Martha Poulou - Acupuncture

30/03/2025

MOTHERING - A primal human need
Mothering can be beautiful, delightful, blessed, transcendent but it can also be hard, triggering and even terrifying at times.
Mothering is above all transformational and as such it can bring tremendous love and joy but also fear, grief, resentment and resistance.
Welcome all your mothering feelings today as part of your Tye Self, question them, explore them and ultimately accept them. And acknowledge that whether a mother or not you too deserve to be mothered, nurtured and loved.
Happy Mothering Sunday to all 💖

20/03/2025

SPRING EQUINOX
On the day of the spring equinox we welcome the longer days and embrace a vision of growth and rebirth after the stillness and introspection we experienced during the cold winter months.
We are a reflection of nature and the environment from which we sprang. As the seeds planted last autumn deep inside the earth have germinated over the winter and begin to break through the frozen earth, signs of renewal and hope start to stir within us too.
The seeds of change that we planted within ourselves now push through with the new upward and outward movement of energy that the spring brings within us and all around us.
This energetic shift from the stillness of the winter to the forceful renewal of the spring gives us the inspiration to bring our goals and creative energy to fruition.
This is the time for new beginnings and a fresh start.
What are you manifesting this spring? 🌸

09/03/2025

“Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.”

01/01/2025

As I am about to sit down for the first meditation of 2025 (thank you )I thought I’d share some of my reflections on the year that just passed.
It’s been a year of absence from this account. I haven’t seen any clients or created any kind of meaningful content here for over 12 months.
It was at the end of 2023 when I decided to press pause and take a break from clinical practice to be fully immersed in family life, consciously and with presence. It’s been a year of ups and downs, there have been times where I felt completely consumed by motherhood and at the same time surprised by how I can not only function, but actually be happy and content without a professional role and with very little time for myself.
Spending so much time with my family, being fully engaged in the girls’ lives, giving them the gift of my full presence and see the joy and contentment it has brought to their lives has not only been an absolutely wonderful thing to witness but has taught me so much about myself and how I can get so much fulfilment from just being with them.
Motherhood is one long act of surrender. Finding joy in that is the challenge and the gift.
I feel so privileged to have had the choice and needless to say I couldn’t have done it without support from my husband, friends and family.
Now, as my littlest is growing up I can already feel her becoming more independent and often choosing to journey away from me. This shift feels so much more natural this time and I am welcoming it together with everything it will bring for me. More time to focus on things that have naturally taken a back seat.
The great Tao teaches as that “Nature never rushes, yet everything is accomplished”. 2024 has been an embodiment of that teaching.
Can’t wait to see what the new year brings.
Warmest blessing to you all ✨

14/02/2024

Tick, tick and tick?
Happy Valentine’s Day ❤️❤️❤️

10/02/2024

Dragon - what an extraordinary creature! The only mythical creature of the Chinese zodiac it is associated with power, success and good fortune. May the Lunar new year elevate us all to new heights! ✨

02/01/2024

I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and have come to realise that at this point in my life one cannot exist without the other.
So this year I am giving myself a gift. I am pressing pause and consciously choosing to prioritise rest and play. To spend time with my family and give them the gift of my full presence.
Penny will be 1.5 this month. Before I know it she’ll start Kindegarten and that will mark the beginning of the rest of her life journeying away from us.
Isla will turn 10 this year and I can see her change and grow and flourish but also question and doubt and protest. She needs my love and comfort and and guidance as much as her little sister.
It’s hard being everything to everyone in your family and sometimes other parts of life have to be put on hold. True service, where we offer our gifts to the world with kindness and compassion can never start from a place of exhaustion. Resentment will soon follow.
So, I’m taking a break from practice to focus on raising my daughters. To care for myself so that I can be fully present and engaged in their lives.
It’s a privilege to be able to make this choice.
Looking forward to a fun year!
See you in the hiatus 🙏🏼✨

