How Seasonal Acupuncture Can Support Your Health
Living in harmony with the seasons of nature sounds like a great idea, but why is it important, how does doing so translate into better health and how can acupuncture help toward this end? An example of a patient’s acupuncture treatment will help to illustrate.
ML’s Story – Struggling with Pain and Fatigue
A female (ML) came in during the spring season with symptoms of insomnia, fatigue, constipation and painful menses. She reported feeling uninspired, lethargic at work and stuck in a job that wasn’t furthering her career goals. At home and in relations with friends, she admitted to feeling irritable much of the time, and described a recent incident when a dropped dish set off a mild panic that quickly turned into intense anger directed at her youngest son.
During an acupuncture appointment, ML sighed repeatedly while sharing the feeling of being out of step with other people who were looking forward to the coming summer. Instead of feeling excited about travel, gardening or get-togethers, her impulse was to retreat to her room and curl up under the covers. ML was looking for help getting back to a time in her life when she was relatively free from pain, felt more energetic, and had more flexibility and resilience with which to deal with life’s challenges.
Understanding the Reason for Each Season
While ML was coming in for help from acupuncture, her health concerns can best be understood by what she hadn’t been receiving in the past four months: rest and recovery. Winter is a time to mimic the strategies of plants and animals by embracing a time of dormancy and hibernation. It’s a time to charge batteries and catch up on sleep, while dreaming up plans for the coming spring.
The simple graphic image that comes to mind of how a person should be at the end of winter is that of an equilateral triangle, with its base (energy reserves) solidly on the earth and the vertex (energy expenditures) pointing straight up; representing someone with energy reserves in the tank to expend on their endeavors. Instead, ML’s triangle resembled one with the vertex unstably resting on the earth, and the base up in the air – painting a picture of someone who is overcommitted, and reaching beyond what they can afford to give.
Using Acupuncture to Rebuild Resources
To help ML metaphorically reorient her triangle so her resources are firmly grounded, acupuncture can help her rebuild resources as well as free up energy so she can move into the more energetic pace of spring and act on her plans. The use of thoughtfully placed needles combined with application of heat with moxa can help add to a person’s energy reserves.
After six acupuncture sessions, ML reported having much more energy. Her sleep improved, she had regular smooth bowel movements and her menstrual cycles were uncomplicated. Most noteworthy to others was that her irritability was replaced with levity and patience.
Seasonal Acupuncture Tune-Ups Support Health
After the initial cluster of treatments helped correct imbalances and boost her energy reserves, seasonal tune-up appointments helped ML remain closer to a healthy state.
There are pivotal points in the seasons when the seasons change most dramatically. Receiving acupuncture around the times of solstice and equinox hold the potential to have the most influence on people’s health.
ML came in quarterly as close to the turn of the seasons as her schedule allowed. Dishes are still being dropped in her world, but ML is much more capable of responding to change and challenge in a way that is smooth and healthy.
About Mark Larsen, Anchorage Acupuncturist
Mark Larsen is a licensed and national board-certified Anchorage acupuncturist working to help patients of all ages optimize their health and access vitality through acupuncture. When treating patients, Mark draws upon the wisdom of Five-Element tradition combined with principles of East Asian Medicine. Learn more about Mark or schedule your acupuncture appointment.