they wish it to be. But, it is more than wishful thinking or day dreaming, because it involves purposefully moving toward that condition or situation with specific actions that create measurable results.


It is similar to the idea of setting goals and creating an action plan to achieve them, but with the additional spark of inspiration, which infuses the goal with power and passion. A possibility that we create for ourselves may seem completely unrealistic or pie-in-the-sky to others, but it doesn’t matter, because we are truly inspired by this possible future reality that we’ve created for ourselves. So much so that any obstacles we encounter on the way become trivial in our minds, even the doubts of other people.


In fact, often our own inspiration becomes contagious and inspires others to not only cheer us on, but to consider possibilities for themselves that they may not have entertained before.


How About a Real Life Example:

I will use a bit of my own history to illustrate:

At age 23, recently out of undergrad school, my boyfriend of 4 years and I were splitting up, and I wanted to get out of my home state of Ohio. I had recently been intrigued to learn about massage therapy and natural wellness, so I picked up a Massage Magazine and thumbed through the school listings in the back.


Without realizing I had done so, I had created the possibility of moving to a completely different place, learning massage therapy and creating a whole new and great life for myself.


I was drawn to a school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, (you can’t get much more different from Ohio!), so I packed a chest full of clothes, a few of my favorite books, my cat, and my bicycle into the back of my boyfriend’s pick-up, and he dropped me off in Albuquerque on his way home to California. He stayed long enough to help me find a dumpy 150 sq ft studio apartment attached to an old house in the University’s “student ghetto.” West Mesa Albuquerque, Spring ’97

I didn’t know a single person in New Mexico, or have a car, or any furniture except for a small, thin futon on the drafty wood floor. It was winter. My cinder block apartment was not insulated, and I had to keep the heating bills low, so I slept in 2 layers of clothes under blankets, with hat, scarf and gloves. My water pipes often froze, rendering my tiny shower useless, so I had to sponge bath with water that I warmed on the rickety gas burner that served as a stove.


And most people thought I had completely lost my mind.


But none of this mattered to me. Why? Because I was living in the possibility I had created: going to massage school, meeting new friends, and creating a great life for myself. I knew these unpleasant things were not my life; they were a temporary nuisance.


I worked 3 part time jobs, all within walking distance, to make ends meet and put myself through massage school, plus I pulled extra hours in the massage school internship clinic for tuition assistance. Not a problem; none of this seemed like drudgery or burden.


The possibility that I had created for myself was so compelling and inspiring, that my attitude was one of adventure. I didn’t consciously set out to have a good attitude, it was just present as a result of the possibility that I had created for myself. And, as a result of my attitude of adventure, adventure showed up in my life! Hiking in Pecos, Summer ’99

I purchased an old used car, and when my apartment lease ran out, I took the opportunity to move into a nicer house with 2 roommates, one of whom had become a good friend and massage school classmate.


I fell in love with another classmate. Eventually, we got an apartment together, and later a house outside of town, on a small organic farm. He was an outdoor adventurer, so we hiked, camped and backpacked all over New Mexico and Arizona.


After that relationship ended, I moved into a community house with a wonderful group of massage therapists and natural healers. We did yoga every morning at 6 am, and we never locked the door to the house; all of our friends knew they were invited anytime, so like-minded supportive community was ever-present. It was here that I created a new possibility…to attend acupuncture school and become a Doctor of Oriental Medicine.


Looking back, my entire 6 years in Albuquerque was one adventure after another, far more than I ever could have imagined: befriending many diverse and amazing people, learning wonderful new information and skills, wrestling demons from my past, connecting with spirituality, falling in love, breaking a few hearts, and having my own heart broken several times, working various jobs, and changing residences (my cat and I lived in 10 different places in those 6 years). Backpacking in Gila Wilderness, Oct ’01

Other adventures in New Mexico included: spontaneous midnight road trips to the Jemez mountain hot springs; countless hiking and backpacking trips through mountains and streams discovering magical, isolated oases of nature and beauty; writing notebooks full of poetry and journal entries; living the night-life and traveling around the country with my sister-friend Laurel; taking Landmark Education classes that gave me whole new perspectives on life and the world and relating to others; and, eventually, sharing in a new possibility with another set of friends, of moving to Florida to start my acupuncture practice and settle down into a family.


To look back now, the life that I created during those years in New Mexico really shaped who I have become, and my life path ever since, all because that day back in Ohio I had created a possible future for myself, of massage school and a new life, and I didn’t let inconveniences or setbacks get to me.


How Does This Relate to Health?

The point is that I think the same is true for health. The things that I dealt with during those first years in Albuquerque could have really gotten me down and sent me slinking back to Ohio with my tail between my legs. But, because I was “playing a bigger game” by living into a future possibility that inspired me, those things seemed small; they were just situations that needed to be handled to get where I was going.


The same can apply to health. It is my experience that those people who “play a bigger game” by creating for themselves an inspiring possibility of vibrant health gladly do whatever is necessary to make their health the best it can be. These are the people who are so inspired by their vision that they willingly make the dietary changes, the lifestyle modifications, the commitment to regular acupuncture treatments, stress relief activities, exercise, etc, without feeling  deprived or burdened, and are not derailed by setbacks.


These are the people who see the most dramatic changes in their health and realize the most benefit.


Those who don’t create this vision of future possibility often muddle along, not really changing anything in their lifestyle or taking the appropriate actions, because the game they are playing is a small one, only focused on momentary pleasures, where they might feel deprived or burdened by the actions necessary for a real transformation. Because they have no inspiring vision creating the attitude that will get them the results they are looking for, they want the proverbial “magic pill” to fix everything for them.


So, How About You?  What is Your Possibility? 

I challenge you to create a possibility vision for yourself. What do you want to feel like when you wake up in the morning?  How do you want your body to feel while you are going through your day? How do you want to look?  How do you want to experience life in and through your body?

Sometimes, in order to know what we do want, we need to know what we don’t want. What are the health issues that are getting you down? Are they stopping you from feeling vibrant, joyful and free in your body? Or maybe you wish to be an inspiration to others? Your children perhaps?

Really envision your healthiest, most vibrant, energetic, joyful self, and know that it is yours, if you just keep choosing the appropriate inspired actions. What is your ideal vision of yourself and your health? Play a big game! Get so inspired by your vision of your possible future, that every day you are excited to take another step toward it.


I can’t wait to hear your stories about living into the possibility that you create for yourself. And if you need some help getting there, or figuring out the appropriate actions for the possibility of vibrant health that you’ve created for yourself, just give me a call.


Happy Adventuring Onward to Your Healthiest Self,

Dawn Potter, AP, Dipl.OM

Location

2907 FL-590 Suite 6A,

Clearwater, FL 33759

Phone: (727) 475-4710, ext 1

 

Hours (by appt only)
Mon, Wed, Fri: 9:30a - 6:30p

Thur: 1:30p - 6:30p
Sat (alternating): 
9:30a - 1:30p

© 2025 Dawn Potter Acupuncture

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