We’d be less stressed, suffering through fewer addictions, and experiencing less pain. Unfortunately, receiving acupuncture treatments on a daily basis is financially and logistically impossible for most of us.
The good news is, there are several things we can do that serve as great complements to acupuncture. They are free, available to almost everyone, and effective at prolonging, enhancing, or mimicking the effects of acupuncture.
While daily acupuncture may be the ideal, you can use other activities to cultivate some of the same benefits that acupuncture provides. Here are several things that are easy to incorporate into your life right now.
Acupressure
Acupressure is the accessible companion to acupuncture. The two modalities speak the same language since they both focus on acupuncture points. Acupressure, in addition to providing symptomatic relief on its own, can significantly reinforce the effects of acupuncture treatments. From an acupuncture perspective, many pain conditions are caused by stagnation. Things are not moving smoothly through the channels, causing blockages that lead to pain. Acupuncture and acupressure restores flow, helping to eliminate these blockages. You can perform acupressure any time, any place, whenever it works for you. Doing self-acupressure is educational; it influences you thinking about health from an acupuncture perspective. Acupressure is a great tool for learning to see yourself as an energetic being who’s capable of self-healing.
Yoga
Yoga and acupuncture and East Asian Medicine (TCM) in general have a lot in common. Acupuncture and yoga attract people who are curious about the relationship between our physical, emotional,and spiritual well being. Practicing yoga, much like receiving acupuncture, helps draw energy out of your mind and into your body. It heightens awareness such that you become more attuned to the clues your body gives about what’s ailing you and how you can heal yourself. More practically speaking, yoga stretches acupuncture meridians throughout the body, which helps regulate the flow that acupuncture strives to restore and maintain.
Walking
Even if it’s just around the block, taking a walk can go a long way. Like acupuncture, walking awakens and engages all the meridians that flow throughout the body. When you go for a walk, you let your whole body take a deep breath and reset itself. Movement of any kind is good, but there’s something about walking that is at once invigorating and restorative. It does not require athleticism, excessive amounts of energy, or demanding postures. Walking gently lulls the body into its natural rhythm. Running is a great way to keep the juices flowing and boost your mood. It can easily cross over into feeling like an unpleasant obligation especially during weather extremes. If you’re out for a jog and notice yourself dreading the experience or tensing up, slow down and walk for a few minutes. Gain a new perspective and energy-
Eat Non-GMO, unprocessed foods, drink plenty of clean, pure water
Acupuncture helps eliminate toxins. Don’t knowingly put them back in by eating poor-quality food. The “right” diet is different for everyone, but regardless of your preferences, it is valuable to think about food as sustenance and an opportunity to heal your body. Thomas Edison said, "The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame and in diet and the cause and prevention of disease."
Use a Dry Skin Brush
Dry skin brushing takes just minutes a day but makes a huge difference in how someone feels and looks. Air brushing is practiced by many Asian people as a way to increases peripheral circulation, boost immune function, and give a healthy glow to the skin. Using a natural-fiber, stiff-brissled, sisal body brush on dry skin before or after a shower is a great way to stimulate the skin, the lymphatic system, and the acupuncture meridian system.
Meditate or Engage in a Spiritual Practice
So many of the issues that hold us back in our lives can be transformed through the simple act of awareness, and meditation practice can be the doorway to heightened presence in all of our activities. Emotions like anger, grief, frustration can consume us and from an acupuncture perspective, stagnate our qi and blood. This on its own can cause pain and other ailments, and it sets the stage for future imbalances and ultimately illness and disease. A spiritual practice can be anything from journaling to prayer to meditation or qi gong. Whatever works for you!
The best results from these methods come from daily practice!
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