Stick It To Me

For the first time in my life, I went to visit an acupuncturist at the Circle Community Acupuncture. I've heard some pretty amazing stories from friends who've had successful acupuncture treatments before. It's helped some of them quit smoking, lose weight, eliminate muscle pains, deal with allergies, alleviate stress and treat depression. I've never been a cynic, always a believer, but my lazy bones just never found the time to try it out. I would even find myself advocating for it and recommending it to other friends who had never done it before. But what experience do I have??? None. Until a friend of mine here in San Francisco insisted I try it out and took me with her as a guest--and I got it for free!

So, as an acupuncture virgin, let me try to explain how my first time felt.

First of all, as a first timer you get a consultation with the acupuncturist after laboriously filling in a whopping form with health related questions about your history, habits, allergies, diet....just about everything involving your bodily and mental functions. At the consultation, you're asked to explain some of the pertinent health issues you'd like to address with the treatment. I wanted to be as honest as I could be--after all, this woman is about to prick me with a dozen needles, they better be the right places or who knows what might happen!

I was sat down on the comfiest lazy-boy in the world, and then the pricking commenced. I had a couple needles inside each ear (ouch), a few on my arms and wrists, and also some on my legs (shin areas). I was asked to stay for at least 30 minutes, and off my journey went.

It was intense. After about 5 minutes, I could no longer feel the epicenter of pain for each needle prick. I felt a wave of something (current? the yang of my yin?) go through my entire body, and I imagined the energy flow looking a little like a connect-the-dots game with my needles as the dots. But that was just my imagination acting up I think.

I felt light and numb. Ah, this must be the anesthetic effects. I had to wiggle my fingers and feel the couch to reassure myself that I was still in my body and not floating in mid-air. Strange sensation.

I dozed off a couple of times into short deep sleeps, waking up a little confused, "did I just doze off?", "where am I?".

After 30 minutes, the needles were taken out and I was told that I should think about a weekly treatment to see if it might help me with my issues. I agreed, with a half-baked smile that looked like I just got totally blazed.

I walked out of there with my friend, as light as a feather, and as spacey as ever--as if my head was detached like a balloon just floating above my body. But I was energized and felt pretty good about myself. Placebo or not, it certainly helped spike up my mood and channel my energy appropriately. It was definitely worth it. And I reckon I'll be doing it regularly from now on.