 The most brilliant concept in all of Chinese medicine is something called the energy dynamic, or Qi-Ji. And the energy or Qi-Dynamic is a concept that broadly describes how all of the factors inside of a person are contributing to health or illness. So the Qi-Dynamic is something that includes your diet, it includes your temperament, your character, your predominant emotional patterns. It includes emotions, it includes including external weather, how much you sleep. All these other factors are built into one concept called the energy dynamic. And the highest level of physician, all our ancient techs, some medical techs, the best physicians all talk about understanding the energy dynamic as the most important aspect of diagnosis and treatment before you do anything with acupuncture or formulas. So in this video, I'm going to introduce you to this concept called the energy dynamic, what it is, how it works, and why it's so important. Hey, Alex Hein, author of the book Master of the Day and current doctoral student in traditional or classical Chinese medicine. Now I've included the first link in the description there is a free download, little infographic, on five daily practices you can do to add 10 years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. So you can check that out the first link in the description. So this idea of the energy dynamic is just a concept. It's something that encompasses biochemistry, hormones, sleep, emotions, and your unique constitution. So for example, someone who already has problems with digestion or bloating, that's showing a piece of the Chi dynamic, the energy dynamic that we need to take care of in our diagnosis and treatment. But then you throw in someone who also can't sleep and has anxiety, and it's something different. And we have to look at the big picture. What's going wrong with the energy dynamic in terms of directions. So it's a lot like physics where we need to see what is the direction of treatment first. Directionality comes before the formula and the acupuncture. So let's go over the case of a very common modern patient. The person has reflux, insomnia, and anxiety. So insomnia is a state where the person cannot fall into sleep. The ability of the body to just lay down, withdraw in and pass out is not working anymore. There's dysfunction. Acid reflux is called stomach counterflow. So the energy of the stomach naturally wants to go down. If it goes up, burping, hiccuping, nausea and ultimately vomiting. That's the most extreme stomach counterflow. And with anxiety, the person's kind of like this, like vibrating on edge. Like the nervous system is just like whacked out. Like, where's the threat? Where's the threat? Where's the threat? You know, it's really on edge. Now, that is obviously not a normal state. The healthy, well rested, well balanced person is calm. They're not easily rattled. They're not easily upset. They're not easily offset. So anxiety is a failure of this, this like the warm blanket reflex. Mommy puts a blanket on you in the middle of winter and you just kind of settle in. That, in the sense of anxiety, where the Qi dynamic is malfunctioning, the energy dynamic, is that it's all going out here and it's supposed to be coming in here. So it's really helpful to think of things in terms of forces like physics, like a vector. There's a direction and there's a force, right? Force with a direction. This is the essence of Chinese medicine, especially classical Chinese medicine. So the big picture in this particular patient is there's too much going up and out. And we want it to go down and in. So that's what we want the acupuncture and the actual herbal formulas to do, down and in. So why do we treat this energy dynamic? The point is that number one, this is understanding the essence, the behind the scenes energetic or non-material pattern that creates the physical symptoms. This is really considered treating the root according to Chinese medicine. And all of Chinese medical theory is based on this first, not on treating symptoms or treating diseases. So the beauty of this is that not only can you treat something before you even know what it is, you can have anything walk in your door. And if you're skilled at spotting the energy dynamic, you can treat it. You don't even have to know what it is or how it happened or where it came from, you can treat it because the symptoms, the pulse, the tongue, the channel palpation and the symptoms all indicate where the energy dynamic is going. Usually it's going too much up and too much out and not enough storage and downward in modern people. So you can get started even treating complex cases and understanding what is the root before treating it if you know the energy dynamic. But most practitioners are stuck with, if they don't know that, just using a pill for a symptom much like an allopathic physician would. So that's an intro to the energy dynamic or Qi dynamic, one of the most important concepts in becoming a skilled practitioner of classical Chinese medicine and understanding what it is and how it works. Now again, in the first link in the description I've included the free guide on how to add 10 years to your life with five daily practices, so you can check that out in the first link in the description. And you can also check out my last two videos right there and right there.