Secrets for More Energy and Less Stress - with Lee Holden | EP 74

89% of primary doctor visits are stress-related. So emotional stress causes pretty much 90% of the reason why people go to a doctor.
I got a headache, I got digestive issues, my heart's acting funny. It's emotional stress that's causing it.
And I don't know if you know this, Alyssa, but the way the medicine was practiced, you would pay your Qigong doctor, your acupuncturist, your herbalist. As long as you were healthy, as soon as you got sick, you stopped paying.
So they're like, oh, we're not doing our jobs because you got sick. Our job is to keep you healthy.
It was health care, not sick care. And now we have a Western medicine that is all about sick care.
Now, if somebody is depressed, what are they going to do? Their body shape, the wind, the energy of the body, the chest sinks down, the face frowns, the chin goes down. So if everybody wants to try something, if you look up and just take your body shape and look up and expand your chest, bring a little smile to your face, look at your ceiling and then say, I'm so depressed with a little smile on your face.
You're going to be like, wait a second, my body shape doesn't match that statement. Sexual reflexology was interesting because it was healing through pleasure.
Again, in the West, we have more of a model of healing through pain. You would go to the doctor and you say, oh, I got asthma.
And the doctor would be like, okay, take out his prescription patent. You need to have sex five times a week in this position so that the chi goes into your lungs and starts creating this healing effect.
And then everybody wants to go to the doctor. Welcome back to the Healing and Human Potential podcast, where today we're going to be taking you through somatic practices that you can use to cultivate more energy and ease in your life.
This is actually an embodied practice. We're joined by Lee Holden, who is a Mindvalley speaker, an author, an acupuncturist, and a renowned Qigong master.
Together, we're going to uncover simple yet powerful practices to support you in aligning your body, your mind, and your emotions so that you reduce burnout, but then actually have more vitality. Let's dive in.
Lee, I'm so happy to have you here on the podcast. So happy to be here too.
And I want to kind of dive into what I know people are really wanting, which is more energy. They want to feel more alive.
And with most of us in our modern day life, a lot of us can feel stressed out or have this endless to-do list. And so leading busy lives, it can lead to burnout.
But I remember when I was getting my second master's degrees was in somatic psychotherapy. And my professor said something that just stopped me in my tracks.
She said, if you want to go faster, slow down. and I know you're big this is you this is like this is what you are about

I know you are big

about the power

of slowing down and how by slowing down, we can actually be more productive. And I think people want to believe this, but I would love for you to share more.
So talk to us about how this can actually be true in our lives. Yeah.
And this is one of the first principles of energy cultivation and energy management. When you slow down, you do all kinds of things in your nervous system.
You know, going slower will put you into a parasympathetic state. It'll make you more efficient.
It'll clarify your priorities. You're not frantic and scattered.
You're much more focused. And so it is a counterintuitive approach that really works.

