Have you ever walked away from a conversation feeling completely drained and a little ill, even though you felt fine before it began?

I remember one experience vividly. I was serving on a jury on a chilly, rainy autumn day.

After hearing the case all the jurors sat together in a small room to deliberate. Most of the jurors could disagree respectfully except one man. This person was antagonistic towards everyone, but would overdramatize being personally wounded and attacked when someone expressed a different view from him.

By the time lunch came around, I could tell everyone wanted to get away from him. I felt the same. When I left the room, I felt physically unwell. I couldn’t tell whether I was depleted from the encounter or beginning to come down with something. It felt as though his negativity had broken through my boundaries. I almost wished I could wear a hazmat suit around him! I wanted some kind of protective layer so I could be in the same room without taking on so much of what he was putting out.

When I got home, I wanted a long, hot shower to cleanse myself physically and energetically. I wanted to wash away the feeling of the day and feel like myself again.

That wish for a protective layer is one way I connect with Wei Qi, the body’s protective energy in Chinese medicine. I think about it in terms of emotional boundaries, too: being able to interact with others while keeping a sense of my own energy, rather than becoming overwhelmed by theirs.

What Is Wei Qi?

That feeling of wanting to get away from someone who is draining you, or out of a room full of sneezing people, is your instinct to protect yourself. When I first learned about Wei Qi, the body’s “protective energy” in Chinese medicine, it made so much sense to me.

Wei Qi is said to circulate near the surface of our body, with the Lung energy system helping to distribute it. So when we care for our Lung Qi, we’re also tending to that protective boundary.

I think about emotional boundaries this way, too. That day in the jury room, I felt like I needed a shield to protect myself from the negative energy that man was spewing at everyone.

There are many practices traditionally used to support Lung Qi and cultivate Wei Qi. Here’s a simple one you can bring into your mornings.

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Qi Practice: Dry Brushing to Awaken Your Protective Layer

Dry brushing is one of the simplest daily rituals I use to awaken my Wei Qi, or protective energy. The gentle sensation of the brush against my skin brings my attention to the surface of my body, helping me feel my own boundary more clearly. I think of it as activating my own invisible hazmat suit.

Because Wei Qi is said to flow in the layer between the skin and muscles, gentle stimulation on the skin through practices like dry brushing signals to the Lung system to activate your protective energy.

Here is a simple, two-minute dry brushing ritual for autumn:

1. Use a natural, soft-bristled brush on completely dry skin, ideally before your morning shower.

2. Work your way around your body. Gently brush your arms, legs, torso, and back, covering the areas you can comfortably reach. Avoid your face and any sensitive or irritated skin.

3. Keep the brushing light. The touch should feel invigorating, not painful or raw.

4. Finish with warmth. Step into a warm shower or wrap yourself in a soft layer to seal in that freshly awakened warmth.

🔒 From Vulnerability to Strength: An exclusive guided audio for paid subscribers

In this five-minute audio for paid subscribers, I’ll guide you through a special energy-point practice to strengthen your Wei Qi and help transform feelings of vulnerability into a deeper sense of inner strength.

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A Thought for the Season

As we step into autumn, cooler days and shifting temperatures invite us to give our protective energy a little extra care.

Tend to your Wei Qi. Protect the back of your neck from cold winds, practice your dry brushing in the mornings, pause before taking on demands that drain you, and give your lungs the space they need to breathe fully.

Leda 💛

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Practice with Me This Fall

If you’d like to go deeper into strengthening your protective energy, I’ll be teaching gentle movement, energy point practices and meditations to cultivate and seal your Wei Qi in my upcoming live series, QiFlow METAL.

In this eight-week online course starting November 1, we will explore the Metal element through harmonizing the lung and large intestine energy pathways, and seasonal boundary practices through gentle Tai Chi and Qigong.

• Format: Join live on Sundays or Mondays, or practice with the recordings whenever it fits your schedule.

• Special Offer: Save $20 with code METAL20 through October 10.

Explore QiFlow METAL and reserve your spot →

The Five Seasons Method: A Companion Through Every Season

My book offers practical ways to understand your emotions and bring more balance into daily life through movement, meditation, food, color, rituals, your environment, emotional practices, and daily routines.

Inside, you’ll also find my Sacred Palace energy-point practice for giving your personal “force field” a boost, one of many practices you can return to as your needs change through the seasons.

The audiobook is narrated by me, so you can listen with my voice as your guide.

Find your seasonal companion: Get the book →

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Some days, you may feel more easily affected by other people’s moods or the demands around you. Those moments can be an invitation to care for your own protective boundary.

In this gentle five-minute audio practice, I’ll guide you to place your palms over Sacred Palace, an energy point on the upper chest. Through the warmth of your hands and gentle breat…

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Earlier this month, to mark the release of my book The Five Seasons Method, I taught a Tai Chi class and gave a book talk at Radio Park, Rockefeller Center’s rooftop garden, high above the streets of Manhattan.

New York City is full of energy and constant movement. But, standing on the lawn barefoot, with grass beneath our feet and trees growing alongside towering skyscrapers, Radio Park felt like a peaceful sanctuary in the sky.

I guided the group through simple and gentle TaiChi movements and shared how we can tune into seasonal energy through physical practice. Being outside in the garden gave us a direct connection to the natural world, while the practices helped us bring our attention to our own energy. As we practiced together, we experienced calm and peace, surrounded by NYC going about its hustle and bustle.

What is the fifth season?

One participant asked a question that may be on your mind, too: “What is the fifth season?”

In the West, we’re familiar with four seasons: winter, spring, summer, and fall. In the ancient Chinese Five Element system, Late Summer is the fifth season, which bridges the height of summer and the beginning of autumn.

You’ve probably seen the yin-yang symbol, with its dark and light sides flowing into one another. I like to help people understand the seasons through that symbol: the cooler seasons of fall and winter reflect the inward qualities of yin, while spring and summer express the warmer, outward qualities of yang.

I use the flowing line between yin and yang as a way to picture Late Summer: a transition from summer’s outward energy toward the inward turn of fall.

This theory helps us recognize energetic qualities in nature and find them within ourselves. Just as the natural world moves through cycles of growth and rest, our own energy changes, too. Learning to recognize these patterns can help us understand what we need and how to bring more balance into our lives.

Whether you’re in the middle of New York City or on a farm, you are part of the natural world. The seasons are around you, and their qualities can be explored within you.

The Scribner team had stacks of books ready for the event, and one by one, every copy found a home.

Thank you to everyone who joined me at Radio Park, and to the teams at Simon & Schuster and Scribner, and ZO for making this gathering possible. It was a pleasure to share these Qi Moments with you.

Leda 💛

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Bring the Five Seasons into Your Everyday Life

The Five Seasons Method: A Gentle Path toward Emotional and Spiritual Balance combines personal stories with easy-to-do practices to help you balance your emotions and bring greater balance into daily life. Each season offers practical ways to work with seasonal energy through movement, meditation, food, color, rituals, your environment, emotional practices, and daily routines. The book is available in the US and Canada in print and as an audiobook, with international editions to follow!

If you prefer an audio experience, I narrated the audiobook myself, so you can hear the stories in my voice and follow along as I guide you through the practices. You can pause after a passage to try a practice, then return whenever you wish.

Explore the book and audiobook →

Practice With Me This Fall

You can practice with me wherever you live. This fall, join me for QiFlow METAL, my eight-week live online wellness series beginning November 1, and give yourself time each week to care for your energy.

Each class combines gentle Tai Chi and Qi Gong with breathwork, energy point practices and guided meditation. This seasons I’ll place special focus on the Lung and Large Intestine energy systems of Chinese medicine, with practices designed to help you:

• Build physical resilience: Breathe more fully and improve your stamina.

• Feel emotionally stronger: Develop healthier boundaries and greater confidence through change.

• Nourish your spirit: Reconnect with your sense of purpose and recognize your own worth.

Practice your way: Join live on Sundays or Mondays, or practice with the recordings whenever it suits your schedule and time zone.

Early Bird Offer: Save $20 with code METAL20 through October 10.

