22-Mar / 0 COMMENTS

The patient speaks and I respond; my body engages as if an instrument.  My ears hear the sounds creating the spoken language; I hear the groan of deep struggle and effort. It’s peppered with shouts of frustration collapsing in fatigue.  The occasional bursts of laughter does not sustain and bloom. Ah, there.. it’s followed by a sigh of… Regret? Acceptance? Surrender? I ask, “How are you with accepting fullness of joy in your life?” I tune into what I notice going on in me as I listen; there is a sensation of pang in my chest where I point to believing my heart resides and ask, “Where in your body do you feel… the pain of the argument with your beloved? Where in your body did you feel different, uneasy, when you exchanged angry words with this person whom you love?  Tightness in your chest?  Heaviness in your lower belly?  Both?”

Through the language dance, the patient informs and guides me to where the stuckness resides in her body.  For this to unfold, it is my role as practitioner to cultivate and engender the space for the patient to speak with ease. In as much as the acupuncture needles open and direct the flow of Q’i (life energy) to heal, it is as crucial for the patient to be fully present for her own healing. For the healing to take root, the patient must be empowered and believe herself full participant in the healing process. This medicine does not designate healer as expert and the patient as one who hands over her care. It is rather, an active partnership where the practitioner serves as the conduit; the vessel through which the patient can speak and create her own healing.  By carefully listening and collecting the data; the tone and content of the patient’s symptoms, I am led to the meridian(s) where the patient experiences stagnation, the stuckness in her body and the kinks in her life that prevents wellness to come alive. This is the gift of holistic care; the reawakening to the wellness within, and the patient’s full ownership of it while in pursuit of her own healing makes the experience more complete and lasting. 

 There are times when the patient has lived so long with a chronic pain, the medication masking the pain so integrated into his way of being that she needs much reminder before she can trust the wisdom of her body, mind and spirit. This is when I most need the reminder, too.  That the needles are not adding anything to the body nor taking anything out; that my role is to be the conduit, standing in the middle between heaven and earth, allowing the healing wisdom to pass through me to my beloved patient. That this takes place not because of me but because of the patient and that I am to take no credit, nor claim any blame whether or not healing happens.  Forgetting this, without having guided the patient to make the connection between the symptoms and the lifestyle or choices that created the pain, I begin treating with my needles as a form of bandage to cover the pain; myself drawn into the seductive pull of the ‘fix-it” mindset and forgetting the fundamental paradigm of this medicine.  And taking credit for a job well done based on the patient’s progress. Or berating myself when the results we want seem out of reach as if it were by my own ability that healing is created.

 Refresher:  One – the patient, Two – the practitioner, and together creating the Three – the Shift, the Two becoming again One to experience the Gift of healing.

A colleague reminded me the other day – the mailman doesn’t apologize for the bills he delivers and doesn’t wait around for thanks for delivering the checks. His job is to deliver no matter what.  

Indeed.  Take no Credit, Claim no Blame.