March 24, 2026 • 32 mins
In this episode, we’re looking at energy and why you can feel tired even when you’re getting enough rest.
We explore how fatigue isn’t always about needing more sleep. Sometimes it’s about how your energy is moving, or not moving, in the body, and learning how to better understand what your system actually needs.
In This Episode:
- Why you can feel tired even when you’re getting enough sleep
- A different way to understand energy and fatigue
- What it means when energy feels “stuck”
- How to tell if you need rest or movement
- The role of emotional and environmental factors in your energy
- Why noticing patterns matters more than assuming
- Understanding natural ebbs and flows in energy
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the
Tao of Humaning.
I'm your host, Dr.
Christine, and I'm so happy thatyou've joined us today.
In today's episode, we're goingto be talking about energy and
the reasons why we feel tiredmight surprise you.
We're going to be looking at whyrest is not always the answer
(00:25):
when we feel fatigued.
I don't know about you, but Iknow that sometimes I've gotten
caught in these loops of feelingfatigued, resting, and then
feeling like I'm never quitegetting enough.
Some of that, caveat, can belife, right?
(00:47):
Like we do go through seasons oflife where rest is a bit
elusive, right?
If you have children, you knowwhat I'm talking about.
Um, but even if you don't havechildren, there are times in
life when we just have a lotgoing on and a lot in our minds,
and rest is a little bit moreelusive, right?
Normal.
(01:08):
Normal humaning experience.
But what I want to focus ontoday is those times when we
feel like we are resting and weare not getting rested.
So what I mean by that is kindof that rabbit hole, not rabbit
(01:30):
hole, that cycle of sleeping,waking up, feeling kind of slow
to start, reaching for thecaffeine, and then throughout
the day not really feeling likewe have that get up and go and
(01:51):
sort of continually searchingfor like when can I get more
rest?
When can I take a nap?
I need to go to bed earlier,like rest, rest, rest, rest,
rest.
I need more rest, right?
Like we get um we can get alittle bit caught in those
cycles of not feeling restedwhen we're resting.
This can be so frustrating.
(02:13):
And I hear from patients all thetime, they're like, it just
doesn't make any sense.
Like I'm getting plenty of sleepand I'm still tired.
And I think a really importantthing that we don't talk about
enough is this idea thatsometimes we feel tired because
(02:35):
things are stuck.
And Chinese medicine is such abeautiful lens.
I will say that over and overagain.
I really do think it is.
Um, it's it looks at energy alittle bit differently.
So let's talk about it.
When I think about energy, um,in my world, we call that qi.
(02:57):
And qi can be thought of as yourlife force or your vitality,
basically how you're showing upfor life in any given day.
Okay.
Your qi um is a complex topic.
So I we're gonna distill kind ofuh um the pieces that are useful
(03:18):
for this conversation, okay.
So when I think about energy,I'm thinking about it in terms
of is there enough, right?
Is if there's a lack of energy,then we might need to add more
rest.
(03:38):
Okay.
If someone is feeling depleted,resting can be the right answer.
There's also situations wherethere can be too much energy,
and there's also situationswhere the energy can be stuck,
and especially this one offeeling stuck can also manifest
(04:00):
as feeling fatigued.
And it's not a fatigue ofneeding more quiet, more
meditation, more sleep, morequiescence.
It's a fatigue of needing tolike not being able to pivot
into those parts of ourselvesthat are more action-oriented.
(04:22):
So the stuckness is like theenergy wants to move and flow,
and there's something blockingthat.
Okay.
The way that I often describe qiand the flow in the body to
people is by using the metaphorof a garden hose.
It's a little oversimplified andalso kind of perfect.
(04:46):
So if we think about if you havea garden or you've, you know,
you know what a garden is,right?
Everybody knows what a gardenhose is.
If you imagine going out to thegarden with your garden hose and
you're going to water thegarden, right?
This is like the meridians inthe body that this energy flows
through.
So you go out to the garden,you're watering the garden, and
(05:08):
then all of a sudden you noticethat there's a kink in the hose.
Now, sometimes it can be a smallkink, and there's still like a
trickle of water coming out thehose.
In that case, there's still likea little bit of nourishment
energy flowing to the areas thatneed it, right?
Same in the body.
We can get these little kinks,like maybe a crook in our neck
(05:31):
or something, right?
And the energy isn't flowingquite as it should or as it
could through that area, andthat can cause a little bit of
tightness, discomfort, maybe alittle pain.
It talks to us, right?
Tells us, hey, there's somethinggoing on right here.
Okay.
If that kink in the hose islarger, then it completely stops
(05:52):
the flow of water.
Right.
So then now we have a situationwhere energy is not get or water
is not getting to the plantsthat we're wanting to nourish,
right?
And there's also a backup behindon the other side of that kink
in the hose where there's toomuch water.
Okay.
Similar action or mechanism inthe body.
(06:15):
There can be areas where there'snot enough, and then there can
be areas where there's a backlogor too much energy.
And oftentimes there's this kinkin the hose that if you can find
that kink and unkink it, whichis how I describe as like what
we're doing in acupuncture, um,then that that water, that
(06:39):
energy flow can be restored toits full optimal flow.
Okay.
So if we're thinking aboutenergy in our body, I guess
maybe it's a good time to saywhat can cause those kinks.
So in traditional Chinesemedicine, it's a little bit
different.
We look at physical causes ofdisease.
(07:02):
So if I get hit in the shoulderwith a baseball, I'm gonna have
a bruise, right?
Or something, it's gonna hurt.
That can cause a localized kinkin the area.
And then that can cause some ofthe upstream to upstream,
downstream manifestations ofthings, depending on what
(07:25):
channels are affected.
