Bliss Over Busy: How Slowing Down Heals Your Body & Mind

When you're rested and relaxed, your body will self regulate. It'll heal itself. Your immune system, your energy, your body is going to work much more efficiently. That's all the ancient wisdom. That's the wisdom from Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine from thousands of years. And your mind and your body are connected. People forget this. The mind and body are intimately connected. If your mind is turbulent and stressed out, what happens is the stress becomes internalized and we hold it in our bodies.

Welcome to Rooted in Wellness. I'm so excited to have you on my podcast. Lee Holden, you are qigong master, licensed Chinese medical doctor and acupuncturist, among many other things. Thank you for being here.

Hey, I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

So we're going to dive into all of the magic that you do, but first, we start off by asking every single guest about, you know, there's so many things that we do. And this podcast, the intention is really to merge together the wisdom of ancient modalities with modern medicine. And I want to know, like, what are three things that help you feel really rooted in who you are in your life? What are practices that you have?

Oh, that's. That's such a great question. You know, rooted is such a qigong term, you know, so the first thing is, like, moving my body feels like it grounds me, it keeps me rooted. You know, the earth is where we're rooted to. So lining ourselves up to that force of gravity which we would call the earth energy is one of the things that I find really grounding, really rooting gets me in the present moment and gets me in my body, so I feel grounded. You know, I love exercising. I love mountain biking. I love being out in nature. I love getting my bare feet on the ground and, you know, saying good morning to the trees. There's some beautiful redwood trees right here near where I live. So I love being out in nature just. Just to remember where we are and to have some moments of mindfulness, to take some time to be in the moment, to. To help me ground and then get clear on what I want to create for the rest of my day.

We're going to dive into that. I think that embodiment practice is so key. And is there something that you do with your kids? Like, just based on our conversation before we. You have rooting practices with your kids?

You know, I just feel like I should have a gold medal this morning for getting my kids fed out the door, no fighting, and to school on time.

That deserves a It feels like such an accomplishment.

But, you know, I love doing some, you know, two or three minutes of like a breathing practice or a quick little meditation before they go to school. You know, they're just sitting around the breakfast table. We were drinking tea and I just said, you know, hey, what's the kind of day you want to have? My 13 year old had a rough day yesterday. She had a fat lip when she came home from school. The PE teacher made her play football and she collided heads with another kid. So I was like, how do we want to change the day to day? Let's put our mind on what we want to create and, you know, learn from past and get inspired about the day. You know, just because you had a rough day yesterday doesn't mean you're going to have a rough day today. So let's get our mindset on what it is we want to create. Sometimes we're in such a hurry that we don't mentally rehearse or visualize the day that we want to have. And that is instrumental in co creating, you know, a beautiful day.

Love that you said that. No one said that before. I'm a big believer in the power of intention and like, set an intention before anything is what I believe. I do it with my kids and I find it's like it's the one thing that helps to give you some guidance before you get stuck in the busyness of all of it. Yeah. All right, so on the flip side, you know, so many people have these daily habits that they don't even know are uprooting them. And I'm sure a lot of our listeners, you know, they're doing a lot of wellness hacks every single day, but they're treating it like a checklist. And because their wellness activities are just a checklist, it's not even rooting them anymore. So on the flip side, like, what are three things that make you feel. Feel uprooted, where you don't feel grounded, where you don't feel that sense of peace in your life?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think being too busy or the feeling of busyness is an uprooting quality. Being, you know, in a rush that's kind of when everything kind of falls apart. I. I know this from like athletics and biking. If you feel like the pressure from somebody behind you, that's usually when people crash. And if you're feeling like, impatient and rushed around, that's when your life sort of crashes around you. And so it's kind of counterintuitive to slow down and to take a breath and to realign to what we want to create. But it works so fabulously well. I mean, the practices of like qigong and Tai chi teach us the power of slow and to slow down, have a moment, to be in the moment, take a deep breath, line yourself up, and then go after. It is a really powerful practice. And what I mean by going after it is even though you're busy and even though you have a lot of things to do and accomplish and get done, and maybe there is a lot of pressure from work and kids and whatnot, you can still go quickly and efficiently, but be in a slow state of mind within yourself so that you don't, you know, trip and fall, so that you don't miss something, so you don't forget something. All those things that happen when we're in a rush tends to create chaos and stress when we're stressed out. Your best energy is not moving forward with you in your life. So I would say stress will uproot you and make you feel not connected to what you want to accomplish or make you feel not connected to the work that you're doing and who you want to be in your day. Your, your best energy, your best self sometimes is just a few breaths away where we can ground and bring our best energy into whatever we're doing. Whether it's parenting, working, writing a book, you want your best energy moving forward. And I noticed this in athletes. Athletes prepare for their event and people don't prepare for their life. We don't like shake our body and like, I gotta make breakfast for the kids today, but you should prepare to make breakfast for your kids. Like an athlete is preparing for an event. And you should do that with work and just get yourself in a state of mind for success and to bring your best energy forward. Even though it might seem like a menial task or that you just gotta get through something and people around you are stressed out, you bring your best energy forward it and, and you'll see amazing things happen in your day and it'll be magical. You know, in, in this new book I'm, I'm working on, one of the chapters is called Bliss over Busy. I love it and I really like that. And, and I love figuring that out to give people more moments of elevation and feel good and connection and flow. Ah, that's so much better than tension, tightness, stress, frustration and blah, blah.

Absolutely. I couldn't agree with you more. And I'm sure every listener, we all want a little bit more bliss and ease in our Life. And you said something I love. Your best self is just a breath away. Like, if this was a foundation that we were taught as children, how different our experience of stress would be growing up. Right. And I'm curious, though, for someone like you, you've obviously been in this line of work for decades. Do you notice when you shift to a feeling of uprooted, or is it slow? So for a lot of the people that I work with, it's almost like they drift. They drift. They don't know that they're drifting, and then they're so far gone from feeling peace and inner wisdom that it takes them a while. And then that slogan comes in, oh, I got to get back on the wagon. I'm falling off the wagon. I got to get back on the wagon. Do you notice it for yourself in the moment? Can you kind of self correct?

