Balanced Natural Health with Dr. Maz – Details, episodes & analysis

The Year of the Fire Horse is almost upon us, galloping onto the scene on the next New Moon. This is a “Double Fire” year, carrying the invitation and the opportunity for dynamic changes, transmutation and transformation – and explosive power, if we are prepared for it.

The Snake Year that is currently drawing to a close has pushed us to shed our skins and release that which no longer fits, so that we can shine bright with the essential Fire energies of this Year of the Fire Horse.

I’m so excited for the unbridled, wild and untameable energies of this coming year – but the Fire Horse has not always been welcome. Indeed, individuals born in Fire Horse years were painted as ungovernable (yay!), reckless and dangerous – precisely because of their independent nature, fiery will and authentic expression of their truest selves. And none were more stigmatised than Fire Horse women.

Year of the Fire Horse Stigma

Women born in the Year of the Fire Horse were shunned as wives – seen as too wild, too free and too full of passion. Female foetuses were aborted, and unlucky “accidents” befell female babies. The lucky ones had their birth years misattributed to the neighbouring years. This data is clearly documented in the 1966 birthrate in Japan, which dropped by a staggering 25%.

Why are these qualities of passion, self-authority and living one’s truest impulses so feared? I have some thoughts. And I also believe that this coming 2026 Year of the Fire Horse is a potent opportunity for all of us – Fire Horse or not, woman or not – to embody even more of our most wild, essential selves. To be guided by our hearts and souls – both aspects of the Fire element.

In this episode:

(00:00) Introduction
(02:44) what IS the Year of the Fire Horse: why it’s so potent – and so feared?
(06:00) Double Fire and the potential for transformation & alchemy
(07:28) The stigma of being born in the Year of the Fire Horse
(09:40) Why the Year of the Fire Horse carries vital energy for ALL of us
(13:47) 2026 – rise of AI or an opportunity for greater embodiment?
(17:00) Balance Double Fire with simple habits & rituals (and a Feng Shui tip)
(20:30) Fire & Water polarity

One of the practices that is so important in grounded and capacitating these powerful energies of the Year of the Fire Horse is Qi Gong – literally, “energy work”. I have created a beautiful, self-paced experience that guides you through energy work practices in just 10 minutes a day. Open up the flow in your meridians, alchemise blocks, unlock the secrets of your energy centres (chakras), charge up your Qi and tune up your biofield – so that you can best harness these powerful energies coming our way. Learn more here.

Transcript Introduction

(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.

Episode Welcome

(00:32) Hello beautiful beings and welcome to episode 49 of the podcast. I’m Dr. Maz and in today’s episode I would like to dive into something really timely and very exciting because as many of you may know we are about to head into a new lunar year – the Chinese New Year is coming up. It begins on February the 17th here in Australia and this year upcoming is a really exciting, powerful, dynamic one. It’s ripe with possibility and opportunity and it is the Year of the Fire Horse.

I’m just so excited about the energy that’s about to come through this Year of the Fire Horse. We’ve been getting ready for this new power that’s going to pour through us with the Snake Year that we’ve just been through. So we’ve just been through a shedding of skins, releasing of anything that might be clouding or dimming our power – and the way it shines through us. This has all been in service to clear the way for the wild, untamable power of theYear of the Fire Horse.

In today’s episode we will talk about why this is such a powerful year and what it means for feminine power – the rising of the deep, wild, sacred, untamed feminine within all of us. Because we all contain at least a seed of the masculine and the feminine.

We’re going to talk about what that means for reclaiming our essential, truest, most vibrant expression of selves. We will also talk about how we can best support ourselves to capacitate the flow of this powerful energy in this Year of the Fire Horse. Also, things to look out for and practices that we can put into place to ground and hold this huge influx, this surge of Fire Horse energy that’s coming our way.

Maybe you’re tapping into this energy as well? Perhaps you’re feeling like it’s been a weird kind of stop-start (or not-quite-start) to the Gregorian calendar, or maybe you’re feeling an upwelling of excitement – like something’s really brewing – and that is the Year of the Fire Horse that is coming.

What is the Year of the Fire Horse?

(02:44) So first of all, let’s take a look at what is the Horse year – and what is the Fire Horse year, specifically.

In the Chinese view of the world and from the Chinese calendar perspective, we have a 60 year calendar. It’s a beautiful calendar called the Heavenly Stems and the Earthly Branches. And this calendar has been used for millennia to map climate cycles, weather patterns, to harness the best harvest and to best align ourselves with the environment, This is because in Chinese medicine, we acknowledge that we are woven into the web of life all around us. And so knowing how we can position ourselves to be in the best alignment with the prevailing energies of the climate – and the weather for each particular year – is really beneficial. And this is something that has been honed to a fine art.

Stems & Branches: the Chinese 60 Year Calendar

The 60 year calendar is based on the 10 Heavenly Stems and the 12 Earthly Branches. There’s 12 animals – these are the 12 Earthly Branches. And this is where we get animals like the Snake, which we’re having this year, or which we’re just wrapping up, and the Horse which is coming up.

Each of the 12 animals have unique attributes. So for example, the snake likes to stay quiet, close to the ground. It’s really tuned into frequency and vibration. And it is well known for its ability to shed skins.

And the horse, in contrast, is full of a dynamic bursting forth. The horse is known for its energy, its love of movement, its freedom, its independence, and its generally enthusiastic and outgoing nature… and so on for all of the other 12 animals. So we’ve got the 12 Earthly Branches and the 10 Heavenly Stems.

The 10 Heavenly Stems are based on a Yin and Yang version of each of the five elements. The five elements are a really key way in which we describe the world in Chinese medicine, Taoist medicine and Taoist thought.

Five Elements within the Calendar

The Five Elements are Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood. And for each of these, we have Yin and Yang counterparts. We’ve got Yang Fire and Yin Fire within the Heavenly Stems. So what happens is we have 12 animals, but we have a 60 year cycle. And this is because each of the animals gets a go in one of the Five Elements.

Now, you might be wondering, hang on a minute, there’s 12 animals and 10 Heavenly Stems, which would make 120, not 60 – and you are correct. But there is a rule that only Yang stems get matched with Yang branches (or animals that are Yang), and Yin stems (Yin type elements) get matched with Yin branches (Yin animals).

In the case of the horse, the horse has a Yang nature because it likes to move, it likes to be dynamic, to move explosively, it likes to run free, it has a really fiery active energy. And in addition to that, the horse is ruled by Fire. So no matter what element it falls in, the element associated with horse is already Fire.

Why the Year of the Fire Horse is a Double Fire year

So in this coming Year of the Fire Horse, when the horse falls into the Fire element, we have Double Fire. And there is potential for so much transmutation, transformation and alchemizing, because Fire is the element of transformation. It turns one thing into another, it’s dynamic, it’s full of energy, it’s the life force within all of us.

(06:33) And this is why this Year of the Fire Horse holds so much power for all of us, whether we’re a Fire Horse or not. There is an opportunity to claim this wild untameable power within us all for ourselves. And the Fire Horse is the most dynamic of all the horses.

In another 12 years, we’ll have the Earth Horse year – the element of Earth moderates that fiery Yang nature of the horse that is innate to the horse anyway. So Earth Horses are said to be more grounded. And, for example, a Water Horse will be more balanced than a Fire Horse in as far as their dynamism goes, because Water and Fire have a polarity, they balance each other out. So if someone is a Water Horse, they will possibly be less impulsive, explosive, dynamic than a Fire Horse.

