It happened yet again. My 8th client today has the same active reflex. That takes me to about 90%, maybe even 95%, of my patients having the exact same active reflex. In normal times, this is not typical. Yet in this pandemic time, it is very typical.
Let me explain what I’m talking about. When deciding which acupuncture points to use during a session, I press on specific areas on someone’s neck, abdomen and feet. If any of those areas are tender, uncomfortable, feel funny or strange in any way, it means that that is an active reflex, showing an imbalance in the body. So what does this one spot that is showing up at a significantly higher rate than before correspond with? Our autonomic nervous system, aka fight or flight.
Since mid-March when the pandemic really hit our state, our sympathetic nervous systems have been going haywire causing stress and anxiety. This plays a role in every aspect of our life yet will show up differently for different people. Where it shows up for you will depend on where is your body’s weakness. Only for some people does stress and anxiety show up as we typically think of stress and anxiety: feeling of nervousness, racing heart or inability to focus. Most of my clients who present with this active reflex are saying, “I’m doing well considering.” She doesn’t realize that her anxiety is showing up in her back pain that happened to flare up and she can’t contribute it to anything. Or her digestion has been really odd lately but there hasn’t been a change to her diet. It can even be the headaches that came on suddenly, seemingly out of the blue.
That is one thing I love about this specific system of acupuncture. You don’t have to verbally tell me or even knowledge to yourself that you’re stressed. Your body will direct me to the points it needs in order to get you back into balance and a little more calm. I don’t need to tell you all the things going on in our world that are adding to our anxiety. But I do want you to know that acupuncture can help. Acupuncture can take the edge off and help to make life a bit more manageable, nourish your soul so that you can fight for what is right and give your body a bit of respite. This happens as a result of acupuncture bringing your body into the rest, digest and restore mode of the parasympathetic system.
Most acupuncturists are back to working in-person appointments to some degree. Reach out to me or another acupuncturist near you and let’s start healing.
With love,
Kathryn