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A Healthy Curiosity

Exploring strategies for holistic health, happiness, and personal evolution: what it takes to be well in a busy world. Blending the wisdom of Chinese Medicine, functional medicine, Ayurveda, neuroscience and psychology, you'll get practical tips you can use right away. You know that health and happiness aren’t things you can outsource. You’ve also got a full plate, you're a giver, and making the time to take care of yourself can be challenging. A Healthy Curiosity is here to support you. Host Brodie Welch, L.Ac., is an expert in Chinese Medicine and acupuncture, a holistic health coach, as well as a teacher and practitioner of qi gong, meditation, yoga, lifestyle and diet counseling who tries to walk her talk about health and mindfulness as a recovering Type-A, parent, and business owner. You'll find interviews with fellow experts in Chinese Medicine and natural health care about the conditions we treat and strategies we use clinically; simple self-care tips to help you feel calm, centered, and energized; and personal chats where we explore what gets in the way of our best intentions: perfectionism, big goals, habits and routines, chronic pain, overwork and overwhelm, boundaries, limiting beliefs — and what it takes to overcome such obstacles mindfully. While not strictly an acupuncture / Chinese Medicine podcast, it's not "not" an acupuncture podcast.
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Now displaying: 2016
Dec 28, 2016

Do you find it difficult to communicate your needs and wants to friends and loved ones?

You’re not alone. In Episode 27, Brodie talks compassionate communication and boundaries with LaShelle Lowe-Chardé, a certified trainer in Non-Violence Communication (NVC). LaShelle coaches couples and individuals on developing healthy communication skills, with an emphasis on identifying universal needs and staying grounded through mindfulness practices.

 

 

In this episode, we explore:

 

  • How different people have different needs
  • Helpful vocabulary for expressing needs and wants
  • The difference between sympathy and empathy
  • Things that may feel or seem like empathy, but aren’t
  • Boundaries! Setting them and finding success
  • What happens when we fail to honor our own boundaries

 

 

Resources:

 LaShelle’s Website

 Lashelle’s Feelings and Needs List

Dec 21, 2016

E26 – Brodie’s Holiday Tips

Ah, the holidays. A time of family togetherness, warmth, and cheer… plus hard-to-digest food, alcohol, and stress. Whether you’re celebrating at home or traveling to see family and friends, Brodie has 8 great tips to help you weather the ups and downs of the holiday season.

 

In this episode, we explore:

 

  • Managing digestion in a sea of complex, hard to digest food
  • Making time for self-care
  • Getting good sleep
  • Taking some deep breaths

 

 Resources:

 

Brodie’s Kitchari Recipe

Dec 14, 2016

You’ve heard of menopause, but are you familiar with perimenopause? In this episode, Brodie talks with Dr. Katherine Dale, ND, about perimenopause, the natural transition from reproductive years into menopause. Menopause is well known as the end of a person’s years of fertility, when the menstrual cycle comes to an end. Perimenopause, then, is the transition time in which progesterone and estrogen decrease dramatically, sometimes causing symptoms such as hot flashes, heavy and/or irregular menstruation, or difficulty sleeping.

 

In this episode, we explore:

 

  • Perimenopause as the natural transition out of fertility
  • Common symptoms of perimenopause
  • Ways to mitigate symptoms of perimenopause
  • Hormonal changes during perimenopause
  • The mental and emotional aspects of perimenopause

 

Resources:

 

Dr. Kate’s Website

Dec 7, 2016

Is shame keeping you from recognizing your value? In this episode, Brodie talks with Jennifer Kind, LPC, CDWF, EPC, a Psychotherapist and coach in Portland, OR who works with people cultivating more shame resilience, self-acceptance, and the ability to be kinder to themselves and others. Jen believes shame holds people back; it is not a good motivator for change. Shames breeds fear, anxiety, depression, and paralysis. It keeps us from becoming who we are; it keeps us from living our truth.

 

 

In this episode, we explore:

 

  • The ways shame holds us back
  • Unhealthy cultural attitudes about vulnerability
  • How there can be no courage without vulnerability
  • Ways shame can manifest in our bodies and emotions
  • Ways to build resilience against shame
  • The connection between shame and body image

 

 

Resources:

 

Jen’s Website

Jen’s Facebook Page

Jen’s Twitter

Brené Brown’s Ted Talk: The Power of Vulnerability

Nov 30, 2016

Brodie talks with Julie Zuzek, the corporate yogi business coach, about the connection between personal growth and business. Whether you're an entrepreneur or you work for someone else, it can be a struggle to show up authentically and allow your work to reflect your true self. Being vulnerable doesn't have to be a weakness; allowing people to see your imperfections allows them to embrace their own imperfections as well. You can create the work environment you need by drawing boundaries, and you might be surprised by your colleagues reactions.  