Year of the Fire Horse Stigma

(07:29) Now, because of its double Fire nature, there’s been a lot of stigma around people born in the Year of the Fire Horse over the centuries, and particularly women. This is due to the nature of a society that liked women to be biddable, meek and submissive and to surrender to the will of others. And particularly so in a society that valued collectivism and submission to authority – anyone who stood in their wild, untameable, self-sovereign self-authority was a threat to that system – and none more so than women.

(08:06) Tragically, for centuries, many female babies were aborted when they were due to be born in a Year of the Fire Horse. If they were lucky, their birth was misattributed to the year before or after, to make them more marriageable. They might also have fallen prey to unlucky accidents or infanticide. There’s actually some pretty chilling data looking at the rate of infant deaths due to accidents in the Year of the Fire Horse, and there was definitely a spike in that.

What happened in the last Year of the Fire Horse, 1966, in Japan?

This was looking at the data in Japan from the Year of the last Fire Horse in 1966. And we can also look at a really fascinating bit of data from this same year in Japan, where we see that the birth rate actually dropped by 25%. This was possibly due to people holding off on having a baby in a Year of the Fire Horse. Perhaps they didn’t want to risk a female child being born as a Fire Horse, which would ruin her prospects of marriage (because Fire Horse women were seen to be unlucky wives).

Or it could have also been due to misattribution of that birth year to either the year before or after the Year of the Fire Horse .You can have a look at the data, it’s very clear. There’s been quite a few articles speculating about what’s going to happen in Japan in this new Year of the Fire Horse, given what happened in 1966. And when you actually look at the population chart by birth year, it’s really quite striking.

The Fire Horse’s invitation to all of us

And I think this is why it’s so important, more than ever this year with this Fire Horse energy coming in, that we all step into and claim this wild, untameable essence of ourselves: this wild truth, this self-sovereignty, self-governance, self-authority that runs within all of us, whether we’re a Fire Horse or not, whether we’re a woman or not. I think that this is so desperately needed in our modern society where we have externalised our power, we’ve given away our authority to systems outside of us – and we’ve forgotten, some of us, that we all carry this spark, this stream of the divine within us.

We all can connect to that at any moment and that can give us direction, that can give us vital information. And I feel that it’s time for the reclamation and remembrance of this force that is within us all – the force that is the wild and untameable, the truest essence of ourselves, and what could be described also as the deepest part. It’s the Yin and the feminine part of ourselves in a way, and it’s that which has been hidden or suppressed. And I feel that this is never more important than now, for this aspect of ourselves to be expressed and reclaimed, because for too long now we have been living an unbalanced way of life – we revere one way of being at the total denigration of another.

Collectively, our current way of being is unbalanced

(11:21) We revere the intellect and rational thought and logic, and yet we have denigrated, forgotten about and belittled the value of instinct and intuition – or body wisdom and felt senses. And I love that we’re talking more and more about the power that comes from these senses and impulses, and the information that we get from our nervous system. We are so much more than our intellectual mind and when we are only operating from one half of ourselves, we’re only operating at partial power.

But when we combine the Yin and Yang aspects of ourselves, we have access to the totality of our power, the totality of our essence. So this means giving space to honouring our feelings over always our thoughts. It means honouring our deepest desires over the external shoulds of society or our communities or expectations.

It means honouring our own needs and speaking up even when it might go against societal norms. It means also honouring that which is of the body – and giving the body space as well to share its wisdom with us. Not just living in the mind, but actually listening to the whispers of the body and soul.

And also it means honouring and giving space to the living over the dead. And I’ll explain a little bit more about this.

The Five Elements, our consciousness and soul

(12:59) In Chinese medicine we understand that each of the five elements also rules an aspect of consciousness. And in the case of the Fire element, it rules the Shen, which is translated loosely as our present awareness, our consciousness, our spirit. It’s how much spark of life someone has in their eyes: when you look at them, you can see that you’re connecting to something beyond the physical.

You’re seeing that spark of the divine in someone’s eyes. And everything that we do in Chinese medicine is about cultivating our shen, cultivating all aspects of self. We are looking to cultivate our shen so that we can be living as the truest, most vital expression of ourselves.

Will the Year of the Fire Horse bring more AI overload, or deeper soul embodiment?

And this brings me to my point. So many forecasts for the 2026 Year of the Fire horse talk about the rise of AI, because Fire relates to energy, which relates to, in the modern day, electricity, internet and technology. But while this may be true, and while we are certainly seeing that AI tools are exploding everywhere, I think that at the same time we are having a massive influx of energetic power coming through our consciousness- if we are available for that.

(14:20) And that means actually allowing time for cultivation of our presence and our awareness, our consciousness, our attention – and not just giving it all up to AI. I know that there can be some valuable time-saving tools that come from AI. But also I think that when we rely on AI for expression we lose that sense of aliveness that comes through in our own authentic voice – our own authentic expression – because that is also part of the element of Fire.

(14:52) And it might not be perfect. It might have spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, but it’s true and essential, wild and untameable. And I think we’ve all seen the absolute flood of AI content everywhere. So much of it feels lifeless and dead. And I think that this Year of the Fire Horse is an opportunity for all of us to be vessels for this divine force of Shen-spirit-consciousness that is coming through us, and to cultivate that through practices like meditation, Qigong, and even contemplation. So: sitting outside and contemplating a tree, or having a slow & meditative grounding walk outside, connecting to that energy, that living energy that is all around us, getting our feet on the earth, putting our face to the sun, charging up with that life force energy.

It can also be things like observing our own impulses and getting curious and getting to know ourselves more deeply, so that we can start to clear out conditioning and allow our truest self to shine through and flow through.

The gift of the Snake Year

And this is where the Snake year has been such a gift, because it’s been a continual (for me anyway!) sloughing off of old skins… of looking at where I was still in old habits of giving away my power externally, rather than looking to that wild untameable source within. And also perhaps shedding limiting habits of thought, and limiting perceptions.

(16:42) So all of those, or many of those (I’m sure there might be others lurking in the corner!) were challenged and were able to be shed. And there’s still time for all of us to do this in the next few weeks as well. You might be actually experiencing this for yourself as well.

Maybe there’s old triggers coming up, things that felt like that you feel like you might have already dealt with in the past, and yet they’ve resurfaced again. So I feel like we’re actually going through a purge at really the deepest levels, as we are readying ourselves for this influx of Double Fire energy that is coming our way. Now in Chinese medicine and Taoist medicine, Taoist thought, we are all about balance and moderation and the middle path.

And so a Double Fire year, a double Yang year, like we are having upcoming in the Year of the Fire Horse, can bring with it really strong energies that require moderation and grounding, so that we can absorb the best of them – and so that we don’t get burnt up in the flames. If we were to go straight out of the gate into theYear of the Fire Horse, without grounding and anchoring, we could become burnt out.

Another aspect of the Fire element when it’s imbalanced is mania. It’s like this ungrounded mental energy, someone talking a million miles an hour, or maybe laughing inappropriately, jumping around with thoughts. It’s going to be really important as these energies come through with the Year of the Fire Horse to bring a moderation and capacitance to hold those energies.

How to balance and ground in the Year of the Fire Horse

So this will be things like a daily grounding practice, like a somatic body practice, moving practice to open up and course and flow the meridians in the body so that our circuitry is well primed to receive that influx of energies.

(18:40) I like to think of the work that we do with cultivating and grounding our Qi in work like Qi Gong, or slow walking meditation, seated meditation, any kind of contemplation, getting into Mother Nature. All of this work is about connecting with our earthly vessel, so that we can provide a container for that energy to come through us. And the more grounded we are, the more of that beautiful Fire energy we can actually receive and work with in a productive way so we don’t get burned up.

