We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode after you’ve given it a read/listen – comment below and let us know how you’ll be taking control of your health!
To continue with our discussion from episode #50 on healthy aging, this week’s episode is all about Yin Stasis and its affects on aging.
If you haven’t already listened to the last episode, please check out Episode 50.
In it, we shared how and why the greatest cause of accelerated aging and many other chronic disorders and diseases is blood stagnation, or blood stasis. This particular phenomena can be caused by emotional stagnation, your diet, and your lifestyle.
The Connection Between our Blood and Yin Stasis
Blood is an aspect of Yin in Chinese Medicine. And Yin is a fluid, a substance that slowly dries up as we age. To prevent accelerated aging, we must purify the Yin and preserve it. That’s what’s most essential for you to have healthy, graceful aging.
Yin Stasis, fluid stagnation, in Chinese Medicine is described as an overabundance of dampness in the body which presents itself as phlegm. This “phlegm” can appear as tumors, cysts, excess fat and other forms of fluid buildup within the different organ systems of the body.
Dr. Setareh’s Personal Experience with Yin Stasis
In light of this, Setareh has decided to share her own personal experience of Yin Stasis with you today. Her Yin Stasis was located within her brain as a pituitary gland tumor, causing migraines, visual disturbances and elevated prolactin levels.
We were left with a difficult situation – Setareh took the medication prescribed to get the tumor’s symptoms under control but it had incredibly ill-adverse affects on her heart that were unexpected due to their rarity. But this made taking the medication difficult when the heart palpitations she was having would wake her from sleep, prevent her from exercising and severely affected what she could eat and drink, creating an excessive amount of anxiety which was not helping her recover.
After this situation came to light, we did discover that this was a hereditary condition found on both sides of her family which, in part, motivated us to look for other tools and methods rooted in Classical Chinese Medicine to treat her symptoms beyond the original medication prescribed.
One of the methods we focused on, after hearing a story of a past patient of Salvador’s who developed a similar tumor that eventually disappeared, was a particular kind of acupuncture treatment that specifically targets Yin Stasis – Yin Qiao Mai, one of the trajectories within the Eigh Extraordinary Vessels of Classical Chinese Medicine.
The acupuncture treatments — in addition to Gemstone medicine and a few other alternative remedies — helped to drastically improve Setareh’s symptoms, and blood tests showed that her blood levels had returned to normal.
Moving Energy is Key to Preventing Yin and Yang Stasis
One of the other methods Setareh used to nourish her body, to restore her Yin energy, was the Microcosmic and Macrocosmic Orbit meditations that she learned from their Daoist teacher, Dr. Jeffrey Yuen. She would perform the meditations daily, sometimes more than once a day, and noticed that as her energy was moving, it would often get stuck in her head. But the more she practiced the meditations, the easier it became to move energy through that area.
After several weeks practice, she also noticed her vision and her energy were improving. She was experiencing fewer and less intense migraines, and that the cysts that had been found in her breasts were dissipating as well. As the changes continued to happen in her body that coincided with her feeling better, she could assume the condition was improving.
The Microcosmic and Macrocosmic Orbit Meditations help to circulate energy throughout your body through the primary source channels of Yin and Yang, known as the Du and Ren Meridians, which are also the Fire and Water pathways of the body. In this way, these meditations also connect the Fire and Water energies, cultivating Heart-Kidney communication, which helps you realize and live out your life purpose. To purchase access to these meditations, click the button below:
Acupuncture is focused on re-opening pathways and helping your body move energy (Qi) along your meridians, removing blocks and helping circulation, because the stagnation of our vital fluids is the basis for disease development.
It’s incredibly powerful to not only receive acupuncture, but to take steps to continue that energy movement within your body on your own. You will be doing an amazing service to your mind, body and spirit in taking strides to prevent or reverse disorders and diseases.
The Truth about Preventive Medicine
In relation to preventing diseases and disorders from forming within our bodies by moving energy, we wanted to discuss allopathic medicine – western medicine – and its use of the term “preventive care.”
This term, in many ways, is a misnomer. In allopathic medicine practices, they’re not entirely working toward preventing problems from developing, they’re really just monitoring what’s happening within your body and making sure everything falls within the normal parameters.
But for many of you who are listening, you’ve had an experience where your doctor says everything is fine when you still don’t feel well.
This is why allopathic medicine is expanding, and why western doctors are becoming functional medicine doctors – they’re taking a deeper look at your health and your body. Because of this, they’re able to be more preventative in their personalized care.
