Acupuncture is a form of Chinese medicine that has been practiced for five thousand years. Chinese medicine is a wonderful way to achieve health because side effects rarely occur and often the patient sees results immediately. Chinese medicine views the body as a network of channels called meridians. Qi is the animating force that circulates through our body and gives us the capacity to move, think, feel, and work. My first day at acupuncture college was like sitting in a class taught in Swahili.
Chinese medicine interprets the body differently than Western medicine.
In Western medicine, the body is generally not viewed as a systematic whole. In Chinese medicine, however, the human being is seen as a world in miniature, a garden in which doctor and patient together strive to cultivate health. To fully experience our aliveness. To feel in our bodies a streaming, like the rush of a river over stones. To be awake, alert, and responsive in our limbs and sensitive in our fingertips.