What Happens When the Mind Finally Meets the Heart

There is something profoundly curious about the human mind. It possesses an extraordinary capacity to imagine, reason, solve problems, anticipate danger, and make meaning from the world around us.

It has enabled humanity to build civilizations, advance technology, explore the stars, and uncover remarkable truths about the physical universe. Yet the very faculty capable of such brilliance is equally the source of our deepest unrest, irrationality, utter fear and unnerving uncertainty.

We have all experienced moments when a single thought, a lingering conversation, an uncertain future, or a painful memory slowly or suddenly expands until it occupies far more space than the event itself may have ever deserved. We are in monkey mind.

In the meantime, while reality or the circumstance remains relatively unchanged, our mental relationship grows increasingly complex as we stay fixated on the issue. We replay conversations that have long since ended, rehearse futures that may never arrive, and search tirelessly for an answer that promises, perhaps falsely, that peace will finally follow. That there will be resolution.

And it’s exhausting. The rumination. The endless cycling. The indecision.

What has increasingly fascinated me is not just that this happens, but that we don’t want to accept it as inevitable in times of troubled thoughts. The spiritual community can lead you to believe that once you’ve reached a certain level of consciousness, you will somehow bypass this muddy state. We believe the mind will grow quiet, and once it stops we will find peace.

Or, we assume that if we could simply think more clearly, gather yet more information, or discover the absolute correct perspective, our minds would naturally settle, and resolution would be had!

In other words, we ask the very faculty that has become entangled in the problem to also become the means of our liberation.

Rather than trying to “quiet the mind, or think more clearly from the mind, perhaps we are being invited to find the companion of the mind.

In companionship, the rigid boundaries of either/or begin to soften into the spaciousness of both/and. The word and becomes its own kind of bridge, allowing life to move freely in multiple directions.

So the most obvious companion, or not so obvious, the heart.

When the heart and mind enter into relationship, we stop asking the mind to be quiet and instead we open up to the conversation of the heart. Something naturally begins to emerge as the flow of energy is united between them, especially as we cultivate the presence of the heart when the mind has gone astray. The heart brings a different perspective, one that the mind is unable to achieve by itself.

And this today, is our exploration: How a human being comes into right relationship with the mind, the heart, and the deeper currents of life itself.

We will dive into various contemplative traditions to explore the assumptions about reality, the heart-mind union, God, Source, The Way, where the quiet is found, where clarity is revealed and where we find the still point on the bridge between worlds.

Grab a pen, a journal, a hot cup of tea, and join me for a read.

[This essay is not an attempt to compare religions or suggest that they ultimately teach the same thing. Rather, it is a personal exploration of a question that has increasingly shaped my own work. As I have encountered these ancient voices, I have found myself entering into conversation with them, sometimes recognizing ideas that resonate deeply with my own experience, and at other times allowing their perspectives to challenge and expand my understanding. Where I draw connections, I represent my own reflections rather than historical claims, and it is in that spirit that I invite you into this exploration.]

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As life expectancy continues to rise, one question has become increasingly important: How do we preserve the health of the brain as we age?

For many adults, longevity is no longer measured simply by the number of years we live, but by the quality with which we continue to live them. We hope to remain mentally clear, physically capable, emotionally resilient, and deeply engaged with life well into our later years.

Maintaining memory, cognitive attention, balance, coordination, sound judgment, and confidence in movement has become one of the major health priorities of our time.

Modern neuroscience has begun to reshape how we think about healthy aging. The brain is no longer viewed simply as the organ of thought or memory. It is the master coordinator of every purposeful action we take.

It integrates sensation, posture, balance, vision, proprioception, breathing, emotional regulation, and voluntary movement into one seamless experience. Every deliberate movement represents a conversation between the nervous system, the body, and the environment.

This understanding has shifted the conversation around exercise. Researchers are increasingly recognizing that some forms of movement do far more than strengthen muscles or improve cardiovascular fitness. Movements that demand coordination, attention, balance, motor planning, spatial awareness, and continual adaptation appear to engage the brain in uniquely beneficial ways.

