In our world today, everyone seems to be worried about something. We work busy lives and have the economy and worrying what will happen next to consider. While treating my patients and interacting with the students at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, where I am a teaching assistant, I am noticing a lot of extra stress happening. Its almost officially spring and the Wood element is beginning to shoot up its energy into our lives. For many of us in Portland, late winter can be a very hard time. The rain never ceases and we have this desire to get out, yet we can’t, just yet.
All of this desire to have our energy move ‘up and out’ but not having an outlet for it, is causing some stress in life.
Without some way of removing this stress from your system, you’re placing yourself in danger from a lot of stress-related diseases such as heart problems, hypertension and insomnia.
The Good News
Acupuncture is great at relieving stress and acupuncturists are great at helping you make some small changes in your life to help you manage your stress better!
How does acupuncture help manage the stress? In traditional Chinese medicine, much of the treatments depend on an understanding of the balance in our bodies and its internal organs. The sicknesses we sometimes develop are seen to be caused by imbalances in our lifestyles and environment. Stress is also affected by this imbalance. That is why when there is something wrong with your body, you’d typically have less of an ability to deal with stress. You’d get more irritable and find it really to difficult to relax. By inserting small, thin needles just under the surface of the skin, we can begin to stimulate the acupuncture points that can send signals to your brain to begin the process of releasing its natural relaxers and pain killers into the system. For most people, this can bring an immediate sense of relaxation and well being.
Circulation
Acupuncture also helps by stimulating your circulation. With this improvement, circulation between your organs is improved and therefore your body will cleanse itself of wastes more properly. Your organs also benefit from the oxygen being pumped through your system from your lungs and making its way into every cell in your body, completely, easily and without blockages. This leaves you overall, much healthier and has the added benefit of relieving your stress!
Having an acupuncture session is much like a massage, you settle into a deep state of relaxation while you are at your appointment, but the benefits don’t end there! Many patients report sleeping much better not just that night, but most nights between sessions.
The Remedy
Acupuncture and other Chinese medical modalities, including herbal medicine, are practices that help you use your bodies’ own ability to manage stress properly. This leaves you not only less stressed out, but much less susceptible to the diseases caused by stress.
If you have been suffering from more stress than usual this winter, give a call and make an appointment. With a few sessions of acupuncture, you could be back on track and ready to go for spring!
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Tags: Stress