Vampire Movies and Acupuncture Adventures
I had an acupuncture treatment for the first time in ten years. No chronic ailments triggered it (thank you good movement!), but one of the great aspects of being connected to a community focused on health and wellness is working with and experiencing other practices. I came away pretty excited about my experience, especially in contrast to my first acupuncture adventure.
10 years ago I’d been seeking relief from a debilitating back injury. Cortisone shots, drugs, surgery, PT, massage therapy, chiropractic, movement therapy, and every back care yoga workshop I could find. All ended with varying degrees of success (and not so much). Figured I might as well throw a few needles in.
I went to see a woman affiliated with my kung fu and tai chi school. She spoke little English and pointed me to an old green recliner in the breezeway off her kitchen. While she made preparations, I watched the pots rattling at boil, breathed in a pungent mix of herbs and food, and tried to ignore the vampire movie she paused to check in with at the end of the room. If there were a placebo effect, it didn’t seem like it would be a positive one.
“This one strong.”
The first needle stuck. My ears rang and my eyes flashed white. I’d never before passed out in my life, but I awoke to the smell of strong tea held under my nose and her laughter.
“You not so strong!”
She proceeded to the treatment. I had two other brief but noteworthy sensations that I’ve come to call “molasses” and “lightning”. Molasses felt like a slow wave of relaxation elixir passing over an area of my body from the inside. Lightning felt like a web of electricity streaking through it. Both were completely unlike anything I’d ever felt before. I continued to see her for weeks as much for the curious adventure as to have her molasses poured over my ailing back.
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Back to now. Many years with kung fu and tai chi included a lot of other experiences with Chinese culture and I understand much more about the underlying philosophy that guides the Chinese view of movement, food, cosmology, and the body. In traditional Chinese philosophy and science, everything is interconnected (funny how modern science in finally moving that direction as well). Recently, Bethany Hauch from Stepping Stone Acupuncture gave me a copy of The Web That Has No Weaver, a terrific book if you’re interested in learning about traditional Chinese medicine’s perspective on the body, especially one that’s translated for Westerners.
Acupuncture involves inserting needles at strategic points along the body. The traditional Chinese medical view holds that the body has pathways (or meridians) that flow with an energy called chi (or qi). The needles help to direct or redirect the flow of energy to address ailments. Western science has proved acupuncture to be a powerful means of inducing the body’s natural pain killers and to increase blood flow (critical for any healing process), but in China it’s completely integrated with modern medicine.
Some find acupuncture uniquely useful for considering and treating many ailments that Western medicine doesn’t do much for, especially chronic conditions or the pain and inflammation associated with disease. Even the staunchly conservative Mayo Clinic treated my father’s tinnitus with acupuncture.
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When I met with Chris Lehmann of Eastern Sun Acupuncture, he showed me to a nicely appointed treatment room with a big table. He explained the procedure and his approach and then began by checking points with his fingers for any pain sensations. When it was time for the needles, he had me recline (though not in a recliner!) and applied a treatment for some mild inflammation in my knee from a long walk the day before. While I relaxed and focused on my breathing, I began to fall into something of a meditative state. The molasses feeling passed through twice. The end of the session set my knee to rights and left me refreshed. I actually had a pretty darn productive afternoon afterward.
Chris is also unique in that he also holds a degree in biology and does a great job helping an inquisitive client through the process. He also, to my experience, saves the vampire movies for off-duty hours.
If you haven’t tried acupuncture or are curious to learn more about whether it’s right for you, check out Eastern Sun Acupuncture.
