Can Acupuncture Relieve Stress and Anxiety?
The quick answer is Yes. AND, as important as acupuncture,
Your self care needs to increase in proportion to the stress that is increasing around you..
To which, you might be thinking:
If my mind doesn’t feel stressed, am I stressed?
Even if your mind is “handling it”, any of the following could be experienced by your body, spirit or unconscious mind as stress:
- Training for an athletic event
- Stretching yourself on your business goals
- Intense, short-term work deadlines or long term effects of overwork and toxic environments
- Raising kind humans and caring for aging parents, who are changing and evolving, as are their needs and how you respond to them.
- Navigating symptoms of chronic illness within the allopathic medical system
- Responding to the news when the world is confusing, journalism standards are questionable and social media keeps you doom scrolling
- Living life as a highly sensitive person in a chaotic moment in time
Acupuncture powerfully relieves the physical and emotional effects of stress and anxiety
Don’t get me wrong, coming in for acupuncture (and herbs & supplements) strengthens the systems that metabolize stress and promote groundedness. I first came to acupuncture and changed my career because of the power that this medicine offers to do *just that*.
Chinese Medicine is a system that helps solve the root of stress and anxiety
But, The work of staying stress-free is a maintenance project. You need daily practices to keep up with the accrual of stress and to eventually make my work an enhancement to your life, rather than a requirement (or to just keep me away!). I support patients with Chinese Medicine philosophical tools to help them do this.
What is YOUR daily stress maintenance practice?
Whatever it is, I encourage you to add the ingredient of intention to supercharge its potency.
- Going on a walk? Swing your arms and imagine them as a pump bringing fresh energy into your body as you inhale and release stress, fog and numbness as you exhale.
- Taking a shower after a day of being around people more stressed than you? Imagine the stress of others rinsing off of your body and aura.
- Lifting weights? Intend that with every rep you are punching or pushing obstacles out of your way
- Singing in the car? Envision the sound waves melting the tension of stress from the places you hold it most in your body
I learned this technique of supercharging mundane tasks through my study of qigong (a moving meditation, with roots in Chinese Medicine and Daoism). In qigong, intention is as important as the movements and breathing that comprise the exercise. Intention as a life ingredient makes EVERYTHING an opportunity to release and receive.
Is there a daily practice that you can uplevel with intention? I’m so curious what you come up with.
In service to your peaceful body, mind and spirit,
Marie
P.S. If your back log of stress and its corresponding jaw pain, shoulder tension and irritability feel bigger than your daily practices, acupuncture can help you work on the backlog and get you back on track. You can schedule an appointment to deal with it opens in a new window::HERE::
