So, why should this year be different and how can acupuncture help?
Every year at the stroke of midnight on the 31st of December we decide to change our lives and become the person we think we should be. We say this year I will (please fill in with your own personal declaration) and this year will be different than every other year. We start with great intentions and then we slowly go back to our previous lives. how can acupuncture help break this cycle and why does this happen’
We often fail at our resolutions because of one main reason: we make everything about “I will do” “I will be”. We are not living in the present. We are not seeing who we are NOW and saying how we can evolve. We are making an unrealistic goal and beating ourselves up for not succeeding.
When you come in for acupuncture over the Chinese New Year, which is about a month after the European New Year, we look at how you are NOW. We examine your current situation, mind, body, emotional states, and see what is working for you and what isn’t. We then start to help the body be present in the moment and find its own path to health and happiness. Acupuncture is especially useful for this as the needle goes past the barriers that we have setup for our selves (our skin for example) and triggers the real healing process that can be found in our bodies.
So, how does acupuncture help with New Year’s resolutions
Acupuncture is holistic
This means that it takes into account all the aspects of your well being and look at how to supplement your own healing. Your physical symptoms, your emotional reactions, your outlook on yourself and life are all aspects that are taken into account and a treatment that is tailored to you at that moment is preformed.
Acupuncture treats you in the moment
As we saw, the problem with New Year’s resolutions is that they take you out of the present and project you into an unrealistic future. Acupuncture grounds you and helps you experience the now. By functioning in the now, you are more in tune with your own needs and this helps to make long lasting changes organically because they are rooted in the needs of the present moment.
Acupuncture gives you immediate results as well and sustainable changes
Within seconds of the needles being placed you will start to feel the positive changes happening in your body. You will feel relaxed, pain decreasing, muscles relaxing, etc. This instant reaction allows your body to know that positive changes are happening. When the body knows it is getting better it will continue to get better. It is motivated because it feels the changes NOW.
Acupuncture helps release stocked emotions
The marketing campaign to get you to change your life is based on you not feeling adequate in your current situation. This is done by triggering long held ideas of who you are and emotions that you have not been able to let go of. Acupuncture helps the body to free these blocked emotions and negative thoughts through a gentle and non-invasive way. You do not need to go into the whole history of your mental health to let go of past patterns and emotions. The acupuncture effect of being in the now allows the body to release pent up emotions. This is especially true with the UAT 5 element approach that I use.
Acupuncture makes you make time for yourself
We live a hectic life style. There is always something to do or some distraction to entertain us. We do not take the time to listen and be with ourselves. Acupuncture sessions are the complete opposite. You have time for yourself. You are setting aside an hour to make you healthier and happier. This is a first step in self care. You are taking care of you and giving your own health the importance that it deserves in your life.
Why we fail at our New Year’s resolutions
Now let’s look at the why we feel the need to change. We are constantly bombarded with how our lives could be better or what is missing in our lives from media and the society around us. Even if you have the job of your dreams, Linked-in sends you jobs they think you will like. We are told to get our bodies in shape and that we should all be tan, fit, and perfectly balanced. We are attacked with ideas of what perfection is and how we are not living up to that idea. This is true for our professional life, our physical health, our mental health, our relationships, and every other aspect of our lives. This constant harassing of being perfect makes us feel like we are not perfect and have to do something to become perfect.
We take this need to be perfect and start making promises to ourselves that we will be better people this year so we can live up to the images of perfection that are shoved down our throats. We make plans to see our future selves as these perfect beings that will be happy and fulfilled because we have lived up to the ideas our society imposes on us.
We then make these big decisions to change our lives. We have huge expectations of how we will be different and better. We get a gym membership, we go on a diet, we promise ourselves that we will be better people and stick with our decisions this year.
And then we fail. Or we think we fail because we didn’t live up to the expectations that we accepted from our society as being noble and good.
This is a pattern that repeats itself every year, and every year we become harder on ourselves and feel worse about ourselves. It is time to stop this pattern.
The Chinese New Year is the first new moon after the 17th of January and falls this year on the 5th of February. It represents the beginning of spring and the new cycle of growth. Take this as an opportunity to invest in your own health and well being and to break the cycle of failed past New Year’s resolutions.
I wish you a great new Chinese New Year and am honored to be part of your healing process
Jonathan Shubs