On the other hand, Chinese Medicine is based on this concept of preventative care. Chinese Medicine can pick up on problems that you’re not even aware of, long before they even become a problem, and work toward regulating dysfunctions so that they can be eradicated or not exacerbated.
Improving and Enhancing Your Health Goes Beyond Medicine
We don’t believe that it’s necessary to attempt to maintain the same level or kind of health you may experience at any given time because there is always room for progress and improvement. Improving and enhancing your wellness should be the goal, not just maintaining it.
Because anything that you do with a practitioner of medicine will only be enhanced by what you do on your own.
There’s a tendency within our society to rely on other people to get better, and while it’s great to have that support, your general health and well being is going to be rooted in your daily activities—what you eat, your exercise, stress levels, and your gratitude.
It’s incredibly important for your health and wellness to be aware of your mental, emotional and physical health and make adjustments to your routines, surroundings and relationships so that everything is conducive to supporting the healing that you’re looking for.
Your Mindset, Aging and Yin
Alongside your health, your aging will be affected by your mindset, by your surroundings – whether that be a supportive environment or a toxic one. You have to take notice of whether you’re focused more on the “good” in your life or the “bad.”
Where are you putting your energy? Are your focusing on what’s right or what’s wrong? Are you trying to change what’s outside yourself, or are you trying to change yourself?
Changing and growing as a person, all that internal work and self-cultivation, is the only thing that you have complete control over.
Slowing Down the Aging Process
One way to use your mindset to slow down the process of aging, is slowing down your sense of time.
You may be the kind of person, or know someone, who is always running out of time – who just never seems to have enough time to do everything that they want.
Constantly being in that energy and anxiety level generates a tremendous amount of Heat, which when not addressed, can cause stagnation, inflammation and accelerated aging.
A really easy way to begin balancing the Yang energy, is to take a few deep breaths every hour and just feel into your body and into the present moment.
Set a timer at the top of every hour to remind yourself to just take a few moments to yourself, no matter what you’re doing.
You’ll find in just a few days, that the tempo of your day and your life will start to slow down.
We so often go about our daily lives unconsciously, and that little daily reminder will ground you to the present moment, allowing you to be more conscious about your actions and decisions.
Walking Qi Gong (Energy Cultivation) and Preventing Dis-ease
Another form of self-cultivation that can balance the Fire Path, our Yang energy, is Walking Qi Gong, a form of energy cultivation.
This particular form of Qi Gong was developed by Guo Lin, a woman from a family of martial artists that was diagnosed with cancer, recovered and relapsed 10 years later but continued to use Walking Qi Gong to keep her wellbeing in balance, and the cancer in remission.
Walking Qi Gong is also a technique that Salvador has taught to patients and students in the past, and when he does so again, he plans on incorporate the Yin (Water) Path breathing because it can change the dynamic of the exercise.
As you breathe in, you’re bringing the Yang energy down your spine, expanding the lumbar area. As you breathe out, you’re sending the energy up the front of body, starting at your legs and traveling upward, grounding you.
If you’d like to learn more on the different paths and how to harmonize them within your body, please check out Episode 48 of this podcast.
Empowering You in Your Journey to Wellness
Using the Water Path breathing, Walking Qi Gong or our Microcosmic and Macrocosmic Orbit Meditations can purify the Yin energy within you body, restoring it and preventing stagnation. This circulation of Yin energy, will nourish your body, your mind and help you age gracefully.
These tools also allow you to take your wellness journey into your own hands without having to rely on anyone else, including a health practitioner.
You can use these techniques and tools every day and you will start to notice a difference in how you think, and how you feel in your body and in your life.
Where your mind goes, Qi (energy) flows within your body and within your life.
Focusing on your personal cultivation and training your mind to focus more on what is already good and being grateful for it, will help your energy flow more easily… allowing the energy within your life to flow more easily too.
Resources Mentioned This Episode
Strengthen your immune system, restore your gut health, and improve joint mobility and circulation with our unique line of expertly formulated probiotics, digestive enzymes and proteolytic enzymes at www.aharabotanics.com.
Harmonize your Yin and Yang energies and cultivate freedom of movement throughout your body and life with the Microcosmic & Macrocosmic Orbit Meditations at www.setarehmoafi.com/shop.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode after you’ve given it a read/listen – comment below and let us know how you’ll be taking control of your health!
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