 You know for many of us, what is the little thing that builds into a more serious illness is something that without enough life experience or without medical training is not always easy to spot. And so that little ache in pain, that random night of insomnia, that tiny bit of anxiety or depression, we don't really pay much attention to it until it becomes something big. Well in this video, I want to share what I think is kind of a basic framework you can use to spot those little things before they become something big. I'll tie in the author of the book, Master of the Day, and I've included a free download there, the first link in the description, which is for a free PDF on five daily rituals that can possibly help you add 10 years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. So you can check it out, the link right there below. So the first thing is to really recognize when an illness that is coming is in the little seed stage, right? It's a little seed before it grows into this big tree, at which point it may not even be treatable. So this is saying in one of our traditional, our most ancient medical texts, the naging, that goes, 治病,要治本, which means to treat or cure illness, you have to treat the root, to treat the foundation, whatever it is coming from. And this is just like that idea of the canary in the coal mine. So these coal miners back in the day would have these canaries in cages because if there were certain, I think it was secretions of carbon monoxide that the bird would start singing and then it would eventually die. So basically, if the bird died or the bird started acting weird, you knew that there was something coming that the bird could detect, the bird's body could feel, but the men could not. That would be the sign to get out of this coal mine. In the same way, we can take an illness that's very common today, acid reflux, and it begins as a seed. It almost always does, especially with chronic illness in particular. Let's say with acid reflux, you notice you're in your early 30s and every once in a while, you have a sour burp, sour, tastes like stomach acid, or maybe every once in a while, every couple months, you have dinner and then you notice some indigestion, or you drink coffee or alcohol and you notice burning. Happens every now and then, not a big deal. Happens to a lot of people. And when chronic illness is at the baby, the root stage, it's giving you signs, right? It's giving you a signal that may say, what does this mean? What does this sour burp, the indigestion, the reflux at night every once in a while, what does it mean? It means stop working as many hours. It means actually take your meals without working. It means maybe three cups of coffee a day is not working for you right now. Maybe you will be able to again in a couple of years. It means get more sleep and so on. Now the second thing is to recognize the branches or the progression of the illness. So let's say you're at that first little phase, the little baby, the seed is being sowed in the illness. But now, you know, every once in a while you get, let's just say, a missed night of sleep. Takes a couple of hours to go to sleep. You're like tossing and turning and you're feeling weird, or maybe you even have reflux at night preventing you from being able to sleep. Maybe what's going on is you have some mood changes going on, or maybe you actually have like intense burning coming up your esophagus after you've had your morning cup of coffee or your evening glass of wine. So now let's say at this stage you have a one-off symptom. You're missing a night of sleep. You're getting actual burning. Or maybe you have some pressure in the right side in your ribs. Kind of where your anatomical gallbladder is. Now you've been given even more signs and symptoms. This is progressing. This has gotten worse. So really what we're talking about here is recognizing how illness shows up in your body and at what stage the illness is. You know, obviously a little bit of indigestion is very different from someone who needs to be on acid blockers for 20 years and then that may progress into even something even worse. And for each of us, the body almost always gives signs and symptoms to warn you that something's out of balance. It gives you the opportunity to change, right? In life you often don't get second wishes or second chances, but with your body's health frequently but not always it's giving you signs and symptoms. And so recognizing how your body uniquely breaks down under stress or imbalance is really essential to know how to prevent disease. Maybe for you, when you're working too many hours, the first sign is you start sleeping poorly. There's your canary in the coalmine. Maybe your first sign is you start getting acid reflux or constipation. There's your canary in the coalmine. Maybe stress for you manifests as headaches, migraines, changes in your menses. There's your canary in the coalmine. So being able to recognize and understand what is the seed of illness being sown and is it here? Is it here? Is it here? Is it all the way at the branch of the tree? Where is it? That by itself can be so helpful to prevent things from progressing to the point where they can take years to heal from if they're even curable at all. So I hope this helps. Maybe you've recognized one or two little things that are off in your body and you're not quite sure what they really mean but you know that they are the canaries in the coalmine for you. So I want to urge you to take the time to realize how each person breaks down under stress can be totally different. The symptoms you show under stress can be not what you thought they would be and recognizing them when they're still the baby seeds before they grow into these T-rexes of a mess that become very, very difficult to reverse at that point. All right? So I hope that helps. The first link down there below is for a free PDF, five daily rituals that can help you potentially add 10 years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. Check it out down there below and then look at my most recent videos right over here.