(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 21) What is Qi? Interview with Ann Cecil-Sterman (Part 2 of 2)

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 part of our discussion did you find most interesting?

This is part 2 of our interview with Ann Cecil-Sterman. If you haven’t listened to part 1, we highly recommend listening to it here.

Essential in Chinese medicine is the idea that we should be attuned to our “gut” feelings since it relays important information about our wellbeing.

Recent research provides evidence for the important the gut-brain connection, and how the gut can also have profound effects on our thoughts and emotions, for example. 

Qi Stagnation & Anxiety

Anxiety in Chinese medicine is the failure of the Heart and Kidneys to properly communicate. Kidney Qi stores our destiny and Heart Qi is responsible for creating relationships and expanding our connections.

When our Qi is focused on a tiny screen (i.e. phone screens) and our social connections based there, the connection between our Kidney Qi and Heart Qi is interrupted, creating stagnation. Anxiety and depression often result from this stagnation.

As social media expands to control our social network, cases of anxiety and depression will inevitably become more prevalent. 

If we instead spend more time connecting with ourselves and others, the Heart Qi to be released and express itself, thereby leading us to greater creativity and joy.

One of many benefits of Acupuncture include supporting the connection between the Heart and Kidneys. 

Benefits of Acupuncture

A common misconception is that Acupuncture should only be sought out for injuries. Cecil-Sterman emphasizes the fact that Acupuncture’s scope is much broader. Of the 66 channels used in Acupuncture, only 12 channels deal with treating injuries. The rest of the meridians deal with all sorts of issues such as those used for chronic degenerative diseases, emotional distress and with a variety of acute and chronic issues. 

More importantly, if someone presents with no health issue, acupuncture can still offer health support in ensuring smooth functioning of our internal organs and flow of Qi. Cecil-Sterman explains why regular Acupuncture treatments along with a diet low in sugar can keep illness and dis-ease at bay. 

Cultivating Your Qi as a Way of Life

One of the major impediments to healthy Qi aside from excessive use of technology is an unhealthy diet, especially one that includes refined sugars.

Sugar cane is naturally a whole food and digestible, but once it’s refined with the natural enzymes and fibers stripped, it essentially becomes empty calories. Refined sugar thickens and raises the temperature of our blood and contributes to inflamed arteries as your body increases cholesterol levels in order to protect the heart against the raging heat caused by refined sugar. A host of other diseases are also caused by consumption of refined sugar so it’s important to control the amount of sugar in our diet. 

Generally speaking, you can cultivate Qi through your diet by becoming more mindful of what you’re eating and replacing refined sugar with whole, clean foods.

You can also become more aware of your surroundings and actions, and allowing this awareness to guide you to make healthier choices.

Ann recommends simply taking as little as 10 minutes to meditate or simply breathe to cultivate a profound sense of relaxation, comfort and connection. This alone initiates a healing process and allows Qi to flow freely and help us become more aware. 

Once you’ve listened, let us know in the comments below — which part of our discussion did you find most interesting?

References

Ann Cecil-Sterman’s website - https://anncecilsterman.com/

(Episode 8) Follow Your Bliss: Dr. Setareh Moafi's Journey into the Healing Arts

Once you’ve listened, let us know in the comments below — what inspired you most about Dr. Moafi’s journey?

Today Salvador Cefalu interview his wife and partner, Dr. Setareh Moafi about her journey into practicing Yoga & Classical Chinese Medicine.

We think you’ll find many surprising insights and inspiration about what’s possible for you when you take a chance to follow your bliss.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Details of Dr. Moafi’s personal story — the journey that led this first generation immigrant to the moment that changed her life forever and guided her to follow an unconventional path

• How doing less and letting go of physical and emotional stress can help you achieve more

• Why it’s so important to follow your heart, even when the path it’s taking you on doesn’t seem clear

• What to focus on if you’re still unsure about your life purpose

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(Episode 6) How to Relax When It's Hard to Meditate

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 are your fears and/or experiences with meditation practice?

Meditation has become one of the most popular forms of relaxation in the world. But it may not work for everyone all the time.

While there’s a lot of research to support its efficacy, in this episode we’re going to address some of the dangers of excessive meditation and one of the most common complaints we hear about the practice of meditation — what if just sitting down to meditate stirs up more anxiety than relaxation?

Ashtanga Yoga & Meditation

In his Yoga Sutras, Patanjali classifies Meditation as the seventh of the eight limbs or stages of ashtanga yoga.

The eight limbs are yama (abstinences), niyama (observances), asana (physical postures), pranayama (breath control), pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (absorption that leads to enlightenment) — in that order.

Each stage helps raise your consciousness and bring you closer to samadhi, or enlightenment. 

This means that to cultivate a state of dhyana, or meditation, you must already have advanced your cultivation of the mind through abstinence, observance, withdrawal and concentration, and have cultivated your body and breath through pranayama and asana practices.

Most of us are not this advanced, which is why the practice of meditation has a greater potential to wreak a greater sense of havoc than bring on a sense of calm.

When we sit for Meditation without having worked on the other stages first, we may end up feeling scattered and anxious.

And because Meditation has developed such popularity in the West, if you don’t know ‘how to meditate’ it’s easy to feel like there’s something wrong with you. We assure you, there is nothing wrong with you!

Since we’re all wired differently, a person who naturally has a stronger Water energy will find it easier to sit quietly and practice Meditation while a Fire type person will find it creates anxiety despite inexhaustible efforts to make it otherwise.

The reason for this in part is that the mind needs to be calm and cool to sit quietly without feeling so restless.

This often demands that deeper inner work be done first, whether this is with a therapist or hypnotherapist or receiving Acupuncture treatment to clear and cool the body and mind.

Once much of this heat is cleared, it’ll be much easier to feel more settled and therefore be able to sit quietly.

In episode 2 of our podcast, Salvador shared the Waterfall Meditation, which is a wonderful practice to begin to cool and settle your mind. Click here to listen to that episode and learn the practice.

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*A Practice to Calm Your Mind

If you want to try to cultivate this cooling effect on your own, here’s what we suggest…

*You can find this guided practice starting around 13:50 of this podcast episode.

Start by practicing relaxation — let go of the idea that you need to learn how to meditate. Instead, focus on learning how to relax.

A simple way to do this is through practicing a relaxation technique called Counting Down.

This technique relaxes your mind by training you to focus on your breath.

Start by taking three deep breaths.

With your next inhale, begin to count down starting at 50. Your inhalation will be 50, exhalation will be 49, inhale 48, exhale 47, and so on.

Once you reach the number 20, you’ll begin to take an entire breath for each remaining number. In other words, rather than 20 on inhale and 19 on exhale, you’ll count 20 on your inhale and exhale, then 19 inhale and exhale, 18 inhale and exhale, and so on.

Each time you lose count, start over, beginning with an inhale at 50 then exhaling at 49 and so on.

At first, you may not make it past 45. That’s ok. Keep starting over again, and again.

Sometimes you’ll fall asleep. That’s ok too.

In order to relax, you need to first feel rested and oftentimes the thing you need more than anything is to sleep.

Over time, as you practice this technique you’ll find that in five to ten minutes you’ll be able to count all the way down to the number one. When you do, your mind will feel immensely more calm. And even if you don’t, you’ll likely notice that your mind is quieter.

So rather than focus on the trends and the stigma around people who don’t know how to meditate, start as a student of relaxation.

To meditate, you must first learn to relax, and then to concentrate. And it all begins by cooling and calming your mind with techniques like Counting Down.

Once you’ve listened, let us know in the comments below — what are your fears and/or experiences with meditation practice?