Want to know why I became Chinese Medicine Practitioner – Read on to learn the reason and how it may help you too.
I look at this photo of myself, a woman in her late 40’s and think “What a journey I’ve been on!” Many of you know me as Anissa the Acupuncturist and Chinese Medicine Practitioner who owns a clinic in Cronulla, but how I got here has been quite a drawn out process.
Rewinding the theatre of my life to my early 20’s, I was earning ridiculous amounts of money in England, working for a large Bank as a contractor. I earned a lot of money and I was spending a lot of money. The year was 1999.
My life prior to living in England was pretty normal. I grew up in the suburbs of Sydney, close to bushland. I climbed trees, rode bikes, and had a pet dog and cat. I went to a private school, and I had a brother and sister. My father, who was a Doctor, had a surgery and my mother was a small business owner.
As I reached my teenage years, I became riddled with a lot of sub-health issues. My digestive system was troublesome, and my menstrual cycles were a constant torment to me.
Whilst I was surviving I just didn’t feel like I was thriving. I was just going from A to B.
By the time was working in my first job, I had become good at looking like I was surviving, but really, I struggled daily.
One day, I was walking out for a lunch break from work, and I found the effort of walking to lunch just a bit too hard. I knew something was wrong. I felt devoid of life.
It just so happened that where I was working, had a real alternative kind of feel. I started seeing a couple of alternative medicine practitioners, and I saw some results in my energy levels and my feeling of well being.
Fast forward back to England 1999. I’m in my highly paid corporate career. I should be the envy of young upwardly mobile career minded people. I am well paid, I am travelling around the world, I have a strong resume of experience, but somehow I was unhappy. I thought, how can I justify earning this amount of money, with no purpose?
I stopped and I made a promise to myself, that I was only going to work in this career until I saved enough money to put me through a degree in natural medicine. But which one? I liked all that I had experienced!
Thinking back to my early 20’s when I brought home the dried funny smelling herbs wrapped in paper packages, which I boiled, and drank. I also think back to the times when I was highly stressed at work and then received a bit of acupuncture.
The thought of becoming a Chinese Medicine practitioner made me feel nervous and excited.
Now I have a daughter, and my own peaceful and welcoming clinic. It is 80sqm in size. A far cry from working in a skyscraper, with its space age elevators and men and women in preened black suits, all on their mobile phones. My life is simple, but I am happy, and thankfully feel much healthier than I did in my youth.
