"I tried Ear Acupuncture at Taochemy, followed by Almeda’s Kasvi"
A letter from a client and friend of Almeda regarding her first experience with Taochemy:
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Long ago, I had my first acupuncture session at a community clinic. I had gone in seeking relief from some long standing shoulder pain. After lying face down for what felt like an hour with needles in my back, I felt no noticeable effects, other than a puffy face. The acupuncturist took one look at my swollen visage and simply said, “Whoa.” She quickly course-corrected and said, “It’s okay. I’ve seen worse.”
Uh… thanks?
A few years later, my second encounter with an acupuncturist was a much more enjoyable experience. However, the effects of the treatment were not entirely clear to me, beyond relaxation and enjoying the feeling that something was probably happening.
Then I tried Taochemy’s 5-point ear acupuncture. WOWZA. This was something different.
Experiencing the Science-Based 5-Point Acupuncture at Taochemy
The acupuncturist greeted me warmly (but clinically).
Meeting the acupuncturist felt good. She listened and assessed my situation clearly. After asking me how I was doing, she said some things that indicated she truly saw my pain and struggle -- without fully getting into the details. She led me to a treatment room and encouraged me to get comfortable for the session.
The acupuncture session began with several light pricks to my ears.
Now, this part sounds rough, but it was actually pretty easy. One by one, the acupuncturist removed hair-thin needles from individual sterilized packages. She quickly but gently poked them into my ears at five specific points on each side, telling me about how each area was linked to my body. Strangely (to me), almost immediately one of the needles fell out. The acupuncturist told me that meant that I really needed the treatment -- that my nervous system had been really revved up, in “fight or flight” mode for a long time. And it’s true, I’d been going through a lot recently and historically have found it hard to simply relax.
I was left alone for 20 minutes.
The acupuncturist set a timer and left me in the room to absorb the effects of the treatment. At first, I continued to feel some sensations from the needles. In fact, I was hyper-aware of the fact that I was lying there with needles scattered around my ears, forehead, and scalp. While that thought was dominant for a while, I increasingly felt more comfortable with the situation. Eventually, my mind relaxed and drifted into a new state. I went from “mind circus” to calm in fairly short order. At that point, the treatment became more about my whole body as I felt a sense of deep integration.
Now, I don’t know how this part of the acupuncture treatment experience will feel to others. But I really liked it. I’m used to doing meditation 20 minutes, twice per day, and this brought me further into myself than I’d felt in a long time.
The acupuncturist returned to remove the needles.
After dropping into my body like that, the time went fast. Too fast. I was actually sad to see her return! As she removed the needles, we talked briefly about the experience and we discussed the pineal gland and calcification of the third eye area… something I hadn’t known about before. The acupuncturist assured me about the good signs she was seeing in me following treatment.
I was pretty blissed out drinking Kasvi Cacao following treatment
I was invited to leave the treatment room to sit and drink some Kasvi Cacao (yum). I continued a brief conversation with the acupuncturist, but looking back I can say that I was barely lucid at that point. When I walked out of the treatment room into the main office space I was overwhelmed by the bright daylight and suddenly I was gobsmacked by the beauty of the hills outside. I also became keenly aware of the giant green plants in the room that I hadn’t even seen before. Indeed, I was pretty blissed out. An experience I was not expecting.
Drinking the cup of Kasvi Cacao was incredibly grounding, and -- of course -- delicious. It was mixed with agave, so it was sweeter than my natural cup, and I could feel and taste the plant ingredients working together synergistically. It tasted a bit like cinnamon, but I was assured there was no cinnamon in it. Interesting!
I was thankful to have that time to further decompress from the treatment. I drove home and slowly returned to something closer to my baseline state, but definitely feeling more relaxed than usual. That night I went to bed at 7:30 p.m. and didn’t awaken until the next morning at 7:30 a.m. How long has it been since I rested that well? A decade? 15 years? That tells me that I definitely released significant levels of built-up stress during the treatment.
The positive effects were lasting -- for me.
Since that time, I’ve been feeling really settled; I’m much more content. And, amazingly, as one important side effect, my blood pressure has gone down. This is likely a combination of a lot of factors, but I give at least ⅓ the credit to the acupuncture, ⅓ to myself for taking actions where I needed to do so, and ⅓ to support from friends.
I’m definitely open to getting additional treatments as needed, and I would recommend ear acupuncture to anyone who feels stressed out. This is exactly the kind of treatment the world needs more of right now.
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Want to try your own Taochemy + Kasvi experience? Book here.