Peculiar Time

Dear Patient,

Comments I often hear when I’m removing a patient’s needles:

I didn’t think I was asleep, but then I woke myself up snoring.

Has it really been an hour already? It feels like I’ve only been here a few minutes.

I didn’t fall asleep, but I wasn’t really awake either.

It’s easy to lose track of time during an acupuncture treatment. There’s no agenda, no way for your thinking brain to mentally tick off the minutes. You just lie there. For many people it’s their only time away from the clock. 

Freed from a countdown to the next milestone or the looming specter of a deadline, time behaves differently. It feels magical. It doesn’t follow the normal rules. An hour feels like fifteen minutes. You don’t know if you’re truly awake or half asleep. Peculiar time.

We all need our own place where time warps, making room for us rather than us bending to its rigors. It can happen when you’re in a creative flow, or on a leisurely bike ride, or over a long lunch with a friend. It’s a place that’s deeply restorative, and it reminds us that life is about more than schedules and tasks and deadlines. 

Make time for some peculiar time.

Love and gratitude,
Your Acupuncturist