 

In this episode, we explore:

  • The power of vulnerability in the workplace
  • The importance of the "third entity"
  • How embracing your imperfections empowers others to do the same
  • Servant leadership
  • A lunchtime recharge practice

 

Resources:

Breathing meditations!

Meditation 101 Mini-Course

For more information on Chinese Medicine and to stay in touch with Brodie, visit brodiewelch.com.
Nov 23, 2016

Have you ever felt unlucky in love? Maybe you’ve had partners that made you feel bad about yourself or you’ve been on plenty of dates but can’t get someone to commit. Maybe you're in a long term relationship and simply feel it could be more fulfilling.

It may be time for you to date yourself. In Episode 22, Brodie talks with Veronica Grant, dating coach and private yoga instructor, about ways to improve our love lives, whether we’re dating casually, seeking a long-term relationship, or currently with a long-term partner.

 

In this episode, we explore:

 

  • Dating yourself: what does it mean?
  • Some common reasons people struggle to enter a relationship
  • Some common reasons people struggle to get what they want out of a relationship
  • Treating yourself the way you want to be treated
  • Deciding what you want out of your relationship
  • Setting boundaries (because boundaries are sexy!)

 

Veronica is a Dating Mindset Coach, host of Date Yourself Radio, and creator of the Dating Mindset Bootcamp. She helps smart, savvy women who feel like they have it all except that ONE thing, find and keep their perfect-for-them relationship.

 
On the surface, Veronica helps women enjoy the process of dating + meet higher quality men. But what she REALLY does is teach women how to treat themselves the way they want to be treated.
 
When she’s not writing about herself in third person, you can find her indulging in (probably) too much HGTV, planning her next adventure, or spending quality time (her love language) with her fiance + puppy. To learn more, and to grab her free guide, 37 Ways To Date Yourself, head over to http://www.veronicagrant.com

Resources:

Veronica’s Website

Veronica’s Facebook Page

Marie Forleo’s Book, How to Make Any Man Want You: How to Be So Irresistible You’ll Barely Keep From Dating Yourself

Nov 16, 2016

Uncertainty can be hard to deal with. Not knowing where you’re headed and what’s in store can make us feel like we need to do something to exert control over our experience, but sometimes there’s simply nothing we can do but wait. Wait to see what happens; wait to see what’s coming; wait to see what guidance, inspiration, and truth we may find along the way. In Episode 21, Brodie talks with her sister, Dr. Claudia Welch, DOM, about the feeling of being amid change, and finding ways to be comfortable as reality is shifting around us.

 

In this episode, we explore:

  • The layer of our being: the koshas
  • How do you figure out what is yours to do in times of great change?
  • Sūtaka: a transitional time
  • How can you soften the impact of uncertain times?
  • How does Fall relate to letting go and times of uncertainty?
  • “Unbecoming” our patterns
  • Adjusting hopes, dreams, identities, and plans when we’re in a state of flux
  • Finding truth in the midst of information/media overload
  • The importance of internal stabilization during unstable times
  • Discerning between stable and unstable times

 

Resources:

 Dr. Claudia Welch’s website

Nov 9, 2016

1 in 12 women will get invasive breast cancer. The primary means of screening-- mammograms-- detect more breast cancer, but that doesn't translate into lives saved. In a study of 90,000 women over a 25-year period, women in the mammogram group's mortality rates were even with women who didn't get mammograms. In addition, mammograms are painful, subject women to radiation, and aren't particularly helpful for the 45% of women with dense breast tissue. Enter thermography: a non-invasive, radiation-free, pain-free alternative to mammograms. 

In today's episode, Brodie talks with Dr. Carla Garcia, a board-certified Doctor of Oriental Medicine with more than 30 years of experience in Integrative Medicine, who has been utilizing thermography in her practice since 1999.

