This idea never left me
While I was face down on the table last week, my amazing acupuncturist asked me a question: What sticks?
It wasn’t an (intentional) acupuncture pun. She was asking what has stayed with me from my years of practicing acupuncture.
Two things immediately came to mind: point location and Five Element theory. But in pondering the question in the days since, I realized I failed to mention the thing that made the most lasting impression.
The driving idea behind acupuncture is that you’re already in possession of everything you need to be well.
Acupuncture doesn’t add anything. It prompts the body to do what it already knows how to do—heal itself—by removing blockages and shifting energy across a network of meridians.
I can still remember where I was the first time I came across this idea. It was 18 years ago, during my first year of acupuncture school. The profound simplicity of it blew me away and has stayed with me ever since.
In fact, this approach—subtracting what’s in the way and redesigning what’s left—is foundational to the work I do today as a coach.
Coaching, like acupuncture, is a modality grounded in the perspective that clients are whole, capable, and complete.
In the same way acupuncturists use needles to help move energy, coaches use focused listening and pointed questioning to help shift the thoughts and patterns blocking you from the outcomes you want.
This insight, that the 2007 version of me was excited by an idea that still lights me up almost two decades later, was useful. It helped me identify a common thread and guiding sensibility in my work.
At times, life can feel like a random smattering of information and responsibilities and memories, all jumbled together with no distinct message or purpose. Slowing down to contemplate what sticks may offer some insight about where your inner compass is pointing.
What ideas or experiences have never left you? How are they showing up in your life today?
If they appear to be absent: Are you neglecting something important, or are they the water you swim in?
Providence, RI
September 2025
