Enjoy, You Deserve It! ✨
September whispers: slow down, breathe, and let beauty sneak in everywhere it can
You know that feeling when you finally get to exhale after a busy stretch? That's exactly where I am right now, and it feels absolutely delicious! As I sit here in the quiet of early September, with that lovely sense of dust settling after the summer's beautiful chaos, I'm practically buzzing with gratitude for how beauty has been sneaking into my life through the smallest things this week.
There's something so magical about this transition time—when we can finally slow down enough to notice the simple pleasures that were there all along. And here's what I want you to know: you deserve every bit of this joy, every moment of beauty, every simple pleasure that comes your way.
👇 In today's email:
This week's inspiration: Enjoy, You Deserve It! ✨
Latest blog post: Relieving Neck and Shoulder Pain Naturally with Acupuncture
What I'm Reading: Elements of Style by Wendy Wasserstein
Enjoy, You Deserve It! ✨
Like so many of you, I get bogged down in life's details, sometimes hyperfixating on things that are not right—they need to be improved and need to get done. For that reason, I gave myself acupuncture this week, something I don't often do, but I carved out the time to lie down on my amethyst mat and opened up an old book written by my teacher, who is a Daoist priest and quite famous in the world of Chinese medicine. I decided to use one of his protocols on myself—a simple insertion of only six needles, but it was designed to help me feel comfortable in the life that I am living and where I am going.
And so it was with that, I donned the headphones I commonly use on my clients and put myself into what I can only describe as an otherworldly trance.
In my mind, I was on the beach. It was a cool day, but not cold, and it started to snow but I was not cold. I opened up my chest, put my arms above my head, and grasped beautiful snowflakes, and felt a wondrous love coming from the heavens.
In the days since I've given myself this treatment, I've noticed an opening of my heart and a permission to find joy in the smallest things—the silky smoothness of the Japanese ceramic cup my dear friend brought me this summer, my hot coffee this morning, last night's sunset with friends, reading in the quiet of a clean home after my children have gone.
There's a quiet sense of all of the dust settling and the simplicity of early September.
As we enter this new week, I'm hoping you find the open-heartedness to pull in beauty from all of your senses and enjoy what is good. We deserve the beauty. We deserve the enjoyment. Enjoy your Labor Day. I hope you are having a day off from laboring. I hope you're doing what you wish with your time and welcoming in a new season.
Latest blog post
Relieving Neck and Shoulder Pain Naturally with Acupuncture
When you say something is a pain in the neck, you actually probably mean it. Perhaps the muscles along your spine tighten as if bracing for impact, or even your shoulders get tight—not necessarily the joint itself, but I actually mean the upper trapezius, like when someone comes to rub your shoulders. It can feel so tight.
I've noticed that we tighten these places when life seems uncertain, and for sure this time in life does feel very uncertain. Almost everyone who comes to me complains of tightness or even pain in those places. Surprisingly enough, some of the points to release those muscles are not in those locations at all—some of them are on the wrist or even on the side of the foot.
That's how acupuncture works: we sometimes release pain where it's felt, or go to a distal location and help unblock the energy. This blog post talks a bit about acupuncture and how we often feel like we need a little loosening up in the neck and shoulders.
What I'm reading
Elements of Style by Wendy Wasserstein
This week I'm reading Elements of Style by Wendy Wasserstein, about a collection of social-climbing Upper East Siders pursuits and affairs. Needless to say, this is light reading, and no tears shed yet for these characters, although I'm only on page 115, I sense something exciting is about to happen.
In any event, it's been easy and entertaining reading, perfect end-of-summer lying-on-the-sofa material.
So far I can say I recommend it. It's somewhere between Page Six, if that still exists, and The Devil Wears Prada.
I'm cheering for you. Have a wonderful week!
Dr. Cat 🥰