So the ancient master said, slow down and relax to tune into effortless power. Because nature moves with effortless power, with effortless ease.
There's no stress in a river moving down the mountain. Even though at the top of the mountain, there's lots of boulders in the way.
The river is not like, oh my God, how am I going to get around all those boulders and get really neurotic about it? No, it just, it just flows. And I think what I like to teach people is how to bring more of that flow, that natural rhythm into your life, because slow is a strategy that is a useful tool.
You don't always have to go slow, but strategically going slow gets you in tune with your priorities, gets you calm and relaxed, gets you focused, brings more energy into your system, and then you can really go. So it is really the practice of Qigong and it's the practice of Tai Chi to bring this effortless ease into your life.
And I think people want to have more elevated moments throughout their day, more moments where they feel deeply connected to each other, to nature, to an experience. In order to have more moments of high energy, slowing down can be a key concept.
Yeah. And I think about it from if I'm creating the pattern of frantic doing, then I'm just further creating that pattern.
Even if I hit the goal, then I have this more deeply ingrained and I'm not as happy. And I think there's also research that shares around you have less dopamine when you're multitasking.
I don't know if that's true, but share with us some of the research. Cause I do think people are like, I want to believe this, but we tell me more, like what, where are we at in terms of like kind of proving this? Well, it's great.
And I love that because I take an approach always first from the Eastern mystics and the Eastern perspective of energy medicine. You know, my background is in Chinese medicine and acupuncture and herbs and qigong and breathwork and all that.
And then I go, how can we find Western research to support some of these Eastern practices? And there's lots and more and more. I think there's a big convergence right now, which is exciting that Western research is supporting all of these Eastern practices, whether it's breathwork, meditation, energy cultivation, Qigong, yoga, it's all being very much supported.
So we can take something like, let's take something like eating. If you eat slower, you, number one, you enjoy your food.
Number two, the research shows that digestion starts in your mouth. If you eat slower, chew more, more enzymes get in your food.
When it hits your stomach, it's already partly digested. It can convert your stomach and your intestines convert that food into energy more efficiently.
So you get a couple of things when you slow down. Your metabolism gets stronger, your food gets converted into energy faster, and you eat slower.
You don't eat as much because your brain registers how much food is actually in your stomach. And you also enjoy your food more because you're actually tasting it.
Let's say we take something like weightlifting. It's a good one because people can understand this and this applies to so many things.
But when you weightlift slowly, you don't have to lift as heavy so you don't get as hurt. You don't have to do as many sets because you fatigue the muscles quicker.
You'd only have to do one or two sets of weightlifting as opposed to five sets. And you only have to work out twice a week, maybe for a half an hour rather than an hour, three or four times a week.
So by going slowly, you actually save yourself time and you get very similar results. I love that.
I love that. So you can, we can say, okay, take a Qigong principle of slow body movement and apply it to weightlifting, apply it to eating and you get really good results.
So part of what people are seeing in here in Silicon Valley, there is slow productivity, where that means if you're slowing down, you're going to get better results. Like slow down and you get that view from the top of the mountain rather than just being right in the forest.
And you have clarity. You don't waste as much time and energy.
You can also hear more of those intuitive downloads, that wisdom that comes through when you're fully focused and present and you hold it lightly and then it may guide you in a direction that you didn't think to go instead of just grinding from more of like bottom of the mountain versus top of the mountain. And just think about what feels better grinding and stress and being rushed and hurried or being intuitive, insightful, creative, and inspired.
And creative inspiration comes when we slow down and give ourselves a moment. Some of the research even is showing like for children, if we let them slow down and don't keep throwing task after task in front of them, if we actually let them get bored, their creativity and their imagination becomes sharpened.
And those people, those kids that have been allowed to have that spaciousness to be bored become the most creative thinkers. And it's healthier for us.
And so I think a lot of us want it, but then we're, and I can hear people saying inside myself, like, well, I won't be as productive. So you're saying slow productivity.
Tell me more about that concept. I'm curious.
Right. I mean, there's a saying in the doubt of Ching and everybody's probably heard this thousand mile journey starts with the first step.
For me, if that first step is in the wrong direction, you could be quickly a thousand miles off from where you want to go. And if you slow down and get clarity, what happens is that first step is very clearly in the direction of your desired destination.
And I think that's really important because we are so habituated and we just grind through the day and we forget what we're all about as human beings. Why are we here? We're here to connect.
We're here to be joyful. We're not here to just get as much work done as we possibly can and just grind through it in this unhappy, stressed out way.
And I think some of that industrial revolution, the bigger, faster, better, bigger, more like that kind of thinking can go, if it's not unchecked, can lead us in a way that not only is it not healthy for us, but then it's unconscious. And so I think in the creation process of honoring whatever's true and alive in our hearts to say yes to and, and step into in our lives, letting that life force energy move through us in whatever form is our art, whether it be, you know, as a practitioner, as an art, like an artist, a dancer, even making sushi or surfing, like letting that aliveness, that chi, that energy move through is so, I think that's part of the experience that we're also craving because it's healthy.
It supports our nervous system, but what we create from that level of consciousness, from that vitality is so much different than from the grind. Oh my gosh.
And in this book that I'm working on or just finished, there's a chapter called bliss over busy and just talking about being like, let's listen to our hearts rather than just listening to our heads. Because often we're just so tuned into the responsibility of our intellectual wisdom.
And there's many wisdom centers in our bodies and the heart as a wisdom center leads you to towards joy and happiness and fun and play and lightness. And when I ask my children, you know, and I have teenagers and a toddler, hey, what did you do today? The answer is almost 99% of the time it's play.
Play, play, play. And so what I love about, you know, like the Qigong practice, it's not called we practice Qigong.
They translate it sometimes as practice, but often the direct translation is let's go play Qigong. Let's go play Tai Chi.
And so this playfulness, what it does is it keeps our hearts open. It keeps us in more beginner's mind, observer mind, and it keeps us in that childlike spirit where we have beginner's attitude when we're just kind of in awe.
Like I learn a lot from my four-year-old because she's always like, wow, a spider web. Wow, a leaf.
She's like, wow, there's an orange in the bushes. And she's just like, everything's wow.
And when we have that wow factor, to get into that awe, slowing down a little bit really helps us. And like I said, you don't always have to go slow because like, for example, I'm making breakfast for four people, making lunches before school.
I'm definitely going quickly in my actions, but what I try to do, and here's where it becomes kind of advanced ninja training. You keep a slow mind while you're moving efficiently and quickly while you're doing things.
And I think these techniques apply to parenthood, to business, to answering emails. You can really apply them to mundane tasks as well as your art.
Like you said, writing a book, painting a picture, performing, seeing clients. You want to bring your best energy forward.
I always think of being in the zone and being in flow state as something for athletes, but it should be for all of us all the time. We should be getting into flow state because that's when peak performance happens.
But more than peak performance is that the joy of the task heightens tremendously when you're in flow state. And so, yeah, just again, so much more nourishing.
And, you know, from kind of Chinese medicine, so one of my meditation teachers kind of woke up out of Zen and taught me about some energy centers, the head, heart and gut. And I thought it'd be fun to do an experiment even just while listening right now.
So like as people are listening, just notice what it's like to listen from the head and just take in and notice what that's like. For me, I feel some pressure in my temples.
And most of us are very top heavy in our world. I talk a little faster from the head versus like kind of dropping down into the heart and just putting all of your awareness as you're listening in the heart.
And for me, there's some warmth there. There's like the breath goes a little bit deeper.
I can feel much more connected and then dropping even deeper, feeling a sense of in the gut, like all the attention, just listening from the whole body from the gut. And I feel a sense of my belly expands.
I am fuller. It does feel a little bit uncomfortable, but also natural.
And I feel like as I'm more embodied, fully in my body, there's more access to intuition. And I'm curious, some of the work that you do, have you found a connection with people either for you or your clients when you're more in your body, how you're more tapped into your intuition? No, I love that.
And it speaks to a concept in Qigong that called the three treasures. So the treasure of your belly is your kinesthetic intuition.
So your belly has a wisdom that relates to your body. And so we say the energy center of our body, that's our vitality, that's our health, that's how our body mechanics are removing our bodies.
It all comes from the belly. And speaking of Western science, you know, this is often called in Japanese, the Hara, or in Qigong, it's called the lower Dan Tien, the lower elixir.
It's like the source of life force energy, right? Source of life force. I mean, because you think about it at the belly is your navel.
That's where your Chi, that's where your life started from. Two inches below your belly button.
Is that right? That's the Dan Tien is two inches below and two inches back, let's say approximately. So it's like you're very, very center.
And, you know, in the gut, there's neurological activity. The science is like, wow, we found neurological activity.
Why is there neurological activity in your gut? We thought that was only for your nervous system in your brain. No, your gut is a thinking system.
And that's why we say, well, I have a gut feeling about things. I have a body sense.

