I’ve been treating people for only 17 years, but in that small period of time there has been a change in the prevalence of certain problems. Every year, I see more people with anxiety, depression, poor mental focus, and difficulty sleeping. It’s possible that the…
Since at least several hundred years B.C., people in Greece, India, China, and elsewhere have used a technique of applying friction to the skin in order to resolve pain and treat deeper medical disorders, and it’s recently attracted the attention of mainstream medicine. The Greeks…
It fills me with gratitude to realize that this July marks 13 years that we’ve been relaxing, healing, and uplifting people at The Dragontree. Anniversaries are a thing I’ve given increasing attention to in the last decade or so – and not just because I’ve…
Yesterday was the 4th of July, which, for those of you who aren’t from the U.S., was the day we declared our independence from England 240 years ago. Our Declaration of Independence is one of those historical documents you learn about repeatedly in school but…
Statistics show that women go to the doctor, the spa, and partake in self-care activities more than men do. For their part, men are better at dying young than women. I’m not saying there’s any connection, but I think it’s important that men care for…
For anyone who’s been reading my cleansing series (you can find the first five articles on our site), sorry for leaving you hanging without this final article. The good news is: I’ve been on vacation. You may wish to do a brief happy dance on…
We’ve been covering cleansing over the past few weeks. Our discussion started with guidelines for when cleansing is and isn’t appropriate, and from there we moved on to stronger and milder ways to encourage detoxification and decongestion of the body (There are links to the…
Over the past few weeks, I’ve written on the very popular, sometimes faddish topic of cleansing and when it is and isn’t appropriate. We’ve looked at fasting, sweating, and skin brushing as means of stimulating detoxification. This week, I’m going to cover some dietary interventions…
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been writing about the practice of cleansing, what benefits it might have and when it might be appropriate. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurvedic medicine see patterns of human health as being closely tied to the fluctuations of the…
Last week, I wrote about “cleansing” and who it might be appropriate for. We established that it’s often difficult to know whether your symptoms are the result of depletion (being worn out or deficient in some manner) or accumulation (carrying around something “extra” – infection,…
Hi there! We’re so excited that you’re going to be joining us for 9-weeks of strategic and heart centered action to create a meaningful life. For years, people have been asking us how we do it. Starting in our 20s, we launched several…
As our world sheds the chill of winter, your pets shed their fur all over your clothes and furniture, and you shed your coat and long johns, you might feel moved to facilitate the shedding of some of the gunk you acquired through the past…
I have a long history of not living up to my potential. I had some talent in music, art, and academics, but I spent years noodling around and not making anything of it. I started a lot of things I didn’t finish. This trend started…
As a healthcare practitioner, I feel an obligation to keep up with health-related research. Luckily, I’m a total science geek, so it isn’t a burden at all. It seems the majority of our news today is negative, medical news included, so my intention is to…
Over the past few centuries, while we’ve made some advances in understanding the vastness of our universe, the prevailing trend in science and medicine has been to understand the world on a smaller and smaller scale. We’ve come to accept that our bodies are composed…
Over the last couple weeks, I’ve been posting excerpts from our upcoming book on our three-part foundation for forging a successful and balanced life: structure, sweetness, and space. First, I explained how sweetness can be scheduled liberally into our lives, and how we can infuse…
Last week I introduced the three elements of a balanced life – sweetness, structure, and space – which we discuss in our upcoming book, The Well Life. My previous article was titled, “Why Sweet Stuff is Actually Good for You.” To everyone who excitedly emailed…
Briana and I started out in healthcare careers. She’s a massage therapist and Ayurvedic specialist and I’m a doctor of acupuncture and Oriental medicine (yeah, they still use the word Oriental), and for most of our professional lives, we’ve been focused on helping people achieve…
For the past two weeks, I’ve been writing about Daoism (Taoism), the nature-based philosophy that originated in China around 500 BC, and which seems to be ripe for modern humans. Previously, we explored jian or simplicity – one of the “three treasures” mentioned in the…
In our last newsletter, I introduced some of the basics of Daoist philosophy, including one of its “three treasures” – the concept of Jian, which means simplicity. The foundation of this simplicity is the understanding that the virtuous qualities we so strongly desire, yet often…
So you aspire to draw gasps of delight, rather than horror, as you pedal through Portland in the nude. Or, perhaps you just want to look good in a thong by summer. Well, you’re reading the right article. Your friends won’t tell you this, so…