Yeah. And, you know, this is a. A beautiful example. You know, the. The founder of Aikido, Morihei Yeshiba. Right. And somebody said, hey, do you ever get off center? And he's like, I get off center all the time, but it's only for a few seconds. And that's the key, is that we'll always get off center. But how quickly can you course correct? You know, like that martial artist, you know, when you're face to face with an opponent, you have to feel centered, you have to feel rooted, or else you're going to get hurt. In daily life, we have a lot more flexibility to just kind of be off center, to have low energy, to kind of get through the day. And that's what I want people to transform. That getting through the day, like surviving another day, is not thriving in your daily life. And that thriving feeling happens when our energy is elevated, when our energy is strong and high. The difference between feeling really stressed out and inspired is major, and not only major in your life, but it has major health application as well. Because when your emotional energy is heightened and we're feeling excited about what we're doing, whether it's doing the dishes or writing a book or painting a painting your immune system, your energy, your body is going to work much more efficiently. You know, stress will hijack your health. And that's. That's all the ancient wisdom. That's the wisdom from Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine from thousands of years. And, you know, research is agreeing and saying exactly that, hey, chronic levels of stress is going to hijack your health, and you will have health problems if you're chronically stressed out.

Yeah. So, yeah, it's the instigator. It really is the instigator of all unhappiness. And oh, I love that, you know, dis ease in the body. So this is a perfect segue. So you have an amazing new book coming out in January called Ready, Set Slow. And you're exploring this importance of what it means to slow down in the body. In a world that is so fast paced, we get so used to it. Like we, we've normalized being so, so busy. And I always say busy is this new emotion for people. So how can this concept then, you know, you, you've touched on it a little bit. How can it lead to better health and really mental clarity every day?

Yeah, and that's such a key, key question because, you know, like you and I were talking about, you know, I have teenagers, I've seen teenagers stressed out. Teenagers are. The levels of depression and anxiety are rising dramatically. And it's very, very sad to see that these young, energized, beautiful minded kids are feeling anxious and stressed out and depressed. And it's really a modern epidemic because we aren't rooted. And I think we're not teaching kids how to be rooted. Kids are spending less time out in nature, so we're adults. You know, the average time that kids used to spend out in nature was about four hours a day. And now it's like 15, 20 minutes, something crazy like that. And I think we're getting disconnected with all our modern technology, despite how fabulous it is. And it is amazing, it will pull us off our center, it will uproot us if we don't counterbalance it with practices that help us to go inward and help us to connect to who we are truly from within and spend a little bit more time with ourselves out in nature. Face to face with, you know, a good friend, having a conversation with a real person. I think all of these things can help counterbalance all the craziness that comes with modern technology. So yes, and in this new book, Ready, Set Slow, like slow down, um, it really is about how we can take a moment to be in the moment, to actually craft moments. And this is what we want to do as human beings. We want more moments of elevated energy. And we do all kinds of rituals to create these moments. Whether it's a birthday party, a family gathering, you know, a dinner party, Christmas. We'll create a ritual. So it's like, oh, let's finally be in the moment and be in the moment together. Well, we can do this multiple times on a daily basis and it will Transform your life. It doesn't mean always go slow. It just means to create some beautiful moments. Whether it's, you know, everybody watching a sunset together, you know, usually around the dinner hour, for example, I have my family, we come outside, we either look at the sunset or look at some stars, take a couple of deep breaths, talk about what we appreciated about our day, and then have dinner. So, like, ritualize some of the things that you do during your day. Whether it's a morning cup of tea or coffee. Take a moment to be in the moment, to ground, to center, to get your mental energy intact, to check in with yourself. Because some days we're really energized and some days maybe we're feeling a little sluggish. And to meet and match who you are today with some activities to help nourish yourself can be really, really helpful for transforming stress into vitality. To take the stress of our lives and really help to shift and transform it. Much like a gardener would compost old energy, put it on the earth and the earth gives you back a garden. You can really transform stress or other people's negativity into something really positive for yourself with the right practices.

I believe in this so much, and I think that this is something that's dying, but something that all of our ancestors did. Like, if we think about Buddhist monks or yogis, scheduling time to feel a sense of ease. Every day was part of the daily schedule. Non negotiable, happened every single day, whether it was in community or time for your personal self. And I think that this is something that we're losing because we're so addicted to being busy. And if we're not busy, it means that we're failing or we're not moving forward or we're being lazy. And there's this guilt that really comes with it. Instead of recognizing like, oh my gosh, when I'm in my body, when I feel peace, I'm more productive, I feel better, I have better connections in my life. I'm probably more inspired, I feel more creative. You can show up for tasks and in such a different way. And then there's like the illness side of things. And I know you dive into this in your book. When we become addicted to stress and we live with that for so long, our body cannot optimize, it cannot function. At its best, our system will live in fight or flight and will go to, like, the necessity of what it has to take care of. So can you walk us through some of the health risks that are happening in our world around Going too fast.

Yeah, and you said it. I mean, being stressed out is one of the biggest root causes of disease. Dis ease. It creates a feeling of out of balance. It'll completely hijack your state of mind and your vitality in your body. So chronic stress is a modern epidemic and we call it in, let's say Chinese medicine, the root cause of disease. So the ancient master said, hey, stress is the root cause of why you don't feel good. Whether it's a headache, neck tension, back pain, digestive issues, cardiovascular issues, it is all rooted in stress. Now modern science says, yes, absolutely. Well, how much does stress affect your health? Well, they say 89% of primary care doctor visits is rooted in stress. The reason we first go to the doctor, 89% of it is stress related. That is huge. That is huge. And we can look at interesting statistics about stress. Like there's way more heart attacks on Monday morning at 9am than any other time of the week. And why is that? Because your mind and your body are connected. People forget this. The mind and body are intimately connected. If your mind is turbulent and stressed out, your body is going to hold tension. You know, you can just ask people, hey, where do you hold your stress? And, and most people point to their neck and shoulders, you know, so people contract their muscles unnecessarily. So, you know, I was on a plane not too long ago and this, this woman on the plane, I could tell she was really stressed out about takeoff. She had a little bottle of vodka, one of those little tiny ones, and she was sipping on it and she was grasping her, her seat like white knuckling it as we were sort of taxiing down the Runway. And then she did a very interesting thing. She grabbed her seatbelt and as the plane lifted off, she was pulling on that seatbelt, kind of like a power lifter. And I wanted to like tap her on the shoulder and say, hey, thanks so much for lifting on your seatbelt. I'm sure you helped the plane take off. And I'm sure in her sense of self she felt like she was helping. And we all do it. It was just a very obvious circumstance. And I was like, you know what? We all do that. We all do something unnecessary as a way to think we're controlling our environment. And that's what that tension in your neck and shoulders is. You're tightening it, but it doesn't help anything. And we contract our jaw, we contract the muscles in our neck and shoulders, we contract our bellies, we shorten our breath, and it doesn't help anything in the external environment, although we think it might help us control what's going on. Like you see people in traffic and they're gripping the steering wheel, maybe they're banging on it, they're tightening their body, but nobody in front of them is going, oh my gosh, look at the guy behind me, he's really stressed out. I'm going to get out of the way and help him go faster. No, you can only control your inner environment. We don't have control over the external. So take charge and understand that you have power to shift your internal state. You can relax instead of tighten up. So in qigong practice, what we train is relaxation. Respond to life with relaxation so that when you do have agency to act, you have much more energy because contraction will drain your energy. You just think about walking around, tightening your muscles in your arm for an hour, two hours, three hours, pretty soon you're completely exhausted. Well, these chronic areas where we contract our muscles will deplete your energy. In fact, you're mismanaging your energy with holding too much tension in your body. And then we feel fatigue and drained. And if you're tired and fatigued, whatever stress you have in your life, whatever obligations, it will feel very overwhelming. So when your energy is high, the stress and your life feels like a challenge. And we can rise to that challenge. When our energy is depleted, we're going to get overwhelmed by little things and we're going to get set off and frustrated and agitated. So one of the key things to strategize for ourselves is how do I replenish my energy on a daily basis? If your energy's strong, you're going to be much more efficient, you're going to be clear minded, you're going to get so much more done. And that is the key to a successful day, a successful week and a successful life.

