Why do we get sick?

Why do some people seem to get everything going, while others happily keep on going?

We might be tempted to answer, “it’s the immune system”, but the “immune” system is both merely a working theory and a relatively new concept – one that has not been tested and proven over the course of millennia. And in its short existence, many holes and inconsistencies have already been uncovered.

A view that:

• has persisted for over 5,000 years (some say 8,000… and it may be older still!)

Wouldn’t that feel so much better – more easeful, joyous and lighter – than being on constant alert for the next invisible germ or baddie out there?

And what about the fact that these invisible “germs and baddies” are actually a vital part of health? They already exist on and in us, to the extent that the number of microbial cells outnumber human cells by an estimated factor of at 10:1 (some sources now suggest that it’s closer to 100:1). In either case, we “humans” are more a community of bacteria and other microbes than anything else. Which then makes me consider – why the obsession with killing off all of the invisible microbes that we ideally live in symbiosis with us? And what IS the answer to “why do we get sick“?

This is the Chinese Medicine view.

In this episode, we look at the causes of disease through the lens of the oldest science in the world: time-tested over centuries – and millions of patients – and delivering powerful clinical results to this day.

• Loss of balance, connection and harmony

• Emotions

This lens sees us humans as primarily energetic, electromagnetic beings, and when we cultivate our Qi and our spirit-soul-consciousness, health is the natural result. This is summed up beautifully in the quote from our ancient medical book, the Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine, circa 200CE):

…when the Qi and Shen* are present and sound, no pathogen** can invade a person, even when the cycles of nature are disruptive, and plagues*** are near.

Listen for simple ways that we can cultivate these vital aspects of ourselves, for vibrant, radiant health.

(00:00) Intro

* Shen = spirit, soul, consciousness, awareness – the spark of life in someone’s eyes
** pathogen – literally, “pathos” and -“gen”, meaning something that is engendering suffering (not an invisible, contagious baddie or germ)
*** again, this originally meant an “affliction”, not necessarily infectious

Our daily habits are the foundation for our health and “immunity”. Every moment, meal, drink, thought, habit, etc. can bring us into greater alignment and can charge up our Qi – the life force energy that fuels every aspect of health.

This is why I created the Radiant Energy Reset. A gentle, self-guided path of ancient health rituals to cultivate Qi, Yin, Yang and connection – guided by the wisdom of your own body. A real solution for those ready to ditch the fads & feel clear, energised and in control again. Backed by ancient wisdom, not wellness trends. All the details here.

And, as we learned in this episode “when the Qi and Shen are present and sound, no pathogen can invade a person, even when the cycles of nature are disruptive, and plagues are near”.

I show you how to cultivate and boost your Qi and your Shen – your spirit, soul, consciousness. Just 10 minutes a day of Qi Gong & Emotional Alchemy to connect to YOUR innate wisdom & guidance – and feel grounded in YOU. You already have all you need within. A gentle embodiment journey, instant access and at your own pace. Details here.

(00:00) Hi everyone, welcome to the Balanced Natural Health podcast where we share insights from the ancient science and timeless wisdom of Chinese medicine. Information from the old natural ways of healing can support us in leading more beautiful, more vibrant and more vital lives today. In this podcast I share simple, natural and accessible tips that you can incorporate into your everyday life for more vibrant health and wellness. I’m so glad you’re here.

(00:32) Hi everyone, I’m Dr. Maz! Welcome back to episode 47 of the podcast. In today’s episode I’d like to share a different perspective on why do we get sick Why do symptoms arise and why do we experience dis-ease? And why is it that some people seem to catch every bug, every flu or cold or gastro that’s going around and others seem to be totally fine? Or why is it that some people have asthma or allergies or reactions to mold or certain environments whereas other people in that same environment or around the same triggers seem to be totally impervious to any outside input? So what is behind that?

(01:22) Now if we think with our modern mainstream mindset, we might answer it’s the immune system. But there are two things to consider about this answer and that is that the immune system theory is just that. It’s a theory, a working hypothesis that has some pretty major holes. So there’s definitely some issues, it’s not airtight, it’s just a working theory.