Join Me for QiFlow METAL →

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A new client came to my studio this week looking very unsteady on her feet. She had been referred to me for help with balance.

I invited her in and asked her to sit down and take off her shoes, and asked her a few questions to get to know her. She mentioned that over the last few months more and more she was getting unsteady on her feet, and she was feeling terrible pain in her heel. Before she even showed me any movement, I could see that her toes were curled up and her big toe was bent sharply inward toward her second toe.

I asked her to show me a few simple movements so I could see how she was using her feet. As she moved, much of her weight appeared to be sitting back over her heels, with her toes gripping as she tried to keep her balance.

I showed her a very simple exercise to stretch and relax all of her toes. Then spent some time specifically on her big toe. We then worked on a weight shifting practice, paying close attention that her weight and energy were going to the right spot on the soles of her feet, instead of her heel.

She could hardly believe the difference those simple practices made. She told me her heel pain had eased and she felt so much steadier walking. She was surprised to discover how specific the placement of her weight needed to be, and how much doing so changed her balance, and the pain she was feeling. She described feeling more connected to the ground and solid on her feet, where before she had felt scared and tentative before.

How Your Toes Connect to Balance and Digestion

Our toes have a lot to do with how steady we feel on our feet. The big toe is especially important for structural reasons and balance, but it also has deeper energetics behind it too.

What I find fascinating is that, in Chinese medicine, the big toe is also where the Spleen pathway begins. The Spleen energy pathway starts at the inner edge of the big toe, near the nail, then travels along the inside of the foot and leg into the abdomen and chest. It is associated with balance, steadiness, clear thinking and worry or overthinking.

The Spleen also works closely with the Stomach in digestion. The Stomach receives food, while the Spleen helps transform it into nourishment the body can use. These teachings also include how we take in experiences and make sense of them, whether something is easy to absorb or takes a little longer to digest.

The main Stomach pathway travels down from the face, along the front of the body and leg, ending at the second toe. So, in Chinese medicine, the toes have a connection to nourishment that extends well beyond our feet.

Qi Moment: Spread Your Toes

Take off your shoes, and let’s begin by bringing some attention to your toes.

You can sit with both feet on the floor, or stand with your feet hip-width apart and a sturdy chair nearby for support.

Gently spread and lift your toes while keeping the balls of your feet and your heels on the floor. Hold for a few seconds, then let your toes relax back down. Spend a few moments noticing whether you can feel each of your ten toes.

The goal is to activate all ten toes, then let them relax and encourage the flow of Qi. You may notice a gentle buzzing or tingling as you bring your attention to them.

Breathe naturally and notice how your feet feel against the floor. Are your toes still gripping? Does the contact feel different after that small movement?

Heel pain can have several causes. If you’re experiencing it, have it assessed by a qualified healthcare professional.

🔒 For Paid Subscribers: An Energy-Point Practice for Digestion

In this week’s companion post, I’m sharing an energy point on the foot traditionally used in Chinese medicine for digestive discomfort. I’ll show you how to find it and guide you through a gentle practice you can try at home.

Discover this week’s energy-point practice →Easing Stomach Discomfort Through Your Feet

The next time you stand up, take a moment to notice your toes. Are they gripping the floor? See what you notice when you let them relax and pay attention to where you feel your weight.

Leda 💛

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🍂 Feel Stronger and More Inspired This Fall

The Spleen and Stomach bring our attention to nourishment and balance. In fall, we turn to the Lung and Large Intestine pathways, exploring Chinese medicine’s teachings on immunity and respiratory vitality, along with letting go and renewal.

I’ll guide you through soothing and gentle Tai Chi and Qigong flows, along with energy-point practices and seasonally aligned meditations as we move into the colder months.

We’ll also explore the season’s connection to self-esteem and healthy boundaries, and ways to reconnect with inspiration in daily life through embodied practices.

The series starts November 1.

Join me live on Sundays or Mondays, or practice with the recordings whenever it works for you.

Early-bird offer: Save $20 with code METAL20 through October 10.

Explore QiFlow METAL and sign up →

A Companion Through Every Season

The connection between our toes and digestion is one example of how Chinese medicine offers a different way of understanding ourselves. In my book, The Five Seasons Method, I explore how the wisdom of the seasons can help us recognize what’s happening in our energy and emotional lives.

Through personal stories and simple Qi practices, I share ways to bring these teachings into everyday life. You might begin with the autumn chapters, then return to other sections as the seasons change or something in your own life calls for attention.

Explore The Five Seasons Method →

When your stomach feels uncomfortable, your feet might be the last place you think to turn but in Chinese medicine, your feet have a strong connection, and could offer you some relief.

Meet Inner Courtyard

This point has such a lovely name: Neiting 内庭, or Inner Courtyard, also known in acupuncture as ST 44. It is located just behind the web between your …

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Earlier this evening, I was in the kitchen washing potatoes, with the back door open. As the sun went down, I could hear the crickets outside.

There is something about their sound that makes me slow down and listen. Standing there in the kitchen, I became more aware of the air around me, almost as though I could hear the air itself.

I hear them every year around this time, but today that feeling made me curious. What is it about the sound of crickets that makes the air feel so present?

Now, sitting at my computer, I’ve been poking around online to see what I could learn. I came across Dolbear’s law, which describes the relationship between a cricket’s chirping rate and temperature. Crickets generally chirp faster as the temperature rises and more slowly as it falls. Their rhythm can even help us estimate the temperature!

I loved discovering that connection. The sound drawing my attention to the air was itself responding to the temperature around it.

To me, the crickets are the soundtrack of the seasonal threshold. They always remind me of the turn of late summer.

The Taste of the Season

In the Five Element theory late summer is described as the season of harvest and nourishment and is associated with the Earth element. It is the time of the year symbolic of balance, grounding and the center.

In traditional Chinese food wisdom, Earth’s corresponding flavor is sweet. Sweet also has a harmonizing quality and corresponds to the Spleen and Stomach energy systems, and is said to be a taste that nourishes and replenishes.

Late Summer is a good time to pay attention to what truly nourishes us. We can begin by putting care into the meals we prepare and giving ourselves time to enjoy them.

Here are some grounding foods to bring to your late-summer table:

Choose foods that agree with you and fit your lifestyle. I am offering these examples as a starting point for bringing traditional seasonal wisdom into a variety of diets.

A Little Sweetness, a Lot of Nourishment

1. Care for Your Digestive Fire
   The Spleen and Stomach appreciate a little warmth. Eating warm foods like squash simmered in a pot, or a sweet potato baked until tender are a way of tending the digestive fire that helps transforms our meals into nourishment and Qi.

2. Keep Your Energy Going
   Foods like a bowl of oats and brown rice have some staying power. They provide fuel along with fiber, which can help release energy more gradually offering us some stability.

3. Nourish Your Natural Defenses
   That beautiful orange in sweet potatoes and carrots have some powerful energy. It comes from beta-carotene, which our bodies can turn into vitamin A and is a nutrient our immune systems need.

A Simple Daily Practice

As the evenings grow cooler, try including one warm, cooked dish in your day. Roast root vegetables until tender, or simmer some squash or carrots into a soup with a little ginger.

Notice how you feel after eating.

For Paid Subscribers: The Five Tastes Kitchen Guide

In this week’s companion guide, you can learn the taste associated with each season, its role in traditional food wisdom, and practical ways to bring those flavors to your table.

[Read The Five Tastes Kitchen Guide]

Leda 💛

What is the soundtrack or marker that tells you late summer has arrived in your corner of the world?

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🌻 Practice with Me This Late Summer

The care we bring to our meals can also extend to how we care for our energy. If you’d like to explore Earth’s nourishing qualities through soothing and gentle practices, I’d love for you to join me in QiFlow EARTH.

We meet live online each week for Qigong movements, meditations and energy point practices that help us feel grounded and ease worry. It’s time you can set aside for yourself, with the support of a warm international community practicing alongside you.

Sundays at 1:00 p.m. ET
Mondays at 6:00 p.m. ET
Choose either class. Replays are included.

