If you’ve ever seen an oldtime stonecutter at work, you know that persistence pays off.
Equipped only with a sledgehammer, chisel, and determination, they rain blow after blow
down upon the rock, confident that their work will produce the desired result. Although
the stone shows no outward signs of wear and tear, the stone cutter continues on,
knowing that each swing of the hammer will weaken the stone a little more until it finally
splits in half.
Likewise, correcting a longstanding condition takes time and patience, and occasionally
the relief does not come as quickly as you would like. This does not mean that the
treatments are ineffective, but rather that they need the necessary time to work their
cumulative effect. Each treatment builds on the ones before it and helps to create a
whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Just as it takes immense pressure over a long period of time for dense rock to form, most
chronic imbalances result from years of abuse and neglect to the meridian system. Every
trauma that you experience, the years of stress that you endure, repetitive strains, toxic
assaults on your body, etc., all compound the process of breaking through the hardened
layers and eventually splitting the stone.
Remember that your symptoms are not the problem, but rather a result of your underlying
imbalance. In most cases, long before the pain ever began, the real cause was festering
under the surface. In many instances this process can go on for years before any
outward signs show themselves. When an imbalance is left undetected it can lead to
persistent, chronic problems and disease. In effect, what began as a porous chunk of
pumice is now a dense marble monolith.
How long it takes to correct your condition depends on how chronic the problem is, as
well as the amount and severity of other complicating factors such as age, physical
conditioning, activity level, nutritional habits and stress levels. Having the expectation
that a chronic condition will be corrected in just a couple visits to your acupuncturist is
simply unrealistic.
The key to finally overcoming the resistance of the stone is to be as consistent as
possible with treatment and to give the body the time it needs to return to its natural
balance.
Be patient, each treatment builds upon the one before it until the ultimate goal of balance
is achieved.
