 The highest level of Chinese medicine has always been understanding what's called the direction of energy Now this is a very non woo-woo concept, but it sometimes can be hard to understand Now in this fourth self-healing video I've had this video series on my channel here on how to actually recover from chronic illness and the process I used I want to introduce you to this incredibly important concept in Chinese medicine to help you understand The directional patterns of energy in your life and in your body What that really means and how you can use it to heal yourself Hey, I'm Alex Hein author of the book master the day and current doctoral student in traditional or classical Chinese medicine Now I've also included a free download. It's the first link in the description there It's five daily rituals to help you add 10 years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine And it's all about some of the daily practices you can get started with right now So that's the first link in the description there So what is all this stuff that's that I'm talking about in regard to the direction of energy the direction of Qi this is a very non hippie woo-woo concept and These ancient physicians put together Chinese medicine in terms of universal laws So it's based almost like the laws of physics work So they understood for example that everything in nature the food we eat the herbs we eat a person's temperament and Our lifestyle affect the direction of energy in the body So for example a person who's always working is using the outward Expansive direction of energy in the body. So if you work a lot you talk a lot you're always on your phone You're just doing all these things. You're using that Force in that direction Now the opposite is true too. You could be someone that spends a lot of time meditating a lot of time sleeping a lot Of time living a very calm relaxed lifestyle think about the country life. That's a life where there's lots of gathering So the energetic direction in the body is going like this. It's storing That's usually associated associated with winter time and with storage while the other this working going out is Associated with one of like the springtime energy things are bursting through the ground Now what does this even really mean and how is this important clinically for your health? so I've shared my story here on burnout and how I basically got myself to the point of almost clinical burnout not like Physically or excuse me emotionally feeling like I didn't want to work But I had 10 health symptoms pop up. I'd never had before once in my life Now in the ancient times people obviously knew that overwork caused a certain kind of burnout a certain kind of depletion of the body's energy and vitality Anyone has known someone that's worked so hard for so long that they prematurely age I mean the 40 year old CEO. That's all gray is almost a cultural cliche But the ancient physicians knew that not only your lifestyle could do that But certain herbs and foods you eat could do that so for example the natural flavors We find in nature sweet sour bitter salty spicy when you put sour into your mouth You know anyone that's put a warhead into their mouth and they make this puckered face knows that it goes that sour it's like puckers it draws in and So sour has that a stringing drawing in effect And so if a person's lifestyle is to going outward Which working too much pushing too much effort too much drilling Then what they need is more of those herbs that actually cause that drawing in with drawing Settling sleeping resting the herbs that cause that effect in the body When I was going through my burnout stage like I've been doing 70 hour weeks probably for four or five years And it wasn't that the 70 hours was a lot. It was that a lot of it was work I didn't like I had a full-time job. I was building my own business on the side I really wanted to quit and so every day. I was just like that like Like I need to quit soon. I'm I hate this. I want to get done. I need to get out of here. I'm so stressed I'm so rushed and for me More than my working 70 hours It was that state that pushed me into the state of illness Because if you imagine that pressure of the discontent of the unhappiness That is just as damaging as any external lifestyle a person can have So I was creating that that pressurized pushing feeling Without even physically moving my body because I was a desk job You know, I wasn't digging ditches 70 hours a week. I wasn't physically exhausting my body But I exhausted it the same way through the emotional state of the push you can replicate the physiologic state of Overworking by pushing with your emotions in the same way It's kind of crazy that these ancient physicians saw that and they understood it so well So how can you really use this concept this direction of energy to heal yourself? The most fundamental way in your own life is to think how much up and out are you doing and how much down and Gathering in are you doing? Okay? Very very simple. We live in a culture now where everybody is over stress overextended even the phone uses up that force in your body because it still requires attention You're still actively engaging attention to use the phone to do things to observe. It's still a kind of Action that depletes you in Chinese medicine as opposed to if you're just sitting Sipping a cup of coffee looking out the window at a cafe that kind of it produces a more peaceful state as opposed to flipping through Instagram And so in your own life Reflect how much of the time are you using just the up and down forces in your body the push The active the work versus the withdraw in the reflect and meditate the sleep the slow down That by itself should be a game-changing revelation in terms of your own self-healing and it certainly was in my own life Now before you go, I want you to leave a comment there below Let me know for you. Where is the direction of energy quote-unquote? Where is it going in your life and in your body and where do you feel it the most when you're doing that pattern? All right comment there below Now again, if you'd like to get started with studying and practicing some of these practices That first link in the description is the free guide on how to add ten years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine a few practices You can do on a daily basis to help you cultivate that kind of presence in your life So again, that's the first link there. You can also check out my last video on the channel right there