Explore the QiFlow EARTH Late Summer Series →

A Companion Through Every Season

Listening to the crickets reminded me how much we can discover when we pay attention to the season we’re in. In my book, The Five Seasons Method, I take that exploration further, sharing how nature’s seasonal wisdom can help us understand our emotions and bring our energy into greater balance.

Each season offers lessons we can draw on in our own lives. Through personal stories and simple Qi practices, I help you recognize these seasons within yourself and work with what you’re experiencing. It’s a gentle path toward emotional and spiritual balance, with teachings you can return to as your life and needs change.

Explore The Five Seasons Method →

I’m sure you’ve experienced it. Suddenly you want a piece of chocolate, or you find yourself looking for something salty, a bag of potato chips. You’re craving a particular taste.

What fascinates me is the idea that taste can be a language the body uses to communicate with us. Through the lens of traditional Chinese food wisdom, we can explore cravings a…

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Many of you might remember that every Friday, I visit Appleton Farms in Ipswich, Massachusetts, to pick up my vegetables for the week. I can only describe the experience as magical and cleansing, something essential to my soul.

This week, as I was walking through the fields, I saw a hummingbird. It was the first time I had ever seen one in person.

I had seen hummingbirds in movies and documentaries, in museums and online. I knew about them but here was one, alive, right in front of me. I crouched down and watched, and I felt so happy.

As I continued walking the smell of the soil triggered a thought. Something I had encountered years ago came back to me:

The Importance of Soil and the Earth

When my daughter was very little, I learned about Rudolf Steiner and Waldorf education and was introduced to the importance of soil and how much that affects the food we eat.

Years later, when I received my breast cancer diagnosis, I was introduced to Max Gerson and his approach to healing and eating. His emphasis on organically grown vegetables brought my attention back to the soil, at a time when I was very focused on how to nourish and heal my body.

Those experiences changed how I think about the vegetables on my plate today.

For example, I make carrot juice with carrots from Appleton Farms and also with carrots from the grocery store, and to me, the difference is remarkable. The juice from the farm carrots honestly feels alive. When I drink the juice made from the carrots freshly picked from the farm I can feel the energy of the soil they grew in and the care they received before reaching my kitchen.

What we eat regularly can support our health or contribute to illness over time. Fast food offers convenience, and there are days when that convenience matters but meals consistently high in salt, unhealthy fats, and added sugar can deteriorate our health over time. We may feel satisfied in the moment, but being fed and being well nourished can be very different things.

Nourishment in a World of Quick Fixes

I see that same emphasis on speed and convenience in the world of wellness as well. “Fast-food wellness” is the phrase that comes to mind when I see lasting health and well-being presented as something that can be achieved almost immediately.

I understand the appeal of wanting to feel better quickly. But I also think about what gets sacrificed when quick and easy becomes the expectation: the dedication, care, and time that allow something meaningful to grow. I experienced that in learning from my teacher, whose wisdom and knowledge were the rich soil in which my understanding took root.

That is the connection I feel between the farm and my training. The soil supports the growth of the carrot, and the carrot becomes food that nourishes me. My teacher’s knowledge had been developing long before I became her student. Through our years together, her depth began to take root in my own understanding.

Perhaps that is why my visits to Appleton Farms mean so much to me.

My visits to the farm remind me that the Earth and its soil offers nourishment beyond the food I bring home. Being there at the farm is nourishing in itself, for me, I need that as much as I need the vegetables.

In the Late Summer chapter of my book, I share a practice called Connecting with the Earth. It begins with lying down and feeling the ground support you. I’d like to leave you with a shortened version to experience for yourself.

In Five Element philosophy, Late Summer corresponds to Earth. Its qualities of care, nourishment, and stability invite us to consider what sustains us and how we receive support.

The practice below explores that support through a simple experience: feeling the ground beneath your body.

A Qi Moment: Connecting with the Earth

I’d like to share this Qi Moment to help you feel more grounded and settled. As you let your weight rest on the ground, imagine becoming one with the Earth’s steady, grounding energy. Let yourself feel supported, inviting a sense of stability into your body and emotions.

• Lie on your back somewhere comfortable. If your lower back feels tense, bend your knees and rest your feet flat on the ground.

• Rest your arms by your sides. Place a folded towel beneath your head if needed.

• Close your eyes and breathe naturally. Notice where your body meets the surface beneath you.

• With each exhale, let your weight settle into that support. Imagine the Earth receiving what you have been carrying.

• Stay for as long as feels comfortable. You can also practice outdoors, beneath a tree or at the beach.

Return to this practice over time and notice how your experience develops. You’ll find the full explanation and more seasonal practices that help you connect to the wisdom of the seasons in my book, The Five Seasons Method.

I’m grateful that my practice and knowledge had such good soil in which to grow. I hope you experience that richness too.

Leda 💛

What nourishes you in a way that stays with you?

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🌻Practice with Me This Late Summer

If you’d like to give yourself time for regular, guided practice Live Online with a warm international community I’d love for you to join me in QiFlow EARTH.

Together, we explore the Earth season through Qigong movements and energy point practices, with attention to feeling grounded and easing worry. Each week offers an opportunity to return to the practices and become more familiar with how you experience them.

Sundays at 1:00 p.m. ET
Mondays at 6:00 p.m. ET

Choose either class. Replays are included.

Explore the QiFlow EARTH Late Summer Series →

Continue with The Five Seasons Method

The Qi Moment above is one of the seasonal practices in my book. Alongside the instructions, I share the teachings and personal experiences behind them, so you can explore their meaning as you bring them into your own life.

Read at your own pace, and return to a practice as your understanding grows, season after season.

Explore The Five Seasons Method →

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It’s mid-afternoon, and I can feel my concentration fading. I’m starting to feel sluggish, my mind is getting foggy, and I feel like I need a little piece of chocolate, a cookie, or something sweet just to pick me up.

Can you relate?

You begin to crave something sweet and find yourself looking around the kitchen. You know the fruit in the basket is what you should be reaching for, but the apple has zero appeal and a banana sounds boring.

Then you find a cookie. You are happy, and for a few minutes the sweetness brings a rush of energy and comfort.

Then the lift fades. You start to feel the craving again and wonder why you keep repeating the same loop.

Is it a lack of self-control? Discipline?

Late Summer, Earth, and Sweetness

Five Element theory is fascinating. Each element is associated with a season, an organ energy system, and even a particular taste.

Late Summer is associated with the Spleen and Stomach energy systems and the taste of sweet. Earth represents balance and the feeling of being centered and grounded.

When our Earth energy is nourished, we feel centered and satisfied. But too much thinking and worry can wear down Spleen Qi, leaving the body sluggish and the center strangely hollow. It is that hollow feeling that can leave us craving something sweet.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, this helps explain why chocolate or a cookie can start to sound especially good after hours of working, worrying, or thinking. Sugar gives us sweetness quickly, along with an immediate lift.

The craving may be less about discipline and more about a body searching for energy and comfort.

The Practice: Gathering the Sweet Dew

There are many Qi practices in the internal arts that help bring balance into the mind and body.

This old Daoist practice may feel a little unusual at first, but there is a pretty good logic to it. In Daoist internal energy cultivation, the tongue was called the Red Dragon, while saliva was called the Sweet Dew or Jade Fluid.

Give this practice a try. As you move your tongue around your gums, you may notice that saliva naturally begins to gather. Wait before swallowing it. Notice it in your mouth, then follow it down into your belly.

1. Rest your tongue

Close your lips and place the tip of your tongue just behind your upper front teeth.

2. Circle the Red Dragon( your tongue)

Trace your tongue around your gums, between your lips and teeth. Circle nine times in one direction, then nine times in the other.

3. Gather the Sweet Dew

Let the saliva collect in your mouth. Wait for a moment before swallowing.

4. Bring it into your center

Swallow slowly and follow the sensation down into your belly. Place both feet on the floor and take one full breath.

TIP: For beginners, you may want to start by three very slow swirls in one direction with a long pause before you do three swirls to the other direction.

The Check-In

Now ask yourself:

Am I hungry, or am I looking for something sweet because I feel worn down?

If you are hungry, eat. Choose something that will truly nourish you.

