Greetings folks,
In this post, I would like to address an issue that I feel those of us who are recipients of acupuncture should investigate. When using acupuncture as a form of preventative medicine-or perhaps the phrase "for maintenance of wellness" is a better way of putting it- how do we know when to come in for a treatment?
One of the challenges that we face is that we have become out of touch with our body and with our self. We live in a fast paced, high stress society that is becoming more and more cerebral and increasingly wired to electronics. We must learn to reconnect to our body, re-learn how to listen to its messages. Regarding a few simple practices that may help us to this end, please see my post about quiet sitting and/ or write me an email and ask for a copy of my free article "10 Easy Ways to Improve your Health" where this is given more in depth attention. For now, I just want to share a few obvious indicators that we can watch for. So...
I know it is time for me to get an acupuncture treatment because: something has changed!
- I had several headaches in the last week or two (it wasn't just a random headache), and that is not normal for me.
- I didn't sleep well last night, and come to think of it, I haven't been sleeping that well lately.
- My digestion/ elimination feels off, and it's not because I ate something bad. If it was from something I ate, I would probably know right away, and it would have cleared up within a couple days.
- I've been feeling really tired lately for no apparent reason. Or, I've been feeling really wired and energetic lately: I can't calm down.
- Come to think of it, I think I've been feeling stuck lately. This one particular emotion seems to keep coming up, even when there's no real reason that it should.
- I've been getting angry easily lately. I've been feeling anxious lately. I've been feeling tense/ wound up for no reason lately. I feel like I can't get over this emotion and it is starting to consume me.
- I keep getting sick lately. It's like I can't get over this bug or my immune system is down.
- I just feel a little off, I'm not sure exactly what it is. I just don't feel like myself.
- Everything is great. I noticed that the season changed and figured it's probably about time for my seasonal treatment.
When everything is going smoothly, I usually recommend people come in once every 1-3 months for a tune-up. This helps to ensure that things continue to flow smoothly, and when something comes up we may increase the frequency until it is cleared up. Often we will find that some seasons present us with no trouble, while others are more difficult.
Though we are accustomed to only seek medical care when something is wrong, we must learn to see and take note of the bigger picture of our lives when we make decisions that concern our health. We are used to taking in our cars for their tune-up and oil change every 3 months. How much more so should we care for our body, the one machine that we can't do without- the one that is irreplaceable if we run it in to the ground.
If we come to our practitioner for treatment of a specific issue, we will most likely set up some sort of schedule such as weekly treatment for 4-6 weeks (or maybe 10 sessions) and then re-evaluate. Though we may come in for shoulder pain (or anything else) we often notice that there are many beneficial subtle effects from the acupuncture- we feel more at ease, things that used to stress us out no longer do, other aches and pains seem to clear up, our system begins to function better. We feel more like ourself... These are good things.
Don't just live, live well
Keith Judelman, EAMP
www.HillsideAcupuncture.com
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