needles and pins
So. Yesterday I went to the acupuncture clinic.
This was a first, I've never had acupuncture done before. I went because of a pain in my jaw. A mysterious pain that my doctor said could be caused by "stress." She said it would just go away naturally, but that was a month ago. So I thought I'd go try acupuncture. Where the pain comes from, nobody seems to know. Odd, I guess these are things that start happening after turning thirty. Well, damn, at least I have that health insurance I've been trying to get for years! But now I wonder if it's not a kind of self-fulfilling cycle where the fact that I have health insurance means I'll start putting it to use. Oh well, worrying about that will just add to my "stress."
Actually I was very surprised at the suggestion that I might be stressy about things. I've never really had a problem with it, have always been able to just kind of let things happen as they would naturally, must be from all those years of doing Zen when I was a teenager into my early 20's.
In fact, people who say they "suffer" from "stress" strike me as self-indulgent and annoying. I will never be one of them, I've always said to myself! But now I have a doctor and an acupuncturist telling me this could be caused by stress? What stress do I have in my life? The only stress I am aware of comes from finding a too long line at my favorite coffee place, or the Japanese grocery store being out of my favorite miso. But other than that, there's not too much to complain about, other than my favorite target: the dullness of San Francisco.
But maybe that's the cause of my stress, actually. Just the lack of surprise, the lack of stimulation in San Francisco, it's causing a build up of, um... unreleased excitement, making my jaw hurt.
The acupuncture actually made me feel much better, and they gave me a huge bag of herbs that I have to spend a couple of hours reducing to a potent tea, which makes me feel great as well. Beginning of an adventure I guess.