If the answer is mental or emotional strain, then just acknowledge it and do one small thing that responds to what you are feeling. Maybe close the laptop for 5 minutes and make a cup of tea and take a small break.

Sometimes the answer will be both.. you are hungry and under emotional strain. You may still want something sweet, and you can have it.

The point is to take the time to truly understand your needsbefore diving into the box of cookies.

🍵Qi Wisdom

A crowded mind leaves the center hungry.

Leda 💛

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🌻Practice with Me This Late Summer

Did you recognize yourself in this post? The afternoon slump, the busy mind, or the sudden need for something sweet? If you find yourself stuck in this afternoon cycle, or if you want to learn how to truly nourish your Earth energy instead of just chasing a quick sugar rush, I’d love for you to join me.

QiFlow EARTH my late summer series begins Sunday, August 30.

In my upcoming Earth Series, you will learn energy points, meditations Qigong movements, and Qi practices to help you feel more grounded, enhance digestion and calm overthinking.

Sundays at 1:00 p.m. ET
Mondays at 6:00 p.m. ET

Choose either class. Replays are included. Join the QiFlow EARTH Late Summer Series →

---

Continue with The Five Seasons Method

If this post spoke to you, you will find more Qi practices in my book. It offers a way to understand and care for your emotions and energy through every season of life.

Explore the book: The Five Seasons Method →

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Earlier this week, I was in Ithaca, New York, spending a beautiful evening with my daughter before dropping her off at college. In the warmth of the evening, with crickets chirping and moonlight falling across the sidewalk, I could feel the energy of late summer all around us.

As I listened to my daughter talk about feeling excited and nervous at the same time, I was reminded of those mornings when she was little and just starting preschool.

Almost every morning, as we began getting ready for school, she would tell me that her belly hurt. I would rub her stomach, reassure her, and bring her to school.

At that age, she could not yet explain everything she was feeling. She could not say, “I feel nervous about leaving you,” . All she knew was that her belly hurt.

Her body was expressing something she couldn’t articulate yet.

We often recognize this connection in children. We rub their bellies and reassure them when they are worried.

An adult may feel the same knot every Sunday evening before returning to a job that has become difficult to bear. The mind rationalizes the knot, calling it ordinary stress, but the sensation returns week after week, growing harder to ignore.

When we speak of a “gut feeling,” we mean a sensation felt in the abdomen that seems to carry its own message, almost like a voice speaking from within us.

But why the gut?

Why do anxiety, anticipation, and deeper inner knowing so often make themselves known in the stomach?

The Stomach’s Alarm Point

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the body and mind are understood together. Physical sensations are recognized as one of the ways consciousness speaks through the body.

Ancient practitioners mapped places on the torso called Front-Mu points, 募穴. The word Mu, 募, means to gather or collect. These points are often described as alarm points because they may become tight, tender, or sensitive when an organ system is under strain.

The Stomach’s alarm point is Zhongwan 中脘, “Middle Cavity,” . It is located in the center of the upper abdomen, halfway between the sternum and navel.

Try This: Listen to Your Stomach’s Alarm Point

Place your palm over the “Middle Cavity” CV-12, halfway between your sternum and navel. Breathe slowly as you make gentle circles with your hand.

Then let your palm rest on the point for a few seconds.

Listen with your hand, (rather than your ears,) for the message your gut may be trying to send.

Ask: What are you trying to tell me?

From Gut Reaction to Embodied Awareness

Many people try to think their way through physical feelings. Analyze the feeling, somethings debating with it, or ignore it.

But a gut feeling begins below the level of words.

Placing your palm over the Middle Cavity and listening invites you to participate consciously in that conversation. Instead of forcing an immediate answer, you begin creating a relationship with the felt sensation and understanding the message it may be carrying.

🍵 Qi Wisdom

Your body has its own alarm system. When it sounds, listen.

Leda 💛

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🌻Practice with Me This Late Summer

Over six weeks starting August 30, I will guide you through gentle Tai Chi and Qigong, breathwork, meridian self-massage, meditation, and energy-point practices for the Spleen and Stomach pathways.

Through these practices, you will learn how to:

• Ease tension held in the stomach and abdomen

• Support more comfortable digestion

• Calm overthinking and find greater clarity

Continue with The Five Seasons Method

If you enjoyed this post, in my book, The Five Seasons Method, offers Qi practices for working with your emotions and energy through every season of your life.

Explore The Five Seasons Method →

Have you ever felt a knot in your upper abdomen, in the space halfway between the bottom of your breastbone and your navel? It may feel tight, or clenched, especially during periods of stress or overthinking.

One of the most interesting ideas I have come across in Chinese medicine is that an organ system has an energy point on the chest or abdomen where its energy gathers close to the surface of the body, and is said to speak to you.

These are called Mu points. The word Mu means “to gather” or “to collect.”

Mu points are also known as alarm points because they may become tight or tender when the corresponding organ system is under strain. It is almost as if each organ has a way of speaking to us through sensation on the surface of the body.

The Stomach energy system is associated with late summer and it's Mu point is called Zhongwan, or Middle Cavity. This energy point is located directly in the center of the upper abdomen, halfway between the bottom of the breastbone and the navel.

Through the lens of Chinese medicine, a knot in this area may be the Stomach’s alarm point sending you a message.

The practices below offer three different ways to ease tension in the upper abdomen and help settle overthinking.

Locate the Middle Cavity Energy Point

Middle Cavity, CV-12, is located along the centerline of the upper abdomen, halfway between the bottom of the breastbone and the navel.

Three Soothing Practices to Loosen the Knot

When Middle Cavity feels tight or tied up in a knot, here are three things you can try.

You may already have what you need for the first one. The castor oil pack takes a little more time. Moxa requires experience and careful attention.

1. Gentle Warmth

A warm compress or hot-water bottle is the simplest place to begin.

Wrap it in a towel and rest it over your upper abdomen for five to ten minutes. It should feel comfortably warm, never hot.

This is easy to do after a stressful day or whenever you notice your stomach beginning to clench.

2. Castor Oil Pack

A castor oil pack takes a little more preparation, so I use this when I have more time.

Apply a small amount of castor oil to a piece of clean cotton or flannel.

Place it over the upper abdomen and cover it with an old hand towel. Castor oil stains, so use a towel you will be comfortable keeping for this purpose. You can place a covered hot-water bottle over the towel for additional warmth.

I usually begin with about ten minutes. Close your eyes and rest while the pack is in place.

TIP: Patch-test the oil first and apply it only to healthy, intact skin to make sure you don’t have a negative skin reaction to the oil.

3. Moxa: The At-Home Practice I Grew Up With in Japan

Growing up in Japan, I remember seeing small home moxibustion products in neighborhood drugstores. My grandmother used them all the time.

As a child, I would watch her and wonder what in the world she was doing, and why.

Now I live halfway across the world from Japan, and I think back to those moments differently. I had no idea that I would one day be using moxa myself.

Moxa can be used in several ways. In a clinical setting, an acupuncturist may use a cigar-shaped moxa stick, holding it above an acupuncture point and keeping it moving to create focused warmth.

The home version I used in Japan was much smaller. It looks a little like a tiny chimney. A short cylinder of moxa sits on a raised adhesive pedestal that sticks directly over an energy point.

The moxa is lit at the top.. The raised base keeps the burning herb above the skin while allowing warmth to reach the point below.

For Middle Cavity, place the adhesive base directly over the point and follow the instructions provided with the product.

If the heat becomes uncomfortable, remove it immediately. Some of the newer brands don’t smoke up as much, but some moxa do create a lot of smoke so open a window while you practice and extinguish the moxa completely when you finish.

If moxa is new to you, learn how to use it from a qualified practitioner before trying it at home.

See the Sennenkyu stick-on moxa I used in Japan →

Read Sennenkyu’s official English instructions →

After the Practice

Stay seated or lying down for another minute before returning to your day.

Place your hand over your upper abdomen. Is the knot still as tight? Are your thoughts still circling?

Perhaps the area feels a little less clenched than it did before.

I hope that you can use these practices after a stressful day or when your stomach alarm point starts talking to you.

