Anticipation
Dear Patient,
“Sometimes that point will start tingling when I’m in my car on the way to acupuncture,” a patient recently told me as I needled Du 20, the point at the top of the head.
“Interesting,” I replied. “It’s like your body gets excited because it knows you’re taking it to acupuncture.” The anticipation of a treatment, the qi starting to move, warming up for the big event.
Other patients tell me they can feel their body start to relax the moment they step into the treatment room. Sometimes by the time I roll up next to them on my stool a few minutes later, they’re already asleep. The anticipation of a restorative nap.
Whenever I get acupuncture, I get a warm, buzzy sensation behind my inner ankle bone, at the point Kidney 3. Even if my acupuncturist doesn’t needle that particular point, the sensation starts as soon as I get settled in my chair, and stays with me for the duration of the treatment, and beyond. Sometimes I feel it even when I just think about acupuncture. The anticipation of reconnecting, rooting back into my own body.
The body remembers. It remembers what hurts, and what heals. These sensations, these visceral dispatches, are a show of its gratitude, and the anticipation of the journey back home.
Love and gratitude,
Your Acupuncturist