(Episode 27) A Deep Dive into Resolving Anxiety: A Classical Chinese Meridian Approach

by Setareh Moafi, Ph.D., L.Ac. & Salvador Cefalu, M.S., L.Ac.

Once you’ve listened, let us know in the comments below — what’s one small step you can take to reduce or prevent anxiety in your life?

In this episode, we discuss anxiety from a Classical Chinese meridian perspective. 

When we’re going through any type of emotional imbalance — such as anxiety and depression — it is really important to have tools and resources to empower us. 

Classical Chinese Medicine is especially empowering as it provides great insight into anxiety disorders, such as the important relationship between the Heart and Kidneys.

The Heart is related to the Fire element and the Kidneys relate to the Water element. 

Fire houses your shen or spirit, which is said to go into the Kidneys that hold your essence, or jing, and retrieves the curriculum that you’re meant to discover or express in the world. The curriculum is essentially your life’s purpose. Anytime there is disharmony between the Heart and Kidneys, you will not feel purposeful in life.

This is also true if there is excessive Fire in the Heart and the Kidneys are not able to anchor, so you end up experiencing anxiety and panic attacks. 

The disconnect between the Heart and Kidneys can begin at an early age, often introducing lack of self-confidence and insecurity. 

All of this is rooted in experiences and nourishment received in early developmental years — which is when the Heart-Kidney relationship is established. These formative years are also important because they relate to the constitutional energetics that are associated with the unique expression of the five elements in each of our personalities. 

The expression of our Five Element energies or temperaments are especially influenced by those around us during childhood. When these natural personalities are suppressed by our parents, society, or the environment generally, it affects how our personalities are formed. 

This type of conditioning impacts our constitutional vessels or the Ancestral Vessels which relates to our hereditary qualities and connections. Specifically, it relates to our first ancestry or Chong, Du and Ren Mai. 

Chong Mai is the penetrating vessel and is considered to be the blueprints of our constitutional energetics and begins formation in utero, continuing development up until the age of 7 or 8. Chong Mai helps form the other two vessels Du Mai (Sea of Yang Qi) and Ren Mai (Sea of Yin Qi) — collectively forming all of the primary meridians in Chinese Medicine acupuncture.

Chong Mai, or the Sea of Blood, makes the primary connection with our Heart and Kidneys and ultimately harmonizes this connection — making us feel in-purpose and helps us quell feelings of anxiety. Insufficiency in the Heart and Kidneys can cause flare-ups so it’s essential to rebuild and reconnect the Heart-Kidney relationship.

It takes time to resolve the root cause of anxiety. That’s why it’s important to seek help from a healthcare professional. Although a temporary relief can be achieved with conventional drugs, they do not address the suppressed or the deeply rooted underlying issue.

Chinese Medicine, through acupuncture, essential oils and herbs, can provide more natural and long lasting relief. In addition, an insight into your lifestyle — especially your eating habits, routines, stress levels — can provide hints about the stagnation in your life and they’re worth exploring as well. 

Once you’ve listened, let us know in the comments below — what’s one small step you can take to reduce or prevent anxiety in your life?

(Episode 24) 4 Tips to Reduce Anxiety by Cooling Your Heart Fire

by Setareh Moafi, Ph.D., L.Ac. & Salvador Cefalu, M.S., L.Ac.

Once you’ve listened, let us know in the comments below — which takeaway will you apply to balance the Fire element in your life?

In this episode we discuss the role of the Fire element as it relates to anxiety. This is especially relevant during the Fire season of Summer but also to for anyone generally struggling with anxiety yearlong.

During Summer, Fire energy is naturally more exuberant and conditions like insomnia and nervousness become much more prevalent. 

People in the Southern Hemisphere who are not in the Fire season may also experience Fire related imbalances. Diet, life stressors and challenging life circumstances can all determine whether Fire energy becomes more pronounced, leading to anxiety. 

In Chinese Medicine, this imbalance is attributed to the Heart and Kidney relationship. In Western medicine, we often accredit this to an imbalance of the hormone cortisol caused by overstimulation of the adrenal glands. In Chinese Medicine the Kidney organ system also encompasses the adrenal glands, which produce cortisol, and govern the reproductive and urinary systems. The Kidneys also play a major role in controlling energy output to the Heart.