It doesn't... system in your brain.
No, your gut is a thinking system. And that's why we say, well, I have a gut feeling about things.
I have a body sense. It's not linguistic.
It's not internal dialogue. It's a felt sense.
And so if you learn the language of your body and your body's energy, you can get a sense of something. And we just haven't learned that language as a culture.
We all intuitively know it and we'll tap into it, but it can be trained, especially for healers, movement practitioners, and it should be really a strong sense for people in business because we can really sense something from deep in our inner alignment. To make decisions, to really feel our knowing.
So even before we go there, as you're listening, just notice what it's like to be listening as Lee's talking, or I'm talking from your gut, like from your da tien. Just take that in to see what that's like.
Yeah. And I love that you say that, listen from, because we're so trained to self-identify from the upper center, from the head.
So if people wanted to do a little exercise to see where, let's say you are located within your body, if you close your eyes and perceive your hands, like if you just put your hands in your lap, where do you look and feel and sense your hands from? Are you sensing them from your head? Are you sensing them? Are you looking down at your hands? Are you feeling from your head, from your heart, from your belly? And most people, it's from the head. And so we say, oh, we self-identify from this upper center because we're trained and we're constantly thinking.
but thinking is just one form of wisdom and one form of intelligence and it's very limited

if it's not in alignment with your whole team. It's like one player trying to do everything and everybody else is like sidelined.
And you're like, gosh, we should really play with the full team. We'll be a lot more productive.
And so the heart is another wisdom center, another treasure, emotional intelligence, empathetic intuition.

So your intuition is more like on how other people feel or sensing somebody's energy behind their words, reading body language. You tune into emotions and your intelligence of emotions is really a high level.
Also, your sense of inner purpose and calling rather than I should do this job because I'll make money even though I don't like it. That will go against the flow of your heart center.
And sure, we're in modern life and we have to do that. We have to weigh the options, but the heart will lead you to joyful expression of your unique talents.
And it has to be in communication with your head. They have to like, well, we have a lot of responsibilities.
OK, well, then how about we bring heart flow and joyful activities after work every day at five? You know, you just you have a little negotiation with your team and then you're an integrated human being as opposed to a disconnected human being. Yeah, and as people are listening, just also notice for me when you were guiding us through that, I listen from my heart.
And I think that's great, but I also want to develop some of my range so that I can have that mastery in each of the centers. And like you're saying, that integration, I think the most important part.
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And the belly center, you said it just exactly right. We hold and we digest emotions like we digest food.
So we eat food and it goes into our bellies and then we process it. Well, we metabolize life experience as well.
And we go through life and we're like, that was yummy. I had a nice conversation.
Oh, that was yucky because I got stressed out in traffic. And we just all day long are metabolizing.
And I think most people as they go through the day have emotional indigestion. They're just like, that did not sit well with me.
Then they, if it emotionally doesn't sit well with you, the head starts to go, well, let me think about it. And it just ruminates over and over and over again.