I love that. And I think it's important to hover on that for a second because I notice when I'm working with someone one on one, a lot of those moments or things that they're doing in restriction, they don't even notice. So I had one client who, whenever she ate, she had one hand that was always gripped under the table, like just gripping or somebody else who's constantly tapping their hand and moving when they could be sitting, sitting in relaxation, or even better, when you're just walking down the street. The difference of like someone's face when they're just walking, right, they look stressed, their eyebrows are furrowed down, and you walk by somebody else who Then smiles and automatically you're like, oh, I can smile now. Right? So I think there's, it's worth noting, you know, just paying attention to where you're holding on to restriction. And once you figure that out, maybe setting some practices up in your life so you can invite relaxation. So speaking to the idea of flow that you mentioned and energy, how do you think that slowing down could really benefit things like, you know, thinking of health concerns that people are always interested in? Right. So one, in their motivation, two, maybe in something like weight loss and then another one would be like in their sexuality and their vibrancy. How could feeling more flow create those for you?

Yeah. Hey, now you're talking, right? Hey, let's put this into practical terms. How do these practices help us, you know, lose weight and strengthen our metabolism or connect more deeply with our partners and you know, bring this level of blissful energy into our relationships? I mean, absolutely. I mean, if you just think about it in terms of intimacy or like having a good meal, nobody wants to like go celebrate, you know, you know, their anniversary or their birthday and you know, order a great bottle of wine and have a beautiful meal and just chug a lug that bottle of wine and get through the meal as fast as possible. At those special moments, we want to slow down. There's a savoring of the moment when we really enjoy it. And in fact we will enter into like a timeless zone. We like time flies when we're in the moment and we're really in this elevated energy state and that's what people are seeking. How do we create that? We just kind of wait for it to happen. But you can create those moments with your partner, with nature, with your kids, and really have these beautiful moments. And it requires us to slow down, to slow down and to really pay attention and to be in the moment as a way to craft and co create it. You mentioned like weight loss, for example. When we're stressed out, what happens is that your sympathetic nervous system is allocating energy for survival. That means stress really is a survival response. And we go into what is called fight or flight, fight or run away. And most of the things in modern light life don't require us to fight or flee. So what happens is the stress becomes internalized and we hold it in our bodies. Fight orf. Flight requires energy to go away from your digestion and go into your muscles so your digestion doesn't have all this energy. So when you eat food, when you're stressed out, your body says, let's store that for later. You know, I was the, I was the movement expert for Weight Watchers for two years. And we created, I created all the programs for beyond the scale. And it traveled all over the country and all over, in fact, all over the world, giving talks about how to slow down, how to move their bodies, how to create a strategy off the scale when you're not counting points and weighing yourself and checking calories and all those kinds of things that we think are so important in losing weight. But what I talked about and showed them is how to move their bodies in very enjoyable ways, in slow ways, like we do in qigong practice. And people absolutely loved it. You know, it was the highest rated pilot program in the history of the company. It got such high ratings that people were like, we want more of this. That's why, that's why I just got to travel all over for their company and, and go talk to their members. And also what we did is we. I taught people how to just slow down when they're eating. You know, it's the how of eating, not the what of eating. So how do we eat? You want to slow down when you're eating because digestion starts in your mouth. And when you're moving slowly, you send a message to your nervous system, we're safe, we're relaxed. And then you enter into rest and digest, which is the opposite side of fight or flight. You have fight or flight, which is sympathetic. You have rest and digest, which is parasympathetic. Now your body's relaxed. You're in a relaxed state. You're moving slowly, maybe you're breathing slowly, you're chewing slowly. Your body responds like, hey, we're safe. We can digest this meal. My metabolism is going to be strong. I'm going to eat food and I'm going to convert it into energy. If we think about why we're eating, we're eating for energy. Most people eat for taste, but we're really eating for energy. So when you slow down, you're going to convert it to energy. Your nervous system is going to relax. And that goes the same with breathing. Like, for example, when you're breathing slowly, you send a message to your mind body system that, hey, I'm relaxed. I don't need to be in fight or flight. I don't need to go into this cascade of negative physiological effects of stress. I can go into these positive effects of relaxation. When you're in parasympathetic, when you're rested and relaxed, your body will self regulate. It'll heal itself. Your body has tremendous healing power. And when you're relaxed, that's when it gets ignited or turned on. When you're stressed out, that's when the body says, hey, we can't self regulate and heal. We got to be externally focused on the environment, on alert for danger. So our survival mechanism is actually prioritized over our happiness, over our feel good. Your body wants you to survive. So if you're stressed out, but we want to be happy and healthy, it's counterproductive. It's actually what we really want is happiness and fulfillment and health and vitality and all these things. Nobody wakes up and says, I want to be stressed out, depressed and anxious. No. But the way we live our lives creates that quality of energy. So to counterbalance it, create moments where you slow down, your body will then self regulate, your energy will elevate, and you'll have much better energy going into your activities and much more clarity of mind.

