Today I want to talk about self care. I believe that many of you have done a lot of self care. Whether it’s going to a spa or having a girls’ night out. As long as you do things to take care of yourself, that’s good. But, there is more to it. 

In our treatment room, I talk a lot about the constitution of one’s self, and patterns. We can’t give ourselves any care without recognizing these two very important attributes of us.

The constitution of one’s self is a concept from traditional Chinese medicine. It can be interpreted as DNA in the body. It also has elements of temperament and characteristics. 

TCM likes to see a person in a very holistic way. The constitution is the foundation of a person’s health, personality, and illness composition. For example, if you are someone born with liver fire, you might be quick to react, easy to get angry, and might be prone to having inflammation in the gut, liver, and cardiovascular system.

Health and wellness in TCM is more than just not getting sick, but being in a balanced state of mind, body, and spirit. This requires us to dive deep into one’s self and be really honest to ourselves. 

In my clinical practice, I have seen so many women overwhelmed by work, life, and what is happening now in the world. All these distractions can lead us to over exhaustion of our energy, Qi. In a competitive world as we are in now, we focus on how much achievements we accumulate, but not on the Qi we reserve and build. 

The constitution of ourselves is our foundation of wellness and health, but the pattern that we put ourselves in also determines the pattern of sickness and wellness. When we look at today’s health care system, it focuses heavily on sick care. Being in a competitive world also makes the sickness even more embedded in our lives. 

Of course being competitive can definitely help us to achieve a lot of materialist rewards such as wealth, fame, and all the goods. But being competitive can often make us forget to truly nurture ourselves, and this can lead to a pattern of sickness.

Functional medicine has a strong philosophy in recognizing the patterns that make us sick. That’s why the Functional medicine life matrix is an important part of our practice. By listening to patients’ stories and concerns, we can paint a picture of what patients have gone through. Together we come up with a solution and a plan to correct the pattern of sickness, whether it’s food, toxin, stress management or lifestyle changes.

I really enjoy practicing Functional medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. The reason being that I can use the tools and philosophy in both medicine to help myself to become more conscious about my own health, and further help my patients to achieve their health goal and create a lifestyle that truly focuses on nurturing, and empowering them, and people around.