Where To Start: A Guide to TCM & Integrative Wellness
New to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) & Integrative wellness?
This short and simple guide will walk you through the foundational principles of TCM, key supplements and herbs to have on hand, simple movement practices, and how to align your health with the seasons.
Whether you’re just beginning or looking to deepen your understanding, this is your starting point for integrative wellness.
Understanding the Foundations of
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
The Language of Balance
Welcome to a new way of seeing your body, your health, and the world around you—through the lens of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
Here, wellness is not a fix, but a rhythm. Not a protocol, but a conversation between you and nature.
Whether you’re brand new or circling back to ancient ways, this page is your compass.
What Is Qi?
Qi (pronounced chee) is your life force—your energy, breath, vitality, and the thread that weaves all of your body systems together.
It moves your blood, warms your body, powers your thoughts, digests your food, and lifts your spirit.
In TCM, health is the free and balanced flow of Qi.
When Qi is blocked, deficient, or in excess, we feel it—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Think of Qi like a river: flowing clearly, it nourishes the land. But when dammed, dried up, or overflowing, imbalance begins.
Yin & Yang:
The Dynamic Dance
All of life expresses in complementary opposites: night and day, activity and rest, warmth and coolness, movement and stillness.
These are the energies of Yin and Yang.
Yin is cool, quiet, nourishing, reflective.
Yang is warm, active, expressive, creative.
You are both. Health is the harmonious interplay between Yin and Yang—not in perfect balance every moment, but in dynamic response to life, season, age, and need.
The Five Elements: Nature Within
Each organ system in TCM reflects one of the Five Elements—Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water. These are more than metaphors; they are energies that describe patterns in nature, personality, emotion, and physical health. Learning the Five Elements invites you to see your life through seasonal rhythms—both around you and within you.
Wood
Element: Wood
Season: Spring
Organs: Liver / Gallbladder
Emotion: Anger
Sound: Shouting
Color: Green
Direction/Movement: Upward / Outward
FIRE
Element: Fire
Season: Summer
Organs: Heart / Small Intestine
Emotion: Joy
Sound: Laughing
Color: Red
Direction/Movement: Expansive
earth
Element: Earth
Season: Late Summer
Organs: Spleen/Stomach
Emotion: Worry
Sound: Humming
Color: Yellow
Direction/Movement: Centering/Nourishing
Metal
Element: Metal
Season: Autumn
Organs: Lung/Large Intestine
Emotion: Grief
Sound: Groaning
Color: White
Direction/Movement: Contracting/Releasing
Water
Element: Water
Season: Winter
Organs: Kidney/Bladder
Emotion: Fear
Sound: Wailing
Color: Black
Direction/Movement: Deep/Conserving
More About the Organs & Patterns Soon!