And the other thing to consider is that it is also a relatively new idea – a relatively new construct that hasn’t had the opportunity to be proven out over thousands of years like the other view that I’m about to share with you.

So ,the modern idea of an immune system is say 100 to 150 years old, and prior to that we had a very different idea of why do we get sick – and therefore, what we can do in order to cultivate vibrant wellness, and also how to look after our health preventatively. And this other view that I’m going to present to you is a beautiful contrast to the current view of the immune system, which has us constantly on guard, on high alert, on defense for invisible baddies and all of the invisible pathogens / bugs / viruses / bacteria that are out to get us. This means that we always have our back up: our nervous system is never truly at ease or at rest because we’re in this militaristic mindset of being at the ready, to spring into attack or to defend ourselves.

(03:06) But this other view is actually about harmony – it’s about trusting the wisdom of our brilliant, brilliant beings, our brilliant body-mind-souls. It’s about trusting that we are so powerful to cultivate vibrant health, and also to rebalance from whatever ails us – and also trusting in the power and the wisdom of Mama Nature, and trusting in the power of our connection to the web of life, to the natural world around us. Because the fact of the matter is that we are woven in to the web of life, and we live in community and symbiosis with the world around us – and this is particularly true when we consider our own human environment.

You might have heard me or others talk about the idea of the microbiome, and this refers to the beautiful collection and living community of microbes. These are the tiny little organisms, like bacteria, yeast and fungi and so on, that live in and on our bodies. And this is why people love selling probiotic supplements – because they are meant to make our microbiome healthier. But there’s actually other ways to do that, that are much more lasting.

(04:26) This community of beautiful little friends is vast, richly textured and layered, and if we count the microbial cells within that whole community, they actually outnumber our human cells by a factor of roughly 10 to 1, by current estimates. This is pretty mind-blowing when we ponder, what is it that makes us human? What IS a human? And when we consider that we, as human beings, are more microbes than human – more community than human – then how does this modern militaristic view of killing microbes and defending against invisible baddies make sense?! It has us killing the very organisms that are helping us to live and thrive, and that are performing essential functions within our body.

And when we’re constantly at war with them, in a way, we’re at war with ourselves – and at war with connection to nature herself. Because the fact is that many of the bacteria or microbes that have been blamed for certain diseases and illnesses actually live in – and on – us when we’re in a healthy balanced state too. So it’s not about the microbes themselves as being baddies, but rather it’s actually about the whole symphony of all of those microbes within the context of our human selves. Are they in balance? Are they out of balance? Are they coherent? Are they supporting life?

This is why waging war on microbes is not going to lead to thriving good health. Instead we need to look at how we can bring coherence, harmony and balance to our inner world, and harmony to how we interface with the world around us.

(06:21) This other perspective that I’m about to share with you on why do we get sick, and how we can maintain vibrant wellness, is not focused on doing war or fighting off invisible nasties. or constantly having our back up. Instead, it’s about surrendering that and having faith in the wisdom of our bodies – and trust in the wisdom of nature. It’s about living in harmony with the world outside us, and also living in harmony with the world within us. That includes microbes – but it also includes all of our inner workings, our entire mind-body-soul, our emotions. We’ll get into that in just a minute.

This worldview that I’m about to share with you is the Chinese Medicine view of health, and it is a view that has persisted for at least 5,000 years – if not longer. There’s different opinions on its age – it might be 8,000 years or more – and as such, it is the oldest surviving science in the world. And it is a science that still offers us powerful ways of bringing about balance, of bringing harmony and cultivating health in this modern world. So it has truly stood the test of time, and it can be applied to the whole range of diseases and sicknesses that we experience as humans, whether it’s a dis-ease of body, mind or soul.

(07:48) So let’s take a look at what Chinese Medicine offers us as to “why do we get sick”. Why do we experience sickness and dis-ease, and what can we do to maintain health.