And a lot of internal dialogue we say in Chinese medicine will cause depletion of qi. It will just consume energy.
So that's why it's so good if you know how to quiet the mind and it'll replenish your energy system. So these centers do try to help each other, but often we don't know quite how to let go of emotions, let go of experiences that didn't sit well with us.
Just in the same way we eat food, we want to let go and detoxify. That's what's not nourishing or not nutritious.
So energy works really similarly. So we can, on each of these centers, and I love that they're called treasures too, Alyssa, they're not called burdens.
And I think so many people that these energy centers are burdens. We've got these stressful emotions and a heart center and, you know, feeling anxious or depressed, and they wouldn't feel like a treasure of energy.
And the body, we often have an adverse relationship to our bodies where we don't like certain things and we have an emotional reaction to how we perceive. And it's not often that we're thinking, God, my body, what, how beautiful, what a treasure.
I get to experience life with this things or our attitude about these energies. They can be burdensome and they can also be golden elixirs.
And we have to, our work really is to excavate the gold and the treasure from each of these areas through a practice. So we're not just ingrained by what society tells us and habitual patterns.
And often the habitual societal patterns will make the energy feel heavy, which we'll call stress. And we'll go through life looking for the lightness and the treasure of the golden energy, which we call the elixir in these areas.
Yeah. And I often find that when people are overthinking, which most of our society is so overdeveloped in the mind, we didn't learn in school how to feel our feelings and navigate some of our inner world.
And so, but when we're caught in overthinking, not only does it create stress, but it's oftentimes an avoidance strategy not to feel. And so part of the work is to learn how to feel and then move it through the body as well.
Like we want all of it in systems. And so if we're not prioritizing slowing down and we have a lot of stress that gets built up and the body shows it, right? Like tension in the shoulders or the jaw, there's burnout and fatigue.
And I know that somatic practices can be really helpful and it's also very popular nowadays, somatic work to move through that energy. And you do a lot of different ones.
I also read specifically you do vagal breathing and primal shaking. Are there some practices that you could lead us through or show us quickly to just help us kind of release some of the tension that we can hold on a more somatic way or feel more of that energy and energized? Absolutely.
And I think, you know, that's the key concept too, is like, how can we feel our energy? And I think there's a quick little exercise. It's not in the book.
It's a secret teaching.

We got it behind the scenes here.