This is where, you know, part of the mission of this podcast is ancient wisdom has to be mainstream. It has to trend. Because Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, they put so much value and emphasis on focus on the power of digestion. And if your digestion is optimized, you're more mindful to what you're eating. You're making better food choices. Your body has time to take, take in and assimilate all the vitamins and minerals and nutrients that you make better choices for yourself. Right. And you end up having more energy. And I think that we're so, like, we take it for granted. You know, a lot of the people I work with in nutrition, they. They've gotten so used to just throwing things down the hatch, expecting their bodies to deal with it, eating while they're driving, scrolling, working in presentations, that it's like they've disregarded the one ceremonial act that keeps them alive. Right. It's so powerful and it's so simple and it's not like we need to schedule a lot of time to eat, but give yourself seven to ten minutes. Seven to ten minutes to just sit, stop, and focus. So I love that you talk so much about that, because around weight loss as well, I just think that once healing is optimized, once your digestion is healed, you're going to be choosing foods that are going to serve the higher energy that you feel instead of going back to old ways that make you feel depleted. Your body has that much wisdom.

Absolutely.

Yeah. Okay. So, you know, I love it. You talked about qigong. I grew up with yoga, so that was always My blueprint. And I'll never forget when I dated somebody who's into qigong. And we did a few practices. And in Toronto, where I'm from, it's so common to see people in parks for practicing qigong or tai chi. So can you talk us through, you know, how does qigong, how did that inspire you into this method of slowing down? And the power and the wisdom that's there for people who don't know about it.

Yeah, yeah. And it is a practice that trains people to slow down and relax. So you see people doing qigong and tai chi very slowly, and you're like, what are they doing? And they're like, we're exercising. And you're like, really? How do you get in shape going so slow?

It's hard.

Quite amazing. It's really hard. It's a great workout. And it's hard to go slow because, you know, qigong practice is a mind body fitness. It relaxes your mind, it balances your emotions, and it energizes your body. The goal of a qigong practice is not, let's say, bigger muscles cardiovascular fitness. It is qi fitness. It is the fitness of your internal energy, which, if you are qi fit, you are healthy, happy and fulfilled. So it's kind of counterintuitive because people often will exercise just for just to quote, unquote, get in shape. But when you do a practice like qigong, you are exercising. There's a great workout. You're stretching and you're doing these slow, flowing movements as a moving meditation. So in like one hour, you got a workout, you got a stretch, and you got a moving meditation. And that is efficient because sometimes I don't have time to go to the gym and then a yoga class and then do a meditation, all as separate practices. But qigong integrates them all. And that alchemy of integration creates such a powerful energy. You know, originally, qigong was a martial art. All the martial artists trained in qigong to develop inner power, to develop inner strength. And, you know, qi means life force energy, and gong means to work with. How do you work with your life force energy? Gong also signifies skill and expertise. So how skillful are you working? Are you at working with your internal energy, the energy of your body, the energy of your emotions, the energy of your mind? How skillfully are you working with those energies? And we just look at our lives. Is my body energized and healthy? If not, there's practices to do to bring your skill level and to bring your health level way higher. How skillful Are you at working with your emotions? Are you feeling super stressed out, down and depressed, anxious, worried? Then we're not skillfully working with the emotional energy. How is the quality of your thoughts in your mind? Are your mind, is your mind turbulent? Overly active? Tend towards the negative? Are we constantly worrying? Because worrying and overthinking is like contracting your muscles. Too many thoughts in your mind is the contraction of the mind. When our mind is present, that is the relaxation of the mind. So a contracted mind creates a contracted body. So if we can calm the mind down, you actually are going to get a lot more energy in your body because your mind will consume qi. It consumes energy by repeating thoughts over and over and over again. You know, when I was a student at UC Berkeley, I learned from one of my psychology classes that 95% of the thoughts you have today are the same ones you had yesterday. And I was like, wow, that's a little depressing, because there's not much room for creativity or insights or intuition and those kind of qualities of the mind. And that is because when we're stressed out, the mind will repeat thoughts as a contraction, as a way to try to control the environment when it's actually not. In fact, the best way to make shifts and changes is from a calm, relaxed mind. Then our creativity kicks in, then our focus and attention and even our intuition becomes ignited, and we find solutions to our everyday life challenges. So in qigong practice, you move slowly, you breathe slowly as part of it. That's only one part of it. The other part of it is this whole activation of energy. You're going to activate your body's internal energy. And we can take listeners through a little exercise so that they can feel their energy in, like, under 30 seconds. I have a great little exercise to do for people if you want to feel what chi feels like in your body. But energy is kind of what we're seeking when we're. When we're seeking something external, like a new house, a new job, a new relationship. Actually, what we want is some energy, a new house. What do you want? Well, I want security. I want a beautiful place to live. I want to feel grounded and content. Oh, I want a new relationship. Well, I want to feel love and joy and connection. These are all energetic qualities. They're all invisible, they're all intangible. And we can cultivate those energies from the inside out and be more receptive to those energies from the outside in that we're stressed out. Even the very beautiful things that we've created in our lives. We don't enjoy as much if we're low energy and unhealthy. Even that beautiful sunset while you're holding your hands with your partner and having a great meal, if you got a belly ache or your headache, it's not as enjoyable. So energy is key to truly enjoying your life. How do we get more energy? Well, we need to train it. We need to change patterns of behavior. Because in Western society, we're taught to go, go, go and go quickly. That happiness and joy and fulfillment is somewhere off in the future. We postpone those beautiful moments till later. Right. We're going to postpone everything till retirement. And by the time people get to retirement, they're sick, imbalanced, unhealthy. And it's very, very hard to change the patterns of stress and conditioning that the west and modern life has thrown our way. And like you said, we need to counterbalance it with some beautiful exercises from the east and integrate. It's not throw away the west and all the beautiful things that the Western modern life has brought to us. It's integration. It's looking at where things are in balance and finding solutions that will really help us thrive instead of just being in that survival mode.

Absolutely. There's so many great nuggets in that. First of all, chief fit. I want to be chief. It's like, let's make that go viral. That's incredible. Would you say in traditional Chinese medicine, is there this concept of when you're living too much in your mind, it causes a turbulent body? We say this all the time in yoga and through your practice, I would love to hear, when you take people through a qigong practice, can you see or feel them have any releases outside of, like the physical, you know, dropping the shoulders away from the ears, coming into their bodies? I know in yoga practice and often in yoga teacher training, by week three, yoga teachers are getting off their mat, walking out of class, having these big emotional releases because they freed up all the things that they've been stuffing into their bodies. Is it the same for qigong?