From our perspective, the things that can lead to dis-ease and suffering are fundamentally a loss of balance and harmony: a loss of connection to and alignment with the living natural world around us. This is because we are living beings, and we depend on connection to the web of life around us to regulate our rhythms, to synchronise our flow, and to exchange Qi – energy – with as well. So a loss of balance and harmony, a loss of connection and balance are the answer to why do we get sick.

Fundamentally, within our bodies we are always looking for a balance of Yin and Yang – which is the fundamental polarity of this material existence – as well as the flow of Qi and how charged up, or how abundant our Qi is. So. are we well resourced with energy, and is that energy in integrity? Is it flowing everywhere it needs to go? Because this is how information moves through our body, and how all of our vital functions and body systems get to regulate and optimise. We need to make sure that information or Qi is moving freely through the body.

(09:14) I like to visualise that we exist within a field of energy, or Qi: a field of our own energy that interacts with the world around us. Our own energy or Qi field has energy superhighways – these are the meridians, or channels, and it also has microcirculation of that. I like to think of this field as almost like a mesh or a weave, and when we have different snags in that energetic mesh or circuitry, then things don’t move and information, vital substances and Qi doesn’t get to go to where it needs to go.

This is summed up beautifully in one of our ancient texts, the Huang Di Nei Jing, or the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine. This book is over 2,000 years old and this is what it says about the aetiology or the causes of disease – an ancient answer to “why do we get sick”:

“when the Qi and the Shen are present and sound, then no pathogen can invade a person – even when the cycles of nature are disruptive and plagues are near”

Qi is our life force energy, that charge that I talk about and how well it’s flowing and circulating; Shen is our spirit, our consciousness, our present awareness, our spark of life. And in this book, when they talk about pathogens, they talk about it in the literal sense of the word as it is originally intended – not as invisible baddies: “pathogen”, meaning literally “pathos”, suffering, and “gen”, so bringing about or generating that suffering. So this does not have to be invisible germies or anything like that. And also when they talk about plagues they just talk about in the sense of suffering as well.

(10:59) So we see very clearly how cultivating harmony within, and charging up our inner energy, can provide us with a robust grounding to hold steady no matter what the outside world throws at us, whether that’s physical, emotional, energetic – on any level. The more resourced we are within, the more we can hold firm and keep our centre.

So now that we know what the ideal is – what can disrupt that harmony, that balance between Yin and Yang, and that beautiful charge and flow of Qi? Why do we get sick? Well, in Chinese Medicine we say that there are both internal and external causes of disease. The internal causes are the emotions. Emotions are literally energy in motion, Qi in motion, and if they’re not allowed to move, metabolise or alchemise through the body, then they will snag that beautiful network – that circuitry of Qi – and they’ll obstruct the flow.

And then, maybe circulation will be impeded, or maybe certain cells or tissues in an area don’t get the information that they need and they become deranged, and don’t grow or multiply in the way that they should, and they lose their coherence. Maybe we accumulate too much fluid in one area because there’s not enough Qi flow to keep metabolising fluids there. When we’re suppressing emotions – or if we have stored trauma in the body as well – this can impede the flow of Qi, and this is why we have somatic practices in Chinese Medicine to move that Qi.

(12:41) Like Qi Gong, which literally means energy work. This is a somatic practice in which we move the meridians – we move that energy, or Qi, network – and we include our breath and our intention. When we work with these different meridian systems, we will titrate or discharge small manageable amounts of emotions that are trapped. So before and after a Qi Gong session feels very different.

We can move frustration, we can move heaviness or depression, grief, anxiety, ungroundedness and so on. By bringing harmony to that energy network of the body we also, over time, bring harmony to our inner emotional state. And in Chinese Medicine we have a deep understanding of the different effects of different emotions.

I’ve talked about this in other podcast episodes, (and also here, in relation to the Five Elements and their associated emotions). but, for example, we can say we say that shock can scatter the Qi, or worry can knot the Qi, or anger causes the Qi to rise up. Each emotion has a specific effect on the direction of Qi – or on the tangling of it, or the dispersal of it in certain ways. So this is why making sure that we’re, as I said, moving those energies through / out of the body is so important.