And I think of this like shoring up the banks of a river, so that if there is big flow coming through in this Year of the Fire Horse, it can contain it. This is why we do these daily cultivation practices of Qi, because – rather than having to be controlled externally – it’s a way of internally cultivating that flow, so that we can hold more of that power and become more powerful, more vital, more vibrant and more radiant. And we can use that towards our enduring health as well. The extent to which we can ground and hold these energies of the Fire Horse, will also in part dictate how much of that energy we have available to launch our own dreams passions and desire this year- to manifest them into physical reality.

(20:11) The Year of the Fire Horse will give us the power to create changes if we want to – to transmute into a newer version of ourselves if that’s what we choose – and just to hold more of that energy for our own personal power and our own self-expression.

The polarity of Fire and Water

Now I mentioned before that the Fire element shares a polarity with the Water element, and it’s one of the fundamental balancing polarities of Chinese medicine. So in this coming Year of the Fire Horse, we can bring in more water into our lives – maybe it’s swimming, surfing, being around bodies of water, or maybe just bringing more awareness to how we connect to our water.

I’ve talked a lot about structured water, and the information-carrying capacity of water in other episodes, so you can have a listen to those. And perhaps it’s a more intentional connection to the water already in our lives – and it’s also about bringing qualities of Water to this Year of the Fire Horse. Water can be still, it’s steady, it’s slow, it’s persistent, whereas fire likes to flare quickly, it likes to create rapid change, it’s more impulsive.

In this Year of the Fire Horse, it’s about also bringing moderation or just checking ourselves with our impulses. And it’s about balancing out periods of productivity, speed and dynamism with periods of slowness. And this is definitely a note to self because I am a horse, and I have a habit of getting carried away when the energies are there!

(21:51) It’s a reminder that this Year of the Fire Horse, as every year – it’s a marathon not a sprint. A reminder to rest before you’re tired, to put little periods of rest and stillness (those qualities of the Water element) throughout the day, so that you can then have more access to lasting aspects of that Fire energy. And again, grounding, getting your feet on the earth, getting your body on the earth is so vital.

Qi Gong helps us to capacitate, anchor & benefit from these big energies

The Year of the Fire Horse might be a beautiful time to get started on a Qi Gong practice if you haven’t got one already. This is why I created my beautiful Qi Gong program, Coming Home to You – in preparation for this powerful year, so that we can really work with these energies and ground them into our earthly bodies.

It’s a beautiful, simple, accessible program, just 10 minutes a day. We go through a seven day sequence looking at the secrets of each energy center, and the different Qi Gong flows that cultivate our Qi – our energy – for that center. And then we put it all together in a beautiful flow, and we go deeper into two other classic Qi Gong sets as well.

Qi Gong doesn’t have to take a lot of time, but the benefits are profound. And the more regularly we practice it and over a longer term, as we practice it, the more benefits we reap. You can actually feel that energy moving through your meridians. So that invitation is there for you.

(23:22) The Year of the Fire Horse is a beautiful time to get into this practice. It’s on my website at drmaz.earth.

A tip from Feng Shui for the Year of the Fire Horse

(23:29) And before I wrap up, one other hint froms ome feng shui practitioners about how to moderate Fire energies of this Year of the Fire Horse is to bring more Water and Metal element into your space. The color of Water is a deep blue or a black, so we might bring in these colors in our clothes or in our environment. And the Metal element is associated generally with white, but also with Metal textures like gold or silver. So these can be colors or textures that we can bring into our surroundings or into our wardrobe, and even into our awareness, our meditations and visualizations, to balance out those impulsive, powerful qualities of this Double Fire Year.

I hope this has been interesting, enlightening, exciting perhaps. I think that this coming Year of the Fire Horse is just such a powerful portal for reclaiming that wild, untamed nature within all of us. So I’m wishing you all the very best for this coming Year of the Fire Horse.

Please feel free to share this episode if you found it interesting, and I look forward to seeing you in the next episode.

We continue our exploration from the previous episode, and consider: how does the human body self-heal?

How are symptoms actually an indication of the body’s infinite wisdom & self-healing power, and how can we support these processes to move to completion and healing (rather than suppressing them)? What happens if we do suppress them?? How does the human body self-heal then?

Unlike modern medicine, Chinese Medicine supports the body’s self-healing processes, helping them to move towards their completion. In this episode, I share perspectives on health through the lens of the oldest science in the world, Chinese Medicine. A science that has persisted for over 5,000 years (some say 8,000… and it may be older still!) and is all about living in harmony, both within and without.

Listen for simple ways that we can cultivate these vital aspects of ourselves, for radiant health and self-healing.

(00:00) Welcome to the podcast
(00:32) Episode into, recap of why we get sick & how does the human body self-heal?
(04:11) what do symptoms like phlegmy lungs, sinus congestion & fever indicate?
(05:08) We humans have more microbial cells than “human” cells!
(07:05) How does the human body self-heal? Bacteria & other microbes help us
(10:35) How Chinese Medicine supports the body’s self-healing, rather than suppressing it
(11:22) The Eight Strategies, or Ba Fa, of Chinese Herbal Medicine
(17:41) Our bodies are infinitely wise & always move towards healing
(18:16) Case study: how a Candida “infection” benefitted the greater whole
(24:35) Mould sickness & our inner terrain, Dampness, low Yang

And if you’d like my guidance in building daily rituals and habits for radiantly robust health, I have created something simple yet powerful for you. As we know, 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. Instant access for you here.

And, as we learned in episode 47, “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 – Coming Home to You. Instant access.

Transcript Introduction

(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.

Episode Welcome, and how does the human body self-heal?

(00:32) Hi everyone, I’m Dr. Maz and welcome back to episode 48 of the podcast. In today’s episode, we are continuing on from our exploration in the last episode about what it is that makes us sick, from a Chinese Medicine perspective, and does the human body self-heal.

And it is not invisible baddies, or germs / bacteria / microbes / viruses that we “catch” from other people that make us sick. From a Chinese Medicine perspective, the main causes of disease are a loss of harmony and balance, both with our world within – our inner world of emotions – and the world without – the environment, the climate and conditions around us. So in Chinese Medicine, staying balanced and in harmony with our inner world and our outer world is what maintains health, and allows our brilliant system to heal itself.

Health blooms both from harmony within…

(01:25)We understand that emotions can be a major contributor to disease because we are energetic beings, and emotions are simply energy in motion. And when they’re not in motion – when our emotions aren’t moving, when they’re stuck or repressed or ignored – they can snag our energy body, our biofield, our aura. And when our energy field and our Qi meridians are not flowing smoothly, and they’re not communicating as ideally as they should be, then we can start to see disease: this is because things aren’t moving where they need to be moving, and information isn’t being passed in a timely manner.

…and harmony with the external environment

(02:05) And we learned that another contributor to disease is an imbalance of our bodies in relation to the external environment. So for example, in Chinese Medicine, we say that Wind is the “spearhead of 1000 diseases”. This is why we bundle up against winds, we protect against drafts, we don’t sleep under fans, and we wear scarves in windy weather, because the neck is where Wind can get in. And when Wind and Cold get into the meridians that traverse our neck (and also our lower back, we like to keep that covered and toasty as well), we get frozen and flow is trapped on the surface.