Excessive Fire in the Heart creates heat or inflammation that can also thicken the blood over time leading to clotting or stagnation.

Ultimately these imbalances can lead to cardiovascular disease, one of the leading causes of death in the United States. 

Diet is a major force in creating excess Fire—driven by high sugar content in our modern diet as well as excessive protein consumption in high protein diets such as the ketogenic diet.

In fact any diet advocating for excess amounts of a specific food can create energy imbalances so focusing on a personalized nutrition with your current health condition in mind is the best approach.

Since excess amount of anything — be it carbohydrates, protein, exercise, stress or even sex — can exacerbate Heat, moderation is the key to a balanced and healthy body. 

The natural state of Fire energy is to be calm, present and centered. More often than not we find ourselves burned out by doing excessive activities or taxing our adrenal glands and Kidneys and compromising their ability to temper the Fire of the Heart. This can lead to insomnia, anxiety and restlessness. 

Although Fire imbalance is especially prevalent in our modern society, there is still hope in addressing the root causes of the imbalance with Chinese Medicine.

Heart-Kidney communication is essential as the Kidney Water cools Heart Fire and the Kidneys are in turn stimulated by the Heart to encourage self-love and healing. 


4 Tips to Cool Heart Fire:

  1. Stay hydrated to support proper circulation of Qi and blood. It also helps keep the Heat balanced. 

  2. Eat more leafy green vegetables including spinach, chard and dandelion greens to cool your Heart and help it relax. Keep in mind to cook the vegetables.

  3. Add adequate sea salt or other natural mineral salts to your food or water to support the Kidneys. We’ve discussed the essential role of salt in a previous episode. 

  4. Eat more root vegetables to nourish the Spleen and help anchor your Qi. 

Joy is associated with the Heart element so when you help the Heart relax, you can naturally experience and express more joy. 

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Once you’ve listened, let us know in the comments below — which takeaway will you implement to balance the Fire element in your life?

(Episode 7) How to Open Your Heart to Experience True Love

by Setareh Moafi, Ph.D., L.Ac. & Salvador Cefalu, M.S., L.Ac.

Once you’ve listened, let us know in the comments below — how did the two tips we shared in this episode impact your life?

Not a fan of Valentine’s Day? You’re not alone. In the midst of a pandemic, it’s easy to feel more isolated and more alone than ever. And when we’re triggered, it’s especially important to cultivate tools to help us feel better about our lives.

In this episode we’ll discuss how opening your heart can help you experience the truest and most authentic love — self-love — and how experiencing this love can allow you to experience miracles and endless possibilities.




A Brief History of Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day was created to replace a pagan holiday called Lupercalia that was practiced February 13-15 in Rome. The focus was purification that would help ward off evil and removing curses that were causing infertility.

The Catholics eventually made a celebration of St. Valentine in its place. St. Valentine was a healer who is said to heal his jailer’s daughter of blindness.

This can be used as a metaphor for Chinese Medicine’s idea of vaporizing phlegm, which is a process that occurs when you open your Heart to then be able to experience miracles.

It can be more challenging to experience an open heart during holidays like Valentine’s Day when you may feel you’re being forced to open your heart.

So what’s necessary? Forgiveness.

It’s also important to focus on the love you feel for yourself — the depth and truth of the meaning of self-love; to know yourself, to feel self-esteem, self-confidence and self-worth. Because your relationships with others are rooted in your relationship with yourself and the love you feel for yourself.

If you don’t feel good about yourself or you’re judging yourself or feeling guilt about something you’ve done in the past then you inhibit the Lungs from expressing their virtue, which is forgiveness.

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The Fire & Metal Elements

According to the Five Element system of Chinese Medicine, the Heart is part of the Fire element and the Lungs are encompassed in the Metal element. These two elements have an important relationship. In an optimal state, the Fire energy of the Heart helps to control the Metal energy of the Lungs which tends to be critical and even judgmental.

But when there’s an imbalance of Metal energy, which can cause feelings of regret and judgment of oneself and others, this can insult the Fire energy, oppressing the Heart’s ability to open and therefore give and receive love.

The Metal energy is also associated with forgiveness, which reflects your ability to let go. The Lungs let go of the breath and the Large Intestine, or colon, which is the other Metal element organ, lets go of toxins through the excretion of waste.