I’m also such a big fan of stream of consciousness journalling. This can be so helpful because it allows us just to witness the clutter that’s in our body, mind and soul, and get it out. We get to write it down onto paper, without projecting it onto someone else. It’s a pressure release valve for those emotions, and the more that we let them stream out of us – it’s like peeling off the layers of an onion. We start to see actually that there are other emotions or other energies beneath that.

So that’s one of the main internal causes of disease. The other is a secondary internal cause of disease, because it’s to do with lifestyle. It stems from what the ancients would call “improper living:, and that means not living in a way that is in alignment with our brilliant beings, and with how they desire to be cultivated.

(15:00) That can mean having an imbalance of work or movement, and inadequate rest or too much rest. Maybe it’s foods that are distanced from nature – or non-foods even, like processed foods, seed oils, artificial sweeteners, chemicals, preservatives. These are not things that we are meant to digest, so they’re going to snag our energy and contribute to blockages or Damp / inflammation within. Another improper way of living can also be not dressing ourselves properly for the environment.

In Chinese Medicine, we’re such big fans of scarves, and protecting our feet and covering our kidneys – no crop tops when it’s Cold! This is because the Bladder meridian crosses these areas, and the Bladder meridian is our first layer of interaction with the outside world, and it is easily affected by Cold and Wind, for example. This is why we treasure and nourish that Bladder meridian / channel, and make sure it’s warm and protected. (I share an acupressure tip for how to get Cold out of the Bladder meridian here, and a herbal tea option as well).

Not wearing sufficient clothes would constitute an improper way of living, as it could allow Cold to penetrate deep inside the body, where it can then interfere with different organ functions, and lead to things like, for example, gastro (or what appears like food poisoning), painful periods, joint pain. The list is endless and this is why we live in alignment with the outside world, as far as protecting ourselves and what we wear.

(16:33) There’s also improper living in things like “bedroom activities”, or sex. For men, excessive ejaculation can deplete the energy as well, as it’s depleting the Essence, or Jing, which are our deepest reserves of energy. The state of our Essence determines how we move through each stage of life, how vital and resilient we are, so depleting the Essence means that we’re less resourced within.

Another aspect of improper living is a lack of connection to – and harmony with – the outside world. This can contribute to an internal accumulation of Cold or Dampness (if we’re not dressed appropriately), or other things that obstruct the movement of Qi, Yin and Yang in the body. The external causes of disease are the Six Heavenly Qi, so-called because they describe six types of weather, or atmospheric and environmental Qi. They’re sometimes called the Six Evils or Six Pathogenic Qi. They’re not germs, but rather changes to do with the temperature and air pressure around us. They are Wind, Cold, Dryness, Damp, Heat and Summer Heat – which is a particularly annoying mix of Heat and Dampness together.

(17:39) Of these, Wind is the primary one. It opens the door for all of the others to get in, which is why we’re always looking after that Bladder meridian as I just mentioned, with scarves – and looking after our lower back / kidneys and making sure our feet are protected as well. As you know, we say that wind is the spearhead of a thousand diseases, and this is why we’re always looking after the exterior or surface of our body, making sure that there’s good circulation there, that we’re not cold, that we’re not goose-bumped – and this is why we are definitely not fans of air con, especially on that Bladder meridian area, and also why we definitely don’t sit in ice baths.

I’ve done a podcast episode on that and also several posts if you’re interested in learning more about that, because in Chinese Medicine we are always revering the spark of life – the Yang, the fire within. It’s like a metabolic pilot light that allows all of our body functions and systems to operate optimally, and this is why we don’t take in cold food or drink, we don’t put ice on injuries, we don’t ice bath because that all steals life. You can’t have too much Yang – you can’t have too much of that spark of life, that fire – and icing, taking in ice, or ice cream as well, it kills and dampens that vital spark.

