One of the best kept secrets about acupuncture is how profoundly relaxing it is. Often patients report that they 'go somewhere else' during their treatment. I call that place within us The Healing Zone. Some refer to it as the theta state. This is a place, somewhere between sleep and wakefulness, where our psyche can travel to do its own 'inner work'. It is where healing can happen on the physical, spiritual and emotional levels. It is the place where our nervous systems get to rest and rejuvenate. It also helps retrain body, mind and spirit to relax and turn off the flight-or-fight response. When patients come out of a session, they may feel 'spacey', but actually, they have arrived into the present moment - where their body and mind are operating in the same place at the same time. What do I mean by that?
Often, our body is doing one thing (driving for example), while our mind is doing another (thinking about what to have for dinner, or ruminating the same thoughts), which creates a schism in our being. My favorite quote to exemplify this comes from James Joyce's, A Painful Case: "Mr. Duffy lived a short distance from his body". When body and mind come together, there is not only more awareness of oneself, but also of the world around us. When the body and mind are in sync, the spirit has a place to rest.
During the initial stages of treatment, patients sometimes report being a little tired after their treatment and maybe into the next day. They understandably think that the acupuncture is making them tired. The reality is that they are already tired. So often what is really happening is that people are revved up and running on false energy, be it anxiety, exhaustion or stress. The more they keep running on this false energy the further depleted they become. Acupuncture helps curb the rev that overrides the fatigue. It trains our beings to exist differently in the world, the way that we existed before we got so jacked up. The nervous systems of patients who report relatively low stress in their lives can still be buzzing simply from driving, life's dramas, or too much time on the devices that disembody us and cause us to bypass the body's signals of fatigue, pain or even the need to use the restroom. So, when the buzz, the push, the fight-or-flight response is removed from the scene, the true level of energy is revealed.
Most everyone is already aware that stress sickens us. There are plenty of studies and articles that go into detail about that, so I won't do it here. However, I will point out that whatever we can do to counter that stress is going to help us heal. What we don't hear much about is that stress is often created by feeling that we should be doing something, other than what we are currently doing. In other words, we are not living in the present moment. Are you visiting your grandmother only to be thinking about the unfinished pile on your desk? By creating balance in your system, acupuncture helps facilitate all aspects of yourself to arrive at the same place, in the same moment. Initially, the end result may feel foreign, but as people progress with treatment they become more aligned within themselves. Maybe they even feel like 'their old selves' again, even if they don't attribute this feeling to their treatments.
This is why even though someone may seek treatment for an ailment such as back pain, over time they start to experience not only a change in their pain, but in other parts of their life, seemingly unrelated to their acupuncture sessions. Patients report unexpected changes such as feeling lighter, laughing more, improved mental clarity, more flow in relationships, deeper sleep, less irritability and the improved ability to let things go easier. Patients also report an expansiveness that they might notice visually, as if blinders are removed. Colors can even seem more vivid when people step outside the office.
In her podcast Embodied Presence, psychologist, author, and spiritual teacher Tara Brach says that "overthinking, especially when it is run by fear, separates us. It separates us from our own hearts and from one another". While many studies focus on the physical and emotional effects of stress, they often overlook the way that it pulls us away from the present moment, our hearts, and our spirits. This separation can make it challenging to establish true connections with others, ourselves, and the natural world.
Acupuncture sessions are not only an invitation to release the stress and rev, they actually help us do it. For some, this happens in the first session. For others, it may come further along in treatment. I know for myself, there are times that I want to feel less stress, but even with a long-term mindfulness practice, I need the external help of acupuncture, a massage or even a slow walk. The late Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh highlighted the practice of mindful walking as a way to harmonize body and mind. He emphasized that "Only when we are connected with our body are we truly alive. Healing is not possible without that connection".
Acupuncture can help to reestablish these vital connections. Tara Brach says that by 'walking half as fast, you might notice twice as much', allowing the lens of perception to open to the beauty and timelessness of nature and to who and what is right in front of us. Acupuncture helps teach the nervous system to downshift, so that we can once again be aligned within ourselves. Consider the mantra, "I have no time to rush."
Ready to relax? Come in for a free, no pressure consultation and optional mini-treatment to learn if acupuncture might be right for you. Angela can be reached at: KatonahAcupuncture@gmail.com
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