Leda 💛

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Practice with Me This Late Summer

Over six weeks starting August 30, I will guide you through gentle Tai Chi and Qigong, breathwork, meridian self-massage, meditation, and energy-point practices for the Spleen and Stomach pathways.

Through these practices, you will learn how to:

• Ease tension held in the stomach and abdomen

• Support more comfortable digestion

• Calm overthinking and find greater clarity

Continue with The Five Seasons Method

If you enjoyed this post, in my book, The Five Seasons Method, offers Qi practices for working with your emotions and energy through every season of your life.

Explore The Five Seasons Method →

You have already thought about it a dozen different ways. You have replayed the conversation, reconsidered the decision, and imagined everything that could happen next.

Just when you feel as though you have reached an answer, another what if appears and pulls you back into the same circle.

Can you relate? I certainly can.

Worry is something I have always been very good at. If worry awarded belts, I would have earned a black belt years ago.

Over the years, I have learned to catch myself when this begins and use the practices from my training to balance my own tendency toward worry. They help me change the direction of that energy before I feed the loop further.

These practices have helped me tremendously. I still worry, but now I recognize the loop sooner and know how to interrupt it before it carries me away.

What changed for me was learning that worry has an energetic pattern. When I can feel that pattern beginning, I can work with it before it builds.

Worry, Overthinking and the Spleen

In Chinese medicine, overthinking and circular worry are connected with the Spleen energy system.

This is why digestion and thinking are so closely connected in Five Element practice.

We digest a meal, but we also digest a conversation. We process what happened and try to understand what it means.

Anyone who has felt their stomach tighten during a period of worry has experienced this connection between the mind and digestion.

The Spleen is also said to house Yi, the energy that gives thought direction.

In Chinese medicine, prolonged worry is said to weaken Spleen Qi. As that energy becomes depleted, Yi may lose some of its ability to give thought a clear direction. Instead, the mind returns to the same question again and again.

This is how the worry loop feeds itself.

An Energy Point for Grounding

On the inside edge of your foot, just behind and slightly below the ball of the big toe, is a point called Taibai (Great White), the source point of the Spleen channel.

In classical teaching, every organ system has a source point, a place where we can reach and nourish its foundational energy.

But Taibai carries another layer of meaning. It is the Earth point of the Spleen channel, and the Spleen itself belongs to the Earth element. Earth within Earth. When your thoughts will not stop spinning, this is a point doubly rooted in the very element of groundedness.

This practice gives your attention somewhere else to go: down, toward the Earth.

Rather than trying to think your way out of the loop, try this practice.

Try This Practice

Rub your palms together until they feel warm.

• Find the inside of your foot.

• Move just behind the ball of your big toe, where the side of the foot begins to curve into the arch.

• Place your warm palm over this area.

• Focus on the warmth moving from your hand into your foot.

• Stay for one or two minutes, then repeat on the other side.

. Let the warmth of your palm cover the area.

You can also place a comfortably warm towel over your foot and let the warmth settle into the area.

As you feel the warmth, allow your attention to move away from the thoughts circling in your head and down into your foot.

When you finish, place both feet on the floor.

Keep your attention there.

Feel the weight of your feet and their contact with the ground. Stay for a few breaths, allowing the energy that was circling in your head to settle downward.

For this moment, let the feeling of the ground beneath you be enough.

A Free Late Summer Gift for You 💛

If your thoughts have been circling, I invite you to continue with Embrace Humility, a guided audio practice that brings your attention to Yin Tang, the Gathering Point between the eyebrows.

This practice is normally reserved for paid subscribers. For Late Summer, I’m opening it to everyone as a free gift through August 9.

[Listen to Embrace Humility free through August 30 →]

Qi Wisdom 🍵

The Earth gives a wandering mind a place to stand.

Leda 💛

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Practice With Me Live This Late Summer

If overthinking, worry, or mental fatigue have been draining your energy, I invite you to practice with me in QiFlow EARTH, my six-week Late Summer series.

Through gentle movement, energy points, self massage and meditation, we will work with the Spleen and Stomach pathways to calm scattered thinking, support digestion, and help you feel more grounded.

🌿 Continue with The Five Seasons Method

If you enjoyed this post, inside the book, you’ll find seasonal teachings, energy point practices, mindful movement, and rituals for emotional and spiritual balance all year long.

Order the book → 💛

You ate more than you meant to. You sit back, and your hand goes to your belt.

One notch. You loosen it….just enough room to breathe.

Phew

Can you relate?

That blocked, overly full feeling in your center can come from more than food. Life experiences can be difficult to digest, too.

Sometimes what weighs on us most is unspoken emotion. The moment passes, yet the feeling can remain like an invisible weight around the middle.

🌾 Late Summer: The Season of the Center

In the Five Element tradition, late summer is associated with the EARTH element and the Spleen and Stomach energy systems. EARTH also represents the center of balance.

In Taoist thought, the center is the pivot of the Way. It is the place where opposing forces meet and stillness is found within movement.

Earth governs the middle burner, the region at the center of the body where food is transformed into nourishment. But the middle burner processes more than food. It also helps us digest the experiences of our lives.

In Chinese medicine, this feeling of emotional weight around the waist is associated with a pathway sometimes described as the belt that holds the psyche.

✨ The Dai Mai: The Belt That Holds the Psyche

In Chinese medicine, twelve primary meridians( energy pathways) form the body’s main energy system and are associated with the organ systems and the Five Elements. Alongside them are eight extraordinary vessels, deeper pathways that help regulate how energy moves through the body. The Dai Mai is one of these vessels.

Most energy pathways travel vertically through the body. The Dai Mai is the exception. It wraps horizontally around the waist, creating an energetic connection between the upper and lower body.

Dai Mai translates as “Belt Vessel.” I call it the Qi Belt. Some practitioners also describe it as the belt that holds the psyche. The phrase reflects how experiences we have not fully processed can feel as though they have gathered around the center.

Where is the Qi Belt?

The Dai Mai circles the body at approximately navel level, passing along the outer edges of the waist and around the lower back. Toward the front, it dips slightly, like a sash worn low across the abdomen and hips.

Because it encircles the center, constriction here can affect the movement of energy between the upper and lower body.

Practice: Smooth the Flow Through Your Qi Belt

1. Waist Stretch

Stand comfortably and extend both arms out to the sides. Bring one arm up as the other reaches down, creating a gentle S-shape through the arms and torso.

Lean toward the lowered arm, allowing the opposite side of your waist to lengthen. Return to the center, change the position of your arms, and repeat on the other side.

Move slowly and stay within a comfortable range.

🔒 2.Experience the Dai Mai in Motion

After Waist Stretch, paid subscribers can continue with the full guided QiBelt Flow.

This practice guides Qi in a complete circle around the belt channel, encouraging smooth flow through the Dai Mai while directing excess energy down into the Earth.

🔒 Paid subscribers: Watch the QiBelt Flow

🍵 QiWisdom:

The center gives opposing forces a place to meet.

Leda 💛

Leave a comment

Practice with Me Live this Late Summer

If you enjoyed this practice, join me in QiFlow EARTH to explore this work more deeply. We’ll continue working with the Dai Mai while also focusing on the energy of the Stomach and Spleen in the Middle Burner, the center that transforms both nourishment and emotional experience.

Join an international community for gentle Tai Chi and Qigong flows, energy points, meditation, and seasonal self-care practices designed to support digestion, ease worry, and help you think more clearly.

Continue with The Five Seasons Method

If this practice helped you feel the connection between your body and emotions, The Five Seasons Method will take you deeper. In my upcoming book, I share how emotions can appear as physical sensations, and how working with Qi and the rhythms of the seasons can help that energy move.

Inside the book, you’ll find Qi Moments, seasonal teachings, energy point practices, mindful movement, and rituals to support emotional and spiritual balance throughout the year.

Order the book → 💛

Emotional heaviness does not always feel like an emotion. Sometimes it feels like a tight belt around your middle. Your waist may feel compressed or full, as though you have a tight belt around your waist.

In Chinese medicine, the Dai Mai, or Belt Vessel, is one of the Eight Extraordinary Vessels. It is the only energy pathway that circles horizontally a…

Read more

Growing up in Japan, summer meant cold mugicha( roasted barley tea ), and watermelon.

