Acupuncture

Recently I had acupuncture done for the first time. I have felt lately that I have an abundance of energy that is not finding its way properly through my body. This is causing some very undesirable effects on my life one of which is a rapid overheating which leads to me pouring sweat while doing commonplace tasks. Below is an account of the procedure and my thoughts throughout it.

I did a google search about Acupuncture in Enfield, CT and was surprised to see there was a place in Springfield, MA that does it. Excited I began investigating the practitioner of the establishment, Stan Baker. Stan is listed as having practiced acupuncture and eastern healing arts for 25 years and seemed very professional and legit. He is also a teacher of Taiji and focuses on harnessing and developing the internal power (bioenergy). I was sold, I called and made an appointment.

I had never had any sort of acupuncture before, the closest thing to it would be receiving a reiki treatment from a friend which really had little to no effect (she was in a bad spot and her bioenergy level was severely lacking that day). All I knew as I walked through the doors of his place in Springfield was that I was about to get needles stuck in me! I have to admit I was a bit anxious and nervous at the same time with many questions running through my head.

Would it hurt? Would something odd begin to happen to me due to my normal sensitivity to procedures and medicines? Would Stan be legit like I thought he would be?

I tried to put those questions out of my head as I walked in and sat down. Stan came out after a moment to greet me. Immediately upon seeing him I was put at ease, he was incredibly calm and relaxed! His entire being brimmed with a soothing quality and his energy was flowing just right. I knew I was going to be in good hands.

After filling out some customary forms he led me to one of the acupuncture rooms and began to do something western medicine has seemingly forgotten how to do; ask me questions about my life habits and my reason for coming in while actually listening. I can honestly say he listened with more intent on the first time meeting him about why I was visiting than my doctor of 3 years has in the 6 times I have seen her. Shortly after this it was time to stick me with some needles!

He had my lay down on the table (the same you see in a doctors office, table is a bad description for it) on my back and began to take my pulse. Now when I say take my pulse you probably get this image of him sitting there holding onto my wrist and staring intently at his watch. This was not like that. If I had to guess I would say he was using the eastern diagnostic skills he has been learning for the past 15 years. I would go so far as to claim he was listening to the flow of energy through my body. All I know is when he kept taking my pulse in different areas I felt rather probed but not in an intrusive way.

Shortly after that he started to put the needles into me. The first two were put on my right ankle. There was a bit of a sting, I mean I was getting stabbed after all, but overall this feeling went away once it was in. He placed two in my left ankle and then moved up to my wrists. Once all the needles were placed in me he instructed me to relax and let the procedure take effect, he turned all but one light off and closed the door.

So there I was laying on a table in a dimly lit room with 8 needles stuck in me. There was a cd player that had some soothing earthy music playing and I began to feel very odd. I was honestly unsure of what, if anything, i should be looking for to be the "effect" of this acupuncture. I just kind of layed there for a couple minutes thinking to myself "if only this were the weirdest thing I have done in my life" which made me chuckle a little bit. It seemed like maybe that was the moment where I began to let go and relax as Stan had instructed because that seems to be the turning point.

While laying there my normally rigid body start to lightly spasm in the areas where the needles were. First my right ankle did it, then my left arm, then my right arm and then my left leg. It was truly bizarre and I must remember to research if anyone else has experienced such a thing. After that happened my body loosened up and I started to quite literally sink into the bed! I felt the most profound sense of calm come over me. This was like going on a vacation where you know you have nothing to worry about and can just sit there and enjoy what is going on around you without the stresses of your normal life. I mean truly deeply relaxing.

I started to notice that my breathing deepened which was a shock to me as I have very poor breathing that I am always trying to correct. My tendency is to breathe many short breathes (which probably accounts for a lot of the stress I feel). As I was breathing I started to do a technique I have read about where you visualize the air you are breathing as carrying energy down into your body. Normally I have quite a hard time visualizing getting this energy anywhere past my waist but while I lay there I easily envisioned this energy enveloping my whole body.

Stan came back after a length of time, I honestly could not tell you how long it was because by the time he came back I was feeling amazing. He assessed me and said I was not fully relaxed yet and he would come back. That shocked me, there was a deeper level of relaxation than this? I hadn't felt this relaxed since I was a kid! I lay there for a bit longer, feeling my entire body just sink into the bed and by the time he came back my vision was hazy, the way it is after waking from a long deep sleep.

Stan removed the needles and asked me how I felt, I do not recall what I said but it was something very positive and spoken slowly. I was absolutely buzzed with energy at this point! He talked with me for a little bit and then instructed me that he would do a treatment on my back. He inserted about 6 needles into my upper and lower back and then left the room once again.

I have to say this treatment did not feel as liberating as the one on my wrists and ankles but, it did allow me to continue breathing deeply and experiencing the energy flowing breathing exercise I was practicing before. I had one weird moment where I looked over to the left and saw my shadow on the wall with a bunch of needles sticking out of it which made me chuckle yet again. After an amount of time I am unsure of Stan came back and removed the needles. He said I was still tense and indeed I felt I was, I had done squats at the gym on Tuesday and we did some good warm up exercises at kung fu on Wednesday so my back was very tender. He said after 3 more treatments I would feel a lot less tense, even after exercise.