Also, we look at environmentalcauses of disease, which can be
a little bit more abstract forpeople who are new newer to this
way of thinking.
Um, but if you think aboutenvironmental things like heat
or cold, sometimes those are theeasiest to understand.
(07:48):
Because if you have cold, youunderstand if you've ever, you
know, most of us have been hotor cold.
If you if you have been cold,you know that it causes you to
constrict, right?
You constrict your body, you tryto warm up, right?
You try to restore balance sothat you're going more toward a
(08:12):
state of equilibrium, right?
Our bodies are designed to dothis, and that's also something
that I think we tend to forgetin modern day is that our bodies
want to be in balance.
And our body, when given theright circumstances, is gonna
(08:33):
try to move towards healing,right?
If you look at a simple thing oflike slicing your finger and you
have a cut, right, the bodyresponds immediately, right?
It doesn't look like it on theoutside because we can't see all
of the clotting factors andthings that are like gathering,
right?
And they're coming together andthey're like, all right, we have
a cut, let's go.
(08:53):
They start, they start thathealing process as soon as that
level of imbalance is presentedto the body, right?
So that eventually the skinheals and as much flow as is
possible as is restored, right?
Depending on the depth of thecut and the severity, we might
(09:14):
have a scar or something likethat, right?
Similar ideas when we look atthe causes of disease in Chinese
medicine or the cause of thesekinks that can make our energy
levels higher or lower, right?
If we're sticking to the topictoday, uh sort of mental
reminder to myself, don't go toooff track.
Um, but our body wants to be ina state of balance, our body
(09:37):
will move towards healing asbest it can.
And I think that is completelymiraculous and something that we
sometimes forget.
Also, I think it's important tonote that our bodies are not
intended to get to this place ofbalance and stay there.
(10:03):
Our human body, our experiencehere is dynamic and changing all
the time.
Sometimes little bits, sometimesbig bits.
Okay.
I don't, I can't think of anyonewho is like in this complete
state of equilibrium in all oftheir systems, right?
(10:24):
Which is why when people talkabout coming to acupuncture, I'm
like, well, everyone couldbenefit on some level, right?
Like there's gonna be somethingsomewhere that we could help
unkink or restore some balanceto.
Anyway, I digress a little bit.
If we're thinking of our energylevels and why we feel tired,
(10:45):
right, we have to firstunderstand why or what it is
that's normal, right?
We'll get there in just aminute.
But also what are the factorsthat are influencing our energy
level?
We can have a lot ofconversations about this.
But for today, I want tointroduce this idea of in
(11:06):
Chinese medicine, we look atthese kind of three areas,
right?
There's physical impacts,there's environmental impacts,
and that doesn't necessarilymean like smog levels or
exposure to toxins or thingslike that.
It can.
Um, but it can also just be toomuch hot, too much cold, too
(11:28):
much damp, too much wind.
Um, and then the third area thatwe look at is emotions.
So very much um Chinese medicinelooks at emotional wellness and
our mental health as equallypart of our well-being and
health as a physical trauma.
(11:49):
Okay.
I think that's significant tothink about because sometimes we
feel tired because we areemotionally exhausted, right?
And sometimes that can feel likea need for sleep.
I really want to invite you,listening today, to leave when
(12:10):
we leave this conversation to goand fine-tune your noticing
machine.
We're gonna turn up the volumeon our noticing.
And you want to see when it isthat you're feeling fatigued.
You want to look at the actualamount of rest that you're
(12:32):
getting.
Like, are you getting, you know,seven, eight hours of sleep a
night and still feeling tired?
Okay, that's information, right?
Doesn't mean that anything isterribly wrong.
It's data, right?
So really looking at fine-tuningthis noticing machine and
starting to play around withthese different ideas of okay,
(12:56):
maybe it's not a lack of rest,maybe it's a lack of movement,
maybe there's a kink in a hosesomewhere that could benefit
from being unblocked, right?
Acupuncture obviously is one waythat I'm a fan of, but honestly,
just standing up, if you noticethat you're tired, before you go
(13:19):
take a nap, you want to askyourself, am I really needing
rest?
And one way to test that wastaught to me by Kimberly Ann
Johnson.
And she does a lot of workaround uh nervous system,
particularly female nervoussystem, which we're gonna talk
about in the next episode.
(13:40):
Um for women especially, we canget stuck in freeze or you know,
stuck in too much rest.
And what she taught and I'veimplemented since taking her
course, which has been sohelpful, is when I feel tired
and I think, oh, I had a goodnight's sleep last night.
(14:00):
I'm not actually like it'sinteresting that I'm tired.
Maybe I well, first I check ifI've eaten because I tend to
forget to eat sometimes.
Especially if I'm excited andlike doing something, I just get
going.
Um, so first I check if I'veeaten.
Second, I will stand up and Iwill do nine body squats
(14:22):
wherever I am.
And then I check in with my bodyand my system, and I say, I look
for did that turn me online?
Like, did I go from like sleepy?
Oh, I should totally take a nap,to like, oh, okay, I feel pretty
good.
Or I feel better, right?
(14:43):
If it, if it pivoted me in thedirection of better, that's my
flag for myself of okay, I'm I'mnot needing more rest, I'm
needing more movement, right?
Sometimes the nine squats isenough to kind of turn me back
online, and then I can go aboutwhatever it was that I was
(15:04):
doing.
Sometimes it's an invitation formore.
And so if, you know, maybeyou've try that, and then you
might go for a walk after, belike, okay, this is my sign.
I really do actually needmovement.
So going for the walk aroundyour building at work, you know,
it doesn't have to be a longtime, it has to be movement and
(15:26):
activation.
Okay.
