Roxies-blog

Monday, December 8, 2008

The Point of Acupuncture Goes Beyond Needles

Say acupuncture. People think needles. Acupuncture is not so much about the needles as it about balancing the body's energy system or qi (pronounced chee). The concept of practitioners inserting needles into points seems to be what everyone thinks of when they think of acupuncture.

Acupuncture is a medical practice that is thousands of years old. It originated in Asia. Throughout the country of China, there are many different theories and ways of practicing. As time passes, more and more of this information is being translated and practiced in the Western World.

Needles are a major factor in acupuncture. The needles used in acupuncture are not the large size syringes that people are familiar with from their doctor's office. These are solid needles that are about the size of a dressmaker's pin and smaller.

Energy, or qi, flows throughout the body. Qi concentrates its flow through major pathways, called channels or meridians. On each channel are points where qi can be manipulated by a skilled practitioner. These are the places the acupuncturist chooses to needle.

Through the choice of points to needle, a practitioner can balance the body's qi and thereby alleviate the symptoms of disease or illness. In order to make lasting change, the patient must have a series of treatments. The body becomes habituated to certain imbalances and though the patient may feel better after a treatment to correct this, it is natural for the body to go back to its familiar way of being. This may explain why acute problems, such as an injury, generally respond more quickly to acupuncture treatments than long term ailments.

After the needles are inserted, the patient can expect to lie on the table with the needles for about twenty to thirty minutes. In some cases, this will be longer. During this time, there is rarely any discomfort. It can be a very relaxing time for the patient. After this rest, the acupuncturist will remove the needles and perhaps do a bit of massage if there is a painful area. They will make recommendations about when the patient should return and any other types of treatments that may be beneficial to the patient.

Acupuncture has few side effects and these are typically limited to bruising in the local area. Some patients will feel tired after a treatment but this is typically because they are in a greater state of relaxation than their body is used to. Some other patients feel energized. Most people feel a sense of well being, though there are those who feel little change after the first couple of treatments. Rarely does someone feel worse and often that is only a temporary worsening of symptoms and then greater relief sets in.

Although acupuncture isn't a one time treatment and it does take commitment to continue going for acupuncture treatments, it is a safe, effective and gentle method of healing.

Bonnie Koenig, LAc has been a Licensed Acupuncturist in Washington State since 1999. She loves writing and has created her website, http://www.quantulifestyles.com, for people who are looking to find out general information about acupuncture.

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Tarot Cards as Alternative Therapy

Whether we admit or not, most of us have quaint notions of what tarot cards are.

On the surface, they are merely a deck of illustrated cards used in predictions, while the tarot card reader is an eccentric person dressed in robes seated behind the fortune-telling booth in the town fair. This image of tarot cards is, of course, clichd, and yet we'd rather feel comfortable with its familiarity than dig deeper. We resort to the more convenient explanation rather than actually investigate the sometimes unpleasant yet gratifying truth of tarot cards.

Perhaps, the most famous among the tarot cards is the Death Card, a card quite unfairly invested with too much negative meanings and energies behind it, so much so that we usually think of tarot cards as tools of the occult, vehicles of evil even. While we can't deny the fact that indeed tarot can be used for such purposes, tarot cards can also be perfectly well-intentioned and can be actually used for good causes.

As a matter of fact, the earliest use of tarot cards in fifteenth century Italy was as a game, much like a deck of regular playing cards but with the addition of trump cards. It wasn't until late 17th or 18th century that tarot cards began to take on a more serious role in divination.

Over the years, the pictures in the tarot cards, their rich symbolisms, procedures, purposes, and meanings evolved in such a way that the characters portrayed in them have come to mirror all our follies, fears, strengths, and hopes. By stringing them together into a tale, we are able to retell and uncover the past as we would have liked it unfold, as well as get a sense of a manageable future we can feel safe with.

A radical and inevitable shift indeed for tarot cards from a simple game to life-changing therapy.

Carl Jung, a world renowned psychologist has always considered tarot as an alternative psychotherapy. By utilising the rich imagery encapsulated in every tarot card, we are able to voice out our concerns, look into our past, and prepare for the future. In some cases, children who don't yet know how to speak can use the images and characters in the tarot deck to piece together their thoughts and tell their story. Tarot cards then offer an alternative language system through which we can bring our Unconscious up to the light.

Jung explains that tarot cards represent different archetypes of human personality and situations. The Death Card then is not just simplistically a dreary card foretelling iretractable death to the querent (person who asks questions in a tarot card reading). Rather, the death card can be seen as the death, an end of something inside us: a vice, long standing pain, bad habits, sorrow, signaling rebirth.

We do not just blindly pick out cards from the tarot deck. Every moment of our lives we are armed with choices, choices that spell out and define our fate. It's not just what you keep out from your life that matters; it's also what you allow to make a difference. Even if they're just a deck of tarot cards.

Neoli Lance Marcos writes for PsychicGuild: online provider of daily horoscope, dream interpretation and tarot card readings.

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