Episodes

Hello, beautiful beings! This is a short message to let you know that the podcast is taking a short break while I focus on a few other projects. In the meantime, I’d love to share with you this gentle, guided meditation to cultivate your Qi – your life force energy, nourish your Three Treasures (more on these in episode 50 & 32) and power inner connection. This Qi meditation is a powerful way to bring coherence to body, mind and soul. For those who prefer to meditate seated – this can be a gr...

As AI becomes more and more prevalent, I’ve heard questions asked about its cost in terms of resources and energy (to power the machines). But what about the cost to our own life force energy, our Qi? We say that “where our attention goes, energy flows”, so where are we placing our power when we outsource our thinking, creation and communication to a non-living entity? And how does that impact our own vitality, which rests upon the cultivation of energy – Qi – within our body, mind and soul? As ...

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 excit...

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 c...

Why do we get sick? (Spoiler alert: it’s not germs, or other invisible baddies) Why do some people seem to get everything going, while others happily keep on going? Why do some have “iron guts”? And why do some individuals get allergies in the exact same environment that others are totally fine in? 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 cour...

Imagine if simply choosing warm food and drink could help: • depression • anxiety • insomnia • gas • bloating • promote healthy gut bacteria (say bye-bye to expensive probiotics) • painful periods… All these benefits, without biohacking gadgets, expensive supplements and exotic superfoods! This powerful tweak is something that we all can access today – and something that Chinese Medicine has been talking about for several millennia. So simple, and so empowering: each mouthful can move us ...

Hypermobility (including hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, hEDS) is an area which is gaining more acknowledgement, but the solutions within the conventional space are a little thin on the ground. Hypermobility can mean a whole lot more than being double-jointed and having a selection of party tricks at your disposal 🤣 Because it involves the connective tissue – which is more stretchy in hypermobile individuals – it is not only joints that are affected, but also anywhere that we have connectiv...

What if perimenopause – our Second Spring – is not something to be suppressed, vilified or medicated away?? What if it is a portal into a more essential, more exquisitely-aligned version of ourselves? An invitation to re-examine how we do life, and to witness and heal parts of ourselves? An initiation into our wisdom and power? In Chinese Medicine, perimenopause is considered the “Second Spring”. A second puberty, a second metamorphosis. When we reflect on what a wild ride that first puberty wa...

Have you heard of the Three Treasures, and how they relate to feeling great, aging vibrantly, manifesting your destiny and living your soul purpose? Together with our Qi, our Jing (Essence) and our Shen (Spirit) make up the Three Treasures – treasures, because they are the precious substances that form the foundation for our health and longevity. Jing can be translated variously as our DNA, our genetic endowment, our constitution. Qi is the total of all of our energetic and metabolic processe...

In Chinese Medicine, we are adherents of “The Middle Way” or “The Middle Path” – a path of moderation. Rather than opting for extreme or dramatic health practices, we opt for a gentle, daily nourishing of Life. Each moment is an opportunity to nurture health. Our amazing bodies already know how to heal, how to detox, how to repair – sometimes, we just need to get out of the way. When I was asked my thoughts on fasting, the answer, while tending to alignment with The Middle Way, had some nuances...

(APOLOGIES for the audio issue halfway through the episode – it’s only 30 seconds or so, so thank you for bearing with me!) Put simply, life (and health!) is about how well we can gain and hold charge, and how effectively our systems work with it. Chinese Medicine has a profound understanding of this. Our view of health and healing focuses greatly on Qi and its many expressions, qualities and functions within mind, body and soul. Qi is often loosely translated as “energy”, but it is so much mor...

With the health and wellness industry exploding as it is, the following is a conversation I find myself having more and more frequently. What I have observed over the years – both in my own health journey and in my many years in clinic – is that simple & natural is most often best. While extreme or heroic practices, and expensive biohacks & supplements, may seem glamorous and exciting and may promise the world, I see that we can achieve the same benefits with the simple – often free! – consist...

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...

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 s...

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” o...

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...

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 dis...

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 a...

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 ...

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 reso...

What is health? Is it merely the absence of disease? Or can getting “sick” and having “symptoms” also be a sign of health – an indication of an appropriate response to an insult or toxin of some kind, whether emotional, environmental, climatic, energetic, relational, dietary, airborne, electromagnetic, thought-based, beliefs, etc? In this episode, I share my musings and reflections on how I see health – and how we can flow with the manifestations that arise in order to continue supporting our v...

In Chinese Medicine, healthy digestion and assimilation of nutrients belongs to the Earth element. It is the foundation for vibrant health and wellness, and so our medicine has many practices and lifestyle tips that support this essential function. “Symptoms” (or body messages!) like gastritis, indigestion, stomach pain & bloating, ulcers and acid reflux are common in our modern society, reflecting a departure from health practices that have withstood millennia. Luckily, our age-old medicine ha...

Chinese Medicine is a holistic framework that views all of space-time as one interconnected web: humans are woven into the fabric of the cosmos, and our health and vitality is influenced by the cycles of the heavens, the seasons, the sun and the moon. The Meridian Clock describes our daily cycles – our circadian rhythms. Recognising the importance of these cycles – and the benefits that aligning with these cycles can confer upon our health – the ancient sages and doctors observed Nature, and co...

Have you ever felt scattered or ungrounded after a shocking, frightening or distressing event? Or felt so stressed that it changed your breathing pattern? So angry that your chest and head felt hot? So worried that your stomach was twisted up in knots? So sad that your chest felt heavy and dull? In Chinese Medicine we understand that, aside from environmental effects or traumatic causes, emotions are the main cause for dis-ease in our systems. The ancient doctors and sages observed the specific...