(19:04) And finally we have miscellaneous causes, like trauma, poisoning, injury and so on. So you can see that in this whole list of ALL the causes of disease, we don’t have any mention of invisible nasties, baddies or germs, which is pretty eye-opening isn’t it? And it’s also pretty empowering, because it takes us out of that position of fear and victimhood, and feeling like we have no power to effect any changes on our health.

It returns us to – and reminds us of – a state of empowerment, where we remember that we have the power to cultivate our Qi, to cultivate our Shen, to charge up our batteries so that we can remain balanced no matter what’s happening externally. As our ancient text mentioned – when our Qi and Shen are full, then nothing external can touch us, because we are well grounded and well resourced within ourselves.

And this brings us to the goal of Chinese Medicine. Our overarching goal is always to bring harmony and coherence: to restore it where it has gone awry, to restore flow, and to remove blockage and stagnation. And, to cultivate and nourish our Qi – our spark of life – so that we can always maintain our centre – our balance – no matter what’s going on in the world. We are always focused on creating harmony within, with that flow of emotions, making sure that we’re not accumulating pathogenic factors within, like Cold and Damp (from Cold and Damp foods, or indigestible foods), and making sure that we’re also living in harmony with the outside world.

This means living in harmony with the seasons, with the daily cycle of Yin and Yang, and day and night: going to bed at the right time and rising at the right time – because this gives our systems important information. It tells our hormones what to do, tells our whole body how to organise itself through the day; and the same with the seasons – aligning ourselves in harmony both externally and internally is key.

(21:23) And so practically, what this looks like are habits like managing our energy expenditure and our energy restoration – energy in and energy out – making sure that we’re not overworking or underworking, and making sure that we’re having that beautiful balance of Yin and Yang. We’re always mindful in Chinese Medicine of not frittering away that precious Yang, that Qi, that life force – making sure that we allow sufficient time for that Yang to rebuild and recharge, making sure we get to bed by 9 p.m.ideally and making sure we take rest.

And on the flip side, also making sure that we are moving our bodies sufficiently – that our meridians are being flexed and that all of our organs are getting massaged by movement, and that our blood is getting moved through the body. In Chinese Medicine, there is always a “Middle Path” of moderation: that is always our ideal, we’re never about extremes, but rather a middle path of moderation that is sustainable as a way of life, for a whole beautiful, vibrant and well lifetime.

As I mentioned, practically we are also aligning with the daily cycle and seasonal cycles, and environmental factors around us, making sure we’re attired properly. It’s also choosing foods from nature – and from the nature around us specifically – so eating local; caring for our precious digestive fire, that precious spark of life, by choosing foods that are from nature, that are digestible, and taking those foods cooked and warm. There’s much more on this topic in the episode just before this one, about how important it is to choose cooked and warm foods and drinks – and what a difference it makes to gut health, cognitive health, sleep, depression, anxiety and a whole host of other presentations.

In practice, It’s also about allowing the free flow of emotions – and this doesn’t mean spraying our emotions out on people, but rather it’s about acknowledging that they’re there and allowing them to move through our body, whether it’s somatically or onto paper. It’s also about beginning to befriend those perhaps neglected, suppressed or hidden parts of ourselves – looking at what’s behind our various bindings, addictions or limiting beliefs, and then integrating and embracing those.

(23:54) In this way, we’re bringing together that Yin and Yang of self, that wholeness of self, bringing our shadows in, embracing them as well, so that we’re not at war with ourselves within. And further, on the topic of energy, cultivating health is also about being meticulous and discerning with our own energy within: looking at that whole energy or Qi circuitry and consideringL are we in integrity with what we think? what we say? what we believe? what we feel? what we do? Because wherever we’re not in alignment, it takes energy to hold that misalignment or that mismatch: we’re using up energy to hold that untruth.

But instead, if we’re in alignment with everything that we think, feel, say and do, then everything’s in harmony. It’s like the whole orchestra of our being is in tune, and that amplifies our life force – our Qi, everything flows freely, whereas if there are snags and kinks and hidden bits, then that drains our energy.