So, how does the human body self-heal? “Symptoms” are one of the body’s wise responses to restore balance

And that is when an early stage “Cold” can arise. So, we might get tightness in the muscles of the neck, we might get that achy feeling that might indicate that a cold or flu is brewing, we might feel lightly flushed, and we might have some light sweating or fever. And all of this is, in fact, the body’s wise response to that Cold, and the resultant freezing of the surface: the body is trying to bring warmth to the surface to push that cold back out.

A very different (yet very ancient!) view on what it means to be healthy

(03:18) So we can see that these disruptions to internal harmony and outer harmony provide a very different view of health than the militaristic mindset of being constantly on edge against invisible baddies and “germs” that we need to defend against. I love that the focus is on harmony and balance, rather than waging war. And I think that that shift alone really benefits our nervous systems in the long run, too – that focus on what we’re creating, rather than what we’re fighting against, especially when it’s not the true cause of disease.

And I think it’s also interesting that this microbe idea or germ theory of disease is relatively recent, whereas Chinese Medicine has held its view of health for millennia, at least 5000 years, if not longer. And it has stood the test of time, so there is so much we can learn from it!

(04:12) In this episode, we’re going to look at a Chinese Medicine perspective on what happens when we do manifest symptoms. What does it mean, for example, when we get phlegm on the lungs or in the sinuses, or when we have a fever, or diarrhoea? How do we explain that from a Chinese Medicine perspective – and how does the human body self-heal?

We will also look at the Eight methods or the Eight Strategies of herbal medicine, and they describe different ways that we use herbs – and tastes and flavours – to support the body’s processes of restoring balance when it has been disrupted. So, for example, if we have constipation, we will use a certain treatment strategy, and if we have phlegm on the chest, we use a different treatment strategy. So we’ll learn more about that as well.

Review of previous episode – we are more microbe than human!

(05:03) Recapping on what we learned in the previous episode, staggeringly and amazingly, we humans actually have more microbial cells than human cells. So we have more bacteria and fungal (including yeast) cells than actual human cells. And together we live in a community which comes together in symbiosis that supports life (this also forms a big piece of the answer to “how does the human body self-heal?”)

And while it might seem that bacteria or microbes are the “baddies” when we look at the fact that they might be present, for example, in phlegm or mucus cultures when there are symptoms of disease (when there is, say, bronchitis or a chest infection, we can see that there are certain bacteria that might be more prevalent) there is actually a different view that paints these little friends in a different light. And what if, in fact, they were not the problem, but they were the cleanup crew? And that is how I see it – that our friendly helpers come to the party and help us restore balance.

(06:09) Let me explain a little bit more. But firstly, I’d like to bring to mind the image of a compost heap – and what happens in a compost heap.

Those of us who’ve had a garden or a compost heap before, we know that we throw food scraps on a compost heap, and then there are worms and microbes that help to break down these discarded bits of food, and help to break them down into something that will nourish the earth, which then feeds into the next stage of the cycle of life. So it’s a way of digesting the remnants, the leftovers, into a form that is usable by the soil, and by the next generation of plants – and which then nourishes us in return. So we can see that life cycle is continuing.

How does the human body self-heal? One key factor is microbes as a clean-up and recycling crew

And this is how I see our microbial helpers. As I see things, our bacterial friends not only do important tasks – like synthesising vitamins, for example, which they can do for us in the gut – but they can also be on call to process and compost and recycle damaged cells and tissues.

For example, imagine that we’ve been somewhere where we’ve been inhaling air that has something that’s challenging to the lining of the lungs. Maybe we’ve been by a busy road all day, and we’ve been inhaling a lot of diesel and petrol fumes. Or maybe we’ve been in a building in which there’s inadequate airflow, and maybe off-gassing from new plastic products, or carpet or paint or something. Or maybe we’ve been exposed to certain non-native frequencies that can upset the particular cell types or particular tissue types in the lungs. There can be many reasons for disruption to cells or tissues anywhere in the body. 

(08:04) So, assuming that people have been exposed to something that’s disrupted function, how does the human body self-heal? If the body is not well resourced to process that disruption, we may need to call on some extra help. Our bodies are amazing and so adaptive, and they help us adapt to so much and process so much. And that’s why I always talk about prioritising optimal nutrition with whole foods, getting adequate rest, drinking structured water, aligning with the cycles of nature, moving our Qi, limiting how much we have in our toxin bucket, and so on, so that we can be well resourced to adapt to and respond to these challenges.

But, if for whatever reason our vitality is a bit low – maybe we’ve had some stress or snagged emotions that are stagnating our Qi, or maybe there’s been a little bit more toxins in general recently – then we can’t respond as robustly to that challenge. And perhaps, in the example I gave earlier, the lining of the lungs gets a little bit upset and damaged by that exposure to toxins or fumes. Then we have degraded cells, that ideally the body wants to replace with fresh cells that are functioning optimally. So how does the human body self-heal in this situation? Well, it’s with a little help from our microbial friends.

Remove, remediate, reuse and recycle

So what does our brilliant body do? It sends in the cleanup crew. As we’ve seen in a compost pile, that veggie scraps can get degraded into something that nourishes the life cycle. And in our case, when the cleanup crew, the microbes, the bacteria, arrive on the scene, say in the lining of the lungs, they start to digest that degraded tissue. And in the process of doing so, we might get phlegm and mucus because that is how that degraded tissue can get either recycled or expelled out of the body. So we can cough it up and get it out. And what can be reused will be reused. 

Are bacteria the problem? Or part of the solution?

(09:55) If we were to do a culture of the mucus or phlegm at this time, we might notice that there are greater numbers of certain bacteria types. But what if they are not the cause of the problem? What if they are there because they are actually cleaning up the damage – because they are a part of the greater whole’s self-healing mechanism? And so then when we throw an antibiotic at them, then that process of cleanup, remediation and recycling is halted. And that compromised cell and tissue in the lungs doesn’t get a chance to be repaired completely.

Shooting the messenger

In such a case, we might have suboptimal repair of the tissue, and eventually, suboptimal function of the lungs. We’ve killed off our helpers – and some others probably have fallen by the wayside as collateral damage – and yet we haven’t solved the problem. So how does the human body self-heal then? Well, what if instead we took extra care to nourish the body at this time? What if we really doubled down on rest, on nutrition, on food that’s easy to digest? 

This means warm food, which is not adding to further Dampness. This is where nourishing the Spleen, which I talk about so often, is so important. Because if we’re eating in a way that we’re digesting completely, and we’re not adding to further phlegm and Dampness within the body, then the body can really focus its efforts on resolving the local inflammation in the damaged tissue and getting back to balance more quickly.

How does the human body self-heal, and how herbal medicine supports it: the Eight Strategies, or Ba Fa

(11:22) We can speed this process with herbs that can dry the area and help to expel that phlegm. So, rather than suppressing the helpers, in Chinese Herbal Medicine we’re actually supporting the body in completing the process of self-healing that it is attempting to do. And this expelling, or reducing, approach is one of the Eight Strategies that we use in herbal medicine.

Reducing, or Xiao Fa

It’s called the “reducing” strategy – Xiao Fa – wherein we support the body in eliminating what is obstructing flow and function. So it might be phlegm on the chest. It could also be stagnant Blood, in the case of really painful periods with dark blood and blood clots, and here we would give herbs that support the movement of Blood. For the chest phlegm situation, we would give herbs that dry out Dampness, that help to break it up and help it to leave the lungs.