In this episode, we explore:

  • What is thermography and how does it work?
  • Screening tools vs. diagnostic tools
  • Why thermography may be a better screening alternative for women
  • The connection between qi stagnation and inflammation
  • Dr. Garcia's top self-care tips for breast health

 

Nov 2, 2016

Did you know acupuncture is being used to treat veterans with PTSD? Or that its's twice as effective and safer than the standard of care for lower back pain? 

Don’t worry, most people don’t.

In Episode 19, Brodie talks with Matthew Bauer, Licensed Acupuncturist and President of the Acupuncture Now Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to clearing up common misconceptions about acupuncture and helping acupuncture reach its full potential around the world. Matt founded the Acupuncture Now Foundation to improve the information about acupuncture that is available to the public, including treatment options, treatable conditions, treatment availability, current research, and more.

 

In this episode, we explore:

 

  • The problems with current acupuncture research
  • Acupuncture information scarcity
  • Some promising acupuncture studies
  • Unexpected places acupuncture is being used
  • Acupuncture on babies(!)
  • How acupuncture could stem the opioid epidemic

 

 

Resources:

 

The Acupuncture Now Foundation Website

 

Twice as Effective and Safer

Oct 26, 2016

Do your daily habits leave you feeling out of balance? Dr. Michele Summers Colon is a physician (specifically a holistic podiatrist), entrepreneur, yoga instructor, and motivational speaker on a mission to inspire women to live happier, healthier lives that honor their own bodies, wants, and desires. Dr. Michele is also an Ayurvedic practitioner bridging the gap between Western Medicine and Ayurveda, the traditional medicine of India. Michele utilized wisdom from the Ayurvedic tradition to heal herself when Western Medicine could not, and now she uses Ayurveda in her practice to help her patients find balance according to their Dosha and the specific imbalances and challenges they encounter.

 

In this episode, we explore:

 

  • Doshas: what are they?
  • The significance of the number 3
  • Natural sleep cycles
  • Natural eating cycles
  • When is the best time to exercise?
  • Is breakfast always the most important meal of the day?

 

 

 

 

Resources:

 

The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller

The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Decisions into Massive Success and Happiness by Jeff Olson

Michele’s Website

Oct 19, 2016

In today’s episode, Brodie talks with Alexx Stuart, a woman on a mission to help people detoxify their lives. Alexx runs a website and Podcast, The Low Tox Life, and teaches classes to people seeking to identify and reduce the toxic chemicals in their homes and in their lives. Listen in to learn what you can do to eradicate harmful chemicals in your life and to protect yourself and your loved ones from carcinogens and hormone disruptors in seemingly benign household items.

 

In this episode, we explore:

  • The ubiquity of toxins in our everyday lives
  • The kinds of products most likely to contain toxins
  • The effects toxins might be having on your body without you knowing
  • 3 simple changes you can make to reduce toxic chemicals in your body
  • The skin: your largest organ
  • Why we all need to have a love/hate relationship with plastic

 

 

Resources:

Alexx’s Website: Low Tox Life

Alexx’s Podcast

Oct 12, 2016

In Episode 15, Brodie talks with Li-lan Hsiang Weiss, Licensed Acupuncturist and practitioner of the Arvigo Technique of Mayan Abdominal Therapy. Western medicine is just beginning to understand the link between the digestive system and the brain, but other cultures have been using the brain/digestion relationship for millennia to heal both mind and body. Li-lan’s experience is unique: born in Taiwan and transplanted at an early age to Guatemala, she brings a very multicultural approach to her practice where she focuses on reproductive, digestive, and emotional well-being for women, men, and children.

In this episode, we explore:

  • The Arvigo Technique: what is it, what can it treat?
  • The link between the belly and the nervous system
  • Similarities between Mayan healing practices and Chinese Medicine
  • Other Mayan healing practices
  • What IS vaginal steaming?
  • Emotional tension manifesting physically in the body and what abdominal massage can do to release it

 

Resources:

Wind in the Blood:  Mayan Healing and Chinese Medicine by Garcia, Sierra, Balam

Li-Lan’s 2014 case study publication in Journeys in Healing: Inspiring Experiences of Arvigo Practitioners and their Clients available through the Arvigo Institute LLC, where you can also find other Arvigo practitioners, Rainforest Remedies, and Arvigo courses.

How to do a traditional Mayan vaginal steam, video by Natural Fertility Info: https://youtu.be/ilfBrNLXhLo

 

Oct 5, 2016

Is Creativity Your Missing Nutrient?