Yeah, breathing is a great way. And I think I love somatics because I studied psychology at UC Berkeley for four years and year three, I started to scratch my head.
I was like, God, I've been really studying this a long time. I don't have one single technique to help somebody feel better after three years of studying psychology.
And then I started studying Eastern philosophy. And within like one day workshop, I had like 10 excellent techniques on how to feel better, like immediately.
So the semantics, like to deal with emotions from the mind and from thoughts is often difficult because emotions, held emotions need to be discharged through the body. They're energy.
I think it's important to remember that emotions are energy. And I always think of E, motion, energy, and movement.
And when energy moves, we feel it. So we often call emotions feelings.
Because we feel something. It's not anything there physically.
So it's energetic. So people say all the time, I love you with all my heart.
But if we did open heart surgery, we're not going to see how much love is actually in your heart. We feel love.
We feel joy, but it's nothing physical about an emotion. And in Chinese medicine, I think it's interesting.
Emotions are mapped out through the organs. So the liver stores anger and frustration.
On the positive side, it's going to store creativity and kindness. The heart is love, joy, and compassion.
On the negative side, it's impatience, being too busy, being in a hurry, and hatred. The kidneys store fear.
On the other side, they store inner peace. That's why we don't say, I love you with all my kidneys.
That's not where the energy is. And so seeing and understanding energy, we can start to see a more complete picture of life.
Because we are so, as a culture, obsessed with the forms and the physicality of things and the stuff, like the material stuff that we want in our house, the material things, a car, a new job. But if you look at anything physical that we want, it's actually that we want some energy.
We want to feel a certain way because we want to feel a certain way. I want a new house because I want security.
I want a new car because I want excitement. We actually want the energy, not the thing.
The things are just the means to an energetic end. So if we can go straight to energy, we can relax with all the stuff in life and not be so stressed out.
So let's feel some energy. I want to pause that real quick because it's also really empowering to realize that.
And some of us may get that mentally, but I really want to just invite people to let that land. It's like the thing you want, there's a deeper feeling that you're wanting.
And before you go looking for that thing to give it to you, question, do I not already have access to what I think it will give me, to what I think I will feel when I get it? Because then we become a victim to the goal versus waking up out of that paradigm and realizing, oh, I want the partner so I feel loved. Okay.
Can I be absolutely certain that love isn't already here? And then access and source that love now or the freedom, whatever it may be that you're looking for. So just conscious goals, which is some of the work that I do is like awaken to it here and now, and then still create and move forward to honor buying a fun car.
If that feels true for you or going for the job or whatever it may be, but from your power. Yeah.
And I love, I love how you just slowed it all down and just integrate. And I think that is so important.
Like you said, we theoretical concepts of mind likes to chew on those, but to bring it actually into an experience has to be in through your body and to go from cerebral understanding and knowing to body wisdom is a bit of a journey and that's slowing down and integrating and just like even questioning that and moving from, you know, what you just said, moving from the inside out rather than the outside in, rather than trying to get the outside thing to fill a need inside, cultivate that energy first, like cultivate that inner love and open heartedness and kindness and compassion. And all of a sudden people start showing up and resonating with your internal energy.
And then it's, then it's just enjoyable. It's a bonus because it's already there.
It's a little bit like radio waves. You know, if you have the right device and my kids are always like, why, why do you say radio wait? What is that? Dad, you're like, get with the times.
Okay. But if you have the right station, you get the right music and the music is all there.
It's in the space. It's in the field.
And if we had the right device, we tuned it in. We could listen.
We would hear the music. We're like, oh yes, I like that station.
I think a lot of us are just in the wrong station and we're like, man, I'm on heavy metal again. And it's just discordant to where I'm, what I'm feeling, my thoughts and my energy aren't lining up with what I want inside.
Yeah. Before we go into the practice, because I think this is another important part that I just had this realization where the techniques and the tools are so empowering and so helpful and beautiful.
But where we're coming from when we use them is even more important. So am I using this to get rid of something? Or am I using this to just embrace what's actually here because that's what love does and it feels so much more true and aligned when I welcome all of it? Am I trying to use a technique or a tool because I think I'm broken and I need fixing? Or is this just because this feels true and I feel more present and alive and I'm not trying to run away from life? So I think where we come from, the intention is really important and the tools are extremely powerful.
So where we come from and yes, and yeah, love it. Okay.
So energy, should we activate some energy? Let's activate it. Let's activate it.
And it's a really quick, let's call it a, a chi activation in the hands and the hands are very sensitive to energy. So you're going to touch your fingernails together and you're going to rub back and forth.
Now your meridian lines, these are where all the acupressure and acupuncture points are. They end at the fingernail, the corners of the fingernail.
So first knuckle and fingernails rub back and forth vigorously and then just take a couple of deep breaths. And after about 30 seconds to a minute, we're going to have an activated energy system in our hands.
So nice deep breath in through the nose.

And you can exhale out through the nose nice and slow.

And then we'll just do that one more time.

Nice deep breath.

Rub vigorously back and forth.

And then just put your hands, palms face up in your lap and feel the electricity, the buzz, the tingling, the life force. That works? Yeah.
Yeah. That's great.
That's great, right? So, for example, like a Qigong practice, what we would do is activate all these energy centers in the body so you get this buzzing electricity, not just in your hands, but in your whole entire body. And Qigong, the translation way back when was the art of preventing disease and prolonging life.
And so this is the ancient practice of health and longevity cultivation. And I don't know if you know this, Alyssa, but the way the medicine was

practiced, you would pay your Qigong doctor, your acupuncturist, your herbalist, as long as you were

healthy, as soon as you got sick, you stopped paying. So they're like, oh, we're not doing our

jobs because you got sick. Our job is to keep you healthy.
It was healthcare, not sick care.

And speaking of intention, like you said, it makes a huge difference what the intention is. And now we have a Western medicine that is all about sick care.
And nobody in a big way is saying, let's keep you healthy. It's up to us as individuals to maintain our health.
we the medical system is not going to even look at you unless you have a problem and speaking of