You can go do a big workoutlater, whatever.
It doesn't really matter, butthe check-in is the big part.
So not assuming when we feeltired and oh my gosh, I think I
need a nap, not necessarilyfollowing that blindly, right?
(15:46):
That's a great check-in forpeople.
And I think especially Chinesemedicine, it's like we always
look, you know, there's kind ofa saying if if I have three
people come in to see me forhypertension, for example, I may
do the evaluation and from aChinese medicine lens, give them
(16:11):
three different patterndiagnoses, meaning that I would
do different sets of points.
I would recommend differentherbs or nutritional supplements
for them.
Um, the way that I would suggestthat they go about healing and
working with this hypertensionproject in their body would be
(16:32):
different.
And that's a really unusual ordifferent way of looking at the
body for a Western mind.
And honestly, going throughschool and doing that training
that was probably the part thattook the longest was to really
look at everything is gonna be,everything could be a different
(16:55):
pattern, right?
We we could have a situationwhere there's a deficiency, we
could have a situation wherethere's too much energy in
different areas, and then wecould have a situation where
some things are stuck.
Clinically, sometimes you get amix of those patterns, right?
Um, but one way that we canstart to play with this is
through asking and looking inour day-to-day lives, you know,
(17:21):
where's my energy feeling today,right?
Every time you go see anacupuncturist, they're gonna ask
you, how is your energy great,feeling good?
Okay, how is it throughout theday?
Does it stay kind of the same?
Oh, okay, I get tired around,you know, three o'clock.
I feel a little lower energy.
I will usually dive into that alittle bit more to find out,
(17:45):
like, are they tired and likeexhausted and really having to
push through the rest of theday?
That gives me a different answerthan like, oh, I just feel a
little bit of a dip in myenergy, which is kind of normal
for that time of day.
Um yeah.
(18:06):
So going back to normal, let'spick up on that.
So, what is normal?
I say this with a little bit oftongue-in-cheek because normal,
in my view, can have a bit ofrange to it.
Um, in terms of our energythroughout the day, I think one
of the biggest things is thatyou want to feel rested when
(18:30):
you've been resting.
That's a great check-in.
I think normal is, you know,similar to like I tell parents
who have kids going intopreschool, right?
They're like, oh my god, my kidis sick.
Every, you know, two weeksthey've got a different like
sniffles, their nose is alwaysrunning, they're coughing,
(18:50):
they're, you know, fever, allthe things, right?
That's not, I mean, while it isunpleasant, it is not unhealthy
necessarily.
Kids need to be exposed todifferent things.
School is like the biggest onethat they encounter, all these
(19:11):
different microbiomes andthings.
Um, they're going to catchcolds, right?
That's, in my opinion, normal.
What we want to look at is theseverity of how frequently are
they, or no, sorry, how sick arethey getting?
How long is it staying there?
(19:31):
And is it fully resolving?
Sometimes kids will get thesecolds that just kind of linger
at a low level for months,right?
That's something that we couldhelp with.
We could work on that, right?
Ideally, you want to have ournoticing turned up to the level
where we notice when things aresmaller kinks in our hoses.
(19:56):
Okay.
We want to have those kinks beum less long.
That's not the right word.
We want them to be moreshort-lived, and we want them to
ideally self-resolve when theycan.
And what I mean by that isgenerally I want to have as
(20:17):
little intervention as ispossible.
Even when people come see me inclinic, a lot of a lot of times
I'll do um acupuncture on itsown for the first visit because
I want to see how their bodyresponds to that invitation for
balance or movement ornourishment on its own without
(20:37):
an added input, right?
Too many inputs.
We talk about this a lot.
Without the added inputs of likeherbs and supplements and you
know, da-da-da-da-da.
It's like I want to see kind ofthe lowest therapeutic dosage of
things.
That's how I work.
Um, I think knowing in terms ofnormal that there are natural
(20:59):
ebbs and flows to energy, eventhroughout the day for women,
especially cycling women, umshifts and ebbs and flows
throughout the month, reallynormal.
And learning what those are foryou and how to support your body
(21:21):
through those different ebbs andflows is one of my most favorite
things to talk about.
We'll do a conversation aboutthat here soon.
Um, but understanding their ebbsand flows.
If we look to nature, right, ifwe bring in our Taoist hats,
right, we're looking to nature.
There is nothing in nature thatis in constant bloom.
(21:46):
Anything that is blooming isgoing to go through periods of
quiescence and then slowinggrowth, right?
And then rapid growth and bloom.
And then the blooms start toquiet, and then it goes through
that cycle again, right?
(22:06):
We are also part of nature, andI think that we forget that
sometimes.
Like we want to distanceourselves somehow from our
humanness.
Um, but as humans, we are partof nature, and it's normal for
us to go through ebbs and flowsin life, right?
We're gonna have seasons wherewe have tons of energy and we're
(22:28):
doing all the things, and thenwe're gonna have times in our
life when we are moreinward-focused and more
quiescent, and those are notpathological, they're not,
there's nothing wrongnecessarily with that happening,
right?
Part of it is seeing and beingable to recognize what stage of
life we're in and then beingable to support ourselves in the
(22:53):
best way possible, right?
Yes.
All right.
So if you are noticing that youare resting and not feeling
rested, what my invitation foryou is, is to start looking at
is did you eat?
I invite you to take that also.
(23:13):
A lot of moms tend to do similarpatterns.
Um, have you eaten?
Have you nourished yourself?
And then try the movement andsee how that fits for you.
And then also, if you want alittle extra credit homework,
extra credit for yourself, um,looking at some other common
(23:34):
ways that we drain our energyand we sometimes overlook.