And we might also use this strategy in a situation that we call Food Stagnation, which is when we have eaten too much rich food and overloaded an unsupported digestive system. And then the food just sits there and ferments, and people might get stinky farts, maybe stinky burps, there can be reflux, bloating, or a yellow or thick tongue coating. How does the human body self-heal in this situation and how can we support it? One way is to give herbs that strongly move digestion, they stoke that digestive fire, so that the body can move through that backlog of stagnated food, and bring relief in that way.

(12:48) So you can see that we’re not actually suppressing the symptoms. We’re not giving, say, antacids for indigestion, which would further dampen that digestive fire. The digestion is already overloaded, it is already dealing with stagnated food. But instead we support resolution – with our treatment methods and our herbs, we move in the same direction that the body is moving, and we support self-healing and balance in that way.

Sweating, or Han Fa

Another example of a treatment strategy that we use is “sweating”. As I touched on earlier, we say that Wind is the spearhead of a thousand diseases, and it is one of the most common triggers or causes of an early-stage Cold. And here, we might experience that tight neck, that flushed face, achy muscles, we get fatigued, there might be a light headache, there might be sneezing as well. The sneezing is just the body trying to expel the Wind and Cold through the nose, trying to get it out of the body. So how does the human body self-heal a Cold?

The ways that the body will try to expel this “Cold contraction”, this freezing at the surface, is through a fever or breaking a sweat. So if you have ever woken up in the night with sweats, and especially if you’ve been exposed to cold or a draft during the day, then it’s very likely that this is your body doing its magic to restore balance. Because when we can sweat Cold out (or return warmth to our body surface), then order is restored, that Cold and / or Wind is pushed out, and then the muscles get to soften, flow is restored, headaches ease, that flushed feeling can go because now it’s done what it needs to do.

(14:23) In the modern view, we might be tempted to throw some Panadol or Tylenol at this – something to reduce that flushed feeling, that headachy feeling. But what that actually does is that it stops that body wisdom response of heating up to push things out. And so then that process isn’t completed – it is suppressed instead – and the body’s attempts to self-heal are interrupted.

And because the healing process has been interrupted, then the imbalance that has come from the surface gets to sink deeper into the body – this is because we have worked against the body, we’re not helping it in its process of pushing things up and out. Whereas in Chinese Medicine, we have a sweating method, where for these kind of Cold presentations, we take herbs that help to promote light sweating. We also take some really nourishing, easily digestible warm foods, and then we bundle up and rest, and allow the body to break a light sweat. So this is the directive given in our oldest medical text, and it still works to this day.

(15:22) We often use a formula called Gui Zhi Tang, or Cinnamon Twig Decoction. This is cinnamon and ginger, licorice root, peony root, and jujubes or red dates, for a bit of gentle sweetness to help to support the energy so we can build that sweat, and have that fever. Those warm, spicy, pungent flavours of cinnamon and ginger push open the pores, they push out that Cold and Wind. And so. we might break a light fever – we’re already bundled up, we’ve had some easily digestible food.

What happens if we get in the way of healing? How does the human body self-heal then?

If we take this approach, then we can return to balance and harmony the next day. But If we don’t – if we don’t rest, if we don’t listen to our body’s messages, the messages that it’s telling us that Cold has come in – then what can happen is that the imbalance goes deeper into the body. And then we might start to get a sore throat, or phlegm in the sinuses or in the chest.

(16:19) And this is another way that we can arrive at that phlegmy cough situation I gave as an example earlier. What’s happened here is that the circulation and the Qi mechanism – the Qi circuitry – has been compromised by Wind and Cold initially, and the body wasn’t able to “expel” it. This can be because we’re low on Qi because we haven’t stopped, or maybe we suppressed it with something else, or maybe the body was dealing with other things. And so then it’s gone another level deeper, and there’s been more tangling of (16:49) the energy networks.

And so, lymphatic circulation is affected, fluids aren’t moving so much in the micro-circulation, and we can start to get water-logging and fluid retention in tissues within the body. So say, for example, the lungs aren’t draining as well as they normally would, and they can start to collect bits of phlegm and mucus. And so now we can see that if circulation and Qi – the energy mechanism – isn’t restored, then that phlegm is going to collect and sit there.

When the bacterial friends come in to help digest and compost the damage that has been done to the tissues, if we throw antibiotics at them, then that phlegm doesn’t get to be resolved. And what I love about this perspective is that it reminds us just how wise and powerful and amazing our bodies are!

Our bodies are infinitely wise and brilliant

(17:48) They don’t do anything by mistake, they don’t get sick by accident, they don’t have symptoms by accident, they don’t do things to be annoying. Everything that they’re doing is an attempt to complete a process, and move towards health – they are always moving towards health. So my question is always, how can we support that movement towards health? How can we help, rather than obstruct or suppress?

How a Candida “infection” benefitted the greater whole and supported self-healing

(18:11) I’d like to share another story that I think illustrates this really beautifully. I’ve shared this before in my Candida episode. In that episode, I talked about a patient who had been erroneously given an iron transfusion, and it shot their iron levels way up high. And this is a real concern, because our bodies don’t have a pathway for excreting excess iron – because we’re not designed to receive iron by transfusion in such vast amounts. So when this excess iron is accumulated in the body, it can start to deposit in the organs, and one of the concerns is that it can cause cancer.

So, it’s very important to get excess iron out of the body. And we were very keen, when this happened, to get that excess iron out of the body as soon as possible. There are herbs that we can use to support the process of chelation – getting metals out of the body. But what happened next just shows the amazing wisdom and power of the body. 

What happened was that this person developed a full body rash, which was a yeast or Candida rash. It smelled like a brewery, or fresh bread baking, and it was oozing this orange liquid, which incidentally was the same colour as the iron transfusion. It was incredibly uncomfortable – It was a whole body rash. It was very depleting, it came with a lot of brain fog and just general malaise and low energy. But what was happening was that our little Candida friends were doing what human cells are unable to do, or what human systems are unable to do without help from our little friends.

Candida can process metals – heavy metals. And what these little helpers were doing was providing an exit strategy to exude that iron from the system in the most efficient way. And in fact, what happened was, we retested this person’s blood again, a few months into this process, and the iron had dropped dramatically. It was almost back to normal, and then it returned back to normal shortly afterwards.

Now, this was very uncomfortable for the person. But we also knew that there was a body wisdom reason behind it. And if we’d been to see a Western medicine doctor at this time, we would have been given anti-fungals, and a whole host of possibly antimicrobials to shut down the processes that the microbes were carrying out, effectively shutting down their activity.

(20:43) And, yes – that would have probably reduced the symptoms at the skin level. But it wouldn’t have supported the process of excreting that excess iron, which was much more damaging. And this brings me also to another point, which is that sometimes discomfort is part of the process, unfortunately. But, if we support the body in its process, and allow it to complete that process to its fullest expression, then we actually get to enjoy greater health at the end of it. So this person was very stoic – they stuck with it. Everything got pushed out, or excreted, from the body, balance was restored and the skin returned back to its beautiful original state.

So again, we’re offered a different perspective here on what happens if we deeply trust the wisdom of the body and the processes that it’s going through. We see that the human body is infinitely capable of self-healing – if we don’t stifle its process.

Purging or Draining Downwards, or Xia Fa

This idea of occasional discomfort as sometimes being part of the healing process is something that we might see in another of our treatment strategies, which is the “purging” or “downward draining” treatment strategy, which is basically purging and expelling things through the intestines, like in the case of constipation.