problems we have more sickness, illness, problems, pain now than ever before. Medicine is a huge business, and there's lots of people that are just struggling with sick care.
And I think preventative medicine is so vitally important. I think it's what we're seeking, but we don't know because getting wrapped in the Western medicine loop with side effects of pharmaceuticals and long waiting times to see a specialist or a doctor and all the things can be very frustrating.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I love that you kind of started this out with like, there's gifts of both, you know, having a surgery, Western medicine's great at things like that, but there's some of this preventative stuff, some of the ancient practices and traditions had it right. And so finding the gifts within both of it and feeling empowered to know and check in with our bodies, what feels right and what's actually helpful.
And it just is interesting to me that like energy centers have been spoken about forever for the, I don't know, 4,000 years or however long in India and China, around the world without even talking to each other, we've woken up to that we have this life force energy. And so a lot of what I'm hearing you say is like, you have the natural ability to manage and navigate your energy.
So use it, use this technology to be able to support yourself in feeling more vital and healthy. And I know you talk about this analogy of ice, water, and steam to explain how energy flows through the mind, body, and emotions.
Can you give us your perspective on that? Absolutely. And just to follow up on the last little medicine thing, if you get in a car accident and break your arm, don't go see an acupuncturist.
You know, that's when you go to the hospital. You know, don't go see the Qigong person.
Like if you have a really severe bacterial infection, sepsis or something, you know, get into the hospital. Absolutely.
You know, just use your own empowerment to keep yourself as healthy as possible and then use your Western medicine. I think you're so right in that complementary medicine.
In fact, I was working as an owner of an integrative medicine center. I was the acupuncturist and a holistic Western doctor.
And we'd look at patients from both the Western and Eastern perspective. And gosh, was that fun.
I mean, I learned so much by just learning from the Western doctor about how they would address certain illnesses and how a Chinese medicine doctor would do it. So I think there's so much to offer in a fully integrated system.
Yeah. And more functional doctor, like more of a, if it's Western, I, my bias is more towards functional rather than just looking at individual organs.
And, you know, it's more of like, what's the whole system, which I think Chinese, like more of these ancient traditions have really discovered and dialed in. It's like, yes, all of the body works harmoniously together.
Or if, if your kidneys are not functioning well, that's going to affect all these other things. So it just makes also just more sense.
Yeah. And that integration to Alyssa, because like, for example, I just read, speaking of a Western study, 89% of primary doctor visits are stress related.
So emotional stress causes pretty much 90% of the reason why people go to a doctor. I got a headache.
I got digestive issues. My heart's acting funny.
It's emotional stress that's causing it. Now we're going to get a, we're not going to look at the root cause.
We're not going to manage your stress. We're going to manage your symptoms.
So if your stress causes you a headache, you're going to take a painkiller because pain is a message from your body. Speaking of body wisdom to say, Hey, pay attention.
Let's, let's do something different. We're trying to talk to you.
If we don't listen to the body, body speaks in sensation. Pain usually starts as a little bit of discomfort.
Then a louder conversation is going to happen between your body. If you're like sitting at your desk and your computer for eight hours and your body's like, my neck hurts, my, I'm getting a headache and you're not listening.
I'm just going to keep talking louder and louder until you finally listen. And then we take painkillers because we don't want to listen.
And then it's going to cause more and more problems as we go. So I think that root cause is another concept of holistic medicine, both in the West and the East to address the root cause rather than the symptom.

And if you address that root cause, all of a sudden, yes, that the headache goes away,

but also then you sleep better.

You have more energy.

You're happier.

You're nicer to your kids and your partner.

And there's a whole cascade of beneficial things.

I'm here for it.

A hundred percent.

So I love this analogy that you use, but you share it because I want to hear it from you. Okay.
For the ice to water, water to steam. So when we're talking about these three aspects of self and we can say, who are we? When we ask that question, we come up with three very self-evident answers.
We're a body that has emotions and feelings and a mind and consciousness. That is really what we call the three treasures, those three aspects of ourselves.
Now, whether we're using those treasures skillfully, so each of them has an energy. Are we skillfully cultivating the energy of the body, skillfully cultivating energy of emotions or minds? They become treasures or they become burdens.
They become lights and they become heavy. And it's a dance always in life.
So we're always working with these three energies, body, emotions, minds. Now, we often think in the West that there are really three distinct aspects.
And our whole paradigm is set up that way. So if you have emotional stuff going on, you go see a psychologist.
If you got a pain or a problem in your body, you go see the doctor. And maybe in the mind, you maybe learn philosophy or you talk to a priest or whatever belief system that will support you.
So we don't have an integrative system and we are integrated. So that is one reason why things that say maybe aren't working as well as they could because we feel separate within ourselves.
So when we look at the body, we see it more as condensed energy. That would be more like ice.
It's form. It's condensed.
liquid would be more of the emotions and the feelings. It's very elusive and flowy.
And then mind and consciousness or even spirit would be seen as vapor. But ice, water, and vapor, they're all H2O.
It's all the same underlying substance. It's just manifesting in a different way.
So mind is just the same life force energy as body, but just manifesting itself in a very different shape and form because sitting in a steam room feels really different than sitting in an ice bath, but they're the same substance at the foundation. This is why when you want to shift emotions, if you move your body, it's one of the best techniques.
So you start breathing different, you start moving your body, you take a walk, you do some qigong, and all of a sudden your emotions feel, God, I feel better. This is why placebo works, because if you change your mind and your beliefs about something in your body, all of a sudden mind over matter kicks in because mind influences the energy of the body.
They're all one energy. They all influence each other.
So if you skillfully work with one, you can change the other. Yeah, that's beautiful.
And this is a big part. I was resonating with you when you were talking about going to undergrad.
I ended up making up my own major because I knew it wasn't just the mind. So I did psychology, religious studies, and sociology, community, mind, like all just connected.
Yeah. And it's important to have that more integrative.
You mentioned earlier, like leaning at the desk. And I know that the body, I can't tell you how often I'm leaning over.
And I think it's so common for people. And I know that the postures of the body can really affect our mood.
And I'm curious what you can speak to people around where their body postures and how that affects us. I mean, we could do another little experiment.
It's really easy and it's comical. But as soon as you shift your body, your body, in terms of chi, let's talk about nature again.
Wind moves through a tree. And it's very obvious the tree isn't moving itself.
It's this invisible force that makes the tree move. The tree is just relaxed.
If there's no wind, it's still. If there's wind, it goes with this flow.
And so in the same way, your emotions are the invisible energy that move your body. Your feelings create shape in your body.
So what do I mean by that? Now, if somebody is depressed, what are they going to do? Their body shape, the wind, the energy of the body, the chest sinks down, the face frowns, the chin goes down. So if everybody wants to try something, if you look up and just take

