Acupuncture
October We Celebrate!
Acupuncture: Restoring Health through Balancing the Body’s Energy Flow
By: Meret Liebenstein Bainbridge, L.Ac.
October 24 is celebrated each year nationally as Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Day. This is to mark the increasing acceptance into the mainstream that acupuncture has experienced over the past years. For me this is a day of joy that this ancient, natural holistic form of medicine has become more accessible to larger groups of people here in the West. I love my profession and I get passionate when talking about acupuncture. I feel very lucky that I am able to make a living with something this meaningful to me – and I am grateful whenever I witness the healing acupuncture can facilitate in my clients.
Most people who have never experienced acupuncture for themselves react with a mix of fascination, curiosity and queasiness or even horror. How can sticking tiny little needles – yes NEEDLES – into various parts of one’s body possibly be relaxing and healing, and how in the world did the ancient Chinese ever come up with something this strange? I can relate, being a chronic needle phobic myself.
Most people are amazed when they see how thin acupuncture needles are, the thickness of two human hairs, a flexible, solid (not hollow), barely visible short wire of stainless steel.
Most people are pleasantly surprised at how much acupuncture does NOT hurt, that what they feel is not pain but a sensation of energy moving through their body, a gentle pulsing or tingling, a wave that carries them into a state of deep relaxation like a meditation. Most people come out of acupuncture with a glow on their face and a twinkle in their eyes, feeling restored, balanced, deeply relaxed yet refreshed and energized.
Over the years of working with acupuncture needles I have come to think of them as powerful little tools to redirect and correct energy flow, as anchors to the earth and antennae to the universe, as arrows pointing us in the right direction, as shape-shifters of energy patterns and conductors of change.
Acupuncture releases endorphins – the body’s natural painkillers – and nudges us gently to tap into our own self-healing powers.
The core idea in Chinese medicine is that a vital energy that underlies all existence – called Qi (“chee”) in Chinese and Ki (“kee”) in Japanese – flows through us in orderly patterns of pathways called channels or meridians. Acupuncture points are areas along those pathways where Qi tends to concentrate, where its flow stagnates, and where we can access it best.
The idea of health is simple: when Qi flows smoothly and evenly, we are balanced and healthy. When its flow is disturbed or blocked, then our energy pattern is out of balance and we experience symptoms of pain and discomfort.
Chinese medicine views the body like a garden, like an ecosystem, a mini-universe where all forces, energies and substances must be in the right balance and proportions to each other: the right balance of Yin and Yang, of moisture and dryness, hot and cold, activity and restfulness. The practitioner acts much like a gardener who waters, fertilizes and weeds. S/he removes blockages, nourishes deficient energy ad redirects the flow of Qi. Acupuncture needles are the weeding and pruning tools, the fishing hooks fishing for energy. When the needle touches the energy, we feel a needling sensation (a little tingle or pressure) that acupuncturists call “Da Qi / getting the Qi”. This triggers a whole cascade of changes in the body, including nerve conduction and chemical release of endorphins, hormones, enzymes etc. Modern scientific research suggests that what the ancient Chinese described as energy channels may just be pathways of body chemicals to receptor sites.
However interesting research results on acupuncture’s mode of action may be, I think they fall short of the intricate wisdom of this ancient medicine. For acupuncture is energy medicine, resonance medicine, that may best be understood using a model like a pattern or Gestalt, as biologist Rupert Sheldrake’s model of “morphogenetic fields”. An intervention like acupuncture acts on the morphogenetic field, the cusp between the energetic and the physical levels, resulting in cellular changes. Everything is connected and every change anywhere in the whole will affect the whole.
Or, in simpler terms, it’s like in the silly old acupuncture joke I learned in my first year of school: A man comes to a Chinese doctor for headaches, the doctor sticks an acupuncture needle in the man’s foot and the headache disappears. The man exclaims in astonishment: “Doctor, how did you do that? You needled my foot and my headache went away!” The Chinese doctor leads him to a large frontal mirror and says chuckling: “Ancient Chinese secret: Whole body connected!”
I hope I was able to elicit enough of your curiosity to consider jumping over that barrier needle phobia and look at acupuncture in a new light.
Many acupuncturists celebrate AOM Day on October 24 with special events, give talks, hold Open Houses, offer free mini sessions or give discounts. Call around and get curious!