Forgiveness is a virtue of the Metal element. When you’re able to forgive, you free the Lungs and allow the Heart to open.

Through the action of letting go, we can experience the depth of forgiveness to allow the vaporization of phlegm in the Heart so you can experience miracles.

Letting go also anchors us fully into the present moment. Fire energy is about being in the moment. This is reflected in love, in being in the zone, in being in a flow state — all experiences that only happen when you’re fully present.

When people have Heart Fire manifesting as anxiety, nervousness and overstimulation of the mind they often reach for active exercise. But this creates a lot of heat in the body, which creates an acidic state in the blood that then exacerbates anxiety.

We reach for this type of exercise to release stress but also since the Lungs are overwhelmed, subconsciously we may be wanting to do intensive exercise to open the diaphragm and free the Lungs and this often doesn’t help in this way.

Chinese exercises like Qi Gong and Tai Chi are slow because the idea is to quiet the system and quiet the mind to reduce the static energy in the body and allow for the smooth flow of Qi to circulate.


2 Tips to Cultivate a Feeling of Self-Love

Tip #1 Alkalize Your Diet

Cultivating self-love involves freeing the Lungs to open the Heart to experience self-love and therefore endless possibilities and miracles.

When there’s Heart Fire, you can’t settle the mind and be still in the moment very easily. Heart Fire is a state of heat in the blood that manifests as an acidic terrain in the body. This is a concern when people are utilizing a ketogenic diet because establishing ketosis creates an acidic state in the body.

Heat generated by your diet can spread to all the organ systems.

We often think we’re healthy and on trend with diet, but nutrition and diet is highly personalized so not all trends will be pertinent to your particular body.

Fat can generate dampness and protein generates heat and too much of either creates an acidic state which can be dangerous for people with weak Kidneys as the Kidneys try to clear this acidity.

Greens are especially important to clear this heat, especially the bitter greens like dandelion, chard and spinach.

In Chinese Medicine, we say it’s important to cook your foods so avoid kale and spinach salads which can damage your digestive system and impede the function of the Spleen and Stomach organ systems. It’s better to cook greens and eat them with any meal throughout the day.

Fresh water algae have a cooling effect and are also high in protein for those looking for additional protein sources. These can include chlorella, spirulina and phytoplankton. You can also have more seaweed in your diet.

Drinking chlorophyll or chlorella or any of the fresh water algae help to cool down the system so they can calm your nervous system but should be taken moderately especially during the cooler Winter months.

Chlorophyll is made from alfalfa sprouts and can help start your day with an alkalizing effect.

If you have a busy mind, this can indicate excessive Fire that can also be accompanied by a lot of thinking and processing. Meditation and relaxation practices are also important, but diet is most important.

Placing your tongue on the tip of your mouth during Meditation can also help you cool Heart Fire.

If you have a cherry tip tongue, this indicates Heart Fire.

To learn more about the topic of Heart Fire, go to acenterfornaturalhealing.com/blog and type in “heart fire” in the search bar for more support.

Tip #2: Breathe Deeply and Retain Your Exhalation

When a person is nervous or anxious, they breathe shallow and this causes a buildup of carbonic acid.

When you take a deep breath and hold your exhalation, this helps release the carbonic acid and it helps you settle more into the moment.

Salvador guides this breathing exercise. Breathing out of the mouth helps clear heat and clear the Fire from your Heart.

Remember that it takes time to calm a body that’s acidic. Give yourself time to do a daily practice and you’ll see how your day will change — you’ll be less anxious, the day will seem to go more slowly and your life won’t pass by so quickly. As you can imagine, this is a technique of longevity and to reduce the aging process. This is why tortoises are one of the longest living creatures on earth, because they’re so slow.

As you slow down, yo’ll be able to naturally experience self-love, which is the natural state of Fire energy when it’s in balance.

You may feel a sense of joy begin to bubble up, which is a reflection of this balance in the Fire energy.

We hope holidays like Valentine’s Day can feel like an opportunity rather than something that triggers you to feel bad about yourself because you can change your experience of any experience to change the experience itself.

Now, we want to hear from you — how have these tips impacted your life? Let us know in the comments below!

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