It is not uncommon to hear patients talk to others about their “acupuncture miracles.”
To someone suffering with severe migraines for years on end, and who has tried every drug and medical remedy under the sun, it might seem like a miracle to get relief after just a few simple acupuncture treatments.
To the woman pronounced infertile, it certainly seems miraculous when she is able to finally conceive. To the man with chronic lower back pain and sciatica, the relief from pain is expected, but the miracle comes in the form of better digestion and improved bowel and bladder function.
We tend to consider these events miracles because as a whole we have grown so accustomed to living life with chronic, sometimes debilitating ailments, that after a while they just become part of us and are accepted as normal.
On top of that, medicinal treatments, while offering at best symptomatic relief, do nothing to actually correct the underlying problem and bring the body back into its natural balance. Therefore, when perpetually treating a condition with medicine it is easy to become resigned to living with the vicious cycle of relief while on the drug (outside of the medicine’s inherent side effects), and the return of the symptoms when the drug wears off. To those raised on the medical model this is as good as it gets.
So when they finally find acupuncture and discover what it means to be truly healthy and allow the body to fully express itself mentally, physically, and emotionally from the inside out, it is only natural to consider it miraculous. Especially when given the torturous path that finally led them to acupuncture in the first place.
But what does it say about our general state of health that when the body is functioning as it was designed to and simply expressing life as it was meant to be, we tag it a “miracle”?
It is sobering that the majority of us have settled for way too long to live a life so far below our natural potential that we have forgotten what it feels like to be wholly healthy and well. The true miracle is that we allow ourselves to be abused by such an inefficient, often dangerous, system of medical care.
The acupuncturist works no miracles and heals nothing, but rather removes blockages and restores balance in the body, allowing the body’s wisdom to go to work and express health and life the only way it knows how. A life that more and more people are discovering is easily within their grasp.