 almost my entire life, that everybody has a purpose, a path they're supposed to follow. Something that brings them so much passion and joy when they're doing it. They may not know what it is early on, and it might switch. You might start with one career and go to another. But we know there is something, there's a longing inside of us that makes us want to follow a certain path. And that's what this show is about, taking your purpose and your passion and turning it into a career. Today my guest is Amy Hu, who is an acupuncturist and a very good one at that. As you'll see in just a moment. Hi Amy, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks. It's wonderful to have you here today. It's good to be here. So Amy, when did you first hear about acupuncture? I was in my 20s and I had had migraines. Okay. And a chiropractor suggested looking into acupuncture. Excellent. And then, how often did it help with the migraines? I did the very first treatment. After about 10 minutes, the migraine was gone and I felt definitely different and I think a lot better than I probably ever felt. So I was kind of blown away by 10 minutes of acupuncture. Okay. So for people who are watching who might not know what acupuncture is exactly, what's a brief description of acupuncture? A system of healing that's about 5,000 years old, originally developed by we believe Tibetan monks that were using some rudimentary sharpened stones and stuff to stimulate points and documenting what these points did. Now it's evolved into needles that are as thin as a couple of human hairs or a cat's whisker and you insert these into precise points or nearly precise points since they're not always the exact same on every person and they stimulate the energy within the body to move and hopefully solve problems. Amazing. So now you went to school and you're an acupuncturist. Now where did you go to school? Midwest College in Racine, Wisconsin. Excellent. Now I am going to, Amy is going to now do a demonstration of acupuncture on me. I've had acupuncture before, it's extremely relaxing but we wanted to show just how comfortable and easy acupuncture is. So I'm just gonna move my hand forward now and she's gonna start the process of what acupuncture would be. I'm just gonna put my little questions right there. I just wash my hands before I touch a patient because I may have been touching paper or something else. And then this is a clean field that isn't contaminated. Swap the point one time, this in the garbage and use a sterile needle and then there's just a small tap. And I seriously did not even feel that go in. That is amazing. Now at that point, what are some of the things this point stimulates? This one would remove heat and move chi. So chi stagnation is a big cause of many problems within the body, especially pain. And basically your chi should be moving. Your chi should be going through the meridians as like cars on a highway and should just be flowing and not running into each other and not stopping. And when it stops anywhere or slows down or there's a jam, there's stagnation. And removing that stagnation generally changes the state of the body or the state of an illness or pathology in a beneficial way. Excellent. So I'm also going, I'm going to move my hand over here. You can see with acupuncture, I can move it. It's not painful. It actually has no feeling whatsoever. I'm gonna put my hand up here because she's also going to needle point on my foot as I, in such a lady-like way, bring my big old foot up here. Now this foot has two plates and 13 pins in it. And I was explaining to Amy when I run, the next day there's some pain with it. So she's gonna hopefully, she's gonna needle me and move some chi in this area also. So go ahead and pick a point wherever you want. Well if I use this one, if I use this one, that's a liver point and the liver meridian often helps resolve pain. So when we're looking at pain, cheese stagnation, the liver meridian is usually a good choice. And this just benefits so many things. And I just have to say I'm already becoming so relaxed and so comfortable. I'm just kind of zoning here already. And that is one of the things acupuncture does. Every time I've gone in for acupuncture, I just become so zoned out. It's like better than a massage, actually. So we could needle near the pin if that's comfortable unless you think that's a little scary. No, that's good. I'm good. I'm surprised you with that one. That's good. So this one's not going in as easily. Yeah, that's a plate there. I'm like, there's a plate behind that. Does that hurt? No, that's good. It's good the way it is right now. So that's it. That's getting needle. It's just that simple. So I'm gonna ask you, Amy, now, what can acupuncture help? I know it can help with anxiety and fear. What are some of the other reasons people would come to you for an acupuncture session? The biggest reason that people come for acupuncture is pain. Okay. Another reason would be insomnia, stomach problems like nausea, or other bowel and stomach problems like colitis or irritable bowel. A lot of times we can help the body relax so that those things aren't as bothersome, and some people go into remission completely. There's also neurological issues, like you can address paralysis, there's never any promises, but sometimes if it's a temporary neurological issue, you can reverse it. If it's a new, the newer the