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Inspiration
Acu. | Issue #30 | Spring 2021
Learning in lockdown Andrea Dewhurst Student Member: Hertfordshire
Of course, no-one could have anticipated 2020, or as I now call it, ‘the year that shall not be named’. In March 2020 we were just starting the second half of our second year. At the time I felt fortunate. We were not in the student clinic. All of our theoretical lessons could continue online. And our college adopted the whole process so quickly that our lessons almost continued uninterrupted. We turned up online each Thursday and Friday. Still learning. Still completing exams, assignments and classes, whilst also juggling homeschooling children and/or remote working. Whilst also managing stress and finances and sadness and anger.
We kept going.
Of course, I’m writing this in 2021 with our student clinic back on hold. Keeping going has felt tougher this time, personally. But I wanted to share with any other acupuncture students. That we can and will do this again. The suggestions I am offering are not exhaustive. And if you feel like all you can achieve, at the moment, is to survive then do what is right for you.
Continue to learn
Even if you keep going over the basics. I don’t think you can ever know yin and yang or the functions of the spleen well enough. Revisit pieces that seem basic, and I promise you will find something new. It is the beauty of this medicine. There is always something new. Read books, just because. I found reading a wide variety of books helped deepen my knowledge. I didn’t always (read hardly ever) understand. But sometimes those nuggets crop up in the oddest time. Learn about the history of Chinese medicine. Or about illnesses that interest you. I have just finished a book about Alzheimer’s. It had nothing to do with acupuncture. But health and wellbeing, in general, is our future. Surprisingly, the main thing I discovered about Alzheimer’s is that the food, exercise, mental activities, emotions we have in our lives are what manifest 20 years later with signs of dementia.
Learn to rest
One of the greatest things I learnt from studying is that rest is as important as work. Be kind to yourselves. You are living through a worldwide pandemic. Live according to yin and yang. The yang time of day is the morning. Big tasks, big meals, mental and physical work should be done during this phase. The yin time of day is the afternoon and evening. Rest, small and simple meals. Perhaps look for qi gong videos. They make you feel revitalised and move your body, without running the couch to 5K.