He then, once again, shocked me by talking to me more about the sweating, and kung fu. He suggested I stay away from spicy foods as they could be having an adverse reaction (increasing core temperature for a prolonged period of time). He said that he would research whether or not there are any chinese herbs that can be used to cool my body which made me very happy. After a year of "try this disgusting chemical" from my doctor a natural suggestion was very appreciated. He also said as I train more in kung fu my center of balance will become greatly improved and this will have an effect on the strenuous nature of my training (both in the gym and at kung fu). He scheduled me for another treatment this week (tomorrow) and I paid and left.

I was very pleased to see his approach to what I was there for. He seemed very interested in working with the issue rather than trying to suppress it somehow. That to me is the way medicine should be approached and though I know Stan is not a doctor I feel he is experienced enough in his practice to help me the best that he can.

I left that day feeling absolutely incredible. I was so incredibly buzzed from the experience that I sat there in my car just smiling like a fool for a few moments before driving off. I knew that I would be looking forward to going this week. The treatment appears to be working a little bit, I am certainly sweating less and not feeling overheated as often as I was. It will be interesting to see the effects after a few more treatments.

The sticky quality of energy.

First blog, greetings citizens, I am Dave and without wanting to appear too arrogant I will say that I am just about the most intriguing 26 year old male you will ever have the pleasure of meeting. That being said I would like to share with you a thought I had about bioenergy and how it effects our lives.

It should be common knowledge to anyone who has pondered their existence for more than 30 seconds that everything in life revolves around energy. Even the most simple creatures require energy to continue the cycle of birth, life and death. Human beings are by most standards complex beings and therefore it is quite obvious to me that we require energy in a complex way.

Visualize if you will the human body as you are accustomed to seeing it. Now visualize a field around the human body, kind of in an oval shape, this field is what I have grown to calling your energy body. This is simply a mass of bioenergy that is always floating around human beings, something that cannot be seen through our normal fast paced busy eyes.

There are several unique properties of this field of energy but, for the sake of keeping this on topic and condensed what I want to talk to you about today is how this field pulls certain amounts of energy into it.

When you were a kid entering school for the first time your kindergarten teacher probably taught you that you should "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". The basis of this is simple: if everyone acted decently the world would be a decent place.

Unfortunately some people seem to have lost this basic idea of being peaceful in favor of throwing negativity all about them. They scowl at passerby's on the street, they bitch out the waitress when their food is not prepared properly and all in all act like spoiled little petty beings. Now these people unknowingly are setting themselves up to have the same energy thrown right back at them. And the reason for this is the sticky quality of energy.

Have you ever been in an environment with a group of people where everyone is just having a great time? Just one of those moments where the egos drop for a bit and everyone around is just relaxed and enjoying their existence with one another. Chances are you have. That situation to me is more than just a good group of friends, that is a mass of bioenergy being tossed back and forth between these people that creates what the golden rule is seeking: harmony.

Harmony in terms of bioenergy is where the energy field is locked into a cycle where what it is giving out it is getting sent back to it. This is the ideal condition, it is proper ebb and tide in the energy world and unfortunately it is something we seem to not achieve very often anymore.

Now think of another time, one where multiple people were in a great mood and in walked someone who was just in a pissy mood with no hope of changing their mind. I bet what you are feeling right now is that feeling you get where there is an awkward electric sense to the environment you are in. This is a deficit situation that cannot ever achieve harmony because even with 4 people in a group harmonizing with one another that 5th person being pissy and negative is just going to send out and pull in any negative energy they can find into their field.

That 5th persons energy field is filled with negative energy and as such it is going to continue to put out negative energy until it finds it. Now true those 4 people are going to be putting out positive energy but, it is going to be amongst themselves and unavailable to that 5th person.

I thought of this after observing a coworker of mine. She is always in a bad mood! The very way she walks is incredibly indicative of how negative she is. Arms crossed, head bent slightly down, if you didn't know any better you would think she just had something terrible happen to her and was trying her best to cope but, that is not the case, she is just one of those 5th people, constantly filled with and seeking negative energy. Now what is of interest to me is that she has found a way to warp every experience she has so that the only things that stand out to her are the negatives. On Monday I have learned that when she says "guess what happened to me this weekend" what I am about to get is not some fun filled tale of going to the beach with her family but, some edited story where the only points of mention will be the bad things she pulled from whatever experience she has had.

Because of this way of being I am fully convinced this womans energy body is at a toxic level of negativity. She continues to have bad things happen to her on an alarming level. At first I truly felt sorry for her, which I believe is something both she and her energy body is hoping for as pity is just another form of negativity. As I came to know her greater though I started to realize she is attracting all of these negative events. She is constantly projecting a mood that immediately sours other people around her.

I am not saying we should sit here and feign happiness hoping that good things will come to us in return. Everyone has bad days, some people have bad weeks even and no one can expect you to put out a happy and positive face when something truly terrible is going on in your life. What I propose though is to keep in mind that there are consequences to your way of being! Always know that being in a funk for the sake of being in a funk is going to do nothing but bring more bad energy your way.

Be aware of the effect the field of energy you carry around you affects others. I promise if you can do that simple task you will find a balance in your life that will make things a bit more manageable.