May’s play: Entraining your nervous system
Many patients ask us how acupuncture works…
Research illuminates a variety of mechanisms — Substance P communicating via nerve fibers to the brain, connective tissue signaling through inflammatory and immune responses… Both valid! However, the explanation most notable to me is acupuncture's impact on the nervous system.
The nervous system has two tracks:
Sympathetic (the fight—flight-freeze associated with “stress”)
Parasympathetic (the rest-restore path, driving digestion, recovery and down regulation).
These two tracks can’t run in parallel; they are mutually exclusive. Acupuncture is remarkable in its immediacy of initiating the parasympathetic response.
Evolutionarily, the sympathetic track was meant for use only a few times a year- in the hunt, predation, in famine. Modern society can make us permanent residents. One of my teachers defined “stress” as the “sense that something urgently needs to be done.” Anyone with an email inbox can relate to that sentiment. This can feel unrelenting for our patients (across life domains). Especially for women — who, in my observation, often juggle one more ball than a human could ever feel successful with. Such graceful acrobats…
Acupuncture provides an opportunity for down-shifting into the parasympathetic.
Here, the body engages its inherent capacity for healing. Whether it be restoration of hormone balance, sleep, relief from anxiety or hyper-vigilance, acupuncture provides immediacy. In today's world, demanding “immediate response”, what if we lean into that transition towards peacefulness? I relish in the certainty of a state shift for our patients. She who carried all the balls — at rest.
Paired with methodical functional medicine; unraveling patients’ physiology through precision “detective work”, we intend sustainable care.
May is a historically busy month- patients’ can describe it as frenetic.
Know that the CUMULATIVE effect of nurturing your parasympathetic requires minimal time investment:
5 minutes of breathe work,
3 minutes of body scan,
fully hydrating before getting out of bed in the morning
Habits become passive with practice.
Bring PLAY back in with rituals that shore up your nervous system. Remember the month of May when you were 8: popsicles, daisies, fireflies? Pull up those snapshots in your mind and lean into her unburdened flow..
Always here to offer sanctuary at Gingko.
Warmly, Rachel Schaefer LAc FABORM