What can also happen sometimes if someone has, say, a lot of Damp or inflammation in their digestive system, then when we give certain formulas that move Damp, there can initially be diarrhoea, and it can be somewhat explosive and sudden. But then generally, what we feel afterwards is ease and relief, because that’s been a really efficient way of quickly moving a large lot of Dampness out of the body. It might not feel amazing for a short time, but sometimes it really is the quickest way of moving things out. 

Vomiting, or Tu Fa

(22:29) Another way, which we don’t use much these days, because it’s much less appealing to modern humans, is vomiting. This was one way of getting things out that were sitting above the diaphragm. So, we’ve got the sweating method, we have the vomiting, the draining, we’ve talked about the reducing method. And then, we also have tonifying.

Tonifying, or Bu Fa

This is where we build up what is depleted. This is one of the more common strategies that we use. We can build up Yang – the spark of life – with warming herbs, we can build the Blood and nourish the Blood. We do this with our food as well, using specific foods for building both Blood and Yang.

Much less so in Classical Medicine than in Traditional Chinese Medicine, we nourish the Yin. This is because we’re much more interested in nourishing the spark of life from a classical perspective, which is by restoring function and the Qi mechanism first..

Harmonising, or He Fa

We might also look at harmonising. That’s another treatment strategy, and one that we very commonly use – in fact, it’s probably the most common method that I use in clinical practice.

And this is one that I often use when we have flu-type symptoms or lingering unresolved inflammation and infections, for example, or even unresolved past instances of flu or glandular fever. These are often presentations that involve the lymphatic circulation, the glands, the interstitial fluids. When we’re harmonising, we bring harmony to the interior and exterior of the body, by regulating and harmonising all the spaces in between.

Warming, or Wen Fa, and Clearing Heat, or Qing Fa

And the final two treatment methods are “warming” what is Cold – and nourishing the Yang – and “clearing Heat” – the goal of which is actually to ultimately preserve the body’s Yang, even though we are clearing it in an acute situation. Clearing heat is not one that we use that often, because in Classical Chinese Medicine, we are very much about maintaining and preserving theYang – the heat, the spark of life.

(24:13) But – if we have a extremely high fever, and the person is losing a lot of their Yang through sweating and fever, then we will use the clearing heat method for a short, acute situation. We do this to preserve their life force – to stop them losing too much life force – before we then go in and keep resolving things further.

Is mould the problem?

Now, before we finish up, I’d like to offer one more example. And this one is about mould.

This is something that we’re hearing more and more about these days, where people are having mould sickness, or they’re thinking to attribute their symptoms of say, fatigue, brain fog, weight gain, pain, to living in a mouldy environment. And yes, absolutely, we want to live in a well-ventilated environment! We want sunlight, we want circulation -that’s absolutely part of it.

But my question is – why can some people be unaffected in the same environment that other people are affected by?

This points to something different in the internal environment of the people involved.

If someone has a warm and sunny, and well-circulated and dry environment within, then they have more capacity to withstand Damp and mould externally. Whereas someone who’s already Damp, inflamed and wet inside – with compromised Yang or circulation – is going to be more easily overrun by external Dampness.

One way that I like to explain this is this. If we have a wet towel and put it out in the sun, it’s going to dry and will be fine, no problem. But if we have a wet towel and throw it in a dark cupboard with no ventilation, then we’re going to get mould.

(25:59) I had a person speak to me recently who had been diagnosed with mould issues, and they were being treated with some pretty intense protocols to kill off the mould. This person had been experiencing crushing fatigue, inflammation, not feeling like themselves, brain fog, a lot of weight gain as well, there was a disruption to hormones and metabolism, a whole host of things – and everything had been pinned back to mould that had been found in a diagnostic test.

But to me, I see things differently,, because I think that the mould is only there because the internal environment was too Damp to begin with. It had gotten out of whack, perhaps from improper diet, like maybe there’d been a lot of cold foods or a lot of fruit that contribute to that state of internal Dampness, for maybe eating foods that don’t support the Spleen in maintaining a warm and toasty, dry environment internally. So then the mould comes in to remediate the situation.

We know that moulds degrade, say, wet wood or wet organic substances – they help to break them down and compost them. And this is what I see was happening – waterlogged, Damp tissues were being worked on by mould to continue that process of recycling in order to keep the life cycle going. Viewed from the perspective, the mould is a self-healing or remediation process.

To give another analogy, if we think of a house that has received water damage, and we see that the ceiling is starting to get mould spots on it, if we just paint over the mould or spray them with bleach – but don’t fix the root cause of that leak – that’s kind of like the Western medicine approach. They just spray the surface with things that are going to kill the mould, but they’re not looking at why has that mould occurred? And how can we restore balance at the root? Because we can kill off the mould in that one area, but there’s going to be imbalances down the track because we still have not resolved the root.

(27:54) So for example, we could paint over that water stain on a ceiling, or we could even seal it with something that doesn’t allow further water to come through, but then that water is going to leak elsewhere – it’s going to have even less movement, there’s going to be more rot happening in the background, rather than if we just got in, dried everything out, patched up the leak, and restored balance and harmony.

Instead, we could view that symptom of say a mould-damaged ceiling as a message from the house, that there is an imbalance somewhere internally, in the same way that we can look at a body with mould as sending us a message to say that there is an imbalance somewhere internally as well. Maybe fluids aren’t moving well, maybe toxins aren’t excreting as well as we’d like and therefore, more fluids are amassing to buffer those.

What if instead we ask, how do we nourish the body to allow it to complete the process that it is moving towards doing already? How can we support our brilliant human body in self-healing? So we might, once again, nourish it with foods that build Qi, that build that spark of life. We take food and herbs that create a warm and dry ventilated environment, we promote circulation with gentle movements, we work with emotional alchemy to help the whole Qi mechanism work efficiently – so it can communicate and make sure that everything is functioning optimally as we move that process to completion. 

(29:24) So I hope this has been interesting and helped to open up a different perspective of how we can work with our bodies rather than against them. A perspective of how we can listen deeply to symptoms as the messages that they truly are; of how we can support our beautiful body-mind-souls in their processes of transmutation; of alchemising what’s happening and of supporting those processes, and of understanding that our bodies are always doing what is best for us.

And if you’d like to learn more about how you can support your body in these processes of transmutation and moving towards ever-greater wholeness, this is the major topic of my Radiant Energy Reset. In this beautiful reset, I guide you through – at your own pace – self-paced modules that explain how to nourish your energy, how to choose foods that are warm and drying, and that promote a balanced internal environment; how we can choose herbs and foods when we get certain different “messages” from the body, we also talk about emotional alchemy, processing our emotions and moving our body with some basic Qi Gong. That is all on my website at drmaz.earth.

If you have found this interesting, please share with someone who may benefit and I look forward to seeing you next time!

Not only does your Heart have tastebuds, but it is also connected to your Tongue – and the Uterus and Room of Sperm (what a poetic name for the testicles!). This connection between the various organs has been well-known by Chinese Medicine for thousands of years, and now, modern research is rediscovering what the ancients knew for so long.

Recent research has found that the heart has receptors for both the bitter and sweet taste, and that these receptors are believed to modulate the function of the heart. In our oldest medical text, the Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine), it is stated that:

“the Heart is benefited by the bitter taste”
and
“bitter-tasting substances can clear the Heart” 

“sweet herbs are used to sedate”
but
“too much sweet taste can disturb the Heart Qi”  

And it gets even better!

In Chinese Medicine, the Heart is connected to the Uterus and  testicles via the Bao Mai. And, guess where else in the body can bitter taste receptors are found??

You guessed it! The uterine lining and the testicles. Wild, huh?

