Yu Guo I Ep #6 | Nourishing your essence part 2

our body awareness with tcm principles for now stay tuned and enjoy the rest of this episode so you know we’ve been talking about gut health and and i guess the symptoms and how it looks like one of the other pillars that you mentioned is is acupuncture what is the difference between acupuncture and what you do which is acupressure and people usually just kind of think tcm and acupuncture is like synonymous but how how do we differentiate it and how do we make sense of that acupuncture and acupressure is actually the same system acupuncture is practiced with needles that go under your skin and acupressure is just pressure on your skin on the surface but yeah it’s softer and the system means we have our 12 main meridians that go through our body and they are connected with our inner organs sorry before you continue on with explaining that with what is a meridian because i myself am not so clear about that you can imagine it like cables cables in our body which are linked to each other and and on these cables or in these cables is energy flowing like electricity for instance you can imagine it’s the same system in our body with qi so electricity is the g in our body in the meridian how do you use acupressure to help with gut health issues can you use it yes so on our meridians on these cables there are sensible points just say acupuncture points because a lot of people know acupuncture more than acupressure and we use them to get our qi our energy flowing so let’s say there’s a stagnation somewhere and then we can stimulate on these meridians on these points uh to tell them okay go to this dampness go to the guts and tell them to dissolve it’s all about getting the chi moving flowing and if there’s a deficiency if they’re more uh chi if there’s a fullness we try to harmonize it and to as we try to move it somewhere else um so we’re always in balance so you have this dampness i go to this dcm practitioner that can help me with acupuncture and basically as they put those needles will this harmonizing effect be instantaneous if you are going to acupuncture appointments you will have some of these because if you just go once the body is still still um maybe confused because there’s there’s going to be activated something that you don’t know before that you don’t knew before maybe so you might have to go there five times or ten times but it will have an effect from the first time maybe you just don’t know it because you can you can imagine these points are also switches and if you if you switch on something there will be um a energy flow that that will move forward uh and then with the fifth sixth or tenth appointment maybe it’s already harmonized but it’s working from the first time you’re going so you said 10 times what would be the interval time you would say like a week every week every month what do you recommend usually it in china actually if they have something acute they would go every other day it’s not that expensive there they just go there they’re sitting in in this room with i don’t know 10 20 other people chatting with each other with their needles in their arms or somewhere oh cool and it’s normal there and not that expensive like here in europe and they go they’re more frequent so it’s also yeah dumb quicker but here since it’s a little bit more expensive every week would be wonderful until um you got better and maybe yeah visit them a couple of months later but every week would be the beginning to start here or your treatment so like so acupuncture acupressure is used as like a tool for like preventive care right so if you don’t feel like you have any symptoms or any issues um like do you still go to them like what does it do to to your body and how does it help by going to them if you feel fine what’s the benefit i guess i haven’t met a person yet where everything was fine you’re human right yes but that’s okay we don’t always have to be in balance um so trick question since i’ve never met anyone without symptoms and there are people coming not aware that the symptoms are kind of important and they come for yeah i’m here to try it out and for prevention that’s fine too um and the acupressure uh treatments that i give they feel like massages so they can come for relaxation and when they’re having stress they also can come and just chill there and i’m doing all this inner work with for the symptoms that they yeah didn’t we’re aware of it’s so funny because um so i once went for a session and it’s exactly what she said is that she basically covered my whole body they put like a lot of needles on my face but they also covered my whole body and basically i had this amazing sleep for wow 40 minutes i was just sleeping and all those needles are on me but i had this the quality of my sleep was the best and i was like oh can i just stay here and she’s like removing and i’m like oh can i just like continue napping that relaxation was i think what i really needed wow i i’ve been to an acupuncturist before for like an ankle issue but i was so confused i was like i don’t feel anything and then after she was done i was like oh there you go there’s no more pain because i could just see like hundreds of needles it’s like all over and i just didn’t get it i’m like okay is this doing anything like did i waste my time coming here and then you know this negative self-dog and then i started walking and for the first few steps it was kind of weird and then i forgot that i came there for an ankle issue because i was just walking and i didn’t even realize that there was no longer any pain i was like oh [ __ ] it actually worked let’s say if you if you come for prevention actually without any of these symptoms