your body shape and look up and expand your chest, bring a little smile to your face, look at your ceiling and then say, I'm so depressed with a little smile on your face. You're going to be like, wait a second, my body shape doesn't match that statement.
You actually can't feel depressed and smile and look upward. So when you change your body position and you're breathing, you will shift emotions.
Another thing you can look at for emotions is your breathing pattern because a breathing pattern is always an expression of emotional energy. So anger will express itself as strong exhales because when you're angry, you don't want to let energy in.
People are angry. They're self-righteous.
I know what it is. I'm right.
You're wrong. So it's lots of strong exhales.
And when you're sad, it is a holding and a retaining of the inhale and a resistance to the exhale because sadness what is it it's an unwillingness or not wanting to let go of the past and so you you hold and then the therapy is the breathing therapy is you cry and you're going to feel better because you're you're finally exhaling in a way so allowing your emotions to move through a body expression crying sighing, all these things will help bring you back into balance. Now, if we take that and make it a practice, you can be more in control through your body of your emotional energy.
And also just noticing where people hang out because sometimes we have set points emotionally. Some people hang out in anger to try to avoid feeling sad, which is underneath it.
And some people skip anger because they don't feel safe to feel it because maybe it was demonstrated with violence and that wasn't safe. So they just hang out in sadness.
So it's like it all ties together. Becoming more self-aware is just super important.
Big time. I wanted to ask you, I read this about in your book, sexual reflexology.
What is this? How do we use this? I want to know. Yeah, of course.
Curious Minds. Yeah.
That's a great one. So it's an interesting story because after college, I got way into Qigong, holistic health, energy medicine, and I graduated and I asked my Qigong teacher, I was working with him a little bit when he'd come through town and lead a workshop.
I was like the guy at the bookstore selling the books. And I was like, hey, do you think I could get a job after college? And he was like, do you know how to write? And I was like, yeah, I just went to college.
I know how to write a few things. He's like, okay, you write my next book.

Come to Thailand.

And so off I went right after I graduated and I spent four months in Thailand training like one-on-one and with groups. So they'd have big retreats and I'd take the retreat, I'd take the course, and then I'd organize it into a book.
and I'll also every morning go over to his house and train with him to, to start to connect with the content and organize it into chapters of the book. And so it gave me just like serious Mr.
Miyagi time. I was just like one-on-one with the master.
I was, you know, 23, 24 years old, just one-on-one with the teacher and then training for four months at the retreat center in Thailand, in Northern Thailand. He comes one day and he has this tattered old manual.
And on the top of it was sexual reflexology. He's like, Hey, this is our next book.
And I was like, yes, cool. I'm going to read this and write into a book and you're going to pay me for it.
He's like, yes. And I was like, dream job.
So the sexual reflexology in ancient Taoist culture, so ancient China,

the Taoist masters were, were, were asked to help pair, um, couples because often there would be

arranged marriages. And so by looking at people's faces, their energy system, they could tell if

people were compatible or not. And so he, the master was like, I think people would find this