So having really permeableboundaries can be one way in
Chinese medicine that we look atbeing able to hold our energy.
And I don't mean boundaries in asense of like protection or like
(23:55):
that's another conversation too,but I mean boundaries in the
sense of, you know, are youholding space for your rest
time?
Are you, you know, keepingpeople in your life that you
feel inspired by, right?
(24:17):
Boundaries in the sense of whatyou are taking in for
information through youreyeballs and your ears.
Um, a lot, I have a lot ofconversations with patients
about the news and aboutscrolling and about having some
(24:37):
kind of intentionality with ourmedia.
And I think for everyone, it'sgoing to be a little bit
different in terms of what feelsnourishing and supportive, and
what feels like too much.
And I think, you know, socialmedia and things is it's part of
(24:58):
our modern world.
I don't think necessarily thatwe're meant to like go live on a
mountaintop and meditate allday, although that does sound
lovely at times.
I think that we're meant to behere in this world and engaging
in life and being intentionalabout how we're doing that and
(25:22):
making sure that we're balancingout things that maybe are hard
with things that are nourishingand inspiring.
For example, social media, thereare some incredible creators out
there who are putting beautifulcontent out into the world.
(25:43):
Are you finding those people?
Right?
Are you sprinkling that intoyour feed or are you sitting and
doom scrolling?
I talk to my patients goingthrough um IVF a lot about
Googling.
And, you know, it it's a balancebetween wanting to find answers.
(26:04):
We have this amazing resource atour fingertips of being able to
look things up, right?
And being able to hear otherpeople's stories who have gone
through similar things to us.
Like that's amazing, right?
But you need to understand whereyour energy is at on a given day
(26:25):
and what's going to besupportive of that, right?
If you're using the IVF example,if you're really in the thick of
it and you've had failed IVFsand you're on your, you know, or
God forbid you've had losses inyour pregnancy journey, and
you're now pregnant, right?
(26:46):
And now you're like happy andexcited, but you're also
terrified that it's gonna happenagain and it's not gonna work
out, and all you want is tobring this baby home, and you're
like just feeling really tenderand in it.
Going sometimes to informationalforums and hearing other
people's stories sets us up sothat we are gonna unknowingly or
(27:11):
unpreparedly, unexpectedly hearsomeone's story that's gonna
keep us in that fear place thatwe're already kind of teetering
on, right?
Not that I think sitting withthe fear is bad.
I actually think it giving it avoice can be really healthy and
beneficial, but with the rightparameters, with those
(27:37):
boundaries, right?
So knowing like some days you'regonna feel fantastic and be
like, yes, let's go look at allof the things and gather the
information and you know, talkto people about what happened
with them and you feel good.
That's the time to go do that,right?
There's gonna be other dayswhere the better choice is to
put your phone away.
(27:59):
Or what I say is Google in theright direction.
So look for success if that'swhat you're needing.
Be intentional about how you'reasking your questions in
whatever search engine you'reusing or asking chat now, it's
like a whole other thing.
Um, but being mindful of youknow, what are you taking in for
(28:22):
information?
And then looking to make sureoverthinking in Chinese medicine
is a really uh common and oftenoverlooked way that we deplete
our energy.
So ruminating, thinking aboutthings, thinking about things,
thinking about things.
Um one teacher was helping mework on this at one point, and
(28:47):
he suggested that I I was wakingup and I was getting all of it,
I was having a hard time goingback to sleep, and I was just
thinking, thinking, thinking,thinking.
And he was like, okay, that'snot necessarily bad, but
something's trying to like getout.
So give it away out.
And the way that I did that wasto write it down in a journal or
(29:10):
notebook or whatever, physicallyget up, write it down, and then
close that notebook and then putit in the drawer and then go
back to sleep.
So I made a very dedicated like,okay, this is your time.
Get out all the dots, whatevertime it is, and then I close it,
go back to bed, right?
Watching for the overthinking isa really way, really practical,
(29:34):
easy way, actually, that we canhelp support our energy levels.
And um what was the other thingI was gonna say?
Looking at common energy drains,overthinking, context switching.
That's another one that isreally common to see nowadays,
(29:56):
especially.
We've got, you know, our phonesopen and our computers open, and
we're talking with someone inthe room, and we're watching the
kids in the background, youknow, there's multiple things
going on.
And sometimes that's life, andsometimes there's some control
there.
So when there is choice in thosemoments, focusing in on like,
(30:18):
okay, I'm just gonna finish myphone activities and then I'm
gonna switch gears and like goplay with the kids with no
devices, and then I'm gonna comeback and finish up work, right?
Being mindful of when we'reswitching gears really fast,
because that is really tiring toa lot of our systems, actually.
I think the biggest things thatI wanted to share today, I have
(30:42):
shared, but I I want to reallyreiterate this idea that resting
is a verb, and sometimes it isnecessary to block out time or
prioritize rest over, you know,doing the dishes or you know,
something else.
(31:02):
We need to actually pull thatrest time from something else in
our schedules, but resting isreally important.
If you are noticing that you areresting and still not feeling
rested, that's when you want tostart looking in these other
areas.
And the the squats, the bodysquats one really has just been
(31:25):
so awesome.
I feel like I have a lot betterum barometer, barometer of um
how my what my energy needs arein that moment.
And I can do it fast and thenhave immediate information of
like, okay, yeah, no, I justneeded some movement.
(31:46):
I'm good.
Keep going, do the things, gorest, make resting one of the
things.
If I were to have one wish, itwould be for all of you to have
rest as one of your things, andalso know that movement is
equally important.
And we're gonna talk about thatin our next episode.
(32:06):
Um, but for today, if anythinghas resonated with you, I would
love to hear in the comments.
