Playing with Pins and Needles.


carla-sofia@netmadeira.com

Like most people fed with the incapacities and incompetence of modern medicine, I opted for trusting the alternative… acupuncture.

My first consultation was met by an interesting assistant with a vast amount of knowledge; she had a little bit to say about everything and struck me as a woman who’d try anything and someone you’d never be bored around. The waiting room itself was proof of her imagination. On one corner there was a big bucket decorated with sea plants, filled with water and habited by little fish. On the other there was a plant filling the white clean room with the life colour green and on her desk was a book on Feng Shui that she read whilst unoccupied with patients. My biggest surprise was the acupuncturist himself. I expected an old man with thick glasses and slow talk. Instead I got a man who couldn’t be too far off in his thirties, with the big, kind eyes and a comforting voice to go with it. He asked me why I’d come to see him, although I don’t see why, seeing as though he confirmed my every complaint after looking me up and down. The way he examined me was different from the way I’d ever been examined before. He watched me from across the table, slowly looking up and down my body as if he was scanning it with a laser beam. X-ray doctor? What did he see on my exterior that other doctors can’t see without a physical examination and blood tests done. My only conclusion is that he was analysing my aura, the only element of me able to transmit information about my body that isn’t physically visible. In addition to some words of wisdom, I was given some expensive homeopathic medicine to take and booked a treatment almost two months after my first consultation.

How do you prepare for acupuncture treatment? Without any prior warning, I was left without any sleep due to mixed expectations so by the time I found myself once again inside the acupuncturist’s therapy room, I was a ball of nerves! Told to take my clothes off up to my underwear, I was lead to lay on a white table, covered by a mere sheet. Candles were lit, calm music invaded my senses and I was told to relax as the assistant placed needles on strategic spots that I identified at being my 7 main chakras. Closing my eyes, I did as I was told and shut out the world.

What seemed like half an hour later, the assistant came back in, removed the needles and told me to turn over. I grinned as I realised that I was in a perfect position for a well deserved massage. However, the tension returned after the assistant left and the doctor entered. I suddenly felt like an animal waiting to be dissected and had the most urgent urge to run. Although they didn’t particularly hurt, I didn’t want the insertion of anymore needles and after all that relaxation, I felt too vulnerable for any kind of examination.
Yet, what happened next wasn’t exactly as I imagined. I felt cold hands on my feet with a weight almost inhuman. I’d read about this and gone through it in a Reiki course before but hands-on-healing was something I hadn’t experienced before. Suddenly the doctor’s hands were no longer cold as they slowly travelled up my legs. Biting my lip, I wished that he’d stop. Feeling uncomfortable, my only urge was to stand up and run. As if sensing my insecurity, I then had one hand on my shoulder whilst the other returned to my ankle. Slowly but surely, my doctor made contact with every area of my body. His hands felt warm, heavy and reassuring. I felt like putty in his hands, relaxed to the point where he could do anything with me he wanted… until he told me to turn around. That’s when I once again remembered that I had a stomach full of butterflies ready to flap at full force. But with the same tenderness, I was comforted back to bliss. Noting that he would not remove his hands from my body when changing position, I was surprised to find that I eventually felt empty when he did eventually take his hands away.

I might as well have been naked after two hours of treatment, because that’s how I felt once it was all over… vulnerable. Yet with the strongest sensation of inner peace that I’d ever felt. Regenerated, renewed… If ever the world was a see-saw, I felt like I’d finally found the middle. Time finally moved at my pace and I breathed easy.

Did it cure my problems? I’m not sure… but I do know that I haven’t felt this good in a long time and I’m left with a sensation that cannot be produced with a mere massage. A aura operation? Does synchronizing and fine tuning your soul’s energy influence your body back to health? Some argue that it’s all in the mind; others tell me it’s spiritual. Whatever it was, it did more for me than conventional medicine or any mind work could do in the last five months and I’ll stick to it as long as it keeps working for me. It did however get me thinking a lot about the power of touch. My doctor obviously possessed a lot of healing in his hands. I was left thinking: if a hand can hold so much power, one can only imagine the strength of a hug or the power in a kiss.