So, for example if we tell someone that we’d love to do something but actually we really don’t, then that drains our energy, because we have to hold that tension, that disconnect and we force ourselves to do something that doesn’t feel good. Again, we’re denying our own inner wisdom and that is a betrayal. It’s actually a double whammy, because it’s a betrayal of our own inner wisdom and then we’re also forcing ourselves to feel drained by being in a situation that’s not in alignment. And so, coming into ever greater integrity, refinement, fullness of self, and coherence of self, is such a vital part of becoming more and ourselves, so that we can hold our centre no matter what goes on around us.

Another external way that we practically cultivate our health is making sure that we’re dressing appropriately. This means not overdressing when it’s hot and also making sure we’re protecting from cold and wind – especially Wind, as the spearhead of a thousand diseases. As we said, it opens the door for all the other pathogens. So, protecting our beautiful meridians with scarves and keeping our feet warm.

This one’s also really important for women who have painful periods, or even people with back and hip pain – because the meridians that traverse the reproductive organs and also the back, hip, leg, knee are all connected – they come up from the feet, And so. if that meridian is cold and contracted at the very root, then Qi is impeded and energy doesn’t flow as freely. This is why getting our feet in a foot bath, making sure we wear socks and slippers is also a really important aspect of preventative health, and cultivating health.

(26:51) And finally, externally we’re also about moderating extremes, and always looking for that middle path as well. This means protecting from extreme weather, protecting from wind, avoiding air con (that’s such a big no-no!), and not sitting around in damp clothes for example. And as I mentioned before, no ice baths or draughts or any of these externally disruptive factors. So, to illustrate this view a little bit further let’s take a look at what being out of balance can look like, and how this can explain why we get sick.

For example, if we are eating foods that don’t digest, or we’re not nourishing our digestive fire – so let’s say we’re eating lots of smoothies and cold drinks, slushies, raw food – or maybe we’re multitasking or skipping meals, then that precious digestive fire becomes really weak. And if we’re not cultivating it over time, if we’re not caring for it, then it starts to die down and this can lead to Cold and Damp internally, because that food is not being digested efficiently. This means that we end up with undigested food, which then festers and ferments into Dampness – which is somewhat equivalent to inflammation. This in turn can lead to chronic inflammation, body-wide inflammation, things like sore joints, arthritis; it can lead to congestion, cysts, bumps and lumps – all sorts of presentations.

The other thing also that can happen if we have not tended to our precious digestive fire, is that then our digestive system can become easily overwhelmed when we travel. For example we might easily get travel bugs or”Bali belly”, “Delhi belly”, whatever you want to call it, and also we might succumb to gastro. Whereas someone who has tended to their Spleen – their Earth element, their digestive fire – is going to be more robust, and more resilient to those external energies of Cold and Damp, and their digestive fire will be able to withstand that. They might feel maybe mildly unwell, or maybe have a reduced appetite, but they’re not going to have such a violent response necessarily. Therefore, it’s really important preventative health care to look after that Spleen, that digestive fire.

Another example is If we consider perhaps what suppressed emotions, or packed-away trauma, unacknowledged trauma or rejected parts of self, can do to our Qi mechanics. What they can contribute to is what we call Qi Stagnation. This is where the Qi is not moving freely through the body, and what we can notice here – on a very minor level – is sighing, or someone who’s huffing and puffing a lot, or maybe shallow breathing because they’re armouring withi; because a deep breath would actually bring them into contact with those feelings they don’t want to acknowledge. So we might have shallow breathing, and we might have maybe depression. We can also have irritability, mood swings, anger outbursts. And because we’re not breathing as deeply and completely, and we’re not pumping that Qi, we might then get impeded blood circulation, and painful periods, things like PMS or PMDD. All pain is related to a lack of flow, and these symptom are all related to the Qi not moving freely.

