Elemental Acupuncture and Smoking Cessation

Many people ask about acupuncture treatment to help them quit smoking. Generally, my response is acupuncture can help one quit, however, one needs to be truly ready to quit smoking. That said.....

An interesting case is a woman I'll call Katie:

In her initial appointment, I asked Katie why she wanted to quit smoking. She reported she felt like a hypocrite - Katie worked as a massage therapist and feared any clients knowing she smoked. How could a someone whose job was to assist with another's health, smoke? She had concerns about the odor, and the toll it was taking on her. She said she'd quit once before.

In asking into why she she started again, she said it was 5 years ago, just after her mother died of a smoking related illness. She'd been about a pack a day smoker since then.

--In Oriental Medicine, the lung is related to the element of Metal and the emotion of grief--

see www.AcupunctureforPortland.com for more information on the 5 Elements

Katie was very emotional when she talked about her mother. Her eyes filled with tears. She said she and her mother were close. While her mother was dying, she was afraid and even said to herself, "I won't have anyone to talk with, once my mother is gone..."

--Katie was still, 5 years later, grieving the loss of her mother --

Her intake form also indicated that she had her jaw replaced two years ago. I asked into that. Katie said her jaw bone literally disintegrated. Her other bones were fine. The damage was severe. She required surgery - bone from her hip was grafted to create a new jaw. All of her teeth were false.

The element of Earth is related to one's mother -- the Earth organs are the stomach and spleen. The Earth element is about physical level digestion as well as the digesting of life experiences. Earth is centering, stabilizing and is about nourishment, harvests, abundance.

I gave Katie an acupuncture treatment focused on the Earth element to help her (re)connect with her mother. I recommended that if she wanted to smoke, it was okay, but if she did, to smoke and thoroughly enjoy it. Feel how it feels, the smoke coming into the lung. Indeed do nothing but be present with the cigarette. No reading the paper or talking on the phone. "Be with yourself and the cigarette." Katie agreed.

At our appointment the next week, Katie reported between the sessions, she'd smoked just 3 cigarettes. She realized they did not taste good and she didn't actually 'enjoy' them.

It was immediately clear to me, and to Katie, her smoking was not a physical addiction, it was emotional and related to her grief. Katie saw this and was transformed.

I treated Katie 5 or 6 more times, each time touching the Element that struck me. The Water Element, for foundation, her bones and jaw. Water rules the bones, our ancestors and genetics. The Water also offered support in Katie's loving and forgiving herself.

Katie noticed the connection and power of her words "I won't have anyone to talk with anymore, after my mother dies"... The jaw, of course, being integral to communication - had dissolved. Katie hosted a party and connected with her siblings and friends.

At one point, after some progress, I gave her an acupuncture point called "Great Oneness" - a point on the Earth element. I explained the poetry behind the point: Great Oneness offers the gift and image of a child at her mother's breast. The child being nourished and enveloped by her mother's love. Picture the mother and child connected. Mother and Child are One. Katie felt the connection with her mother and wept during her treatment. The grief was letting go. It resounded in her and she responded.

We talked about the Lung and how the Lung is about taking in (Inspiration, literal and symbolic) and letting go, exhale.

When there is nothing, one strives to fill up the emptiness. Katie said saw how she smoked to connect with her mother -- one of her mother's "less inspiring behaviors," she said. Katie said her mother loved to knit. Katie decided to take up knitting as a way of allowing her mother's love to live through her.

She stopped smoking, when she was ready. And, most importantly, Katie healed.