Yes, absolutely. You know, and, and yoga and qigong kind of stem from the same intention of like, hey, let's work with the chi, let's work with the prana, let's work with the life force, energy. Almost every culture has this word for energy, but because we don't really understand it in from a Western mindset, and maybe we can't see it through, feel it, touch it in a tangible way that we don't put much attention on it. So to demystify prana and chi and these concepts really what it means. Chi just simply means that you are alive. You have life force energy within you, there is a spark behind your heartbeat, there is a light in your mind and that we don't fully understand how this aliveness came to us and how it was gifted to us. So chi in Chinese medicine and especially a qigong sense was called a treasure. You have the three treasures, the treasure of your body, you have the treasure of your emotions and you have the treasure of your mind. So it's a completely different frame than you see. Most people line up and relate to themselves. If your body's a treasure, you're just like, wow, what a treasure. Like you've struck it rich by having this body. And that is the attitude going into it. And I have a three year old and that is her attitude. But somehow this gets untrained out of us that, you know, the universe took about 14 billion years to make you and to create this magical mind body system. And we look in the mirror and we're like, man, I don't like my hair, I'm a little overweight. And the universe is like, I spent 14 billion years to create the miracle.

Of you walking, talking, right?

You're incredible. So you're a treasure is what, is what the, you know, the ancient masters call this. And I feel like people feel like these aspects of themselves are burdens. And it's very common to see the burden of our emotions. I'm so stressed out, I got so much on my plate, I'm so busy, I feel down or depressed. And they do feel burdensome. But the treasures are really like the love and the joy and the happiness and think about all these beautiful emotions and qualities that we can feel. And to be skillful at working with emotional energy is to really feel into the totality of life to yes, we can feel sad and depressed and fearful and all of those things, but they're really like context to really feel and appreciate these beautiful positive emotions and to truly work with emotions. The Chinese masters said work with them like a gardener would work with a garden, that there's going to be compost and there's going to be manure and you got to get it in the right place. You know, people don't put their energy in the right place. So for compost, put it out in the garden. But what people do is they carry it into the bedroom with them and they go to sleep with it and they put it in the kitchen, put it right on the kitchen table. That compost is not that emotional energy is not supposed to be there. It's supposed to transform, it's supposed to move, it's supposed to circulate. If you hold on to it, it's going to fester and create disease and problems. So like you said, when you stuff it down and we hold onto it, when we finally realize whatever it is and that it's there, you can have emotional releases. So people that come to a qigong workshop or a yoga workshop, meditation, breath work, they're going to start to look inward and all of a sudden these emotions, these energies will come through them, but it's. It's coming through and going out, and that is going to create healing. So sometimes it's called a healing crisis because all of a sudden everything that you've felt starts to move through you and move out and we re experience a little bit of it. And then all of a sudden we're like, oh my gosh, I feel so light. I don't have that backpack of compost that I'm carrying around. I feel free. I feel in the moment. And emotions really start to get stagnant when they're not related to the present moment. So when we're holding on to the past or we're worried about the future and we project our consciousness into the future, we worry about my retirement. What if this, what of that? And then we bring that energy into our present moment, or we think about the past. Remember that person who said something I didn't like? And we're going to bring that emotion into the present moment. That's what I mean by holding the compost in the wrong place. When you think about the past, put your attention on what you're grateful for, things that you appreciated, you have to train that because your mind is hardwired to look for the negative because of this overly active survival response. So when you, if you want to be happy, if you want to be healthy, when you think about the past, the treasure is to go through the past and find those golden nuggets of things you appreciated. Like, oh, I remember I got to have a moment with my child. They were smiling. You know, I spent that day last week at the beach and I saw a sunset. I was gardening. What a beautiful flower. I had that great conversation with my colleague, whatever it was, focus on that. Because in a world of infinite possibilities of where we can put our attention, positive and negative, choose those positive moments and they'll start to help you to elevate. And what about the future? When you look towards your future, if we constantly are looking to the things that we don't want to happen. You bring that energy back, so look towards the things that inspire you or you feel excited about. And it's all about your present moment. But because your consciousness can go back in time and forward in time, your mind is totally quantum. It can dislocate from this reality and do something very special. So use the treasure of your mind to actually cultivate and gather that gold, that treasure, and you'll find yourself in a very different present moment. So the way in which we relate to past and future can really help to elevate our present moment. And that's how, you know, the meditation masters, the mystics from all traditions have helped to shed light on how to use the mind and create, really, a map that describes the territory and helps us navigate where we want to go towards health, vitality, emotional balance, emotional freedom, clarity of mind, inspiration. All these wonderful things that we can tap into that do happen. We can just have more and more and more of that energy and be living in that space, you know, more of the time.

Gosh, so many great pieces there, you know, and thank God a lot of this is now being backed by science, right? So ancient wisdom that they've known for centuries is now being backed by science. Because, you know, sometimes when people hear about these practices, it's like, yeah, yeah, I know it's good for me, but I don't have the time and the picture that you were just giving, whether you've done qigong or yoga or tai chi or not, or whether you've done it but you haven't stuck with it long enough. I think that if you can just think about a time in your life when you felt, let's say, in nature, you climb, you go on a hike, you make it to the top of the hill, you're at the top of the hill, the sun is shining on you, and for a moment, you just look out into the vastness of the universe and you take that exhale. That's like. I feel like that's the summary of what these practices can do with you. Do for you. Sorry. That's the summary of what these practices can do for you. And then imagine the power if you practice them with consistency every single day. And then once you get into that rhythm, imagine the power. If you truly understood that your body was such a gift, and then you now look at it completely different, I think the shift is going to happen where you believe that there's nothing that you have to fix about yourself anymore. There's nothing to fix. You are perfect. You are godlike. Instead, you can just nourish. How does your body want to be nourished today? And I'm sure with you, you probably have a bit of an insight on the days where you need to do a little bit more breath work, on the days you really have to get into your body and do more movement, or on the days maybe you need some more stillness and you sit in meditation. Do you think that with the history of qigong, did they know this as, like, a powerful healing ritual? Did they approach it this way? Did they believe that the essence of the human body, you know, like the fact that we are these spiritual beings, that we've come into these vessels, was there that wisdom around it?

Yeah, absolutely. And I love that question because qigong was called the art of preventing disease and prolonging life.

There you go.

