How does the political arena, the wider arena of what humanity is going through right now, fit into an acupuncture practice? An acupuncture treatment? This is one of the ongoing questions lately. I know many of us are wondering about this, making decision about how we use our speech, how we occupy ourselves in the public arena, how we tend to ourselves during these times.
Chinese Medicine, along with many other traditions of spiritual and medical practice, have continued through thousands of years of humanity.
What an epic topic.
Of course this comes up in the treatment room daily. Many patients arrive deeply aware of the ways in which world events reverberate in them, somatically, intellectually, ancestrally (is that a word?). My role is to continue doing what I always do: listen with that kind of listening we do, take pulses, organize a response via the landscape of acupuncture and the placing of needles. It is medical; its a ritual; it is a container. Then I stand back and witness, so that you the patient can do the transformation work that can never be scripted.
In the context of global events, of our global community, our work we do with ourselves matters. It is not the same as the choices we make in our lives, how we conduct our lives generally, but it is a layer of it all. Wherever its sitting in you, whether you’re obsessing, whether you’re trying not to pay attention, whether you’re vocal or quietly discussing at the kitchen table, that same place inside you is tethered to the collective. All I mean is that when we address our own healing or own self-cultivation, its woven into the fabric of a collective energy.
We’re connected.