337 . • Michael Max & Rick Gold

The curious thing about having someone ask me a question and engage in a conversation of inquiry is that I hear myself saying things that are usually hidden just under the surface of habit and belief.

In this episode the guest of the podcast is me. and the host steering the boat… it’s Rick Gold. if you don’t know Rick, listen to episode 323. He’s had a hand in hundreds of people learning our medicine.

Listen in for a discussion of the influence that shop class has had on me over the years, some of the nudges that shapeshifted my life, and how a panic attack turned out to be a birthday present.

In This Conversation We Discuss:

• An oral history of our profession
• The people that would listen to your podcast are not the same as the people who would read your website
• First time exposed to acupuncture, completely disinterested
• It helps to have a practitioner who has “Hands”
• The first Chinese medicine books did not make any sense whatsoever
• Enrolled in Chinese medicine school, because It never hurts to learn a little more about something you’re interested in
• Sadly, so easy to not be appreciative of efforts others have made on your behalf
• Expanding a sense of gratitude, and what it does to your neuro-biology
• Learning language in Taiwan
• Studying medicine in Beijing
• A panic attack on the bus to Yi Xing
• We honor the ancients, but we take for granted the people who created our schools
• The capacity Chinese medicine gives us to sit with anybody and not see them simply as sick people
• Where is the profession going in the next 10 years?
• The importance of using considered language and communication in the treatment room
•  Thoughts on upper, middle and lower level doctors 
• Dealing with our own beliefs in clinic

The next time you think have advice for a patient. Put your tongue gently between your teeth and lightly bite down until you can think of a question to ask that ​might help them to find their own solution

Michael Max, L.Ac

In the 25 years since graduating from acupuncture school I’ve had the great good fortune to practice medicine, study in Taiwan and China, translate a book on herbs and start a podcast. All of these have been the harvest of following a hunch, of hearing a kind of invitation within an opportunity and risking that path of discovery.

All these experiences have taught me there is something powerful about dialogue. It shows up in all aspects of our lives. It’s a way of getting feedback from our environment. I see it as a kind of gift from the Muse, that part of Heaven which is always whispering in our ear as it seeks for an opportunity to be expressed on Earth.

Dialogue has always been a part of Chinese medicine, and conversation allows us to better understand ourselves as we seek to understand others.

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