It was preventative medicine. And the. The medicine was based on health and vitality. It was health care. And this is beautiful. And you're. I think you're going to love this. But people would pay their qigong doctor and their acupuncturist to keep them healthy. It was almost like a membership or a monthly fee, just like, hey, doctor, I. I feel good. Your job is to keep me healthy. And as soon as people got sick, you stop paying because the doctor wasn't doing their job. So people were paying as long as they were healthy when they got sick. Okay, let's reevaluate. Let's figure it out. So the doctor's focus was on keeping you healthy so that health was never a destination. It was never a stopping point. It was always a continuous practice. What do I need to do today to keep my energy levels up? And energy. Energy imbalance will be a precursor to physical imbalance. So if your energy is off balance at some point later, you will have a physical manifestation. So whether it's a headache, back pain, or whatever it was pre, it was a precursor to an energy imbalance. So if you're working with your energy first and foremost, you'll feel it before it manifests in your body and you course correct. So doing a qigong practice, you know, multiple times a week, a few times a week, even for a short amount of time, is a way to keep your energy levels up, to keep your stress levels down. That is preventative medicine. Anytime you lower your stress and energize or re. Energize and drop into the moment, you slow down, you breathe slower, you are doing medicine on yourself that will prevent problems from arising. In the future. Not only that, you know, qigong was the practice originated by these masterful men and women going out in nature and starting to move their bodies like nature. It's a very natural practice. And if you move your body like nature, you feel connected to it. If you feel energy in your body circulating and flowing, you feel a kinship with nature, and you actually recognize what's truly going on. And all we have to do is take a deep breath. You are breathing in the breath of nature, and when you exhale, you're exhaling back into nature. Without nature, there is no chi. Without nature, there is no life force, energy. Nature is your extended body. So knowing that and feeling that we would take care of nature in the same way we would take care of ourselves or we take care of our children, we would want the best for this beautiful world with rainbows and sunsets and forests and rivers and butterflies. I mean, it is just amazing that we are here in this beautiful planet. And people love to be in nature. You know, the wealthiest people and the most beautiful houses are somewhere beautiful in nature for a reason. And we don't have to cultivate this wealth to experience nature. Of course not. But that is because people want to be connected to nature, and we all intuitively want that, but we feel also at the same time, we are disconnecting from. From it. So it's this paradox that we find ourselves in. But when you do your qigong practice, it becomes very clear that what we want is to feel connected, connected to ourselves, connected to nature, and connected to each other. We want to connect with each other. That's why modern technology, the most popular forms of technology, are how to connect socially. We want these connections. But if our mind, body, system is out of balance, it will never feel complete. Like we're actually having this deep, meaningful connection because our energy is so focused externally rather than from within. And what is the remedy? I mean, it's. Life is very difficult. It's challenging. I mean, people are facing these challenges of, you know, finances and relationships and emotions and health issues all, all the time and sometimes all at once. And we need these tools to help us through these challenging times. You know, this isn't to say like, oh, we just do qigong or meditate. Life is going to be easy. Absolutely not. It is very difficult and very challenging because of the way things are set up for many reasons. But what we can do is to develop more tools and resources to meet life's demands with our best sense of self, with our strongest sense of self, and with much More energy and power and inner fortitude and strength. That's what these practices are designed to give you. Because these practices came from, you know, a few thousand years ago. And I'll tell you, from what I've heard and seen, life wasn't easier then. You know, there was, you know, warlords and emperors and people just coming through and creating devastation. And there wasn't any, you know, you couldn't just go to the hospital. You, preventive care was, was essential to living your best life and actually to living at all. Because all of a sudden a famine or some kind of disease would come through and the people that had stronger, more robust immune systems, they survived. And so it was part of survival. It just was a different mode. And right now, unfortunately, Western medicine is focused on, on sick care. We are totally focused on sick care and we have more sickness now than ever before, new diseases all the time. And you know, even though lifespan is increasing, health span isn't necessarily, we're not healthy as we get older or as we age. And these practices help you live longer, but also live better, live healthier as we get older. You know, the qigong masters that I studied with and got to train with and in China and through Southeast Asia, some of them are in their 70s, 80s, 90s, hundreds. I've trained with a woman that was 106, she was a, a swimming dragon qigong instructor. She was so beautiful, so graceful. She taught a class every day and she was 106. And I was like. And she said, you know, if you do qigong, you can live to a hundred and live to a hundred in full health and vitality. So I was like, hey, that looks good to me. That's what I want to do. Because I looked at, I was teaching qigong to, you know, retired Jesuit priests and in retirement communities. And I was like, you know, these people look really different than that 106 year old teacher. And what I want to do is help people to live to 100, but not only add years to your life, but life to your years. That was my goal.

I want to go back to what you said about paying your healthcare to stay healthy, right? So paying the acupuncturist, paying the herbalist, paying the doctor. So if we were to put that through a lens of living in this modern world, this is essentially investing in your health. So whether it's supplementation, seeing an acupuncturist meeting with a naturopathic doctor, a traditional Chinese medicine, and I think it's so powerful that we make the investment. So that we can course correct in the moment. Because I think what's also happening is living in this really crazy modern world, understanding what the root cause of a symptom is like, you know, we're hearing this so much more in the media, understand what the root cause is. But the problem is that getting to the root cause is so complex. There are so many areas that we have to consider because we don't know what was, what the instigation of the initial stress was or where it comes from. Right. So there's a lot of investigating that has to come, and it takes a while. And I want to own in on what you said about the power of qigong to move like nature. I think that we are seeing the rise of anxiety and dis. Ease and disconnection and depression and issues with our brain and our heart and our digestion. Again, mostly because we're disconnected from nature. And now studies are proving when we spend time in nature, we can actually get you off of antidepressants. Just imagine the impact of that. Right. So thank you for painting such a beautiful picture. And even that woman, just imagining your body moving in flow and ease feels so much more graceful than going hardcore, going constantly with intensity. And I think we've got to do some unlearning around. Being healthy does not have to come with hardcore or intensity. It can actually come with a lot more grace and ease. And I'll tell you, when I practice qigong, I have never moved so slowly and sweat so much in my life. It was a challenge. So for people listening, obviously, you know, they're getting inspired. How can they start to incorporate qigong into their daily lives? So is five minutes enough? Is ten minutes enough? It's. If it's something that they need to do in the morning in community, paint a picture for us on that.

