Part of the wonder and magic of Chinese medicine is the use of “energetics” to describe diseases and treatments. To describe energy in a quantifiable way that can be communicated and taught, many traditional cultures discussed disease as if it was weather. To people living close to the earth, talking about a problem as “hot” or “cold” makes as much intuitive sense as talking about how a hot summer will wilt their crops, or too much rain would drown their seedlings. They were simply using what was around them to describe what was within them.

Just as there is good reason why almost every traditional culture from China to India to Greece (and thus Europe) developed such a system, there is just as good reason for us to learn how to think this way. Learning to think about disease and treatment in terms of energetics helps us better understand the body’s imbalances, and at the same time how to treat those imbalances holistically.

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