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:
Resources:
Melissa’s Podcast: Live Creative Now
Melissa on Facebook
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:
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.
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:
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.
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:
Resources
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:
Resources:
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:
I hope you listen whether you menstruate or not.
Resources:
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:
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:
Youtube Channel: The Medical Marijuana (Cannabis) Expert: Dr. Rachna Patel
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:
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:
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.
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:
Resources:
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
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:
Resources:
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
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:
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.
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:
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.
Licensed Acupuncturist and host Brodie Welch talks with her colleague Joe Moceus, L.Ac. about one of the most common conditions they treat in clinic: lower back pain.
In this episode we explore:
Resources:
Chinese Medicine expert and host Brodie Welch, L.Ac., talks with colleague Joe Moceus, L.Ac. about the primary reason people resist getting acupuncture: needlephobia.
As recovering needlephobes themselves, Brodie and Joe understand the wariness, but they’re also here to tell you that acupuncture needles are nothing like other needles you’ve encountered. Up to 40 acupuncture can fit inside a hypodermic.
Hear about Brodie and Joe’s first experiences receiving acupuncture, what an acupuncture needle looks and feels like, what kind of sensations you might expect, potential alternatives, and more in the inaugural episode of A Healthy Curiosity.
The show begins with a 2-minute overview about Brodie’s vision for the podcast: a blend of expert interviews that demystify natural healing modalities that could potentially help you, along with real, practical, conversations with people trying to walk a healthy, conscious path in a busy world, and what gets in the way.
We then explore:
Resources:
For more information on Chinese Medicine and to stay in touch with Brodie, visit brodiewelch.com.