8. Go to an acupuncturist

I love my acupuncturist.

Is that weird? I really like this person whose job is putting needles into me.

But seriously, I think a lot of what makes visiting an acupuncturist scary is putting your life (ok, skin?) in the hands of someone you don’t know.

Turn me into a pincushion?

We just met!

Can we have coffee first?

This seems intimate.

Not gonna lie, I was a little nervous. Cue scene of me running around the doctor’s office, protesting getting a shot. Two stickers if the receptionist didn’t hear me cry? Only on a good day.

I’ve progressed slightly since that point, but the idea of lots of needles in various joints and pressure points kind of intimidated me.

Silly Katie. No need to be scared. My acupuncturist was cool, calm, and collected. And more importantly, she felt like a real person. There’s a certain amount of skepticism people have if they’ve never experienced acupuncture… I understand, I had it also. But she didn’t do lots of “acupuncture talk” that I didn’t understand, and when she did reference my energy moving and it’s (lack) of fluidity, she explained like I was a friend, rather than a patient. Love.

After doing a really long “getting to know you session” which included health history and living habits, we came to the conclusion that a lot of the issues I have stem from anxiety, stress, and control problems.

Who me?

So the focus was going to be on getting the stress and anxiety under control and re-teach my body and mind how to rationalize situations and be more flexible. This includes a series of acupuncture sessions, some minor lifestyle changes (taking time to do focused meditation at the start of the day), and some Mantras. And some patience.

Then! Needles!

I lay down and she put needles in my ankles, the tops of my feet, my inner wrists, under my knee, my upper and lower stomach, my ears, the top of my head, and in between my eyebrows. Serious pincushion. But the needles were super thin, and the most I felt was  tiny pinch (ankles and ears the most). Then she told me to relax.

So I did. And I waited. For something. I could have felt any number of things, I was told. Warmth, tingling, anything.

At first, I just noticed that my muscles felt heavy, more relaxed, and my energy felt like it was sinking. I felt really still.

And then!

Tingling! Almost a throbbing. In my inner right wrist! I later found out that this is the “heart” area… specifically this point touches on emotional issues, anxiety, and worry… interesting.

And then!

The top of my left foot went numb. But not a scary “where did my foot go” numb, just more of a pleasant feeling.

By the end of the session, I felt like I had woken up from an excellent sleep. Seriously, I felt more relaxed and better than after a massage. No joke.

We can skip the coffee. I can see this is going to be a long, prickly relationship.

26 days until 26 (eek!)