In order to understand how acupuncture helps with anxiety by regulating the nervous system, let’s talk a bit about stress and burnout first.
Stress is directly related to our perception of external situations, that generates a response in our mind and in our body as well. Our values, background, culture, education, learned behaviour, patterns, triggers, fear and emotional wounds, greatly interfere with our ability to see the situations that unfold in our life in a neutral way. Instead, our vision, understanding and perception of reality happens through a set of lenses shaped by everything that makes our life-story and human experience so unique.
Needless to say, that society’s pressure and mindset about quantity versus quality, appearances, reputation, ideas of success, perfection, beauty, expectations, comparison etc make the scenario for the perfect storm to happen. We end up doing more than we can, giving more than we have, wanting more than we need, working long hours, getting busy doing chores on days off and so on. That, being sustained overtime leads to physical and mental exhaustion – commonly known as burn out.
So how do we solve this issue? Will society change to accommodate our needs? Can we control our external environment to that extent? Certainly we can impact our community and society by bringing new ideas and new ways of thinking, acting, responding and living our lives, influencing our surroundings in a positive way. On the other hand, we cannot control and change everything that happens outside of us, so the best we can do is to work on our inner world, on our perceptions and emotions as we balance the body. We need to focus our energy on what we do have some control over and some say on the matter. Sometimes we are able to do it on our own and sometimes we need help and guidance to get there.
And how does acupuncture achieve the regulation of our Nervous System?
On the more physiological aspect, through the right stimulus of the vagus nerve, acupuncture can directly affect our Parasympathetic Nervous System, which is responsible for slowing our heart rate, lowering blood pressure and allowing the body to heal and recover. Signaling to us that is safe to relax and disengage from a high alert state, reconnecting ourselves then with our own body, our breath, our essence and our true self.
Acupuncture not only impact us on a physical level, it reaches us on our emotional and even spiritual levels as well. Our mind-spirit and emotions are the arena where the imbalances sole to begin. Those imbalances influence our behaviour, patterns, daily habits, believes, choices, decisions, lifestyle, the way we take life moment by moment, our awareness level, our ability to experience our feelings entirely without judgment and our ability to stay present. Over time the physical manifestation of those imbalances translates in the body as: physical pain, stiffness, discomfort, the common cold, migraines, acute conditions, chronic degenerative diseases, tumours, depression, anxiety and so on.
So slowly, gently, kindly, acupuncture shows and reminds the body what is like to feel good. Through the regulation of Qi (energy), blood, body fluids and essence, acupuncture sends the message to the mind- emotions – spirit that we are taking a moment to connect inwards and that we are listening, so balance can occur. Again, the physical body is the solid manifestation of the energy, of the emotional and the ethereal, that is very much considered and recognized in Classical Chinese Medicine, honouring the human being as a whole.
Stress and anxiety aren’t only a chemical response of the body, it is life telling us that is time to review our priorities, our thoughts, our believes, our wounds, our fears. Is an invitation to do, think, perceive and explore things differently. What no longer serves us? What and who really adds to our life? Do we investigate our thoughts and believes? How much longer are we sticking around and how do we want our life to be?
One of the purposes of Classical Chinese Medicine isn’t only to prevent and treat illnesses through the use of the energy channels, but also to support us in our efforts to achieve a meaningful life, helping us to discover the lessons we must learn in order to complete the curriculum for this life. Hopefully we can find comfort and contentment within ourselves so at the end we can meet death peacefully and with no regrets, as we transition to another dimension of consciousness. It helps us to unblock the obstacles of our mind, body and life so we can fulfill our blueprint here.
Would you like to give your body- mind and spirit a glimpse of peace, calmness, balance and connection to yourself? A reminder of your true nature and of who you really are?