Yeah. And the answer is yes. Just do your qigong practice. Do a little practice and it doesn't have to be a whole heck of a long time. It can be a chi break. Like when I'm sitting at my desk and I'm writing. Like when I was writing that book, I got up every hour and did five minutes of qigong and then I was refreshed and I could write more. I was like, this is how I want my kids to study for school. Because, you know, even the studies show that if you are sitting at your computer, focus will go down exponentially after like, 40 minutes. And by an hour, if you just push through, you're going to be fatigued. You're not going to Retain the information. Your body's low energy. You get too much tension in your neck and shoulders. Sitting too long is a form of stress, and that's why you know now the study said sitting is the new smoking. Like what? Sitting. Sitting too long is as bad for you as smoking? Yes. Not moving your body is extremely challenging and stressful on the system. So move your body doesn't have to be hard work. It doesn't have to be like exercise. In fact, in qigong, I always laugh because you don't need any equipment, you don't need any mats, you don't need any spandex. You can stand up in your work attire and do a few movements that recharge you. So there's that, there's the little chi breaks through the day. I have a 30 day challenge and I love to get people started with it because it's only seven minutes. I was like, you know what? Seven minutes is like a snooze button. You can do 30 days in a row. And I filmed it beautifully on the coast of California. So it's just 30 days. 117 minute routine shows up in your email and you get to, okay, I can find seven minutes. And once you start doing the practice, you feel so good, you want to do more. You get energized, you feel your neck and shoulders relax and you're like, I didn't know I could feel this good in my body. And that is what usually kicks people off into a longer practice. So I have, you know, a subscription where people can just come online and take class with me. I do it three times a week live. And if you don't make the class live, it's always on the website. You can, you can go do, you know, yesterday's class at the convenience in your own home and at your own time. And then I love to do condition specific workouts. So I have qigong for upper back and neck pain. I have qigong for high blood pressure, qigong for healthy digestion. I just created qigong routines that will help to solve people's problems. And these were the, the shows, they were DVDs, but now they're just online little programs. But I had them on PBS for many, many years. And, and pbs, they were so popular because people didn't know what qigong was, but they were like, oh, I have upper back and neck pain. That thing that guy's doing out there on that beautiful beach or in the redwood forest that I'm seeing on my tv, I want to do that. And so it started to become more and more popular as a PBS show. You know, at its height, it was in 50 million households. And people were writing into me all the time like, thank you for showing me those exercises, because it really, really helped. And it wasn't that I was helping them, they were helping themselves. And they were empowered to help themselves. Because the frustration of having a problem in your body and going through the Western system can be immense. You go, you call a doctor, they give you a referral, they can't see you for a month. What do I do while I'm waiting around and just suffer with this problem? You know, it's very, very frustrating. So these are things that we can do for ourselves that create real effects in our system and that they're proven over thousands of years. And for me to be able to share what I've learned for people and have them get great results was just such an inspiration. And so that's kind of, that's kind of my background. And then I just wrote this book as a way to slow down and take qigong principles and put them into everyday life. You know, like chewing your food slower and eating slower increases metabolism, helps us to get more, more energy. So taking a principle of slow and then looking at it through, let's say what we want and also a western evidence based kind of mindset can really help us. So what about slowing down our breathing? And we can all try it right now. If you slow down your breathing, your rest and digest kicks off. And what's the best way to breathe? It's about a five second inhale. So why don't you all try that? Just inhale for about five seconds and exhale for about five seconds. And if you do that three or four times, all of a sudden you're like, oh, I'm more relaxed, I'm more calm. Because breath is qi, breath is energy. You breathe about 20,000 times a day. But not all of those breaths are created equal. Meaning that if you're breathing rapidly, your body takes that as a message that I'm stressed out. If you slow down the breath, the body takes that as a message. I'm relaxed, I can self heal, I can recharge, I can replenish. So slowing down the breath, slowing down when we're eating, slowing down the mind. When you slow down your mind, there's many techniques to help slow down and calm the mind will help to give you more energy and get you out of stress and help to actually heal your body from all the problems. We can't have the same energy state if we want to solve a physiological problem, we have to shift energy first and then the body's healing power kicks in.

You are speaking my language, Lee. This is exactly why I wanted to have you on. I say all the time that I'm so glad you have the wisdom inside you to heal. We just live in a world that didn't teach us how to access that wisdom. That practice of breathing that you just gave us, it immediately, it shuts down the clutterness of the mind. It's like a wave of relaxation for the body. We just have to do that on repeat throughout the day. So whether it's a timer that you need to have go off a visual cue, with practice it becomes you. Right? So the fact that you've got that 30 day challenge for seven minutes, we've all got seven minutes. But for everyone listening, it's not even like going to. Whether it's a qigong class or yoga class, you can do it once, you might feel a bit of a shift or not. If you do it with consistency, like I always say, try three or four classes in a row, notice the impact on your physiology and you will be running back to do it. I'm going to be taking up qigong for sure. And some of the stats like I was just looking up, I'm always curious like, how can we validate the science for people who are just like, yeah, I know it's good for me, but like 62% reduction in chronic pain symptoms for people over 40% reduction in stress in and anxiety with people who are doing regular practice. Enhanced mobility as we age was reduced by 58%. Like these are massive, massive numbers. So I really hope for people listening, we're gonna link out. Do you have a plethora of information on your website and on YouTube as well and you know, in wrapping things up, I'm just curious, what is your belief like if we start to attune to the fact that we are energetic beings, the power of our energy on ourselves and with other people. Where do you think this kind of superhuman aspect comes in? Like, is there a shift that you felt along your journey where, you know, you went from living in this busy world of being told what to do, getting stuck in the trap of being busy and the rat race of a day to day schedule to understanding? Like you said, this body is a gift. I'm a spiritual being. My energy can influence other people. You obviously have the track record of people reaching out to you. Be like, you know, do you know what you've done, what you've given me. It's magic.

