Healing body/mind With Yossi Morgenstern: a Mutual Approach

By Dvora Shurman

I reached my 86th birthday, survived a heart attack, sciatica, and not only survived. A member of our synagogue said, “Look at us, all aging, except Dvora. She gets younger every year!”

Yet, from childhood I had physical problems: scoliosis – an S-shaped spinal curvature; Lactose intolerance and severe allergies; and poor coordination.

My parents were deaf, and knew nothing about available medical services. Besides, it was the time of the Great Depression in the United States, and we had little money.

With Yossi  Morgenstern’s guidance I try to follow The Four Pillars of Health, social, psychological (and religious), physical and environmental. Yossi  is not just my healer, but my friend. His warm connection to his students and clients helps works miracles.

Rungs in my ladder to health

1. In 1986, I learned a new approach to movement, called Educational Kinesiology, developed by Dr. Paul Dennison and his wife, Gail. Gail was a Touch for Health instructor.  Touch for Health was developed by chiropractor John Thie, who saw how combining yoga with therapy greatly increased progress and healing. I had been trained in Touch for Health,

2. In 1988, I learned Tibetan yoga (Chi Kung) in New York, from one of the first teachers allowed to leave China to teach. I continue practicing Chi Kung with Yossie Morgenstern. I also go to his workshops on Chinese philosophy and practices, with international teachers from Europe.  I integrate Chi Kung into teaching “Brain Gym[R] “ workshops for the elderly.

3. My day begins with brief morning prayers, then Chi breathing, stretches and pulls, in bed, so I will be able to move without my lower back, or shoulders, going into spasm. The vertebrae in my lower back tend to slip to the left from the scoliosis, and I have other skeletal problems. Bouts of pain and movement limitations result from sciatica, scoliosis and body memories of car accidents and falls.

I eat a delicious breakfast, like all my meals, incorporating natural fresh food and organic eggs, chicken, fruits and vegetables. I love to cook, enjoying the bright colors and tempting smells of fresh food. I do eat 60% bitter chocolate and drink a cup of coffee a day, but wash those down with lots of water.

4. Yossi  does “Acupunture +plus!”

In 2000 I began to go to Yossi for acupuncture. But it’s much more, integrating Feldenkrais movement work, massage, Chi Kung, and eastern philosophy. This work brings about changes in my body, so that I can continue to teach Brain Gym and gymnastics, write, and tell stories as a storyteller.

Not only an Acupunture practicitioner, Yossi  is also a, teacher of Chinese Medicine, and various mind/body methodologies. He is also a Feldenkrais instructor, and teaches a course to “See differently”. He is also my friend, knows my life history. He encourages me to continue my regime of keeping my body functioning. Little things, like sleeping with a bolster or pillow under my knees, if I’m on my back. Lying on my side the pillow goes between my knees.

I have “kytosis,” a severely rounded upper back, which blocks proper movement of the back muscles. A “statin,” medication prescribed after I had a heart attack sent the muscles in this area into spasm. Yossi recommended an osteopath who manipulated and untwisted these muscles. Then Yossi  massages my back when I come in, and focuses on ways to stretch and move my body so it will function better. He also encourages me to swim, a natural way for the body to relax and move.

In 2003, I was trained certified as Instructor in Movement for the Elderly at the Kibbutz Seminary, so I too participate in designing my own regime. This is Chinese medicine, a total approach, for total health. Not just acupuncture, which helps in both diagnosis and healing, but the life style and techniques for a better life.

Still, last summer someone swung a shopping cart before me as I was walking and I dived over it, breaking my left wrist. After the break healed I had unbearable pain in my thumb, until Yossi used acupuncture and cured it.

Yossi’s exercises for the lower back.

The best muscle support for the lower back is in the diaphragm, the stomach muscles! Yossi taught me two exercises using these muscles. The first gave me the ability to swim again after my lower back muscles were going into spasm. Simply pressing down with the fingers of both hands on the sides of the stomach while breathing in to the count of eight, holding the breath for four counts, and breathing out eight counts. It’s pushing out accumulated gas, and strengthening the lower vertebrae.

The second is in the same area and almost the same, but it works on the digestive system, the small and large intestine. I had a virus in January that left me with some diarrhea. We used two approaches, one to diagnose which food or medication was at fault, and then the exercise.

Press the soft stomach area over the intestines in a figure eight, then run the fingers with soft massage and pressure along the path of the large intestine, then strongly pat the area in the center, on the small intestine.

Yossi works and teaches in his clinic, the Morgenstern Center at 7 Smolenskin Street  in Tel Aviv, near the Ihud Shivat synagogue on Ben Yehuda Street. There he runs a year-long program, “Psychological Health According to Traditional Chinese Medicine” and trains students of alternative medicine as “stagers”. He also leads workshops in France and in Italy. Join us at one of his open evenings. Sorry, we just missed his Chinese New Year party but get onto his mailing list for future events.

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