Qiological Podcast

Mingmen (命門) is a lifeblood point in the flow of fire and qi in the body, yet remains shrouded in an enigma. For those who seek to understand their fate, the point—which translates to “Gate of Destin…

As the earth awakens from its winter slumber, the gentle spring wind brings with it the promise of new beginnings. A new fate, a new story waiting to unfold like a delicate silk scroll, unfurling its…

As practitioners of East Asian medicine, we are informed deeply by the ancient medicine, experience and wisdom passed down through generations. The holism woven into the East Asian medicine tradition…

Our language tells the tale of our evolution and the movement of the mind. It captures the experiences, attitudes, and wisdom of our ancestors and allows us to reflect upon our own. 

As herbalists and…

Treating what you see sounds easy. And it is essential if you want to craft a targeted and effective treatment. It’s those well aimed treatments that hit the mark that conflated with magic. 

But seein…

So much of our medicine is conveyed in stories—the ones we live, the ones we tell, and the ones we hear. Storytelling is an innate human impulse. It provides context and meaning, allowing us to share…

Making the leap from the classroom to the clinic is an opportunity to explore a new world—but without a travel guide in the form of teachers and colleagues to help guide you along the way. You’re tas…

To use herbs within the scope of traditional Chinese medicine, we must first understand the qualities, temperatures, and tastes that dictate how each herb will function. Flavor, Taste and Nature give…

Practitioners today navigate a dynamic and ever-evolving world of marketing and communications. There are so many ideas about practice building and how to use technology when it comes to attracting t…

Getting off track is not something uncommon for us. In fact, it’s an everyday part of our human experience. The question is, how do you notice when this happens and then how do you reorient? More imp…

The principles behind our medicine are relatively simple. The idea is to restore balance to a body that is in disharmony. To detect the patterns and ripples in the system. To facilitate the unimpeded…

Heaven and Earth, the creative and the created, micro and macrocosm. All ways of saying there is a reality we inhabit, and beyond that a lot of mystery. And mystery is something us humans have, at be…

Classical Chinese medicine recognizes the Heart (心 Xin) as a central organ to our being. It’s seen as holding the sovereign position as the emperor of the kingdom (i.e., the body). 

The Heart is where…

Tuning in is a cultivated skill that’s in many East Asian Medicine practitioner's toolbox. We learn early on to bring our intention, attention, and awareness to the clinic encounter. To pick up subtl…

No one gets through life without difficulties. We all carry wounds and the consequences of the meanings we’ve made in the moments of heartbreak, fear and confusion.

In this second conversation with Ra…

I recently got to thinking about wei qi, especially as we are moving into the dark of the year in the northern hemisphere, and I realized that I hear discussions about wei qi, and how we should atten…

Our job as Chinese Medicine practitioners is not so much to impress our ideas on patients but to cultivate a capacity and restraint to allow them to come back to themselves. Our assessment is meant t…

Many acupuncture traditions share the idea that our troubles stem from a root cause , and treating the root is an essential part of the therapeutic process. Then there is the branch where symptomatic…

Life is built on rhythms, the natural world is constantly in a state of transformation. A cyclical flow of growth and decline—manifested in the turning of the seasons, waxing and waning of the moon, …

Movement is life.

Movement is part of how our body communicates with itself and senses itself in the outside world. Proper and ease filled movement, be it with our emotions, the circulation of our bl…