 

With Melissa Dinwiddie

 

In today’s episode, Brodie talks with Melissa Dinwiddie, artist, author, speaker, performer, and creativity instigator, about helping people reclaim their innate creativity and live what Melissa likes to call, “full color, creative lives.” Melissa is a former non-creative person and a recovering perfectionist, so she’s intimately familiar with stifled creativity stemming from both internal and external factors. Melissa wants to change the conversation around creative expression and play, because she believes that creating helps people change the world.

 

In this episode, we explore:

 

  • Creativity as an essential part of a vibrant, productive life – why is it so important?
  • Creativity as more than self-indulgence or frivolous pass time
  • Creativity as an innate part of every person, even if they don’t feel creative
  • What leads people to believe they’re not creative?
  • What can people who think they’re not creative do to GET creative?
  • What does creativity have to do with willpower and the prefrontal cortex?
  • What can creativity do for your mood and relationships?
  • The many forms of creativity
  • Negative stereotypes of creative people
  • The value of creating crap

 

 

Resources:

Melissa’s Website

Melissa’s Podcast: Live Creative Now

Melissa on Facebook

Sep 28, 2016

In today's episode, Brodie talks with Alexa Gilmore, L.Ac. and Chinese herbalist specializing in dermatology, about treating skin conditions using Chinese Medicine. From a Chinese Medicine perspective, many skin conditions result from excess heat in the body, which can cause a varying array of symptoms including redness, rash, itching, fluid buildup, and more.

Listen in for some great information to help keep your skin looking and feeling great, and if you or someone you love is struggling with a skin condition, find out what Chinese Medicine can do to help find relief.

 

In this episode, we explore:

  • What skin conditions can be treated using acupuncture and Chinese Medicine
  • What does treatment for a skin condition look like in Chinese Medicine?
  • What kinds of variables would an acupuncturist be interested in knowing to treat a skin condition?
  • Are there specific prescriptions for different skin conditions?
  • Bio-individuality (it’s back!)
  • What kinds of things can cause a skin condition? What does “ heat” mean in terms of Chinese Medicine?
  • What can people do to keep their skin healthy?

 

Alexa has been working in a clinical setting for 12 years. She is nationally board certified, a Diplomate of Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM), and licensed to practice acupuncture as well as to formulate and prescribe custom-made Chinese herbal medicine. A love of learning and commitment to excellence drive Alexa, and she's pursued extensive post-graduate training in acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, and soft tissue manipulation, alike.

She graduated in the top of her class from Mazin Al-Khafaji's prestigious Chinese Medicine Dermatology Diploma Course in London, England, and now holds the highest certification in the field--the only practitioner in New England with this distinction.

Alexa takes a no-nonsense approach to the healing arts and expects positive outcomes. She works in partnership with her patients, providing high quality care as well as empowering them to make lasting changes in their life and health by incorporating simple, effective principles of Chinese medicine into their daily lives.

 

Resources:

Alexa’s Website: www.atxacu.com

If you’re wanting a deep-dive into the fundamentals of Chinese Medicine, my Basics of Chinese Medicine course starting this October was designed just for you. When we can act with greater self-awareness, we open ourselves up to new possibilities. Recognizing that we don’t have to be bound by our go-to tendencies and habits, we are free to stretch into the fullness of our potential on all levels. You may even discover new latent superpowers —inner strengths we have yet to tap. If that’s strikes you as interesting, please head over to brodiewelch.com and you can read more about it under the Learn from Home tab. We start Oct. 10th.

Sep 21, 2016

Episode 13: Emotional Healing & Acupuncture, Part III

  In Part 3 of the Emotional Healing & Acupuncture Series, Brodie shares a series of journal entries written by a patient (who we’re calling Shawna to preserve her anonymity) as she underwent a series of acupuncture treatments to help her let go of guilt and to break a parenting pattern that had been in her family for generations.  Unprocessed trauma, guilt, and insecurity can hang out in the body, affecting our psychology as well as our physiology.   In this episode, we explore:

  • The importance of setting a particular intention for a treatment
  • What happened on the table and how it felt
  • The Extraordinary Vessels and how they affect our deep “programming”
  • How working on these deeper levels catalyzed healing for not only herself but her relationship with her daughter

    Resources: If you’re wanting a deep-dive into the body-mind according to Chinese Medicine, my Basics of Chinese Medicine course starting October 10 was designed just for you.