Yet another example is what can happen if we’re not living in balance from a Yin and Yang perspective: if we’re maybe going too hard, running in Yang mode and running down our life force energy – our spark of life, our Qi. If we’re doing that for a prolonged period of time, then we can start to deplete our Yang. And healthy Yang lives in the lower abdomen – between the kidneys – and it‘s likened to our adrenal energy, our life force, and our very essence. It’s meant to be consolidated and anchored deep in the lower body.But what happens when we keep running on empty – and keep running on adrenal hormones, on stress hormones – is that the Yang gets more and more depleted. And rather than being anchored deep within the body, where it can warm us and mobilise us from within, that Yang starts to rise and float away to the surface.

We call this “Floating Yang” – and guess what can happen here? Hot flushes. This is why hot flushes are so common at that time that is called the perimenopausal time, because this represents a time in a woman’s life where she has probably been running on empty a little bit. Maybe she’s been multitasking for decades, looking after family and work, looking after others at the expense of self. And her Yang can take a little bit of a beating. Perimenopause is a time to double down on nourishing Yang, especially because if that Yang floats up, it makes us feel hot. And it can be tempting then to throw cold into the system, but actually this only exacerbates the issue, because it dampens that poor little Yang even more and pushes what’s left of it even more to the surface.

Other ways that we can experience Floating Yang are things like anxiety, restlessness; like twitching, not being able to sit still; it can be insomnia, trouble falling asleep, racing thoughts, ADHD – all of these are symptoms of that Yang not being grounded, or not being steady and held deep in the body.

It’s very important to know that the body will never call for cold (the weak Yang just gives the illusion of needing cold). The body always needs more Yang – you can’t have too much life. So, as tempting as it might be to go jump in an ice bath, what we actually need to do in hot flushes (or other symptom of Floating Yang) is to look at ways of anchoring that Yang.

One simple way that we do that is with hot foot baths, because they are hot, and they’re at the opposite end (the feet) of the meridian or channel to where the Yang floats away (the head). And they bring that Yang down, while also boosting it a little bit as well. I like to add Epsom Salts to my hot foot baths, and I love doing them before bed – they can be really deeply grounding. And in Chinese Medicine, minerals and salts are deeply anchoring and grounding as well, so they can help to anchor that Yang deep in the body where it needs to be.

Another example also is that, if Yang is depleted, then we are not full of it from within – this means that we can easily be affected by Cold externally. Because if our whole being is full of Yang and/or Qi, then normally that Cold Wind will only affect the outer part of the body, and we can kick it out. So a healthy person will be able to kick it out with a sneeze – that’s often why we sneeze in cold environments, because we’re clearing the Cold from the exterior.

But – if we don’t have enough Yang to keep us full of it, and to protect us from external Cold and Damp, then that Cold can go deep within, and we can end up with Cold deep within the body, like deep Cold in the lungs, for example. We might see this in cases of chronic chest infections or recurring pneumonia, for example. And then once again, we’re looking to warm and nourish.

And finally, another example that we can experience when we’re not living in harmony externally – if we’re disconnected from nature, from the web of life that we are forever woven into – is maybe a lack of circadian rhythm. Maybe our sleep-wake cycle is out of whack, because we’re existing in artificial lighting, and we’re not getting those cues from Mama Nature, from the sun first thing in the morning. It’s so vital to get sunlight before phone light, or artificial light, in your eyeballs. It sends a lot of important signals.

And this can also be behind things like seasonal affective disorder (SADS) – a lack of sunshine, which is leading to mood changes. This is also why practices like earthing are so vitally important. There are so many studies now that show just how powerful earthing, or grounding (getting our feet or body on the ground) is: it connects us to nature’s rhythms. It has beautiful anti-inflammatory effects, as well as other regulating effects on hormones and the nervous system: it brings us into alignment with the world around us.

Now on that topic of connection with nature, and the living web of life around us, there are some beautiful quotes from the Huang Di Nei Jing, again. (9:59) And one is this:

“the Qi of the body flows in accordance with the changes of Heaven and Earth”.