There was almost always a pitcher of mugicha in the refrigerator. Watermelon appeared throughout the summer. Pickled cucumber was served with meals, and bowls of edamame were often set out as an afternoon or evening snack.

I grew up without air conditioning. Summers were hot and humid, and I remember sweating a great deal.

Watermelon was sometimes served with the smallest sprinkle of salt. The salt brought out its sweetness, but looking back, I can also see how it may have helped replace a little of the sodium we lost through sweating.

Adults often reminded children to eat watermelon to stay hydrated. After sports practice or ballet rehearsal, there was almost always a parent waiting with a container of cold watermelon to help us cool down.

Even as a child, I understood that we could eat our water.

Today, many of us move between air conditioned homes, cars, studios, and offices. We may sweat far less than I did during those summers in Japan.

But the ancient wisdom of the seasons remains just as relevant.

The Five Element Wisdom of Hydration

In Five Element wisdom, summer is associated with the Fire element.

Summer heat can deplete the body’s fluids and its natural cooling and nourishing resources. Traditional food guidance emphasizes clearing excess heat, replenishing fluids, and supporting digestion.

Watermelon and cucumber have long been valued for their cooling qualities during hot weather. Tomatoes, berries, and other water rich summer foods bring fluids directly into our meals. They also give us fiber and nourishment.

The recipes that follow are my modern adaptations of this traditional guidance. The preparations may be contemporary, but the principle remains the same: choose foods that help replenish what summer heat takes from us.

Here are some water rich seasonal foods that can bring this traditional principle into the modern summer kitchen.

Two Simple Recipes for Summer Hydration

1. Watermelon, Lime and Mint Juice

Watermelon was one of the defining foods of my childhood summers in Japan. We usually ate it simply, cut into slices and served cold.

In my Qi Kitchen today here in Massachusetts , I sometimes turn that familiar summer food into a refreshing watermelon, lime and mint juice.

Ingredients

• 3 cups fresh watermelon

• The juice of half a lime

• A small handful of fresh mint

• A splash of water, if needed

Method

Place the watermelon, lime juice, and mint in a blender.

Blend until smooth. Add a small splash of water if needed.

Serve cool and fresh. Keep the pulp in the juice so you receive the fiber as well as the fluid.

The watermelon provides natural sweetness and water, while the lime and mint make it especially refreshing on a hot afternoon.

2. Modern Pickled Cucumber Ribbons

Pickled cucumbers were a familiar part of summer meals when I was growing up in Japan.

This recipe is my modern take on that childhood memory. I use apple cider vinegar, red onion, and fresh dill. The flavor is different from the Japanese cucumbers I grew up eating, but it carries the same refreshing feeling I remember from the summer table.

Ingredients

• 2 cucumbers

• ¼ small red onion, very thinly sliced

• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

• ½ teaspoon sea salt

• A small amount of fresh dill

Method

Use a vegetable peeler to slice the cucumbers lengthwise into thin ribbons.

Place the cucumber ribbons and sliced red onion in a bowl. Add the apple cider vinegar and sea salt, then toss gently.

Add the fresh dill and allow everything to rest for approximately fifteen minutes before serving.

The cucumbers will release some of their own water as they rest, creating a light, fresh dressing without added sugar or oil.

Serve them alongside a bowl of edamame for an easy summer snack.

Where Is the Water?

This week, look at one of your meals and ask:

Where is the water?

It might be in sliced cucumber, a bowl of berries, a ripe peach, or strawberries still warm from the sun.

Hydration can be part of the way we nourish ourselves.

Continue drinking water throughout the day. Then let the abundance of summer help you eat some of your water too.

What water rich summer foods or recipes are appearing in your kitchen right now?

I would love to hear in the comments.

Leda💛

Leave a comment

Bring Five Element Wisdom Into Your Everyday Life

The Five Seasons Method brings ancient Five Element wisdom into everyday life, with practices, meditations, energy points, and seasonal guidance to help you balance your emotions, your energy, and your life.

Preorder the book today💛
Available in the U.S. August 4, with editions in the U.K., Germany, Spain, and Latin America to follow.

Practice with me Live this late summer

If you would like to move and exercise in rhythm with the seasons, registration is open for QiFlow EARTH, my six-week live online Late Summer series.

Join an international community for gentle Tai Chi and Qigong flows, energy points, meditation, and seasonal self-care practices designed to support digestion, ease worry, and help you think more clearly.

Subscribe now

Do you ever feel like your mind is a troop of monkeys, swinging from one branch to the next, one thought to another, never quite landing? You sit down to focus, and your attention is already somewhere else.

In Chinese medicine, this is Yi 意 losing its footing. Yi is the spirit of Late Summer, the aspect of consciousness that governs thought, focus, and intention. It helps gather your mind, give shape to your thoughts, and direct your energy. When Yi is steady and well-rooted, you feel centered, clear, and more able to return to yourself.

In this meditation, you’ll bring gentle awareness to the space between the eyebrows, an energy point traditionally known as Yin Tang, long used to calm the mind. I like to call it the Gathering Point, because resting your attention here gives the mind one place to return. Through breath, touch, and a slight bow of the head, this practice draws scattered thoughts back toward center, so your mind can feel clearer and more your own.

Take this Qi Moment whenever your thoughts feel scattered, your mind feels pulled in many directions, or you wish to return to a grounded sense of intention.

🎧 Press play when you are ready.

Leda 💛

Leave a comment

🌿 Practice with me this Late Summer

If today’s meditation helped you feel clearer or more able to gather your thoughts, you may love the QiFlow EARTH Late Summer Series beginning August 30.

Together, we’ll explore practices for steadying the Yi, easing overthinking, supporting digestion, and cultivating clearer, more grounded intention.

Each class includes gentle Tai Chi and Qigong flows, meditation, energy-point practices, meridian self-massage, and breathwork for the Spleen and Stomach energy systems.

Live online classes bring together a welcoming international community, with Sunday and Monday options friendly to multiple time zones. Recordings are included for anyone who prefers to practice in their own time.

No previous experience is needed.

Join the QiFlow EARTH Late Summer Series →

🌿 Continue with The Five Seasons Method

This meditation is adapted from my book, The Five Seasons Method, where I share simple practices to help you balance your emotions, energy, and life by living in rhythm with the seasons.

Inside the book, you’ll find Qi Moments like this one, along with seasonal teachings, energy point practices, mindful movement, and rituals for emotional and spiritual balance all year long.

Order the book → 💛

Leda Elliott’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Vogue, and Motherly.

In Chinese medicine, Shen 神 is the spirit of the Heart, the aspect of consciousness that governs the mind, awareness, and emotional life. It is the animating presence that makes you fully you: your clarity of thought, the vitality in your eyes, and the warmth others feel in your presence. When Shen is settled and nourished, you feel calm, clear, and rad…

Read more

Have you ever been to a restaurant that serves seasonal farm-to-table food?

I always appreciate when the chef shares which seasonal ingredients are on the plate. It tells you what the meal is offering, and it connects you to the time of year.

What I share here in The Five Seasons Life works the same way. Each season has its own character, its own gifts, its own invitation. When you can recognize which season you’re in, you start to see what’s moving around you, and within you.

Just as seasonal foods nourish the body differently throughout the year, each of the Five Seasons offers a unique way to understand your emotions, energy, body, and spirit. Each season also offers simple practices to nourish your energy and align you with the season, both around you and within you. Together, they create a gentle path toward physical, emotional, and spiritual balance.

The posts on The Five Seasons Life are already organized chronologically, so you can scroll through the archive and experience the teachings season by season.

This Qi Compass offers another way in. On this page, I have categorized the teachings by topic, so you have another simple way to find what your Qi may need today.

Use it as a simple guide. Choose a category based on what your body, mind, or spirit is asking for today, whether that is calming a busy mind, sleeping more deeply, easing stiffness, nourishing your energy, or simply reconnecting with yourself.

I hope it helps you find the practice, reflection, or teaching that meets you where you are.

