It feels like that moment when you experience a sudden jump of fluency level in the new language with which you have been struggling. In a fleeting moment a whole realm of understanding and ability appear out of the thin air of a magician’s hat.
It is like finding the just-so twist that keys open a sticky lock.
Acupuncture feels fresh baked bread, a stone perfectly skipped, a call from an old friend. Like old photos recovered from a dusty attic, misplaced vitality from another time becomes accessible with the right stimulation from a few skillfully placed needles.
Acupuncture is like waking from a restorative nap. It’s nourishing like a good relationship. Acupuncture pulls forth our innate vitality, like when a new idea grabs us and we willingly change our lives to unfold a direction that has quietly, patiently whispered to us for multiples of seasons.
Acupuncture can turn you on dime, reflect back to you your brilliance, call you to account for your habits and slip you into a quiet so nourishing and vast you cannot help but touch on appreciation and wonder.
Acupuncture feels like a well-swung bat, a nicely banked shot, a satisfying sneeze. It wiggles us through the emotional knots we’ve tied, loosens our hearts to feel just beyond the edge of habituation, expands our chest in the same deep-sigh way that forgiveness creates an extraordinary amount of space in our spirit.
You can find the traces of acupuncture on an fMRI, in the cortisol count of the blood, the disappearing inflammation of a stomach lining, electrical activity of the brain, growing life in what was a cold womb, misplacement of anxiety or an unexplained sense of contentment and well-being. In the same way the warmth of Spring conjures flowers, acupuncture turns on the internal light and vitality.
Less like mechanics and more like cooking, the selection of acupuncture points is as ever changing as our own unfolding being. What nourished us last week might not be what is called for today. In the ever-flowing stream of Life, where moments are threaded together like a necklace of pearls, it is at times hard to recognize the differences that make a difference. Like an artisan chef knows a spice in its own season is used differently than when it has been dried and preserved, so too with acupuncture a bi-ocular view of the present and the steps that lead one here are both considered and invited into the fray.
Like finding the right stones on which to cross a stream, acupuncture both considers the moment of balance and direction and momentum that pulls us ahead.
What does acupuncture feel like?
It feels like a writer who has banished the “editor” from her mind and writes with the abandon of a sandstorm. Like the fire and spark prayers of a sculptor to her muse. It’s the wind in the canyon, the scent of gardenia on a summer soft night. The growl of a jaguar in the night.
It touches the underwater web that connects all Life. Ties together lost loose ends and unravels the knotted constraints that have been holding their breath for release.
Acupuncture is as different as every turn of a kaleidoscope. It is a compass that points toward the center. Inviting as a grandmother’s apple pie, and with the potential of a hurricane’s landscape changing power.
What does it feel like?
It feels like the last time you allowed the moment to fully engage with you.