Chinese Medicine has such a profound and nuanced understanding of health. It’s a complete system of healing that has been proven over millennia, with rich detail on how to use herbs & flavours for health, and a holistic understanding of the connection between the visceral organs (like the Heart) and the sense organs (like the tongue). This can offer up new perspectives and potential for health and healing.

In this episode, we explore the connection between:

• Heart & tongue

• Kidneys & ears

• Liver & eyes

• Spleen & mouth

• Lungs & nose

We share modern research and clinical case studies that beautifully illustrate this connection, and discuss some acupressure points to support the vitality of the sensory organs.

Join our community! Sign up to the newsletter (scroll down) – you will also receive a free eBook on Nourishing Life with Ancient Wisdom.

In this episode, we look to the millennia-old science and wisdom of Chinese Medicine to ask: are ice baths harmful to health??

From a Chinese Medicine perspective – which honours, stokes and cultivates the “spark of life” at all costs, and protects the Yang (vital warmth) of the body – the answer is a resounding YES!

We address many of the common objections to my statement, looking more closely at claims of historical use of ice baths, as well as the effect on the stress hormones and nervous system. The Kidneys – a vital foundation for health and vitality at all life stages – are very much affected by sitting static in cold water. Ruled by the Water element, the Kidneys are easily overwhelmed by cold, water and shock/fear – a common trifecta of ice baths! The Kidneys are also responsible for the health of bones, teeth and cognitive function, and healthy Kidneys mean that we get to feel vibrant at all life stages (or, “age well”).

As always, we also look to Mama Nature and our own inner messages for guidance. Our body-mind-souls are infinitely wise, and will guide us towards whatever it is that we need (or don’t need!) in order to move towards the most vibrant expression of ourselves.

In Chinese Medicine, we aspire to balance – “The Middle Way”. We don’t glorify extreme practices, instead choosing to “nourish life” in the myriad actions of everyday life: what and how we eat, how we move / breathe / rest / sleep, how we express and feel, to name a few. This, from our perspective, is the path to lasting health.

Join our community! Sign up to the newsletter (scroll down) – you will also receive a free eBook on Nourishing Life with Ancient Wisdom.

On the next New Moon, which falls on the 29th January 2025, we move into a new Chinese Lunar year. We are leaving behind the Year of the Wood Dragon and flowing into the Year of the Wood Snake.

In this episode, I talk about what the Year of the Snake may hold for us, and what opportunities it may bring. We will talk a little about how the Chinese New Year or Lunar festival is celebrated, and I’ll be sharing some of my musings about “new years” in general – there are many different “new years” out there (beyond January 1st!). I believe that new beginnings, new chapters and a “new you” can come at any time – each inhale can invite the new, each exhale can release the old.

Is “New Years” really the 1st of January??

I’ve been reflecting on the fact that the Gregorian calendar (prevalent in the modern Western world)  holds no personal resonance for me as a marker of beginnings and endings; I see it as arbitrary and man-made, disconnected from nature. Perhaps you feel the same –  are there periods or seasons of your life that carry more meaning for you?

As a herbalist, practitioner of natural medicine (which sees us woven into the web of life), surfer, vegetable grower and as a woman connected to monthly rhythms within my own body, I feel more connected to the cycles of nature – tides, moon, seasons, stars, plants & animals – and look to these as a compass to align my flow with life, and with Mama Nature. These are the cycles that nourish life! I also love learning the cycles and seasons of my own physical place in the world: summer swells and summer storms, the clear blue skies of winter, the first call of the Pacific Koel bird when it arrives in summer – and the absence of its call when it returns north, which heralds the turning towards cooler weather.

What opportunities does the Wood Snake bring?

I particularly loved the perspective of Jill Lander, Feng Shui practitioner, on what this coming year may hold:

“We are entering into a year of death and rebirth, a year to make responsible decisions to evolve spiritually, moving away from old ways and habits that no longer serve us well. Among all living creatures, the Snake is the best equipped due to its magnetic resonance to hear the heartbeat of Mother Earth. It is a dynamic year to learn from the past, moving forward with wisdom, awareness, transformation and compassion.

Mythology recognises the Snake as a creature of healing, which influences the physical body to shift to a more spiritual outlook. A great deal of quiet progress can be made in 2025 with the help of this planetary energy. Honour this transformative beginning every day with positive thoughts”.

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/lifestyle/leisure/article/3293097/chinese-horoscopes-year-wood-snake-2025-predictions-health-wealth-work-and-love-plus-wood-snakes#

Toko-pa Turner, Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home
https://www.instagram.com/tokopa/

What makes up a human body? Did you know that the number of microbial (bacteria, fungi, etc) cells that live in and on our bodies can outnumber “human” cells by up to 10 to 1? This suggests that we are a microbial-human community, and that these microbes have a vital role to play in maintaining balance and health in the human. And in this episode, we dive in a deeper discussion of Chinese Medicine & Candida

What if Candida (and other microbes) are actually working to support our human bodies to detoxify or eliminate non-beneficial substances that our human cells can’t metabolise? Is killing off Candida overgrowth just killing the messenger (or clean-up crew, as it were)? Is the presence of Candida sending us a message – and how can we respond in order to support balance?

Chinese Medicine generally views Candida as result of excessive Damp in the body. Like the soil that sprouts mushrooms after damp, rainy periods, our bodies too can sprout an overgrowth of fungi if the internal environment is too Damp. Luckily, Chinese Medicine offers many simple lifestyle and diet tweaks that can clear Damp and restore vital health!

SHOW NOTES

EMFs and Heavy Metals

Effect of Clove and Thyme Essential Oils on Candida Biofilm Formation and the Oil Distribution in Yeast Cells

More Chinese Medicine wisdom on nourishing and bolstering the Earth / Spleen, for healthy microbial balance

Episode 2: Happy hormones naturally, for general health, easier periods and optimising fertility (Part 1 of 2)

Episode 3: Happy hormones for all (not “just for the ladies!”), and the role of inflammation (Part 2 of 2)

Episode 5: Beat the Bloat – Chinese Medicine digestion secrets!

Episode 14: Late Summer Diet & Lifestyle Tips

Candida & electromagnetic health

Episode 16: We are light beings – on biophotons and our electromagnetic health

Episode 17: Cultivating our light bodies – on biophotons and our electromagnetic health

Topical Wash

Ku Shen / Sophora / Yellow Pagoda tree

She Chuang Zi / Cnidium

Bring to boil, simmer 20 minutes, strain and apply to skin. Promptly relieves itch due to Damp and overgrowth.

ST36: Zu San Li 足三里

Image source: Deadman, P., Al-Khafaji, M. & Baker, K; A Manual of Acupuncture

Chinese Medicine offers many therapies which can speed the release of “frozen shoulder”, also known as adhesive capsulitis. The treatment clue is in the name: what is “frozen” is cold and immobilised, and so by heating and promoting movement with acupuncture, moxa, heat lamps and herbal medicine, we can help people regain their function and movement in an accelerated timeframe.

In this episode, we discuss these therapies in more detail, and offer simple remedies you can also try at home. We discuss also the importance of supporting general health to speed recovery, and allowing for the flow and expression of emotions.

ST38: Tiao Kou 條口

SP9: Yin Ling Quan 阴陵泉

LU5: Chi Ze 尺澤

Image source: Deadman, P., Al-Khafaji, M. & Baker, K; A Manual of Acupuncture

In recent years, modern science has finally arrived at technologies that are sensitive enough to measure biophotons, bioelectricity, conductivity, resistance and energetic flow pathways in living beings, and the resultant findings have (unsurprisingly!) aligned with the meridian pathways codified by the ancient sages many millennia earlier. How did the ancients KNOW where to map these pathways?