Come back anytime. Your Qi may need something different each time.

Leda 💛

Leave a comment

Reader Favorites

A few popular starting places to explore the teachings, practices, and seasonal wisdom of The Five Seasons Life.

• The Year of the Fire Horse: A Year of Fierceness

• Overloaded Mind and Body?

• The Gentle Power of TaiChi Walking

• The Master Energy Point for Effortless Mobility at Any Age

• Whispers of Qi: MA (間): The Sacred Pause

• Five Fingers. Five Seasons. One Hand

• Achy Joints and a Stiff Body?

• Whispers of Qi: The Energy Behind Sweet Cravings

• Wings We Forgot We Had

• The Peaceful Sleep Energy Point

• Why Your Lower Back Needs More Than Stretching

• The Returning Dream: How Your Dreaming Spirit Speaks to You

🌿 New to the Five Seasons?

Begin here for the foundations of Qi, the Five Seasons, and how this work can support your daily life.

• A Warm Welcome to The Five Seasons Life

• Qi Moments: like brushing your teeth, but for your energy

• Five Fingers. Five Seasons. One Hand

• The Year of the Fire Horse: A Year of Fierceness

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🕊️ Calm Stress & Anxiety

Gentle practices and teachings to help settle your nervous system, gather scattered thoughts, and return to balance.

• Overloaded Mind and Body?

• Stuck in Fight-or-Flight? Try This.

• Turn Worry Into Calm 🔒

• The Ancient Remedy for a Scattered Mind

• Whispers of Qi: The Cost of Internal Pressure

• 🔒 An Evening Practice to Help the Nervous System Settle

• Whispers of Qi: Why Overthinking Steals Your Memory

• Whispers of Qi: When Worry Knots Your Stomach

• Invisible Weight: The Heaviness of Unspoken Emotion

• Feeling Stuck? The Simple Foot Point to Get Unstuck

  ---

🌀 Pain, Stiffness & Mobility

Simple ways to wake up the body, release held tension, and restore a more natural flow of movement.

• Wake Up Your Fascia

• Achy Joints and a Stiff Body?

• The Gentle Power of TaiChi Walking

• The Master Energy Point for Effortless Mobility at Any Age

• The Body’s Grounding Root: The Bubbling Well

• Why Your Lower Back Needs More Than Stretching

• What Frozen Shoulders Reveal About Your Energy

  ---

❤️ Heart & Relationships

For opening the heart, protecting your energy, and understanding the emotional wisdom of love and connection.

• The Bodyguard at the Gate of Your Heart

• Soothe Your Heart 🔒

• Sea of Tranquility Meditation🔒

• Whispers of Qi: The Ring Finger and the Language of the Heart

• Vulnerability, Protection, and the Energy of the Heart

• Whispers of Qi: The Tongue is the Sprout of the Heart

• Self-Doubt to Self-Worth: Activating the Lung Energy Circuit to Restore Your Worth

• Wings We Forgot We Had

  ---

🌙 Sleep, Rest & Restoration

Practices and reflections to help you slow down, rest more deeply, and replenish your inner reserves.

• Waking between 1-3am?

• MA(間) - The Sacred Pause 🔒

• On Slowing Time

• The Faster We Move, the Less We Live? 🔒

• 🔒 Peaceful Sleep Meditation

• The Peaceful Sleep Energy Point

• Tired All the Time (Even After Sleeping?)

• Preserving Jing and the Art of Slow Aging

• Whispers of Qi: MA (間): The Sacred Pause

  ---

🍲 Seasonal Food Medicine & Qi Kitchen

Seasonal recipes and food-as-medicine teachings to nourish digestion, immunity, energy, and emotional balance.

• The Gut-Season Connection

• Qi Kitchen: Best September Foods to Feel Grounded and Clear

• Whispers of Qi: The Energy Behind Sweet Cravings

• Qi Kitchen: The Top Healing Foods to Strengthen Your Body and Mind This Fall

• Qi Kitchen: The Magic Winter Bone Broth

• Qi Kitchen: Why Dandelion Is the Perfect Food for Spring Detox

• The Top Liver-Cleansing Foods for Spring 🔒

  ---

🌱 Dreams, Purpose & Personal Growth

Teachings to help you listen inward, reconnect with your vision, and strengthen your deeper sense of direction.

• How to Listen to Your Dreaming Spirit (Hun 魂)

• The Returning Dream: How Your Dreaming Spirit (Hun 魂) Speaks to You

• Whispers of Qi: The Energy of Opportunity

• The Energetic Block Behind Indecision

• The ZigZag Path of Courage

• The Inner Conditions That Attract Luck

• A Moonlit Ritual to Invite Abundance and Protection this Harvest Moon

• The Venus Point: A Celestial Secret on Your Foot

• Whispers of Qi: The Wind Behind the Eyes

  ---

📚 The Five Seasons Wisdom

Essays and reflections on Qi, time, emotion, nature, and the deeper philosophy behind the Five Seasons Method.

• Touching the Air 🔒

• Whispers of Qi: MA (間): The Sacred Pause

• On Slowing Time

• The Faster We Move, the Less We Live? 🔒

• Thirty Years of Tuesdays With Jim

• The Personalities of the Seasons

• 🔒 Navigating 2026: The Fire Horse and the Twelve Zodiac Signs

  ---

Continue with the book

If you love what I share here in The Five Seasons Life, my book, The Five Seasons Method, puts it all together in one place, a complete path you can hold in your hands.

Keep it by your bedside. Carry it when you travel. Return to it season after season, year after year, as your Qi asks for something new.

Inside are simple, practical Qi Moments you can weave into any day: energy point practices, meditation, breathwork, gentle touch, and a seasonal lifestyle guide.

Balance your energy. Balance your emotion. Balance your life. 💛

Preorder The Five Seasons Method → (Available August 4, 2026)

Have you ever wanted someone’s love, yet felt yourself flinch from it in the same breath?

You can be surrounded by love and still feel sealed off from it.

After heartbreak, betrayal, emotional shock, or a relationship where your trust or safety was hurt, the body may protect the heart as a survival response.

At first, this protection helps you get through the pain. But over time, what once shielded the heart can end up keeping love at a distance.

Before we ask the heart to open, it helps to soothe the part of us that has been protecting it.

Subscribe now

This is part of Listen to the Signs, a practical guide to the messages your body is sending you. Each guide explores one emotional, physical, or spiritual pattern, one Qi view, and one simple practice.

The Qi View

When the Heart Protector holds the gate closed long after the danger passes.

In Western anatomy, the pericardium is the protective sac around the heart. It helps hold the heart in place and cushions it as it moves.

In Chinese medicine, the Pericardium is more than that physical structure. It is part one of the four energy systems of the Fire element and is closely connected to summer, warmth, circulation, intimacy, and emotional connection.

I like to call it the Heart Protector. Its work is to help shield the Heart in moments of emotional intensity, shock, pain, or overwhelm.

When the Pericardium is balanced, guarding feels like a healthy boundary. You can stay connected while still feeling safe.

When the Pericardium has been working too hard, guarding becomes a habit in the body, and the gate may stay closed even when love or support is present.

When the Heart Protector receives warmth and care, the guard can begin to relax, and love has a way to reach the heart again.

The Qi Practice: Soothe the Heart through the Inner Gate Energy Point

Inner Gate energy point, also called Nei Guan / Pericardium 6, is a point on the inside of the wrist used to support the Heart Protector.

How to Practice

1. Find Inner Gate
Turn one palm upward. Place three fingers across the inside of your wrist, starting at the wrist crease. Just below your fingers, find the soft space between the two tendons. This is Inner Gate.

2. Warm your hands
Rub your palms together until they feel warm. Let the warmth gather in the center of your palms.

3. Wrap the wrist
Take your opposite hand and gently wrap it around the wrist. Let your palm rest over the Inner Gate area. Let your fingers curl softly around the outside of the wrist, as if you are offering comfort.

4. Let warmth enter
Stay here for a few slow breaths. Feel the warmth of your palm meeting the inside of your wrist. Let the wrist receive the warmth. Let the chest notice the support.

5. Silently say
In this moment, my heart can rest.

Then switch sides.