And if you have questions, alsoput them there.
I will see them.
And yeah, just work on playingwith your noticing machines and
(32:27):
that developing that skill oflistening to your body and
seeing, you know, what stage ofblooming are we in?
Is this a quieter time and itjust needs to be a little
quieter?
Do I need a little bit more ofsomething?
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the
Tao of Humaning.
I'm your host, Dr.
Christine, and I'm so happy thatyou've joined us today.
In today's episode, we're goingto be talking about energy and
the reasons why we feel tiredmight surprise you.
We're going to be looking at whyrest is not always the answer
(00:25):
when we feel fatigued.
I don't know about you, but Iknow that sometimes I've gotten
caught in these loops of feelingfatigued, resting, and then
feeling like I'm never quitegetting enough.
Some of that, caveat, can belife, right?
(00:47):
Like we do go through seasons oflife where rest is a bit
elusive, right?
If you have children, you knowwhat I'm talking about.
Um, but even if you don't havechildren, there are times in
life when we just have a lotgoing on and a lot in our minds,
and rest is a little bit moreelusive, right?
Normal.
(01:08):
Normal humaning experience.
But what I want to focus ontoday is those times when we
feel like we are resting and weare not getting rested.
So what I mean by that is kindof that rabbit hole, not rabbit
(01:30):
hole, that cycle of sleeping,waking up, feeling kind of slow
to start, reaching for thecaffeine, and then throughout
the day not really feeling likewe have that get up and go and
(01:51):
sort of continually searchingfor like when can I get more
rest?
When can I take a nap?
I need to go to bed earlier,like rest, rest, rest, rest,
rest.
I need more rest, right?
Like we get um we can get alittle bit caught in those
cycles of not feeling restedwhen we're resting.
This can be so frustrating.
(02:13):
And I hear from patients all thetime, they're like, it just
doesn't make any sense.
Like I'm getting plenty of sleepand I'm still tired.
And I think a really importantthing that we don't talk about
enough is this idea thatsometimes we feel tired because
(02:35):
things are stuck.
And Chinese medicine is such abeautiful lens.
I will say that over and overagain.
I really do think it is.
Um, it's it looks at energy alittle bit differently.
So let's talk about it.
When I think about energy, um,in my world, we call that qi.
(02:57):
And qi can be thought of as yourlife force or your vitality,
basically how you're showing upfor life in any given day.
Okay.
Your qi um is a complex topic.
So I we're gonna distill kind ofuh um the pieces that are useful
(03:18):
for this conversation, okay.
So when I think about energy,I'm thinking about it in terms
of is there enough, right?
Is if there's a lack of energy,then we might need to add more
rest.
(03:38):
Okay.
If someone is feeling depleted,resting can be the right answer.
There's also situations wherethere can be too much energy,
and there's also situationswhere the energy can be stuck,
and especially this one offeeling stuck can also manifest
(04:00):
as feeling fatigued.
And it's not a fatigue ofneeding more quiet, more
meditation, more sleep, morequiescence.
It's a fatigue of needing tolike not being able to pivot
into those parts of ourselvesthat are more action-oriented.
(04:22):
So the stuckness is like theenergy wants to move and flow,
and there's something blockingthat.
Okay.
The way that I often describe qiand the flow in the body to
people is by using the metaphorof a garden hose.
It's a little oversimplified andalso kind of perfect.
(04:46):
So if we think about if you havea garden or you've, you know,
you know what a garden is,right?
Everybody knows what a gardenhose is.
If you imagine going out to thegarden with your garden hose and
you're going to water thegarden, right?
This is like the meridians inthe body that this energy flows
through.
So you go out to the garden,you're watering the garden, and
(05:08):
then all of a sudden you noticethat there's a kink in the hose.
Now, sometimes it can be a smallkink, and there's still like a
trickle of water coming out thehose.
In that case, there's still likea little bit of nourishment
energy flowing to the areas thatneed it, right?
Same in the body.
We can get these little kinks,like maybe a crook in our neck
(05:31):
or something, right?
And the energy isn't flowingquite as it should or as it
could through that area, andthat can cause a little bit of
tightness, discomfort, maybe alittle pain.
It talks to us, right?
Tells us, hey, there's somethinggoing on right here.
Okay.
If that kink in the hose islarger, then it completely stops
(05:52):
the flow of water.
Right.
So then now we have a situationwhere energy is not get or water
is not getting to the plantsthat we're wanting to nourish,
right?
And there's also a backup behindon the other side of that kink
in the hose where there's toomuch water.
Okay.
Similar action or mechanism inthe body.
(06:15):
There can be areas where there'snot enough, and then there can
be areas where there's a backlogor too much energy.
And oftentimes there's this kinkin the hose that if you can find
that kink and unkink it, whichis how I describe as like what
we're doing in acupuncture, um,then that that water, that
(06:39):
energy flow can be restored toits full optimal flow.
Okay.
So if we're thinking aboutenergy in our body, I guess
maybe it's a good time to saywhat can cause those kinks.
So in traditional Chinesemedicine, it's a little bit
different.
We look at physical causes ofdisease.
(07:02):
So if I get hit in the shoulderwith a baseball, I'm gonna have
a bruise, right?
Or something, it's gonna hurt.
That can cause a localized kinkin the area.
And then that can cause some ofthe upstream to upstream,
downstream manifestations ofthings, depending on what
(07:25):
channels are affected.
Also, we look at environmentalcauses of disease, which can be
a little bit more abstract forpeople who are new newer to this
way of thinking.
Um, but if you think aboutenvironmental things like heat
or cold, sometimes those are theeasiest to understand.
(07:48):
Because if you have cold, youunderstand if you've ever, you
know, most of us have been hotor cold.