This is the first time I'm going to be able to do this. marriages.
And so by looking at people's faces, their energy system, they could tell if people were compatible or not. And so he, the master was like, I think people would find this interesting to see how compatible they are as one part of the book.
So compatibility was part of it. This whole idea of circulating energy through the body and cultivating sexual energy for health and vitality, as well as deeper intimacy and connection.
That was another part of it. And sexual reflexology was interesting because it was healing through pleasure.
Again, in the West, we have more of a model of healing through pain. And healing through pleasure was you would go to the doctor and you say, oh, I got asthma.
And the doctor would be like, okay, take out his prescription pad. You need to have sex five times a week in this position so that the chi goes into your lungs and starts creating this healing effect.
So it would be prescriptive sexual energy positions because sexual energy and sex move so much energy through the body that they used it for healing. And yeah, it was just like, wow, this is how brilliant is this? It makes sense.
I mean, yeah. And then everybody wants to go to the doctor.
I mean, it makes so much sense. I mean, people don't talk about sexuality being such a somatic practice and that can be with yourself or another, but just, and I'm hearing the more like karma sutra like the different body positions to support the energy centers opening.
Is that accurate? Yeah. Yes, exactly.
Yeah. So in India and in China, they had sexual practices that were used for health and healing, energy cultivation, and even spiritual awakening.
So it was all of these things because fundamentally sexual energy is the energy of unifying. So unifying between you and your partner, unifying.
If you sublimate sexual energy, move it through the system, you unify your personal energy with the cosmos or the divine. So there's different ways to express that energy depending on what your intention is.
Like you said, Alyssa.

Yeah. And that intention, just going back to that is the most important thing.
Am I using this to avoid or just to fully open to and allow? And yeah, you'll get a different experience from it. I'm curious in your work, whatever you've seen are some of the biggest challenges people have to integrating physically, mentally, and emotionally.
What are the things that block people? I mean, that is such a big question. And I think number one is just the patterns that we hold.
Energy likes to move in patterns. So when you habituate something, you're going to habituate it in a pattern.
And that's why, like you said, we will habituate anger, we'll habituate stress, anxiety, and to re-pattern energy takes a little bit of work. So the term qigong, gong means work with that particular energy to get it out of a habituated pattern and into a new expression.
And it's almost like digging a new trough so that the water can flow in that direction rather than being in its habituated pattern of expression that maybe isn't as life affirming as it could be. So some of those things is how do we break our own patterns and those ingrained patterns? How do we break out of what society is constantly telling us who we should be and how we should express ourselves and really finding our authenticity, our unique qualities and what we want to express.
And it comes back to like, can we slow down enough to enter into our heart space to discover who we are from the inside out and then start to have the courage to express that in the face of a society that doesn't necessarily want you to be your fully expressed self. That's beautiful.
That's beautiful. That's poetry.
Oh, right. Thank you.
Good question. And I'm curiously just in closing, like, if you really want people, cause I know you have this new book that just launched, we'll talk about it in a moment, but if you really want people to walk away with something and that you really want them to know and embody and experience that, what would that be? I think it resonates with what I was just saying to remember that you are an individual expression.
There's nobody like you. Your energy system is as unique as your fingerprints and a snowflake.
And that to discover that unique energy that drives you is the goal of life. And that is what you'll, when you discover that it will get you into this flow state where it feels like life is working with you and conspiring with you and flowing with you that you're not at this alone, that you are a higher force is moving through you.
You're surfing the wave rather than getting pummeled in the ocean. That's right.
It's a very different feeling, even though it's the same ocean. Yeah.
I really hear that you're mastering energy to work in harmony. And so you're not pushing uphill, but you're just surrendering and feeling that aliveness and that vitality through this work, through Qigong, through the acupuncture, all of it, just to come into balance and harmony with what's naturally wanting to happen.
So beautiful. Talk to us about your book.
Congratulations. I know it just came out.
Tell us all about it. Where do we get it? Well, you know, it's this concept of slowing down because we use that technique to move our bodies slowly as a way to cultivate energy.
And so the ancient master saw nature, like a cloud moving across the sky, a tree in the wind, and just slow down and allow flow to move through you.

That life is ruled by these invisible forces. And most of life happens in effortless ways.

Like for example, most of the things happening in your body are happening in effortless ways.

There's no trying to beat your heart and breathe your lungs and digest your food. Most everything

is just happening in this flow. And the more we can relax into that, the better we feel.
And the first step in doing that is to slow down and then slow down and relax. And then we're much more receptive to pull in all this beautiful, positive energy.
So the book is called Ready, Set, Slow. I love it.
Yeah. And it takes Qigong concepts and just shows both through an Eastern practice and Western research, why slowing down is going to help you to be more productive, healthier, more energized, less stressed in three different categories, body, mind, and relationships.
And so just very specifically, how do I bring these

concepts into strategic moments during my day that will make me more vibrant, more alive,

and more connected? We need more messages like this to counter some of the unconscious

conditioning that we've inherited. And so thank you for the work that you're doing.

We will put links in the show notes so people can get the book, dive in. What a gift you are in the world.
Thank you so much, Lee. Why, thank you.
Thanks so much. Thank you so much for doing this work that changes the world, starting with yourself.
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