What If the Heart Knows Before the Mind? A Deep Dive Into Heart Coherence The heart is by far the master rhythm maker in the body. Think of the heart as the conductor, and the body is the music it's playing. If the conductor gets out of sync and gets frustrated and frazzled, the music becomes very discordant. That's what's playing out in the body. It's a very energy inefficient state. Coherence, on the other hand, is a very energy efficient state. What happens when an enginee

I used to be a total skeptic when it came to intuition.  Having grown up in Texas in an evangelical community, then going through western medicine training, I would say that my “gut feeling,” if I had one, was to steer clear of any such practices. The Other Kind of Knowing The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung defined intuition as a method of perception drawn from inner or imaginative experiences; this was in contrast with sensing, where information was drawn from the external wor

Most of us try to avoid anything that triggers us at all costs. Especially if we have sensitive nervous systems. But what if triggers, approached consciously and incrementally, can be a source of deep healing? Cynthia Li, MD, gave this presentation for the World Consciousness Community (a global qigong community) to illuminate how, through embodied consciousness practices, triggering events can potentially contribute to deeper healing, rather than just keeping us in a trauma

Cynthia Li has written a second book on healing from within that is just as profound and intimate as her first, Brave New Medicine. Any page I turned to offered me a gem of insight and instruction. I’ll turn to it again and again. — Anne Lamott, activist and NYT bestselling author of Bird by Bird Optimize your body’s innate healing abilities...in a seemingly effortless way. Are you one of the millions who suffer from chronic illness? Have you tried everything—conventional or

If you’re reading this post, you likely feel sick, but your labs are normal. Or maybe this has happened to your partner or another family member. I had the experience myself, for years after the birth of my first child. I couldn’t sleep or think straight. I felt awful. All my energy went towards keeping a precarious inner stability. And yet, my screening tests were normal. As a doctor, I'd concluded that I didn’t have a disease, that I must be fine, and if I wasn't, it was al

Our modern lifestyle is disrupting a deeply ingrained, primordial, and universal code to being healthy.   This is how Dr. Satchin Panda, a professor at the Salk Institute in San Diego and a researcher on circadian rhythms, begins his book,  The Circadian Code.  His statement is backed up by a compelling body of research. In 2012, Dr. Panda’s team divided genetically identical mice into two groups, one with unlimited access to a high fat-diet, and another with access to the

New beginnings often prompt people to make a list of resolutions, myself included. When I quickly searched the Internet last week for the Top 10 resolutions, a survey of 2,000 people popped up with the top 3 being healthier eating (71%), exercising more (65%), and losing weight (54%). Simultaneously, a list compiled by  Time  magazine popped up, “Top 10 Commonly Broken New Year’s Resolutions.” At the top of that list were: losing weight, getting fit, and eating healthier, amo

In the spring of 2013, during my decade+ journey with chronic fatigue and vertigo, I stumbled across the work of  Francis Weller , a grief therapist and self-described “soul activist," who facilitated daylong grief workshops. Though wrestling in the muddy realm of the soul with strangers was hardly how I wanted to spend one of my weekends, I imagined there were invisible, inaccessible stresses I had to contend with. Stresses that made me unpleasantly reactive instead of thou

Are you one of the estimated 10-20% of American adults who suffers from poor sleep? I've been one of those. Likely from a combination of poor sleep habits and night-call during medical training, hormone imbalances, and life stresses. Consistent sleep isn't only necessary for energy and mental focus, but deep sleep (stages 3 & 4) is necessary for tissue repair and regeneration, as well as proper growth and development. Restful sleep is enhanced by nighttime rituals, often refe

In the medicine of flow, there is a continual interplay between your inner state and external activities in your daily life. Similar to patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time, this interplay is a continual practice to do two things at once: awaken to and deepen your awareness of a oneness state, while simultaneously engaging in life. It could be washing the dishes, going to a doctor's appointment, taking medications and supplements, or taking a walk. This o

The science of  epigenetics  reveals the super power of your mind: your thoughts can change your genes. Epi (above) +  genetics  (genes) is the study of gene expression, or the changes in how our DNA folds, thereby turning particular genes on or off. While genetic mutations are rare occurrences that happen largely out of our control, our genes turn on and off on a daily basis -- depending on what we eat, drink, breathe, feel, and think. So we have much more of a say over our

Gut-based decision-making—the supercomputer in that case is the vast database of experiences from early life onward, stored somewhere, likely in the brain. Every time you experience something, it’s stored as an emotion and an image. Because the brain and the gut are so closely related, the emotional experience is often colored by some gut feeling (rumblings, “butterflies in the stomach,” for example) that we may not experience consciously. With a unique combination of researc

The Healing Power of Sound and Vibration Losing all of the basic functions of being a human being was the greatest teacher. It was an opportunity to go fully into the teachings I had received around energy, sound, and vibration. At the age of 23, Madhu Anziani was in a life-changing accident. He broke his neck, and a spinal cord injury left him paralyzed him from the neck down, incontinent, and unable to breathe on his own. About to graduate with a degree in jazz and world

To combat the COVID-19 outbreak, the media focused almost exclusively on the outer shield . That is, minimizing spread. This includes physical distancing. Washing hands with soap and water for 20 seconds. Alcohol sanitizers. Disinfecting tabletops and door knobs. Wearing disposable masks and gloves. This is the first line of defense. And it is vital. But there’s a second, equally important and often overlooked line of defense: the inner shield . That is, your immune system. T

This podcast is part-conversation, part-embodiment workshop. Unlike Greek, Aramaic presents a fluid and holistic view of the cosmos. The arbitrary borders found in Greek between "mind, "body," and "spirit" fall away. By examining the “heart talks” of Jesus, he addresses universal themes like, How do we find renewal and healing amidst challenging times? How do we keep our hearts open? Or more fundamentally, who am I? Neil Douglas-Klotz, PhD, a renowned scholar in psychology an

I think my definition of "sacred medicine" really shifted after I started working very deeply in the field of trauma to include basically any medicine that helps peel away the layers of everything that is not our divine essence. And I now think that sacred medicine can happen in the hospital...in the therapy room...in indigenous healing settings. ..in ritual space. It has much more to do with the presence and consciousness of the person delivering the medicine, whatever that

My decades-long healing journey was hardly an isolated one. I was supported by a steadfast husband, two spirited children, a community of family and friends, as well as mentors who imparted their wisdom, hearts, and service. In fact, my husband, children, family, and friends can also be included within the larger umbrella of mentors. During these times of change and uncertainty, I’ve found their wisdom and love to be enduring and unwavering. A few months before my second chil