If you if you have been cold,you know that it causes you to
constrict, right?
You constrict your body, you tryto warm up, right?
You try to restore balance sothat you're going more toward a
(08:12):
state of equilibrium, right?
Our bodies are designed to dothis, and that's also something
that I think we tend to forgetin modern day is that our bodies
want to be in balance.
And our body, when given theright circumstances, is gonna
(08:33):
try to move towards healing,right?
If you look at a simple thing oflike slicing your finger and you
have a cut, right, the bodyresponds immediately, right?
It doesn't look like it on theoutside because we can't see all
of the clotting factors andthings that are like gathering,
right?
And they're coming together andthey're like, all right, we have
a cut, let's go.
(08:53):
They start, they start thathealing process as soon as that
level of imbalance is presentedto the body, right?
So that eventually the skinheals and as much flow as is
possible as is restored, right?
Depending on the depth of thecut and the severity, we might
(09:14):
have a scar or something likethat, right?
Similar ideas when we look atthe causes of disease in Chinese
medicine or the cause of thesekinks that can make our energy
levels higher or lower, right?
If we're sticking to the topictoday, uh sort of mental
reminder to myself, don't go toooff track.
Um, but our body wants to be ina state of balance, our body
(09:37):
will move towards healing asbest it can.
And I think that is completelymiraculous and something that we
sometimes forget.
Also, I think it's important tonote that our bodies are not
intended to get to this place ofbalance and stay there.
(10:03):
Our human body, our experiencehere is dynamic and changing all
the time.
Sometimes little bits, sometimesbig bits.
Okay.
I don't, I can't think of anyonewho is like in this complete
state of equilibrium in all oftheir systems, right?
(10:24):
Which is why when people talkabout coming to acupuncture, I'm
like, well, everyone couldbenefit on some level, right?
Like there's gonna be somethingsomewhere that we could help
unkink or restore some balanceto.
Anyway, I digress a little bit.
If we're thinking of our energylevels and why we feel tired,
(10:45):
right, we have to firstunderstand why or what it is
that's normal, right?
We'll get there in just aminute.
But also what are the factorsthat are influencing our energy
level?
We can have a lot ofconversations about this.
But for today, I want tointroduce this idea of in
(11:06):
Chinese medicine, we look atthese kind of three areas,
right?
There's physical impacts,there's environmental impacts,
and that doesn't necessarilymean like smog levels or
exposure to toxins or thingslike that.
It can.
Um, but it can also just be toomuch hot, too much cold, too
(11:28):
much damp, too much wind.
Um, and then the third area thatwe look at is emotions.
So very much um Chinese medicinelooks at emotional wellness and
our mental health as equallypart of our well-being and
health as a physical trauma.
(11:49):
Okay.
I think that's significant tothink about because sometimes we
feel tired because we areemotionally exhausted, right?
And sometimes that can feel likea need for sleep.
I really want to invite you,listening today, to leave when
(12:10):
we leave this conversation to goand fine-tune your noticing
machine.
We're gonna turn up the volumeon our noticing.
And you want to see when it isthat you're feeling fatigued.
You want to look at the actualamount of rest that you're
(12:32):
getting.
Like, are you getting, you know,seven, eight hours of sleep a
night and still feeling tired?
Okay, that's information, right?
Doesn't mean that anything isterribly wrong.
It's data, right?
So really looking at fine-tuningthis noticing machine and
starting to play around withthese different ideas of okay,
(12:56):
maybe it's not a lack of rest,maybe it's a lack of movement,
maybe there's a kink in a hosesomewhere that could benefit
from being unblocked, right?
Acupuncture obviously is one waythat I'm a fan of, but honestly,
just standing up, if you noticethat you're tired, before you go
(13:19):
take a nap, you want to askyourself, am I really needing
rest?
And one way to test that wastaught to me by Kimberly Ann
Johnson.
And she does a lot of workaround uh nervous system,
particularly female nervoussystem, which we're gonna talk
about in the next episode.
(13:40):
Um for women especially, we canget stuck in freeze or you know,
stuck in too much rest.
And what she taught and I'veimplemented since taking her
course, which has been sohelpful, is when I feel tired
and I think, oh, I had a goodnight's sleep last night.
(14:00):
I'm not actually like it'sinteresting that I'm tired.
Maybe I well, first I check ifI've eaten because I tend to
forget to eat sometimes.
Especially if I'm excited andlike doing something, I just get
going.
Um, so first I check if I'veeaten.
Second, I will stand up and Iwill do nine body squats
(14:22):
wherever I am.
And then I check in with my bodyand my system, and I say, I look
for did that turn me online?
Like, did I go from like sleepy?
Oh, I should totally take a nap,to like, oh, okay, I feel pretty
good.
Or I feel better, right?
(14:43):
If it, if it pivoted me in thedirection of better, that's my
flag for myself of okay, I'm I'mnot needing more rest, I'm
needing more movement, right?
Sometimes the nine squats isenough to kind of turn me back
online, and then I can go aboutwhatever it was that I was
(15:04):
doing.
Sometimes it's an invitation formore.
And so if, you know, maybeyou've try that, and then you
might go for a walk after, belike, okay, this is my sign.
I really do actually needmovement.
So going for the walk aroundyour building at work, you know,
it doesn't have to be a longtime, it has to be movement and
(15:26):
activation.
Okay.
You can go do a big workoutlater, whatever.
It doesn't really matter, butthe check-in is the big part.
So not assuming when we feeltired and oh my gosh, I think I
need a nap, not necessarilyfollowing that blindly, right?
(15:46):
That's a great check-in forpeople.