In this episode, I share my perspectives:

• there are other ways of “knowing” and “measuring” that are beyond the external (to us) technologies and tools that we have available today;

• the present focus on materialism has been to the detriment and neglect of our subtler senses and ways of knowing;

• the ancients had an advanced somatic-knowledge, through practices such as Qi Gong (energy work), Nei Gong (inner work), Nei Dan (inner alchemy), Dao Yin (somewhat like yoga), yoga, pranayama (breathwork) and meditation;

• this knowledge was potentiated by living in alignment with Nature, and in observation of her cycles;

• we all have access to subtle ways of knowing and sensing – it is an inherent ability;

• simple ways to cultivate this awareness with Qi Gong and energetic practices you can do at home.

Reading List & Shoutout

https://thecrdchallenge.com/

The Invisible Rainbow, by Changling Zhang

Heavenly Streams: Meridian Theory in Nei Gong, by Damo Mitchell

Qi Gong Reels

Calming Qi Gong – Gathering the Sky

Qi Gong Warm Up Sequence

Wise Owl Qi Gong

Guided Qi Gong & Emotional Alchemy

Nourish your Qi – your life force energy – in just 10 minutes a day.

Because your life force energy – your Qi – is everything. When your Qi is abundant and flowing, your life battery is full and all of your systems function optimally – body, mind and soul.

And it doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. Just 10 minutes a day can charge up your Qi and usher you into deep self-trust and self-connection. Backed by ancient wisdom, not wellness trends.

Coming Home to You shows you how – learn more here.

From the Huang Di Nei Jing, circa 220 BCE
Chapter 1: The Universal Truth

In the past, people practiced the Tao, the Way of Life. They understood the principle of balance, of Yin and Yang, as represented by the transformation of the energies of the universe. Thus, they formulated practices such as Dao-Yin, an exercise combining stretching, massaging, and breathing to promote energy flow, and meditation to help maintain and harmonize themselves with the universe. They ate a balanced diet at regular times, arose and retired at regular hours, avoided overstressing their bodies and minds, and refrained from overindulgence of all kinds.

As an eternal student and Doctor of Chinese Medicine, I am struck by the fact that many of the discoveries at the frontiers of health science – various biohacking, structured water, circadian biology, frequency & information medicine and quantum biology – are reframing knowledge that the ancients had down thousands of years ago. And not only did they have an advanced understanding of these “new” phenomena – they also codified simple guidelines on how to live and thrive accordingly. I share this because many of the time-proven health practices that stem from this knowledge are very much applicable today, and most are free, simple and can be done by you at home!

In this episode I talk about:

• my reflections on exclusion zone (EZ) water and the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching;

• EZ water and its relationship to Yin, Yang and Qi – and therefore our health!

• the many tools of Chinese Medicine that we can use to structure and enliven water, to support vitality;

• my musings on a unique type of water mentioned in our ancient medical texts, ganlanshui, 甘瀾水 (literally, sweet rippling water), and what modern research tells us about this practice

• Five Elements (or Five Phases / Agents) and their parallels with information and frequency medicine;

• pulse diagnosis, your amazing human technology and bioresonance;

• humans as conduits between Heaven and Earth;

• simple practices to charge up our beings for the fullest expression of health.

Qi Gong Reels

Calming Qi Gong – Gathering the Sky

Qi Gong Warm Up Sequence

Wise Owl Qi Gong

Guided Qi Gong & Emotional Alchemy

Nourish your Qi – your life force energy – in just 10 minutes a day.

Because your life force energy – your Qi – is everything. When your Qi is abundant and flowing, your life battery is full and all of your systems function optimally – body, mind and soul.

And it doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. Just 10 minutes a day can charge up your Qi and usher you into deep self-trust and self-connection. Backed by ancient wisdom, not wellness trends.

Coming Home to You shows you how – learn more here.

From the Tao Te Ching, circa 400 BCE

Tao engenders One,
One engenders Two,
Two engenders Three,
Three engenders the ten thousand things.

The ten thousand things carry shade and embrace sunlight,
Shade and sunlight, Yin and Yang,
Breath blending into harmony.
– Lao Tzu

Yang Sheng (養生) literally means “Nourishing Life”, and refers to the body of nutritional and lifestyle therapies that is one of the pillars of Chinese Medicine. We view Yang Sheng as the highest form of medicine, as nourishing body-mind-soul can prevent imbalance, and stop disease before it takes hold. There is an old Chinese saying that perfectly captures this ideal:

“Waiting to treat illness after they manifest is like waiting to dig a well after one is thirsty”

We consider that the more resourced and resilient we are, the more smoothly we can flow with and adapt to life and its various inputs. Looking after our foundation, and ensuring that our Qi is flowing and able to clearly receive essential information, helps us to regenerate tissues in their most optimal expression.

This is why the seemingly little things that we can do each day, like connecting to the earth, soaking up sunlight, drinking structured water, eating close to nature, feeling and releasing our emotions, moving our bodies, feeling connection, love, joy and gratitude, add up to make a profound difference to our health and vitality.

Another way that the concept of Yang Sheng, or Nourishing Life, can be expressed is as that of KNOWING YOURSELF. Ultimately, you are the expert on YOU, and while health professionals can offer help and guidance, they are not having your experience 24/7. We are all unique, and listening to yourself allows you to collect data on what best nourishes YOU.

As we get curious about, and tune into, the subtle cues of the body-mind-soul, we become ever more fluent in the messages we are constantly receiving from ourselves. We also get to deepen our knowledge about what works for us, and what doesn’t: or perhaps even the same response may “work” at some times and not others. It can also mean observing our habits, reactions, perceptions, programs, coping mechanisms and addictions (this is not limited to substance addiction – it can encompass addiction to work, busy-ness, emotional states, etc.), and choosing to unwind from those that don’t serve us. It can mean looking at what foods, activities, environments and relationships leave us feeling balanced and vibrant, and which ones don’t.

One of the many aspects of Yang Sheng that excites me is that in deepening our relationship with our body-mind-souls, we (re)discover and remember that the power to heal is within each and every one of us.

Let me guide you in Nourishing Life

Let me show you a simpler way – one that has been tried & tested for more than 5,000 years. A way that I have witnessed transform the lives of hundreds of people. And, a way that gave me my own life & health back.

Gentle, sustainable changes and simple, daily rituals, grounded in the ancient wisdom of Chinese Medicine. No harsh protocols, diets or dramatic hacks – just simple, natural, body-honouring foods and habits. At your own pace and in your own time.

Because your body already knows how to heal. Sometimes we just need a little guidance to put the pieces together. And this framework is what I am so excited to share with you – it’s the missing piece of the wellness puzzle.

The Radiant Energy Reset guides the way – learn more here.

Qi Gong Reels

Calming Qi Gong – Gathering the Sky

Qi Gong Warm Up Sequence

Wise Owl Qi Gong

Guided Qi Gong & Emotional Alchemy

Nourish your Qi – your life force energy – in just 10 minutes a day.

Because your life force energy – your Qi – is everything. When your Qi is abundant and flowing, your life battery is full and all of your systems function optimally – body, mind and soul.

And it doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. Just 10 minutes a day can charge up your Qi and usher you into deep self-trust and self-connection. Backed by ancient wisdom, not wellness trends.

Coming Home to You shows you how – learn more here.