For more information on Chinese Medicine and to stay in touch with Brodie, visit brodiewelch.com.
 
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Sep 14, 2016

Episode 12: Emotional Healing & Acupuncture

Part II with Cori Hall

Cori’s story is a powerful one of habit change, self-healing, and accepting one’s boundaries in pursuit of a healthier, happier life. When injury and illness literally knocked her off her feet, Cori found the strength to seek solutions, acknowledge unhealthy patterns, and listen to what her body was telling her.

Special thanks go out to Cori for the great idea to create this 3-part series on emotional healing.

In this episode, we explore:

  • How overworking our minds and bodies can negatively affect our health
  • How sucking it up is probably not the best coping mechanism
  • How ignoring the messages our bodies are sending can lead to worse outcomes
  • Giving up or scaling back certain treats can be well worth the positive health outcomes
  • You don’t know what a drastic change something can make until you try it
  • How emotional and mental strife can produce adverse physical effects
  • Slowing down and staying present, and how these things provide relief for chronic pain

 Resources

The Basics of Chinese Medicine: Your Inner Ecosystem

Sep 7, 2016

In Part 1 of a 3-Part series on Emotional Healing & Chinese Medicine Brodie talks with a long-time patient, “Marcia” -  not her real name, per her request. Brodie and Marcia talk about how acupuncture helped her let go of emotions related to post-traumatic stress that she developed after a camping trip with her husband that led to an ER visit and emergency quadruple-bypass surgery.  Marcia’s story is a powerful example of how acupuncture can help us let go of stuck energy in the form of emotions.

Marcia also describes how understanding herself from a Chinese Medicine perspective helped her to develop self-compassion, self-love, and appreciation. In particular, we get into the notion of Constitutional Type.  Kind of like the Myers-Briggs Personality test, your astrological sign, your Enneagram number, or your Ayurvedic Dosha, Chinese Medicine likens different aspects of our physiology, psychology, and mental tendencies to the elements of nature: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Knowing your constitutional type can help you maintain balance in your life by illuminating natural strengths and identifying challenges.

 

In this episode, we explore:

  • Issues that Marcia has used Acupuncture to help treat
  • What part of the acupuncture process is most helpful in treating these issues?
  • How the pre-treatment interview process helps patients tune in to deeper issues
  • Emotional release during treatment and emotions as qi
  • How slowing down our lives can help us feel more in control
  • Having compassion for yourself
  • How identifying your constitutional type can help you keep yourself and your life in balance
  • Similarities and differences between emotional healing in acupuncture and talk therapy

 

Resources:

 

  • If you are interested in discovering your particular constitutional type, you can take a little quiz at http://brodiewelch.com/chinese-element-quiz/
  • If you’re wanting a deep-dive into this stuff, my Basics of Chinese Medicine course starting this October was designed just for you. When we can act with greater self-awareness, we open ourselves up to new possibilities. Recognizing that we don’t have to be bound by our go-to tendencies and habits, we are free to stretch into the fullness of our potential on all levels.  We may even discover new latent superpowers — inner strengths we have yet to tap. If that’s strikes you as interesting, please head over to brodiewelch.com and you can read more about it under the “Learn from Home” tab.  We start Oct. 3rd.
Aug 24, 2016

Your period doesn’t have to suck. Just because symptoms like cramping and PMS are common doesn’t mean that they’re something all people who menstruate have to expect and resign themselves to. This episode with Bridgit Danner, L.Ac. and Functional Diagnostic Nutritionist demystifyies the menstrual cycle and how the cycle clues us into the overall health of our bodies.

Bridgit manages a community called the Women’s Wellness Collaborative, which is centered around helping women increase wellness and balance in their lives, especially in relation to hormones, the menstrual cycle, and fertility. She and Brodie talk about ways in which women can learn to tune into their menstrual cycle at any age to relieve pain and irritability associated with menstruation, balance hormones, and manage fertility. 

In this episode, we explore:

  • What functional medicine is
  • Lack of education around the menstrual cycle
  • What a standard menstrual cycle looks and feels like
  • Why menstrual pain may occur
  • What you can do to regulate and embrace your menstrual cycle
  • Seed cycling: what is it and how does it help?

 

I hope you listen whether you menstruate or not.

