We can't change the external stressors in our lives. Life happens, with its winding roads and obstacles - and it is part and parcel of our unique path to learn, grow, and figure out how to navigate our journey.
What we CAN change, however, is the perception of our lives, relationships, and the world at large. This, we understand, is the true and powerful role of Eastern medicine. Through regular acupuncture treatments, our patients not only experience relief from pain or discomfort, but they begin to bear witness and hold sacred space for themselves. They reorient their mind to understand the role a challenge represents in their lives. They attune to the messages held deep in their gut, their blood, and their bones - and start to understand the why behind their pain.
I (Genevieve) am writing this from my own vantage point. For the past two weeks, I've held latent thoughts too close to my heart; thoughts I knew not to be true, but ideas I entertained nonetheless about my ability and inner resources to forge a difficult path ahead. My body began to suffer. For the first time in months, I experienced the symptoms of endometriosis returning. I took a handful of lancets and bled the back of my legs, a treatment to surface and work through difficult emotions.
That night, as I was winding down from a full day, I began sobbing inexplicably. Each and every negative thought, which before I'd been unable to articulate, came to me with a lucidity I was so grateful for. I cried for an hour as I worked through every thought, reframing it with the context of a deep compassion for myself. Then, with that open heart, I fell into a restful sleep.
Life is not a something that is done to us. It is a gift, however shadowy and dark, that we reveal to ourselves like a series of nesting dolls. And within lies that smallest, most delicate gift; the inner compass for the way ahead.