We are always connected to the world around us, to the cosmos above and to the earth beneath our feet.

And the other beautiful quote is the reminder:

“every individual’s life is intimately connected with nature. How people accommodate and adapt to the seasons, and the laws of nature. will determine how well they draw from the origin or the source of their life”

This refers to the practices and foundations for preventative health and for radiant wellness that I have shared here. And I sometimes feel like a broken record on repeat, because when people ask me “what to do for symptom X”, the answer is very often the same. This is because whilst these dis-ease presentations, or symptoms or sicknesses, are very diverse, it’s like they are the branches of one tree, where the root or the trunk is the same. They might look different or present differently, but they all come from the same root cause.

When we look after that inner and outer harmony, the balance of our Yin and Yang, making sure our Qi is resourced, that we’re nourishing our spark of life, and that everything is flowing – then everything else stems from there. And that is why, when I look at all of these modern disease names in modern medicine, I actually see all the common underlying threads that they share.

So for example, is it ADHD or is it Floating Yang? Or is it hot flushes or is it Floating Yang? Is it painful periods or is it Qi stagnation from unexpressed rage or frustration – which, I mean, rage or anger is such a healthy response to a lot of what’s going on in the modern world. or a lot of what we force our body-mind-souls into? Is it gastro or is it just that the Stomach and Spleen have not been tended to for decades, and now they can’t withstand external input as robustly as someone else? Is it asthma, or is it just a backlog of Damp and Cold within the body?

This is what I love about this Chinese Medicine perspective on health – it reminds us that we have the power. As our ancient text says, when our inner environment is resourced – when we tend to that – then robust health stems from there. I love this perspective because it reminds us just how powerful we are, and just how much we can do each and every day – with every thought, every mouthful, every drink that we choose. Maybe we can add in some beautiful herbs in a tea.

Each time we choose to speak, or think, or move with integrity; each time we honour our own impulses; each time we connect with Mama Nature as well – all of these things are adding to the piggy bank, the great reserves of energy within us.

Now, if you’re watching this on YouTube, you’ll notice I’ve had an outfit change, and that’s because I needed to add this little extra bit to this episode – and that is that I’m going to do a part two in our upcoming episode (on the next full moon after this one). And we are going to talk about what happens when we DO manifest symptoms of disease -we’re going to translate what the body is doing.

For example, if we’re having a chest infection and we’ve got phlegm coming out of our lungs or out of our nose, if we’re having a sinus infection, I’m going to share the Chinese Medicine perspective on what’s going on there. If we’re having a fever, or for example, if we’ve got what presents as gastro, we’ll explain what’s going on there

I’ll also share the Eight Strategies, or therapeutic methods, the Ba Fa of Chinese Herbal Medicine – ways of eliminating imbalance from the body.

So – I hope this has been interesting, helpful, enlightening. Please feel free to share this with anyone else who you think might benefit from it.

If you’d like more support and guidance in implementing a lot of these foundational rituals and health habits into your life, I have created the Radiant Energy Reset, which is available on demand and is self-paced. It’s got a whole lot of beautiful video modules and a gorgeous guidebook and a journal. and a guided pathway to help you integrate these beautiful practices into your everyday. I also show you how to understand what your body is calling for, and share simple ways that you can bring balance to each and every day, through the foods that you choose, the herbs that you might choose, the movement you choose. We’ve got some beautiful breathwork and Qi Gong – energy work, meditation, acupressure points in there as well, as well as ways to look after our psycho-emotional health. It is a total foundation for mind, body and soul health, at drmaz.earth. (15:14)

I also have a mini-offering coming out soon, cultivating the coherence and integrity of our energy, our Qi, our life force energy.

You can also find me on socials –drmaz_qi on Insta and YouTube, and drmaz.qi on Facebook. I’m always posting more of this beautiful wisdom from Chinese Medicine on there. I hope that what we’ve shared today brings you some more lightness, ease and liberation as well! Wishing you the very best of health and looking forward to seeing you in the next episode.