We all want to feel better. It might be physical pain, it might be our digestion, or irregular periods. Maybe we just feel off and we don't really have energy anymore. So we seek out treatments. Some of us go to the GP and get a referral, or a test, or a prescription medication. Some of us go to alternative doctors and get herbs, acupuncture or other types of healing services. Some symptoms clear up, functions improve, we feel a bit better about things.
There is nothing at all wrong with wanting to feel better, but there are often two patients that end up arriving at the appointment. One patient knows deeply that there is something more for them in life, that there are things they could start or stop doing today that would put them in greater integrity with what truly matters most to them, and they are seeking out assistance in order to make that happen at all costs. The other patient arrives and just wants to feel better, but doesn't want to change. This patient has a list of great reasons why they can't change now. Maybe later, but not quite yet. They are wounded, traumatised, injured, ill. They want healing and will earnestly pursue healing forever, but the idea of being healed is always a little bit in the future.
These patients are the same person of course. The second patient is not worse than the first. In fact, they are right about everything that has happened to them and everything they are scared of doing. But the picture is very partial. It is only the part of the person that has been wounded, and ignores the rest of the Self that is whole, that is already healed, that is ready to live in integrity the very moment the decision is made.
When we ask ourselves what is truly the most important thing in life, we direct our attention to the part of ourselves that is whole and wise. The part that knows the deepest longing of our heart, and the reason we are here. When we acknowledge that part, the fearful mind draws attention to all of the consequences, possible losses and struggle that will result if we pursue that truth wholeheartedly. It gives us a thousand and one reasons why we simply cannot make the changes necessary to live in integrity. Not right now anyway. It promises that if we just keep doing a bit more self care, a little more processing, another healing modality, that someday, in the future, you will get there.
So when we're conducting an acupuncture treatment, we're looking for where things have gotten stuck. Where things have gotten shoved down, hidden away, and protected. Which beliefs about the world and conclusions about past events are being stored and causing an obstruction between the various parts of yourself, sectioning off the partial mind living in the personal past, from the Self of greater insight and relationship with the unknown that is creating your future. Ultimately, anything obstructing the integration of all parts of the self will manifest in psychological unease and physical symptoms. The symptoms are not the issue but they are important indicators of stagnation, and they do need to be addressed.
The answer to the question about what is most important to you in life does not need to fit into any particular framework. There isn't a right answer, but there is a true answer and many untrue answers. An honest encounter with your own soul will tell you which is which, and you may already know. Freeing stagnation and obstruction means that you are living in integrity with what is most important to you. You aren't putting it off for later, for an imagined you of the future that you have no relationship to. The moment you decide to live in integrity, in earnest, it begins. In theory, it takes no time at all as that true Self already exists, albeit neglected.
So while we could spend weeks or years treating your symptoms, helping you feel better about where you're at, and maybe someday making the changes and the decision to live what is true, there is another much more compelling way to approach things. The patient can decide that no more healing is required in order to live in integrity, that they can and will and must do it now. Then the medicine is used in order to address the resulting consequences of such a pursuit. Any unresolved physical symptoms can be treated, although many will resolve. Any new anxieties and fears in facing the unknown will be relevant in treatment as well. Not to try to suppress them, but rather to understand them in a much greater context.
To start with, pose the contemplation to yourself. What is the single most important thing in life? What can you identify that you could start or stop doing today that would help you live in more integrity with what you know to be most important? Start there.