I was gardening the other day, when I began to cut back an overgrown bush from the neighbor’s property. As I was hearing my mind’s voice complaining that the neighbor’s gardener should be doing this and not me, I suddenly had a little insight.
Upon cutting back the bush, I noticed a lot of weeds under the bush. Before cutting back the bush, I had not been able to see all those weeds due to the bush. I realized that this was going to require another hour of work to get out the weeds under the bush.
I also realized that this dilemma pertains to my patients who every day are asking me how many acupuncture treatments it’ll take to get rid of their problem. I usually answer that each person is unique and it’s impossible to know if it would be one treatment or 10 treatments.
But another, probably more accurate answer to the question of “how long will it take”, is that as we begin the treatment, we never know what we might uncover, until we get started. In other words, when we begin to relax the muscles in your neck, we might uncover tension in the face or lower back. Or when we are working to shrink a fibroid in the uterus, we might uncover a hormone imbalance that needs to be worked on.
In working on your acne, we may uncover a digestive problem that needs to be cured first. Or in working on your insomnia, there could be a hidden emotionally stressful situation that first needs to be dealt with.
Other examples: Bad breath could be hiding behind an ulcer; constipation could be masking an overgrowth of Candida albicans; fibromyalgia could be an overlooked case of a week immune system; stress headaches could be hiding blood sugar swings and a weak spleen; indigestion could be a case of gall bladder problems.
In other words, there are always some weeds that will need to be uncovered when we begin to do the acupuncture, and we never will know until we get started exactly where they might be, how hard they may be to uproot, and what might be under that layer of “weeds.” There could be an ant house, or slug house, or Bermuda grass, or any other unexpected problem. The soil could be too sandy, or only clay, or not be getting enough water, or getting too much water, but not enough fertilizer. So you see, there are so many unknowns — both in gardening, and in healing the human body.
In fact, to be quite honest, it’s usually a much easier path just to have the surgeon cut the nerve out, or cut out the fibroid, or give you drugs to numb the pain, or take medications to get to sleep at night or to get rid of the acne.
All I can really say is that the path to health and healing using holistic methods is sometimes circumvent, rarely direct, and usually opens up a “can of worms” that was hiding something else underneath it. It’s nice when it is simple and direct, but more often than not, it’s not a straight line.
So, please remember that you’ll have to be patient. After all, where do you think the word “patient” came from anyhow?
The good news is that almost every person I treat always has some unexpected positive results happen from the treatment. People are always saying that they never expected to feel so calm, relaxed, energized, in balance, healthy, etc., etc., etc. A patient just yesterday asked me what I did to help her vaginal dryness during the last treatment? I said that I was really working on her urinary tract infection, but that the acupuncture points I was using were meant to boost her “kidney yin chi” and that is why there was an unexpected improvement in that area as well. Other patients are always saying that everybody in their office caught the flu bug except them. Moms tell me that their kids are the only ones who didn’t catch a cold this season, due to their homeopathic treatments.
So, as I say in the first chapter of my book, “Optimal Health, How To Get, How to Keep It”, if the idea of better health resonates with your idea of what you envision for yourself in your life, than I invite you to join me on this journey.