Reflecting on two years of Notes from Your Acupuncturist
I’m celebrating two years of publishing on Substack with a discount on paid subscriptions!
Dear Patient,
Notes from Your Acupuncturist was supposed to be a book.
Early in 2021, my friend Melissa was texting me on the regular about a vexing set of maladies that tends to plague women of our age…aka perimenopause. Melissa and I have been friends high school, and we lived together pretty continuously from the age of 18 until our early thirties, including the four years when I attended acupuncture school. I think of her as my OP, my Original Patient.
So when Melissa told me I needed to write a book about the Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective on perimenopause, I thought she might be on to something. I enrolled in some book writing courses and Melissa (an incredibly talented writer, filmmaker and podcast host - check out her spooky ghost story podcast You Can See Me in the Dark!) took on the role of my writing coach. It was all going pretty well, until I realized that a book about perimenopause was not the book I wanted to write.
I enjoyed the writing. But I liked writing quick missives and not chapter-length blocks. And I wanted to write more broadly about health and wellness, and the beauty of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. My writing started taking on the tone of conversations I might have with patients. I continued writing, but I wasn’t sure if I was still writing a book.
And then I discovered Substack.
Here was a place where I could send my writing out into the world, release it, and let it land where it may. Like paper airplanes. And so two years ago, I launched Notes from Your Acupuncturist.
When I first launched, I published five days a week. Ambitious! I figured if Seth Godin published seven days a week, I could do five. Turns out I am not Seth Godin. I scaled back, then scaled back some more. Then I launched the podcast! I’m so grateful to each and every one of you for subscribing and being on this journey with me. I love your comments and questions, I love knowing that someone out there is reading and listening, and I love sharing this medicine with the world in a way that goes beyond needles.
July is my favorite month. It’s not only the birthday of Notes from Your Acupuncturist, it’s also MY birthday this month, and the birthdays of some of my favorite people (my mom! the aforementioned Melissa! my other bestie Susan! a slew of other cool people!). So in honor of the many birthdays and milestones and reasons to celebrate this month, I’m offering 20% off paid subscriptions.
Here’s the deal with paid subscriptions. Substack is wonderful in that it lets writers use paid subscriptions in whatever way we like. My approach is to make basically all of my content available for everyone. Paid subscribers do get an occasional bonus post, but I mean REALLY occasional. The last bonus post I published was over seven months ago, and it was a video clip of my dog Otis zoom-bombing a podcast recording. It was cute, but not exactly hard-hitting journalism or paradigm-shifting insight.
For my particular publication, a paid subscription doesn’t get you much bonus content, but if you love my work, and have a few dollars to spare, it’s a way to show your support with a financial contribution.
Chinese medicine is all about connections—the network of points and meridians, the interactions of the herbs, the phases of the elemental cycles, even the elegant simplicity of yin and yang. It’s always been my mission with my written work, and now the podcast, to help people understand those connections in their own bodies and lives. If Notes from Your Acupuncturist has helped make meaningful connections for you, I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber.
In Year Three of NFYA, I plan to continue publishing weekly, either with a written note or a podcast episode. I have some great guests lined up for the podcast, and a long list of topics to write about—almost all of which are inspired by my patients. And remember when I said Notes from Your Acupuncturist was supposed to be a book? I hope to circle back to that idea this year too.
Thank you again for subscribing, reading, and supporting this work. I’m so glad you’re here. I hope you’ll stay in touch.
Love and gratitude,
Your Acupuncturist
So glad you started writing here! I am really thinking about this paid thing. I’d like to send more out to everyone and I can’t quite sort out what my paid folks would think of that. I need to spend more time on this!
Congratulations and best wishes for continued success!