issue, the better the success with acupuncture. Excellent. Now I know people can also use acupuncture to help stop smoking and for heart conditions. Correct, yes. To stop smoking, there's a, if you can come more frequently at the beginning, it generally helps a lot. And also institute a lot of other behavioral commitments. So it's not that acupuncture itself cures smoking, but acupuncture is a great support for quitting smoking and for a lot of health conditions. Absolutely. Now the very first time I went for acupuncture, I was so nervous and that I'm gonna say this wrong. They put the thing on my foot, the maki, or moxa, moxa, that's it. And I'm gonna tell you within a few seconds, I was so like in my happy place. So is that, if somebody is nervous, they can start with the moxa and then you're just, you're in like this dream state place and nothing like being needled after that was nothing. And that's sometimes a term that people use getting needled is a term people use for acupuncture also for the actual process, right? Right, and there's a, there are also some, there's some auricular points which is in the ear. If somebody's comfortable with that, you can stimulate the points in the ear either with a needle or with a tool and that can relax them. Sometimes just having the conversation, turning on some soft music, putting the lights down, getting through that first needle if somebody has anxiety as usually, you know, the solution, a solution to the problem. But if we can't even get to that needle, sure. There are accessory techniques to use. You know, there's a, there's tween massage that's part of acupuncture training. So, you know, almost any kind of touch if they're, if it's appropriate to the treatment and helpful to the patient can help resolve some of that. Right, absolutely. So I'm just a little update here on annealing. I'm so completely relaxed right now. Like I'm like thinking in my head, you should look at your questions. You should ask the questions. And I'm just like, I'm just so comfortable right now. So let's talk about how you determine how many needles to use on a person because somebody might come in and say, everything's wrong with me, just put them in. And is more better or more is less? Or what's the philosophy on that? There are different philosophies, but in general, less is more. So, you know, keep it to probably an average of 10 needles that's really beneficial. There's a lot of practitioners that don't and they're not doing it wrong. But, you know, I think that like 70 or 80 needles is a lot as we learned in school. We probably did, you know, 10 to 20 needles per treatment when possible. There are some conditions that benefit from a lot more needles, especially say you're doing the whole spine. There's a certain type of treatment. You're kind of following the whole spine. That's a lot more needles. What does that help? The paraspinal pain. So relaxing that whole, the very thick muscles next to the spine. And that, you know, it can take more needles. I don't think everybody prefers it. You know, there's all different philosophies and theories within the practice. So somebody may be watching that's a terrible treatment. That's not per textbook or whatever. But, you know, when I've seen results with it with people, it's something I'm gonna keep in my book of big tricks. And just like every treatment might not be right for every person, but there might be a person that this treatment is perfect for. Right, if somebody's frail or weak or young or very old, less needles is definitely the answer and less time. If somebody is bigger, heavier, stronger, young, not too young, but youthful and strong and their treatment requires or can benefit from more needles and more time, then that's possible. The sicker a person is, the less needles and less time. And also if you're sick with upper respiratory, you keep the needles above the waist. Whereas if you're not sick with an upper respiratory illness, then you can choose needles upper and lower. Okay, perfect. So now how long, once the needles are in, how long do they stay in? How long does it normally, once a person is needled, what's the approximate amount of time the needles will stay in while they're lying on the table? An average treatment's about 20 minutes. Okay, and then do you? If you don't fall asleep. If you don't fall asleep. Forget what's going on, yeah, then 20 minutes. Is it like massage where they turn over and then they get needled in the back or is it just the one side? Not, that wouldn't be a standard format, but that can happen. There can be, pull the needles and flip you over and do the other side. So it kind of depends on conditions, it depends on the person's constitution and the time that the office has to do it. Perfect, perfect. So I'm gonna go to the next question now I'm so zoned right now. If you wanna really be zoned out and relaxed, this is such a perfect thing to do. So you talked a little bit about age with acupuncture. So what would be, you mentioned children, are children really good candidates for acupuncture? For acupuncture. They can be, generally they don't need to have a 20 minute treatment. They may not even need to have a 10 minute treatment. They may, their chi is more accessible. They're more receptive to treatment. So sometimes just a needle in and out is enough to treat them for their condition. But generally I guess you pay