Jonathan Xue

Balance and energy:

it is often said that traditional Chinese medicine views the body as a microcosm of the universe. This means that as all of us observe the dualities and cycles of the universe, from night becoming day to the growth and decay that follows the changing of the seasons, the ancient Chinese saw the same natural cycles and flow of energy mirrored in our bodies. Traditional Chinese medicine views the body as an integrated whole, rather than as made up of individual parts that go wrong. Wellbeing is a state of balance with nature, while restoring balance in disease supports self-healing and relief of symptoms, whatever they may be. Over thousands of years of experience, this philosophy has yielded practical knowledge for healthy living, with lifestyle advice for almost every aspect and stage of life, and special techniques to help restore and maintain wellbeing including acupuncture, moxibustion, massage, and Qigong movements and meditation. The underlying guiding principle is to follow Dao, or “the way” of nature, and as is said in Western medicine, the original meaning of the word doctor is teacher.

Problems evolve over time:

disease exists in the past, present and future. For example, alcohol excess in the past may cause liver and gall bladder problems now, which left untreated affects the digestion going forward. Treatment should focus not only on the current disease process, but also remedy the precedents and pre-emptively treat connected systems.

Problems inhabit many spaces:

there are many reasons for discomfort and illness. Apart from the physical, these include emotions, diet and exercise, the environment and climate, and the social and spiritual. While physical disease may be the most obvious complaint, the problems in other spaces are just as important to one’s overall wellbeing. A maxim of traditional Chinese medicine is that to heal illness, one must first seek out the root problem. This root problem is often in a separate space from the physical or emotional presenting illness.