 

Resources:

 

The Flow Period Tracker App

 

Bridgit’s Youtube Channel

 

Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler, MPH

Aug 17, 2016

Marijuana has now been legalized for medical use in 25 U.S. states (plus D.C.) and legalized recreationally in four. In light of these policy developments, marijuana has become the subject of much public debate within the political and medical arenas throughout the last several years. Like acupuncture, definitive medical research on medical marijuana is still relatively scarce, which leaves a lot of people both curious about and wary of its use. In this episode, Brodie talks with Dr. Rachna Patel, a medical marijuana expert, about how she uses medical marijuana in her treatment protocols and what people should know about using medical marijuana.  

 

In this episode, we explore: 

  • How marijuana works in the body 
  • Separating fact from fiction regarding marijuana use 
  • What conditions medical marijuana may help treat 
  • Where marijuana use isn’t backed up by medical research 

 

Dr. Rachna Patel has been practicing in the field of Medical Marijuana since 2012.  She step-by-step walks patients through how to use medical marijuana for their particular medical conditions.  She completed her medical studies at Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Vallejo, CA and her undergraduate studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.  You can learn more about the work she does at www.DrRachnaPatel.com 

 

 

Resources: 

www.DrRachnaPatel.com 

Youtube Channel: The Medical Marijuana (Cannabis) Expert: Dr. Rachna Patel

 

Aug 11, 2016

If you’ve been keeping up with our Olympians down in Rio, you may have noticed what appear to be perfectly round bruises spotting the shoulders of some swimmers and gymnasts. You may even have read an article about this "new fad". These marks are the result of a procedure called cupping, a practice that is actually rooted in ancient Chinese Medicine. Acupuncturists employ cupping for many reasons, but its main use is to relieve conditions featuring stagnating blood or fluids in the body.

 

In this episode, we explore:

  • Why blood or fluids commonly stagnate in the body
  • Circulation and how it affects the way our muscles feel
  • Fascia – what is it and how does it affect our muscles?
  • The relationship between cupping and acupuncture
  • Those spots - do they hurt…?
  • Conditions that can be treated with cupping
  • Tools used in cupping
Aug 3, 2016

Emily Vaden is an incredible young woman with a powerful story to tell. She shares her transformative self-care journey from chronic migraines, through moving and unemployment, the birth of her child, and her husband’s suicide -- and how she developed an indomitable resilience.

We delve into what has helped her weather the storms with strength and grace, including:

  • Letting go of the need for constant control
  • How she makes time for self-care even as a single mom of a toddler in addition to her full-time job
  • Lessons of grief
  • Things that help: acupuncture, massage, friends, and people who get it
  • Learning to say no when you need to
  • Having an identity apart from just that of being a parent, and role-modeling happiness and self-care for her kid
  • Permission to have a back-up plan

I hope you find her story as inspiring, and that you love Emily as much as I do.

 

Resources:

TheGiftOfSecond.com for people who have lost a loved one to suicide.

Jul 20, 2016

Chinese Medicine is a big umbrella term that encompasses not only acupuncture, but Chinese Herbal medicine, bodywork, lifestyle and diet counseling, and “energy exercise” like qi gong, tai chi and meditation. As practitioners of Chinese Medicine, once we make a diagnosis, any of these branches can be used to help restore the energy in the body.   

Just like Chinese herbs, which are essentially very powerful food that you only a small quantity of to get a powerful effect, anything we put in our bodies can keep us alive, move us towards greater health and balance, or move us farther away from it. And since most people eat at least 3x/ day, that’s multiple opportunities to keep steering in the direction of health. 

Listen as Brodie and fellow Chinese Medicine expert Ellen Goldsmith, L.Ac., explore the dietary branch of Chinese Medicine. Ellen teaches on this very topic: Chinese Dietetics and its application in western society and in their Masters of Nutrition program and in the Classical Chinese Medicine Department at National University of Natural Medicine. She’s a Licensed Acupuncturist has been in the field for over 25 years a recognized educator, health advocate, and practitioner of all the branches of Chinese medicine. Ellen Goldsmith is a co-founder of Pearl Natural Health in Portland, Oregon. She’s also the creator and host of Health Currents Radio and co-host of Healthwatch on KBOO in Portland, Oregon.  