attention to the patient and if you put the needle in and they scream, you take the needle out because you don't want them flailing or causing any problems. But even just accessing that point a little bit can. Be helpful. Now, if a child has let's say ADD or an eating disorder, this could be very helpful for them. Definitely, there's definitely some auricular points that I would use for those type of conditions. But the body points to are beneficial in helping them relax so that they feel more control over their issues. Okay, excellent. And then once you've needled a person like myself, in the environment, they're just lying down and relaxing. Do you use a massage table or? They're a massage table or a zero gravity chair. A massage table is the most typical. Okay, perfect, perfect. With a clean sheet or a clean paper underneath them. So what's the most typical thing other than pain that people come in for acupuncture for? Pain, migraines. Migraines is a type of pain though. So probably, I think anxiety. Yeah, that's so huge. So it really, really calms people down. Like you're saying it's calming you down and you didn't have anxiety to begin with. So somebody with anxiety, if you can just bring them down a notch, can sometimes feel like a world of difference. So that's pretty magical. Now once somebody's been needled and the needles are taken out, how long can they expect the result to last? That definitely varies by patient. But at the very beginning, it doesn't last as long as after multiple treatments. For some conditions, it's suggested to come a few times a week in the very beginning and then start stretching it out to once a week and then all the way down to once a month. And then sometimes those treatments can last in between those appointments. But there's not really one answer to that. I think that like for me, treatment will last minimum of eight to 12 hours, which may not sound like a lot. But if you have any kind of condition that's bothering you, a period of relief is really beneficial to give you that hope and give you that feeling of not having the condition so that you and your own mind and body can kind of draw that out yourself. And that's, it may sound kind of hokey, but I usually instruct patients when you, if you're feeling relief right now, kind of capture that, capture that in your mind. And it's not the same as taking a picture of it, but keep a record of it and see how long you can kind of hold that picture. And if you lose sight of that picture, get that picture back and see if you can kind of recreate that pain relief that you had because some people can really do that. And my goal isn't to have them come back to me and be my patient for life. My goal is to help them so that they know how to help themselves and then they can come back as they want, not as they need. Absolutely, absolutely. So now Amy, you practice another healing modality called access bar, correct? Yep, access bars is a method of healing through access consciousness and it helps to remove like past belief systems and past, I guess, negativity, they call it, that has accumulated in our consciousness that is no longer necessary for our existence. So it's just kind of cluttering us in our mind. Okay, so and how do you do that? How is access bar performed? Generally a person's laying on a massage table, they can be anywhere though, they can be sitting in a chair, they can be laying on a couch and there are points on the head or 32 points on the head. You start with the back of the neck and the forehead. You go down to the feet and you touch the hands and you go back to points on the head and you're holding different points on the head for up to 90 minutes. And I mean, the long and the short of it, the result is most people feel just super relaxed. Okay, excellent, excellent. And then with access bar, I wanna reach, I know it can help with some of our past, you mentioned like past lives. Approximately how, I know that one time you'd given me a number up to, I'm so relaxed, I can't formulate a question folks. This stuff is awesome by the way. So please elaborate on the whole. Well, the system of healing describes it as each session can remove up to 10,000 years of negativity. Okay, perfect. I kind of took that out of some of my flyers because I think that especially in the area I'm in sometimes that can kind of push people away. If they don't believe in past lives or whatever else, just let them know that it removes negativity and helps them feel really relaxed. And if they wanna try it, they can try it. And then more of the one-on-one conversations would discuss the technical aspects if people are open and interested in that. So I don't want to, I don't wanna deprive somebody of it because then scare them away by that. But it's pretty exciting to me if we potentially have past lives we can remove 10,000 years of it each treatment. That's pretty cool. So just keep getting treatments and giving treatments until we reach whatever number of years we think we've had in reincarnation, which who knows, but I don't know. I think too, by not stating it, if you're removing it and the person doesn't know that, it's not a trick. It's just removing stuff that is blocking them. And we, as people, we think we know what's blocking us, but then we work on that and we're like, okay, I worked on that, it's not that. So sometimes we need a system that just goes in and can