It’s that time of year again. The month of love. Generally, we think of cupid, flowers, candy hearts and romantic love, but I like to think that this month is fast becoming known for celebrations of love in all its forms. Familial love. Love of pets. Platonic Love. Love of community. And, perhaps most importantly, self-love.
One of my favorite observations of the community setting is the knowledge that everyone is coming in to rest, heal, and relax. We’re all here giving ourselves a much-needed reprieve from the business of life and to enjoy the healing benefits of acupuncture. But what’s amazing is that there is a third, often overlooked benefit, to what an hour of rest can achieve. Namely, self-awareness.
We address this briefly in our welcome letter to new acupuncture patients. We explain: “One of the greatest gifts of regular treatment is enhanced self-awareness.”
Now let me start by acknowledging that acu-nap days are amazing. No doubt about it. But what about the sessions when you don’t fall asleep? Where do your thoughts go? As you may have noticed, we tend to have busy minds. I have often sat and thought, “When am I going to fall asleep? What time it is? Did I turn my phone off? Do I need to add milk to my shopping list? I need to prepare for that conference call tomorrow….” On and on my mind can race, but then I realize that I’m giving myself one hour to drop all of that noise and to simply rest. To pause. To enjoy the art of doing nothing.
So I invite you to give yourself permission to enjoy some simple fallow time at your next visit. “Fallow time” is a term I learned about from an opinion piece in the New York Times, "You Are Doing Something Important When You Aren’t Doing Anything”. In it, the writer talks about how periods of rest can help us give back to ourselves: “There’s something to be said for the state of quiet dormancy, where little apparently happens. We might have periods of furious output; to get there, we require periods of faithful input. With input, there’s a restoration of fertile, vibrant thinking. You might need a monthlong fallow after a big project. Or maybe it’s two weeks. You might even do it in a minor way — a half-day mini-sabbatical, say, to achieve what the Harvard psychologist Shelley Carson has called the ‘absorb state.’” Indeed, I can’t think of a better place to enjoy a “half-day mini-sabbatical” than in our community setting where you’re protected from emails, calls, texts, app pings, alarms, and alerts.
If, however, you have a hard time resting and actively doing nothing, then there are a wide variety of tools to consider. You can run a body scan and try to release where you’re holding tension. You can check in with and modulate your breathing. You can listen to guided meditations through headphones. You can day dream that you’re in a beautiful forest. Or perhaps recite mantras over and over to interrupt the flow of thoughts. Such activities can have meaningful impacts on your wellbeing and can even lead to some wonderful insights as you become more self-aware.
If you’re like me, no one strategy works at all times. When stressed, it helps me to focus on breathing. When anxious, I practice body scanning and try to relax my shoulders, my jaw, my eyes, etc. And when I’m sad, I like to just sit and rest, to observe my thoughts without judgment, ponder how I can be kinder to myself, and maybe repeat some mantras to help me redirect negative thinking.
For a final thought, here’s a quote I love (from Dr. Dan Siegel, clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and author of the book Mindsight): “Each of us needs periods in which our minds can focus inwardly. Solitude is an essential experience for the mind to organize its own processes and create an internal state of resonance. In such a state, the self is able to alter its constraints by directly reducing the input from interactions with others.”
Doesn’t that just sound lovely? I’ve copied below some more resources to consider if you are interested. There are truly countless ways to use the mind during an hour of interrupted rest. With frequent acupuncture treatments, you can begin to hone in on what comes up for you or simply enjoy the blessing of stillness.
Resources to check out:
Tara Brach Guided Meditations and Lectures
Learn more about Mindsight which describes our human capacity to perceive the mind of the self and others. It is a lens through which we can understand our inner lives with more clarity, integrate the brain, and enhance our relationships with others.