it would be perfect because in our body there will be always small imbalances and these acupressure or puncture points will actually harmonize things like if you say you have pain of course there there will be uh taking attention to that pain on that ankle but also they are trying um parallel to to harmonize um where this pain comes from like um it’s it’s acupuncture is not um like popping pills like okay you have this pain i will put some needles there no they will like guni said um take the whole body again and see okay this acne where does it come from too much heat maybe okay i will put a needle down somewhere on the body wherever where you will never link the connection and that’s what i already said where a good therapist would take it to the source how do you manage expectations when um when a client come and so say there’s a client like tasha who said like i have like this pain and and they you know usually if you’re not very familiar with the practice and the fact that you know it’s a whole holistic thing um and they come in they want this specifically and and they’re kind of blocked with that how do you how do you manage this and how do you kind of inform them then if it’s just about the body work like aqua pressure aqua points i would just press the point i would just stick the needle um and don’t tell them about it okay so okay let’s say there is this um ankle problem but i also see she’s stressed so i would press the stress point uh or uh the acupuncturist would just put a needle to the stress point so they wouldn’t have to explain it to you you will feel better anyway afterwards so and any homework kind of you would you would give them now say they come to you um they feel better but is there anything that they can do at home to continue reinforcing that healing yes i would give them some little home exercises like a lot of people of course say stress stress stress or i don’t sleep very well so i tell them okay um tap this meridian here like on the outer outer legs that’s the gallbladder meridian it contains uh very often a lot of stress i will tell them okay tap there stroke it take your knuckles and stroke down and um yeah all these little exercises i would tell them or or you that the spot where your third eye is okay press that massage that to calm down yes um i used to have this uncle who would carry like you know those um like the whiteboard markers and he would carry it everywhere he went whether he was going to a wedding or going to the office like i swear he had it in his pocket because i’ve seen him doing it at a wedding before and i was like what is this guy doing and he would actually massage his leg with that with that pen and like his arm he’ll be talking to you and he’d be doing it the whole time and he used to just say with circulation but as you’re talking now i’m like i think there’s a link it’s so cool another one is like when i was living in hong kong and um in the morning some some elder would do tai chi etc but another thing that they would do is like they would check themselves yes even in malaysia i remember yeah and what what is that if you were to give us the the tcm perspective what is what are they doing actually they are tapping to get the tree flowing to to wake them up they are waking themselves up and stimulating it in that way i actually did a private with this lady who specializes in tcm and in ayurveda and so one of the breathing practices she asked me to do every morning is when you wake up you start doing this tapping all over your body and then you like as you’re doing it you breathe in and breathe out and there’s like a structure to it and she said exactly that like it’s meant to open up um the the energy points in your body so what is how do you go about it because the thing is that what i see is that they i don’t know if do you start from your legs first from your arm first how do you go about it um just because it’s easier i would start start on the upper body okay and then um maybe they were following the meridians and if you take a look at yeah google meridians or um take some qigong classes they will show you where the meridians are like let’s say the whole arm the inside of your arm you can you can tap that down and then when you’re at your finger tips you can tap it from there on the outer side up to your shoulder again and that would be uh the first thing that i do or they maybe did and then go down the body like the the middle body and then the legs and uh then you’ve activated all your main meridians so basically if i understand correctly is that you if you go one movement down you would have to come wait so so say you go downwards you would have to go upwards um to kind of balance out to circulate to balance out yes all right right right would you consider this acupressure this is part of acupuncture yeah part but since you’re tapping maybe it’s more going into qigong but yeah you’re moving the chi that’s all it’s about and so can can can people at home do any acupressure type of uh practices in the morning um to to help their gut health uh to stimulate their their digestive uh fire you know in the morning when they start their day before they start the day um with the points it’s uh the points are like i said switches um you can switch it on and off and in the morning i wouldn’t press immediately because if you press acupressure acupuncture point correctly it’s it can be very sensible it can hurt so i won’t do that first thing in the morning just tap it stretch maybe the meridian stretches um you can find that on the internet too but for the digestion you can always if you if you feel tired or a damp you know you have dampness because you’re tired have gas observations there