I have been practicing acupuncture for over a decade, my patients have come to see me for pain, headaches, insomnia, digestive issues, anxiety, and chronic health issues and I would treat them using needles, herbs, and repeat visits. I used to have my patient return weekly, until they felt better, or their funds ran low or they just got tired of coming. I would tell them that the longer they have had this issue the longer it would take to treat the problem. I would continue to shift the treatment protocols week after week, use different herbal formulas or what ever I could come up with, to help them feel better. But sometimes it never worked, they never got better.
They one day something happened that changed my life and the way I practiced forever. I had been super frustrated with my husband, we had been fighting for a long time. I was angry & irritable and my body felt agitated. Then I had a profound thought, “the way I am feeling is effecting my body and I am going to get very sick”, cancer was what came to my mind.
I had already been diagnosed with eczema, infertility and had regular bouts of insomnia and fatigue. The message was so clear to me, my thoughts where causing damage to my body and I was going to get sick if I did not change my way of thinking. I knew this was true on so many levels. So I had two options, one was to separate from my husband, but that felt very messy at the time and heart breaking for my young family, but even more so, there was something deep inside that needed to be healed and if I did not face what ever that was, then it would continue to affect my life. So I needed to do something else and that is what I chose to do, something else. I dove into healing my own wounds, the way I looked at life, the pain between me and my husband and I began to become aware of all the ways I was thinking that didn’t serve my life.
This was a great break through, because I became very conscious to the concept that disease starts in the mind. I knew I had deal with my mind, heart, & soul or else it was going to continue to effect my body.
Once I started to heal myself, I could no longer keep treating people like I had been before; take your herbs, get acupuncture, and come back next week and hope that it worked. I realized that my work had to focus the root of what was happening for my patients in their minds & spirit.
So instead of treating my patients with just herbs and acupuncture now there is a whole new level of coaching that I integrate. I begin by diving into what are the stresses that my patients are dealing with? What is happening in their life that has them worried, concerned or frustrated? What do they do for pleasure or self-care? Why are they working so hard with so little rest? What has drained their adrenals? It is now all about how my patients are dealing with in life. Helping them develop new ways of seeing each situation that has been causing them stress or suffering. Healing the stress is at the root of healing our bodies, which means diving into the deeper layers of how our emotions and our thoughts are affecting our bodies.
The other day I was in a Facebook group and another practitioner was asking for help, she had a patient, who is busy CEO and has lots of stress, and she was telling the group that she had tried a Chinese medicine formula, but it was not working. So, I wrote her and told her that she should focus on clearing the stress because that is the root of what she is trying to treat. The herbs are a band- aid to what is really affecting the body.
She told me that he was an executive at a major company so he stress was here to stay and then I realized that the idea that life is stressful and we just have to live with it, runs deep in the veins of our country. What the SEO really needs is help changing the way to he sees life. Life is not stressful, but rather the way you react to it is.
When we wake up to the idea that alternative medicine is just a prettier version of the medical system, but using “safer”, more natural ways to heal the body, then when can see that we still are not getting to the root of what is really happening in the body. Sometimes it works, but if it doesn’t, then it is time to take a look into the workings of your mind.
Know your triggers, what sets you off, so you can catch yourself in the moment and become aware of the way you are seeing the situations that are coming up in your life and causing you stress. Then the work is to build a new way to see each situation, choosing to see things differently. That is how you can make huge change in your life and finally heal your body. It’s not as easy as swallowing the next super herb, but it sure works a lot better.
For more nuggets of wisdom download my Boost and Bloom guide that helps you to start you journey in the healing on a deeper level. Get it here for FREE: http://bit.ly/2x3sfnD. You can find me over on instagram at Sylvia.Salcedo or my website www.sylviasalcedo.com or Facebook at Sylvia Salcedo L.Ac. See you soon!