Every October 24th since 2002, members of the acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine community have come together to celebrate the medicine and the people it serves. The purpose of Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine Day is to increase public awareness of the progress, promise, and benefits of acupuncture and herbal medicine. This year, I have chosen to write about what I believe it means to celebrate the unique practices of acupuncture and herbal medicine.
I believe that a celebration of acupuncture and herbal medicine is fundamentally a celebration of the human body, and its remarkable capacity to heal. When people are suffering, their bodies have often lost touch with the ability to self-heal and self-regulate. I am routinely amazed that with the right encouragement, through treatment and actionable advice, how bodies can relearn to heal. Nobody is too old to learn something new or relearn something lost; self-healing is no different. This approach to medicine is intended to restore our bodies’ natural healing and self-regulating abilities, which deserve our attention, our care, and our commitment to their nurturing.
Celebrating acupuncture and herbal medicine also means celebrating the minds and hearts of the patients who show up for care. This approach to medicine is a collaborative effort, one that often requires patience and a willingness to ride the unpredictable waves of healing. Patients can be asked to make significant changes to the way they live their lives, be that the alteration of diet, the dropping of bad habits, or the introduction of new healthier habits to promote the kind of transformation they seek. This work is easy for some, but not for all, and I believe we ought to celebrate those who have learned to show up for themselves and trust that their acupuncturists and herbalists have their best interests at heart.
Lastly, though in many ways most importantly, celebrating herbal medicine is a celebration of our relationship with the Earth. The many and varied microclimates throughout China and the world create the unique environments which allow each one of our precious medicinal substances to thrive. Just like any other plant, without the correct conditions our medicine won’t grow, or it will grow, but its potency will be greatly reduced. We must protect the world we know from the (already occurring and) predicted changes to the climate should we fail to adjust our way of life. To trust in and be healed by herbal medicine is to trust in and be healed by the Earth in all its complexity, variety, and subtle organic growth.
Humans in modern society face many challenges, as they always do, though the threats to the very fabric of society have never been greater, nor have the threats to the natural environment that sustains us and all life on this planet. If I’ve learned anything over the last ten years of treating patients, it has been that humans are incredible in their capacity to shift from misery and despair to joy and vibrancy. I believe that as each of us finds genuine health and harmony in our bodies and our minds, we can more easily come together and extend that health and harmony outward into the world in which we live. We can attune healing within to healing beyond. We can be kind to one another. We can show up for one another. We can listen to one another. We can aid one another. We can band together and surmount the seemingly impossible.
Let’s celebrate the best parts of humanity, celebrate the natural world, and celebrate our place in it as stewards and caretakers.