This year I’m on a path of doing good things for myself. This is well overdue. The last nearly four years or so have been insane. Have you ever seen one of those “life stressor” checklists? If I assessed the past few years, I would have a buttload of checkmarks.
One of the things I’m trying is acupuncture. I’m hoping that the paper thin needles will clean out the collection of stress and anxiety that my body started amassing in 2005. Time for those tiny, dusty figurines that take up space and serve no purpose TO GO! I get migraine headaches too, and acupuncture has been known to help control those. A win-win.
I was a little nervous about the needles when I went to my first appointment. I wondered what they would feel like, if it would hurt, how weird it would be. The worst ones in terms of pain were the two or three that went on my ears. I barely felt the rest of them.
Last night I went to my second session. When my acupuncturist went for my ears, I remembered a little trick that my favorite pediatrician taught me. He would say, “Wiggle your toes,” before he gave me a shot. The distraction worked. The pain wasn’t nearly as bad when I focused on my feet.
After my acupuncturist finishes making me look like Pinhead from Hellraiser, he leaves me to “chill out” with the needles and a heat lamp over my abdomen. Heat in that area is supposed to be calming. Who knew? That’s when my mind begins to wander. I think of all kinds of important things in that warm dark room. “What’s for dinner? Did the acupuncturist cut his hand on my leg stubble? Why are they making a sequel to the Sex and the City movie? I mean, I loved the show and enjoyed the first movie….but what’s left for those women? Will one of them die? One of them has to die. What else is there? If I move my hand too much will I break one of these needles? How will I get it out? What if it seeps into my skin?” And so on.