And I think especially Chinesemedicine, it's like we always
look, you know, there's kind ofa saying if if I have three
people come in to see me forhypertension, for example, I may
do the evaluation and from aChinese medicine lens, give them
(16:11):
three different patterndiagnoses, meaning that I would
do different sets of points.
I would recommend differentherbs or nutritional supplements
for them.
Um, the way that I would suggestthat they go about healing and
working with this hypertensionproject in their body would be
(16:32):
different.
And that's a really unusual ordifferent way of looking at the
body for a Western mind.
And honestly, going throughschool and doing that training
that was probably the part thattook the longest was to really
look at everything is gonna be,everything could be a different
(16:55):
pattern, right?
We we could have a situationwhere there's a deficiency, we
could have a situation wherethere's too much energy in
different areas, and then wecould have a situation where
some things are stuck.
Clinically, sometimes you get amix of those patterns, right?
Um, but one way that we canstart to play with this is
through asking and looking inour day-to-day lives, you know,
(17:21):
where's my energy feeling today,right?
Every time you go see anacupuncturist, they're gonna ask
you, how is your energy great,feeling good?
Okay, how is it throughout theday?
Does it stay kind of the same?
Oh, okay, I get tired around,you know, three o'clock.
I feel a little lower energy.
I will usually dive into that alittle bit more to find out,
(17:45):
like, are they tired and likeexhausted and really having to
push through the rest of theday?
That gives me a different answerthan like, oh, I just feel a
little bit of a dip in myenergy, which is kind of normal
for that time of day.
Um yeah.
(18:06):
So going back to normal, let'spick up on that.
So, what is normal?
I say this with a little bit oftongue-in-cheek because normal,
in my view, can have a bit ofrange to it.
Um, in terms of our energythroughout the day, I think one
of the biggest things is thatyou want to feel rested when
(18:30):
you've been resting.
That's a great check-in.
I think normal is, you know,similar to like I tell parents
who have kids going intopreschool, right?
They're like, oh my god, my kidis sick.
Every, you know, two weeksthey've got a different like
sniffles, their nose is alwaysrunning, they're coughing,
(18:50):
they're, you know, fever, allthe things, right?
That's not, I mean, while it isunpleasant, it is not unhealthy
necessarily.
Kids need to be exposed todifferent things.
School is like the biggest onethat they encounter, all these
(19:11):
different microbiomes andthings.
Um, they're going to catchcolds, right?
That's, in my opinion, normal.
What we want to look at is theseverity of how frequently are
they, or no, sorry, how sick arethey getting?
How long is it staying there?
(19:31):
And is it fully resolving?
Sometimes kids will get thesecolds that just kind of linger
at a low level for months,right?
That's something that we couldhelp with.
We could work on that, right?
Ideally, you want to have ournoticing turned up to the level
where we notice when things aresmaller kinks in our hoses.
(19:56):
Okay.
We want to have those kinks beum less long.
That's not the right word.
We want them to be moreshort-lived, and we want them to
ideally self-resolve when theycan.
And what I mean by that isgenerally I want to have as
(20:17):
little intervention as ispossible.
Even when people come see me inclinic, a lot of a lot of times
I'll do um acupuncture on itsown for the first visit because
I want to see how their bodyresponds to that invitation for
balance or movement ornourishment on its own without
(20:37):
an added input, right?
Too many inputs.
We talk about this a lot.
Without the added inputs of likeherbs and supplements and you
know, da-da-da-da-da.
It's like I want to see kind ofthe lowest therapeutic dosage of
things.
That's how I work.
Um, I think knowing in terms ofnormal that there are natural
(20:59):
ebbs and flows to energy, eventhroughout the day for women,
especially cycling women, umshifts and ebbs and flows
throughout the month, reallynormal.
And learning what those are foryou and how to support your body
(21:21):
through those different ebbs andflows is one of my most favorite
things to talk about.
We'll do a conversation aboutthat here soon.
Um, but understanding their ebbsand flows.
If we look to nature, right, ifwe bring in our Taoist hats,
right, we're looking to nature.
There is nothing in nature thatis in constant bloom.
(21:46):
Anything that is blooming isgoing to go through periods of
quiescence and then slowinggrowth, right?
And then rapid growth and bloom.
And then the blooms start toquiet, and then it goes through
that cycle again, right?
(22:06):
We are also part of nature, andI think that we forget that
sometimes.
Like we want to distanceourselves somehow from our
humanness.
Um, but as humans, we are partof nature, and it's normal for
us to go through ebbs and flowsin life, right?
We're gonna have seasons wherewe have tons of energy and we're
(22:28):
doing all the things, and thenwe're gonna have times in our
life when we are moreinward-focused and more
quiescent, and those are notpathological, they're not,
there's nothing wrongnecessarily with that happening,
right?
Part of it is seeing and beingable to recognize what stage of
life we're in and then beingable to support ourselves in the
(22:53):
best way possible, right?
Yes.
All right.
So if you are noticing that youare resting and not feeling
rested, what my invitation foryou is, is to start looking at
is did you eat?
I invite you to take that also.
(23:13):
A lot of moms tend to do similarpatterns.
Um, have you eaten?
Have you nourished yourself?
And then try the movement andsee how that fits for you.
And then also, if you want alittle extra credit homework,
extra credit for yourself, um,looking at some other common
(23:34):
ways that we drain our energyand we sometimes overlook.
So having really permeableboundaries can be one way in
Chinese medicine that we look atbeing able to hold our energy.
And I don't mean boundaries in asense of like protection or like
(23:55):
that's another conversation too,but I mean boundaries in the
sense of, you know, are youholding space for your rest
time?
Are you, you know, keepingpeople in your life that you
feel inspired by, right?