are points that you can always stimulate every day and um for these who want to google stuff it’s stomach 36 a very famous one and what it’s important for me please don’t expect if you just press that point that it will dissolve this dampness immediately that it will heal you because it’s one point of your whole body system we have over 300 points in our body and a therapist would always use a combination of them and since you are at home and you don’t know all these 100 000 points you can always do it to support you but don’t rely on them and um that’s what i always tell my my clients too uh do do some little homework and support you but yeah i see it in the internet very often like okay press that point then your headache will disappear yes for the moment but if you want to have it long term removed or healed uh you might go to a professional a therapist which will help you with that okay um and so in terms of gut health and and um we talked about some of the the aspect of tcm around gut health how acupressure and acupuncture uh could help anything that you would want you know listeners to know to that they could incorporate onto their day-to-day or actually go and see a practitioner to help them with their gut health movement is very important also for the digestion you have to move every day for 15 minutes we say in tcm and it can be uh yeah soft movement it doesn’t has to be running blah blah because if you eat eat food and um it’s it’s just in your stomach in your kettle like we said and there’s no there’s no movement it will yes just lie there and stick around and um so movement is important and you know or somebody who tells you what kind of right food that’s the source if you are putting undigestable food every day inside of you it the best acupuncture won’t help but what’s a typical undigestable um food most common we here in europe most of us eat a lot of bread so it’s white wheat and then combined with sugar and fat so the pastries that’s a very heavy load and like i said the cow milk products because it’s it’s so it’s actually very nourishing but we’re nourishing us too much with that we’re overly nourished these days okay what do you want listeners to take away about tcm like when they think of tcm and and there’s so many there’s so much information out there so if they’re interested in it or curious about it how would they go about it and where would they start and what should they keep in mind in that process when you start with tcm you can for a happy digestion you can start with a warm breakfast because when you when you wake up and half the day before you you need some energy and uh perfect would be a porridge or an omelet because it’s cooked it’s warm and um having three regulary meals a day would be good so so the digestion knows okay i can rely on this human being that gives me food and energy sources and if you have three proper meals within that protein and and fat you won’t have uh you will have less cravings or munchies in between and another thing would be if you already have a poor digestion or digestion problems cut down reduce raw food because raw food is seen as cold and needs more energy to be preceded and is if your digestion energy is already low it’s not a good idea to put something in that commands more energy but if you have no problems with your digestion and you live in a warm environment just continue with raw food and smoothies and body awareness you will learn with tcm how your body works individually of course and generally you will get the basics too but you will understand how you can harmonize your body yourself if you have one symptom after each other and you’re treating them just as a symptom and not connecting it to your whole system you will be always running to doctors and if you know your system um on yourself like okay um today i have cold feet why is that so okay maybe the smoothie challenge that i was participating the last days is not for me to connect these things you know i would that would be important great i yeah i really like um that last point because there’s so much out there where they say you know that challenge like go quito go go this do do that and we’re all different and it’s about knowing what’s right for you and so as you learn how to listen to your body you would be able to nourish your essence the right way um so that’s really that’s a really good way to to summarize our own conversation and um to have to be attentive to all these general suggestions like okay take vitamin c or take this superfood yes maybe it’s a super nice food like makkah or ashwagandha or whatever but it will not have the same effect on everybody learn that your individual that your body has his own history and to treat it yeah great great point that you bring up because people tend to forget that it’s just like it’s a superfood so let me just like overly consume it then i’m gonna be really strong and fit or healthy um so yeah thank you for reminding us of that and i guess to wrap up i’m sure listeners want to know how they can reach you where they can find you you know do you do virtual consults and how how can they find you yes you can find me on instagram with the name tcm tcm.u i spell it y u and on facebook of course my webpage is in german but it’s spelled tcm y m-i-t-y-u dot a t and you can write me an email in english of course as well and i have online consultations so you can reach me and anytime yes thank you so much for for like taking your time out to to share your wealth of knowledge and experience with us especially about farts we didn’t think about that much so if you enjoyed this episode go ahead and select that follow or subscribe button for now stay safe and we’ll see you next week