Thank you. Thank you. I know. It is magic, and that's what I love about this practice, is sharing the magic with other people and seeing them get lit up. You know, it started for me. I was a collegiate soccer player. So I had an injury. I jumped up in the air to hit the ball with my head, and somebody took out my legs, and I landed on my tailbone. So 19 years old. I was, like, crippled. I was, like, hobbling around. I was in pain. I was depressed. You know, all of a sudden, I was on the soccer team playing, and now I'm on the sideline in pain. So I was like, okay, what am I going to do? So the doctor team doctors gave me some cortisone shots that helped for, like, you know, an hour or two. And then the pain came back, and I took painkillers, and it gave me a stomachache, so I was, like, nauseous, and the pain didn't go away. So I was kind of. For a few weeks, I was just miserable. And then something struck me. I took martial arts as a kid, and the martial arts teacher, he also taught us qigong exercises. And he talked about the power of Qi in martial arts. And what he did is he took a big stack of bricks, and he gathered his energy, and he broke that stack of bricks. I was, like, 10 years old, and I was just like, what? How did you do that? And he was like, power of Qi. And I was like, cool. And it was just kind of tucked in the back of my mind, and I. I thought, you know what? I'm gonna go see that guy. So I went back home to my hometown, and he gave me some acupuncture. He put some needles in my back. And then he taught me a few simple exercises to help circulation move into my back. And the next day, I was, like, 75% better. I was, like, dumbfounded. I was like, what? I'm better already. I've been hobbling around for three weeks in pain like this, and now I'm feeling tremendously better. I went three or four times in that week that I was home, and I was back playing the following week. I was, like, 95% better doing my qigong exercises. In fact, I was showing teammates the qigong that I was doing. I mean, sometimes the exercises look silly. You're, like, knocking your arms on your body or moving your spine. You're doing yoga, like, stretches. And it really worked. And the question that stuck with me was, why aren't more people doing this? And that question Became a catalyst for my whole life. A qigong master would come to town every six months, and I started collaborating with him. I. I asked him if I could work for him. I worked in his bookstore while he came to town and helped him out any way I could. And then I graduated college, all my friends went and got jobs in Silicon Valley. And I asked this, this qigong master, I said, hey, can I come work for you? And he's like, yeah, I want you to write my next book. So all of a sudden, my first job out of college was a ghostwriter. I went to Thailand. I spent like four months working one on one with the qigong master, going to his house in the morning, taking his workshops with, you know, 100 other people that were there. And I did, you know, in my early 20s, maybe 12 or 15 trips to Asia, studying in China, Japan, Indonesia, and Thailand with various masters, and then demystifying it for, let's say, my soccer player friends that were now working in, in Silicon Valley. Like, how do I take this somewhat esoteric concept and discuss it and put it in a framework that, that it makes sense to Westerners? And so I was teaching classes in Silicon Valley, all the major companies in the mid to late 90s, Apple and Threecom, and, you know, all the companies, the software companies and the semiconductor companies. I was doing stress management. I called it Eastern Secrets of Stress Management. And then I said, oh, this is coming from, from a qigong perspective. And I was saving money at the time, so what I was doing was saving money that I made working at these corporations to make DVDs. And so I wanted to film it out in nature. So I went out with some friends of mine and we filmed it. I put a plank in the middle of a stream, and they filmed it. I looked like I was just like floating in water in the beautiful redwood forest. And I bootstrapped these DVDs together, and those are what got put on PBS in the early 2000s. And that kind of kind of kicked things off and helped, you know, helped me establish qigong as a. As a modality, kind of like yoga, and help people understand the power of this practice.

What an incredible journey. I strongly believe that the things that happen to us in our life, when they seem like the greatest setbacks, they literally are guiding our journey and probably our mission in this world. And this is such a powerful concept. And, you know, I'm just, I'm so excited and honored that we had time to be here today. Next time you're here, we're going to be in person. So we can do some more movement together.

Absolutely.

You've given us a break.

Let's do that. Yeah, we can do some qigong that way.

Yeah. You've given us a great practical tip just by starting with our breath and feeling our energy shift. And as we wrap things off, you know, we usually finish with some rapid fire questions. So here they are. The first one is what are the most common mistakes or misconceptions that you're seeing women make with their health?

I think the most common misconception is that busy is better, that fast is more. And the true reality is slowing down creates more efficiency, more productivity, a better state of mind and body and more magical moments. So find moments to slow down. And like I said, it doesn't mean don't go busy and don't get, don't go quickly and efficiently. No, just have those moments where you take time for yourself to slow down, even if it's for seven minutes. Recharge and then move forward with better energy and more clarity. And I think this is so key.

Find the bliss and moving away from busy. That sounds good. What's one way that women are making healing and health way too complicated?

You know, the way in which women make health too complicated is that they often are the caretakers. They often put everybody else first. And if you charge yourself up, you will feel better and do better. You're actually, you'll be healthier, you'll take care of others better, you'll parent better. When we are depleted and stressed out, our best energy is over there and we'll be snappy, we'll be irritated, it'll come across in our voice tone. We'll say things that we don't mean or wish we hadn't said. I think everybody could benefit from slowing down a little bit, taking care of themselves, charging up and then going into that caretaking space. I know this is true for me with four kids. If I am feeling energized and relaxed, I am much better parent. I'm calmer. When there's a, when there's a scuffle or somebody's irritated or frustrated, I'm calm. That calmness in yourself translates immensely because kids and people listen much more to your actions than even your words.

Prioritize yourself. I love that. Your energy, it's prioritizing your energy. If you had to pick something about modern medicine that really excites you, what would it be?

I mean, modern medicine is incredible. I think the most exciting thing for me about modern medicine is its openness and its Verification of ancient principles. You know, just the way in which we can learn and study about these evidence based, based facts like stress is harmful to your health. That is motivational to everybody. Even when I see studies, I'm like, it reignites me into my practice. So I think the west and the Western medicine model can be really helpful to showcase what ancient principles are doing and actually really showcase what really works. I mean, Western medicine too, also for emergency medicine.

Yeah.

So amazing. Like if, if you break your arm, don't go see an acupuncturist or qigong mast. No, go to the hospital, get that thing set. But for chronic conditions, there's nothing better than Eastern medicine, Eastern practices like qigong.

Amen. All right, what are three things that we can start doing right now to optimize our health?

Three things. One, slow down. Just slow down. Slow down your body, slow down your mind, slow down your breath. The other thing is to energize. Do things that energize you, whether it's movement, a hike on the beach, things that bring you energy, people that energize you. Find strategies that energize you in your life. The other thing is spend more time in nature. Go out in nature. Spend more time out in nature. Go garden, go for a walk in the forest, go sit by the beach or a river. Take a little time to connect and watch the magic that happens. You know, you were talking about go to the forest to heal. I mean, the science is there of forest bathing. You know, in Japan, people that are sick or have problems, send them out into the woods and they come back healed. It's like, oh, yeah, of course, of course. Nature is a great healer.

I love that. If you could leave our listeners with just one takeaway that you're most passionate about right now, what would that be?

Energize. Energize through slowing down. And I am so passionate about this because I've seen it work in not only my life and friends and family and students locally, but I've seen it work globally because of that TV show. I just have so much confirmation that slowing down and doing your energy practices work amazingly well. And, you know, I just want more people to live that magical, energized life.

I'm cheering on your mission. I cannot wait for your book to come out. Ready, set, slow. We're going to put all the links below and I just want to thank you so much. It's the wisdom from people like you that inspired me to even start a podcast like this. Because I think now more than ever. We need to awaken to the fact that by moving our body, attuning to our breath, and tuning to our energy could in fact be the greatest healing that we'll ever experience. But we just have to remember the secrets from all this ancient wisdom. And thank you so much for that. Please come on again in person.

Thank you so much. What a great interview. I feel re inspired.

Me too.

I love the questions that you asked. And thanks for having me. I feel blessed.

Thank you, Lee.