Every breath taken is one perfect moment that will not come again. Breathing is the clock by which we count out our days of life. To be allowed to be present with our clients, to really see them and be with them as they inhale and exhale, and to offer them a place of peace to process and make sense of what they have encountered and known in their lives, is a great gift. It is a gift for our clients, and it is a gift for us.
Living energy systems naturally move from a state of imbalance toward a state of balance when they are witnessed. We can call this a State of Grace, or simply a State of Healing. Witnessing is terribly important in acupuncture, and in fact it is one of the great privileges our profession grants us. It has been said, and rightly so, that having someone to witness your life – to take note of the comings and goings of your daily activities, and to validate and give worth to your existence merely by caring enough to really look at you – is the reason why people come together in the first place.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics was simplified for most of us when we learned about it in high school. To say that entropy means that things fall apart, and that there is no avoiding, it is not correct. The Second Law applies to isolated systems, meaning things that are not interacting with their surroundings. Acupuncture allows us to witness our clients, which means that they (and we) are not alone, and that means that there is no isolation. When there is no isolation, decay and decline is slowed. The term “quality of life” is really about feeling isolated. To offer our clients the best quality of life through our treatments, being present to them and witnessing their lives is more than good business, it is good medicine.