BONUS TIP:

A rose quartz bracelet can be a simple reminder to return to Inner Gate during the day. Wear it on your wrist, and each time you feel it, pause for one breath and say:

In this moment, my heart can rest.

Let the bracelet become a small reminder to soften around receiving, one qi moment at a time.

🔒 For paid subscribers

This week’s companion is a guided audio practice called Soothe Your Heart.

A gentle practice to soothe the heart-mind, calm emotional overprocessing, and restore a sense of warmth within.

Inspired by a Daoist teaching Fasting the Heart-Mind it offers warmth to the Heart Protector and invites the heart-mind to rest.

🎧 Listen here

Leda 💛

☀️ Practice with me: The Summer FIRE Series

The Pericardium is one of the four energy systems of summer’s Fire element.

If this practice spoke to you, the FIRE Summer Series is where we work with the Heart, Small Intestine, Pericardium, and Triple Warmer through gentle movement, energy points, meditation, and self-massage.

You can practice live with me or follow along with the recordings on your own schedule.

👉 Join QiFlow FIRE

Pre-Order The Five Seasons Method

In my book, I go deeper into the pericardium, the Heart’s protector, with stories and practices for this remarkable energy system, alongside the full landscape of the Five Elements and the seasons we flow through together.

Rooted in Taoist philosophy and the Chinese Five Element system, The Five Seasons Method reveals how nature’s changing cycles mirror our own rhythms of energy and emotion, and translates those ancient principles into practices for everyday life.

“Wise, inspiring, and comforting…” — Will Schwalbe, NYT Best Selling Author of The End of Your Life Book Club

👉 Pre-order your copy here

I was moving some books around this evening when an old Raymond Carver book fell off the shelf.

I came across his short stories back in the nineties and loved them. The book had been sitting on my shelf for years, untouched, until it landed at my feet today.

I sat down where I was and flipped through the pages, and I stayed there a while, reading one of his stories as the light faded.

A couple’s young son is hit by a car on his birthday and falls into a coma. The parents keep vigil at the hospital, day after day, listening to doctors offer reassurances that turn out to be empty.

I think it was the description of the way Carver wrote about that couple that got engrained in my memory. They went through their days in a kind of suspended disbelief. They go through the motion of their days but cannot fully absorb what is happening to them, even as it happens.

Then the boy dies.

But that is not where it ends.

The parents end up at a bakery, talking with the baker, a man who had been part of their days in a small way. He learns what happened. He sits them down and gives them warm rolls fresh from the oven.

He tells them that eating is a small, good thing in a time like this, and they stay with him through the night, talking, while the smell of bread fills the room.

A small, good thing.

That is what the warmth of that evening was.

The boy is still gone, but something in the parents’ hearts, frozen since the accident, begins to thaw with the warmth of the bread, the smell of the bakery and the kindness of the baker.

🌿 The Heart and Its Protector

In Chinese medicine, emotional numbness can be understood as the Heart Protector closing the gate to the Heart.

When something is too much or too painful to feel all at once, the Heart Protector steps forward. It shields the Heart from pain that would cut too deeply.

In classical Chinese medicine, the Heart is described as the emperor because it is considered the ruler of the body’s inner kingdom. It governs our emotional life, our sense of connection, and the warmth that allows us to feel joy, love, and meaning.

Like an emperor seated within a palace, the Heart is precious and protected. It is meant to remain luminous while other officials carry out the work of guarding the gates.

This is why the Heart has a protector, known in English as the pericardium. In Western anatomy, the pericardium is the membrane that surrounds the physical heart. In Chinese medicine, its role extends further. It is the bodyguard of the emperor, standing at the gate of the Heart.

When something happens that is too much for the Heart to bear, the Heart Protector steps forward and absorbs the blow so the emperor stays protected.

Emotional numbness is the Heart Protector closing the gate to the Heart.

It is a protective act.

The emotional numbness one feels is the bodyguard standing in front of a pain it has decided you are not ready to meet. The pericardium shields the Heart from a force that would cause too much pain, by putting up its shield and closing the gates to the heart.

The Heart Protectors gate is meant to open and close. It closes against attack, and when the danger passes, when there is safety, it opens again.

What the baker in that Raymond Carver story offered the couple was a kind of warmth that thawed the frozen gates of their pericardium. He gave the parents fresh warm bread and care, and their Heart Protector responded by opening its gate, allowing warmth to reach their hearts.

🌿 The Heart of the Palm Energy Point

There is an energy point at the very center of the palm that belongs to the pericardium energy system. Its name is Lao Gong (勞宮). Lao means labor or toil, and gong means palace, so the name is often translated as Palace of Toil.

I like to call it Heart of Your Palm.

This point helps calm emotional stress, ease anxiety, and settle an overwhelmed Heart. It is also a place where warmth, love, and connection can be felt most directly. When you rub your palms together, place one hand over your Heart, or take someone’s hand in yours, Lao Gong becomes a doorway for warmth to flow through.

When you take someone’s hand, Lao Gong meets Lao Gong, palm to palm. Through that single point, you are offering warmth and receiving it at the same time. It is one Heart Protector meeting another through the center of the hand.

The warmth you feel is a simple signal of safety. It tells the Heart Protector that it can soften its guard, open its gate, and allow the Heart to feel connection again.

🌿 Let’s Take a Qi Moment

Practice: Warming your Heart Protector

This practice can help when you feel emotionally numb, sealed off, or far from your own heart. You can also use it as regular care for your Heart Protector.

Like any faithful bodyguard, the Heart Protector can grow tired from standing watch. A simple practice with Lao Gong, the Heart of Your Palm, can help support it so it can keep doing its job well: helping you feel emotionally safe while making it easier to give and receive affection, warmth, and care.

This practice brings warmth to the pericardium and helps your Heart Protector feel nourished and strong.

You will need:
A smooth stone or crystal.

Practice

1. Warm the stone in sunlight or warm water. Make sure it feels comfortably warm in your hand.

2. Sit comfortably and take a slow breath.

3. Place the warm stone in the center of your palm, over Lao Gong, the Heart of Your Palm.

4. Cup your hand gently around it.

5. Breathe slowly and allow the warmth to sink into the center of your palm.

6. Let the warmth spread through your palm and into your hand.

7. Stay here for a few breaths.

8. As the warmth settles, offer your Heart Protector gratitude:

   Thank you for protecting me.

9. Take one more slow breath.

10. When you are ready, gently open your hand.

🔒 For paid subscribers

This week’s companion is a guided audio practice called Soothe Your Heart.

A gentle practice to soothe the heart-mind, calm emotional overprocessing, and restore a sense of warmth within.

Inspired by a Daoist teaching more than 2,000 years old, called Fasting the Heart-Mind, this practice offers warmth to the Heart Protector and invites the heart-mind to rest.

🎧 Listen here

🍵 Qi Wisdom

A held hand is a small, good thing.

Leda 💛

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☀️ Practice with me: The Summer FIRE Series

The Pericardium is one of the four energy systems of summer’s Fire element. If this practice spoke to you, the FIRE Summer Series is where we work with all four together.

Over eight weeks of live online practice, you will learn gentle flows, energy points, seasonally aligned meditations and self-massage to harmonize the Pericardium and the three other Fire energy systems: the Heart, the Small Intestine, and the Triple Warmer. You will move from scattered energy to steady vitality, from emotional reactivity to calm joy, from feeling sealed off to warmth and open connection. You will have access to the recordings, so you can practice live with me or follow along on your own schedule.

👉 Join QiFlow FIRE

Pre-Order The Five Seasons Method

In my book, I go deeper into the pericardium, the Heart’s protector, with stories and practices for this remarkable energy system, alongside the full landscape of the Five Elements and the seasons we flow through together.

Rooted in Taoist philosophy and the Chinese Five Element system, The Five Seasons Method reveals how nature’s changing cycles mirror our own rhythms of energy and emotion, and translates those ancient principles into practices for everyday life.

“Wise, inspiring, and comforting…” — Will Schwalbe, NYT Best Selling Author of The End of Your Life Book Club

👉 Pre-order your copy here