In this episode we explore: 

  • Intuitive eating 
  • How Chinese Medicine conceives of food differently than the West 
  • Yin and Yang as related to food and body type 
  • Bioindividuality  
  • Respecting the energy of digestion 
  • Warming vs. Cooling foods 
  • The importance of rhythm in our diets 
  • Eating on the go vs. at the table 
  • Trying new foods in new ways 
  • Like increases like and what you’re craving isn’t necessarily what you need 
  • Balanced taste = balanced meal 

 

Resources: 

http://www.cookwithwhatyouhave.com/ 

To contact Ellen, you can e-mail her at elleng@pearlnaturalhealth.com, on the Pearl Natural Health Facebook page, or on Twitter @goldsmith_ellen.  

For more information on Chinese Medicine and to stay in touch with Brodie, visit brodiewelch.com. For a deep-dive into Chinese Medical theory including the energetics of food, check out her Basics of Chinese Medicine course. You can also follow her on twitter @brodiewelch or shoot us an email at Brodie at brodiewelch.com

Jul 13, 2016

Brodie talks with her sister, Sam, about being well in a busy world. Covering topics the likes of perfectionism, procrastination, self-care, self-compassion and the inner critic, and the challenges to making progress on bigger goals while dealing with the demands of daily life.  

 

In this wide-ranging conversation, we explore: 

  • How a completely checked-off to-do list doesn’t necessarily move us forward on the stuff that matters.  
  • Daily self-care habits 
  • Feeling selfish to want to be creative for a living 
  • Perfectionism and Imposter Syndrome 
  • Procrastination masquerading as productive work 
  • The problem with Facebook 
  • Stress is a health issue 
  • Two kinds of goals: Big and SMART 
  • Cycles of Change in Chinese Medicine 
  • Aging is when we don’t think we can change anymore 
  • Good Orderly Direction 
  • Procrastination as Fear of the Bigger Goals 
  • Self-compassion  
  • Making it non-negotiable 
  • Jeremy’s worst fear 
  • Needing support  

 

Resources: 

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” - Mark Twain 

For more on SMART goals, check out Smarter, Faster, Better by Charles Duhigg 

Check out Brodie’s learn-from-home course Calm Yourself: Self-Care Strategies for Stress and Anxiety for more practical tips about creating self-care habits and making them stick.  

Imposter Syndrome

 

Jul 13, 2016

Chinese Medicine expert and host Brodie Welch talks with colleague Joe Moceus, L.Ac., about one of the central principles of Chinese Medicine: the notion that the body is an ecosystem rather than a machine to be fixed.  

Like a tree with lots of branches, the same root cause can give rise to a number of very different symptoms.  

In this episode, we touch on: 

  • Why Chinese Medicine focuses on patterns of disharmony rather than symptoms 
  • If it’s happening in nature, it’s happening in us as well 
  • How everything in the body affects everything else 
  • The cycles of 7 and 8 and the phases of our lives 
  • The Imbalance Continuum and the importance of treating beforehand 
  • Brodie’s acupuncture orbit 
  • Treating to balance the energy within but also to balance it with our lives. 

 

Resources: 

Beinfield and Korngold Between Heaven and Earth 

The Basics of Chinese Medicine, with Brodie Welch, L.Ac.  

For more information on Chinese Medicine and to stay in touch with Brodie, visit www.brodiewelch.com  

Jul 13, 2016

Chinese Medicine expert and host Brodie Welch, L.Ac. talks with guest Jennie Cramer about living in harmony with the seasons. The frenzy of summertime and the pressure we feel to take advantage of all the exciting opportunities we’re presented with, even when our bodies might be telling us to take a break, can lead to disharmony and really throw us out of balance… if we allow it.

 

In this episode we explore: 

  • The nature of summer in Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda (full yang, pitta season)
  • The ways our relationships with the seasons affect our daily wellness
  • Symptoms as messages from the body
  • Creating a life you don’t need a vacation from
  • Should we need an excuse to let ourselves rest?
  • Is your anxiety a message from your body? What could that message be?
  • The benefits of rhythm and setting a schedule
  • Decision fatigue

 

Jennie is a farming yoga mom who is passionate about ancestral living, ecology, and living in accordance with her values.

 

Resources:

If you'd like to get in touch with Jennie, you can contact her at farmingyogini@gmail.com and keep a lookout for her website to go live at www.gardenrhythm.com.

For more information on Chinese Medicine and to stay in touch with Brodie, visit brodiewelch.com.

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