(24:17):
Boundaries in the sense of whatyou are taking in for
information through youreyeballs and your ears.
Um, a lot, I have a lot ofconversations with patients
about the news and aboutscrolling and about having some
(24:37):
kind of intentionality with ourmedia.
And I think for everyone, it'sgoing to be a little bit
different in terms of what feelsnourishing and supportive, and
what feels like too much.
And I think, you know, socialmedia and things is it's part of
(24:58):
our modern world.
I don't think necessarily thatwe're meant to like go live on a
mountaintop and meditate allday, although that does sound
lovely at times.
I think that we're meant to behere in this world and engaging
in life and being intentionalabout how we're doing that and
(25:22):
making sure that we're balancingout things that maybe are hard
with things that are nourishingand inspiring.
For example, social media, thereare some incredible creators out
there who are putting beautifulcontent out into the world.
(25:43):
Are you finding those people?
Right?
Are you sprinkling that intoyour feed or are you sitting and
doom scrolling?
I talk to my patients goingthrough um IVF a lot about
Googling.
And, you know, it it's a balancebetween wanting to find answers.
(26:04):
We have this amazing resource atour fingertips of being able to
look things up, right?
And being able to hear otherpeople's stories who have gone
through similar things to us.
Like that's amazing, right?
But you need to understand whereyour energy is at on a given day
(26:25):
and what's going to besupportive of that, right?
If you're using the IVF example,if you're really in the thick of
it and you've had failed IVFsand you're on your, you know, or
God forbid you've had losses inyour pregnancy journey, and
you're now pregnant, right?
(26:46):
And now you're like happy andexcited, but you're also
terrified that it's gonna happenagain and it's not gonna work
out, and all you want is tobring this baby home, and you're
like just feeling really tenderand in it.
Going sometimes to informationalforums and hearing other
people's stories sets us up sothat we are gonna unknowingly or
(27:11):
unpreparedly, unexpectedly hearsomeone's story that's gonna
keep us in that fear place thatwe're already kind of teetering
on, right?
Not that I think sitting withthe fear is bad.
I actually think it giving it avoice can be really healthy and
beneficial, but with the rightparameters, with those
(27:37):
boundaries, right?
So knowing like some days you'regonna feel fantastic and be
like, yes, let's go look at allof the things and gather the
information and you know, talkto people about what happened
with them and you feel good.
That's the time to go do that,right?
There's gonna be other dayswhere the better choice is to
put your phone away.
(27:59):
Or what I say is Google in theright direction.
So look for success if that'swhat you're needing.
Be intentional about how you'reasking your questions in
whatever search engine you'reusing or asking chat now, it's
like a whole other thing.
Um, but being mindful of youknow, what are you taking in for
(28:22):
information?
And then looking to make sureoverthinking in Chinese medicine
is a really uh common and oftenoverlooked way that we deplete
our energy.
So ruminating, thinking aboutthings, thinking about things,
thinking about things.
Um one teacher was helping mework on this at one point, and
(28:47):
he suggested that I I was wakingup and I was getting all of it,
I was having a hard time goingback to sleep, and I was just
thinking, thinking, thinking,thinking.
And he was like, okay, that'snot necessarily bad, but
something's trying to like getout.
So give it away out.
And the way that I did that wasto write it down in a journal or
(29:10):
notebook or whatever, physicallyget up, write it down, and then
close that notebook and then putit in the drawer and then go
back to sleep.
So I made a very dedicated like,okay, this is your time.
Get out all the dots, whatevertime it is, and then I close it,
go back to bed, right?
Watching for the overthinking isa really way, really practical,
(29:34):
easy way, actually, that we canhelp support our energy levels.
And um what was the other thingI was gonna say?
Looking at common energy drains,overthinking, context switching.
That's another one that isreally common to see nowadays,
(29:56):
especially.
We've got, you know, our phonesopen and our computers open, and
we're talking with someone inthe room, and we're watching the
kids in the background, youknow, there's multiple things
going on.
And sometimes that's life, andsometimes there's some control
there.
So when there is choice in thosemoments, focusing in on like,
(30:18):
okay, I'm just gonna finish myphone activities and then I'm
gonna switch gears and like goplay with the kids with no
devices, and then I'm gonna comeback and finish up work, right?
Being mindful of when we'reswitching gears really fast,
because that is really tiring toa lot of our systems, actually.
I think the biggest things thatI wanted to share today, I have
(30:42):
shared, but I I want to reallyreiterate this idea that resting
is a verb, and sometimes it isnecessary to block out time or
prioritize rest over, you know,doing the dishes or you know,
something else.
(31:02):
We need to actually pull thatrest time from something else in
our schedules, but resting isreally important.
If you are noticing that you areresting and still not feeling
rested, that's when you want tostart looking in these other
areas.
And the the squats, the bodysquats one really has just been
(31:25):
so awesome.
I feel like I have a lot betterum barometer, barometer of um
how my what my energy needs arein that moment.
And I can do it fast and thenhave immediate information of
like, okay, yeah, no, I justneeded some movement.
(31:46):
I'm good.
Keep going, do the things, gorest, make resting one of the
things.
If I were to have one wish, itwould be for all of you to have
rest as one of your things, andalso know that movement is
equally important.
And we're gonna talk about thatin our next episode.
(32:06):
Um, but for today, if anythinghas resonated with you, I would
love to hear in the comments.
And if you have questions, alsoput them there.
I will see them.
And yeah, just work on playingwith your noticing machines and
(32:27):
that developing that skill oflistening to your body and
seeing, you know, what stage ofblooming are we in?
Is this a quieter time and itjust needs to be a little
quieter?
Do I need a little bit more ofsomething?
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