work on it, start removing it without us knowing all the details of it. I think as people we can get caught up in the details and because we think it's this and we must work with this and it could be something completely different, right? Yep, that's definitely something that we've talked about as people involved with access bars, some of the people have said that it seems like it works better if we leave the story out. Sometimes the patient or the practitioner wants to talk about the story and that that's not wrong, but as you know, by telling our story over and over, especially if it's negative, you kind of lock that in place. And you reinforce it. So instead of locking that story in place, we just want to go, let's remove negativity and then let's just remove it. So hopefully then that story, some people have described the result of access bars as a memory they had before that was negative that they kept repeating, they just couldn't really remember anymore. So I mean, of course you can recreate that memory again if you start thinking about it and replace that into your mind, but removing that from your immediate consciousness can free up a lot of space to accomplish positive things. So what was the process of learning the process or the procedure of access bar? It's a one day class with a certified facilitator, but I had probably five or six sessions with that practitioner before deciding to take the class. Okay, perfect, perfect. And then when you're treating somebody, do you know, I mean, I know you say, keep the story out of it, but what are some of their testimonials, what they say afterwards after experiencing it? The people that I've treated said that they just feel so relaxed and centered and balanced. Okay, and then again, they can't remember that negative process. Now, does access bar also help with children? Definitely, children may be pulling in past life memories or picking up energy from other people and it can help them feel more centered and calm. Yeah, I've said this before. In children often remember their past lives when they're younger. As we get older, we forget it. And I believe it's England. If you Google YouTube past lives England, there will be all these children telling their stories of past lives and their name and where they lived and they look this up and it's accurate. I mean, it fits. It's like, oh yeah, there was a guy named that that did live there. And that just, that amazes me. And you know, I'm not trying to change anybody's mind if they do or don't believe in past lives. I just think it's a very fascinating situation when something like that comes up. It is. It is, absolutely. So Amy, is there anything else you would like us to know about your work? Either acupuncture or access bar? Oh, not necessarily unless, I mean, I can remove the needles. Okay, let's start with the foot so I can take this off the table. Oh, there you go. And felt nothing. And felt nothing. And now I can just kind of get my foot off the table there and then this point. Here we go. And again, there was no feeling going in, no feeling coming out. When done correctly, you really do not feel that needle going in. You have a knowing it's happening because you might be watching it, but don't feel it at all, which is very, very amazing. I love that. So how often do you get needles? I don't get needles as much as I want to, but I would love to get needles probably once a week by somebody else. I'll needle myself three or four times a week, especially in my ears. It's just really good for keeping, for staying calm, staying centered, and it's quick in the ears. Like an easy. Yeah. So that's excellent, very perfect. So Amy, I'm going to have your website listed below. I want to thank you so much for being a guest here today. It's just been such an honor and what a great abundant amount of information that you've brought for this. And hopefully somebody who's watching will be able to say, I think that could help me. Now, one thing we didn't bring up is acupuncture can also help weight. Oh, definitely. If people that want to lose weight, it's again, not the only solution, but it's a good support to people that are trying to lose weight because you can remove some help reduce edema and reduce cravings, reduce addictions. Food addiction is a big addiction. So can help people with that. We can also put some tax or seeds in the ears and then that'll remind you you can stimulate those points and then that's something you can do instead of eating when you say, oh my gosh, I'm so hungry. And then you'll have something that you can touch to, hopefully that would reduce the craving. Absolutely, that's wonderful. There are so many options for people, holistic options, natural options that people can use to help, whether it be weight, smoking, any of the other things. Thank you, Amy, so much for being such an incredible guest today and thank you for watching this episode of Create a Life You Love. If you would like to connect with Amy Hu, her website is right underneath here. Go ahead, write that down, connect with her. If you'd like to connect with me, now my website is right underneath there. You can also connect with either one of us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and a number of other social media outlets. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode of Create a Life You Love. Thanks and have an amazing day, bye-bye.