02/01/2024

22/12/2023

WINTER SOLSTICE -
Today we welcome the darkest, quietest, most yin time of the year. This is a time of stillness, a time to sit deep within ourselves and embrace introspection.
In stillness and reflection we create seeds of potential for our life’s journey. In the peace and quiet of winter the seed is dropped to the ground to become dormant and germinate. This dormancy allows us time to turn inwards and reflect.  It allows us to gather our strengths and resources in preparation for springtime, where we begin to act on manifesting our goals and ambitions. This is somehow against popular culture which encourages us to set new resolutions at the beginning of every new year and act on their manifestation with great impatience.
As we embrace the shortest day and longest night of the year the universal yin energy will reach its peak and then slowly start declining. In this exact moment of transition when the seeds of yang are just about to start growing , there is believed to be a mysterious blending of the yin and yang that opens the possibility of new creation and rebirth. 
Winter in Chinese medicine is associated with the water element and the virtue of wisdom. Wisdom to overcome our fears and prepare for our emergence into spring. If we give into fear, the water element freezes and we can’t take the next step in our lives.
This winter solstice, I still feel a real need for rest and restoration, a true hibernation and a much slower pace. Too early still for setting goals and making changes so I’ll keep this slow pace and resurface in the spring.
May the transition be smooth.
Happy winter solstice ✨
⭐️🙏🏼

26/09/2023

On the day of the autumn equinox last year I wrote about the art of letting go and the areas in my life where I wanted to put this into practice.
One of them was my relationships.

For a lot of us this is the most challenging area for letting go. Most of the time it’s not about letting go of relationships, but about creating a new framework for them to flourish so that they nourish our soul and allow us to be our True, free self.
Creating clear boundaries and finding a graceful way of communicating them to others is the first step for this to come to life.
Without clear boundaries we can easily feel used and mistreated. Feeling mistreated makes us judgemental, resentful and full of self righteous anger that we ourselves invited to our lives by not being compassionate enough to ourselves first, by not having enough respect for our own time and a good enough understanding of our energy and resources.
It is impossible to practice acceptance and compassion from a place of resentment. Isn’t it better to be kind bur more firm?
An act of bravery for sure but also an act of compassion. For self and for others 🩷

18/08/2023

HOLIDAY READING LIST
It’s going to be a heavy suitcase this year as I’m replacing clothes with books!
I’ve been following for years and have listened to some of her podcasts but never read any of her books. These are on top of my list!
1. The gift of imperfection is a book on the curse of chronic perfectionism, embracing vulnerability and being real rather than perfect.
2. Braving the wilderness: the quest for true belonging and the courage to stand alone. The title says it all - I should have read it during the covid pandemic when mass vaccination became a trend 🤯🤭
3. Encountering the Self: I wrote about this in my stories. It talks about the 9th year milestone in the development of a child’s physical body and psyche. A huge developmental leap when children between the ages of nine and ten begin to experience themselves as separate individuals, different from their parents and peers and essentially alone. Nurturing their individualism and at the same time offering comfort and a sense of belonging is key at this age and every age. Maybe I take parenting too seriously but I would have felt lost without the support of these books and the support of my community.
4. The Way Home: a tale about life without technology. Recommended by one of my old clients who is now more of a colleague and a friend .health - it’s meant to be a fascinating read.
5. When I grow up - this book was gifted to me for my birthday by a very dear friend. It’s an interesting subject: what does it mean to be and to feel like a grown up? A journey of discovery into what growing up actually means this sounds like an emotional and intriguing read
6. The Glucose goddess method - great recipes here including ACV cocktails 😊

Happy holidays and I’ll report back!

17/08/2023

GUM DISEASE IN PREGNANCY -

This is a painful personal story that caused a lot of health anxiety for me during my pregnancy with Penny and the early months of breastfeeding.
I have suffered from gum sensitivity all through my adult life but looking after my gums and my teeth, focusing on good nutrition and looking after my oral microbiome has made it manageable and kept it under control.
Gum disease is quite common when there is a family history of diabetes. I have always been told that in my case it’s hereditary. It gets worse in pregnancy and can very quickly escalate and develop into periodontitis
Considering that periodontal pockets are a reservoir of oral microbiota, modifications of the oral microbiome during pregnancy could be a reason for developing periodontitis. It’s progression could be due to a compromised host immune response. Blood sugar deregulation and gestational diabetes are often added to the mix and make things worse even though that wasn’t an issue in my case
After consulting our functional dentist here is how I treated it:

Swapped to toothpaste and mouth wash. They contain antibacterial essential oils such as oregano and clove oil as well as coQ10 that has been researched for its positive effect on bleeding gums.
Started taking liposomal Vitamin C and collagen daily. This also did wonders for my skin! Added a good quality fish oil due to its anti inflammatory properties and a high potency multi vitamin.
In addition to having periodontal treatment I started cleaning really well and using oral probiotic with my in periodontal pockets.
A year later and the size of periodontal pockets has reduced to pretty much normal levels and I have no bleeding. 🙏🏼