Rather than certain types of movement exercising the body alone, they exercise the relationship between the brain and the body.

The fact is though, long before neuroscience could observe these processes through sophisticated imaging technologies, Tai Chi was cultivated as an energy art for internal transformation, breath work, physical vitality and longevity.

For centuries, Tai Chi practitioners have understood that the practice was designed to cultivate harmony between body, breath, awareness, and what the classical traditions describe as Qi, the vital life force that animates all living systems.

Whether one understands Qi through an Eastern philosophical lens or interprets it as the experience of whole-body integration, the practice continually directs attention toward cultivating greater coherence throughout the human being.

From the very first lesson, practitioners are encouraged to move from the lower Dantian, the energetic center located deep within the lower abdomen and pelvic bowl.

Rather than initiating movement through isolated muscles or conscious effort alone, the body gradually learns to organize itself around this stable center, or Qi reservoir.

Tai Chi also teaches us to root through the feet without becoming rigid. As the body gently settles downward, an opposing sense of lightness naturally rises through the spine, allowing the structure to open rather than stiffen.

Weight transfers become smooth and continuous. Classical Tai Chi teaches that this relaxed yet connected structure allows Qi to circulate freely throughout the body, linking the legs, waist, torso, arms, and breath into one uninterrupted expression of movement, connected with the earth, with the heavens, with life force energy.

Tai Chi is far more than choreography and the practice deepens with dedicated consistency.

How does all of this tie back to our cognitive health?

Every movement asks the practitioner to synchronize posture, breathing, weight shifting, visual awareness, coordinated limb movement, focused attention, intention, and an internal sense of energetic continuity. Rather than training isolated body systems, Tai Chi continually invites the entire human organism to function as one integrated whole.

This is precisely where ancient wisdom and modern neuroscience begin to intersect.

Walking forward is among the most highly automated movements we perform. After decades of repetition, the nervous system relies heavily on established locomotor patterns that require relatively little conscious attention.

Walking backward is entirely different.

Because we cannot see where the foot will land and because backward locomotion is far less practiced, the brain must devote substantially greater resources to planning movement, maintaining balance, predicting foot placement, and continuously updating body position.

This principle is actually beautifully embodied in one of Tai Chi’s most recognizable forms: Repulse the Monkey.

To an observer, Repulse the Monkey appears deceptively simple. The practitioner repeatedly steps backward while the arms move in graceful opposition of defense and attack in the same motion. Beneath its outward appearance lies an extraordinary neurological challenge.

Each backward step requires continual weight transfer, precise balance, coordinated rotation through the waist, spatial awareness, breath regulation, relaxed posture, and unwavering attention.

Simultaneously, the practitioner maintains an internal awareness of movement originating from the lower Dantian while remaining rooted through the Earth and allowing the body to move as one connected unit.

Now to link this to neurochemistry and brain function, let’s examine some scientific studies.

A study by Berchicci and colleagues used electroencephalography (EEG) to examine brain activity during forward and backward stepping. Rather than studying the muscles themselves, the researchers measured the brain’s electrical activity immediately before movement began.

They found that backward stepping required significantly greater cortical preparation than forward stepping. Regions responsible for motor planning and executive control became more active before the first backward step was even initiated.

This finding is remarkably significant.

It suggests that backward stepping transforms locomotion from an automatic behavior into an intentional neurological task. Instead of relying primarily on deeply ingrained passive movement programs, the brain actively participates in preparing every movement.

A second investigation by Kupchenko and colleagues used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure changes in blood flow within the prefrontal cortex while participants walked both forward and backward. Once again, backward walking required significantly greater neural engagement. Increased activity was observed within the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, frontal eye fields, and frontopolar cortex—regions involved in executive function, attention, decision-making, visuospatial processing, and motor planning.

Taken together, these studies suggest that backward stepping requires the brain to remain far more engaged throughout movement.

Every step becomes an active process of sensing, predicting, adapting, and coordinating rather than simply repeating an established motor pattern.

For Tai Chi practitioners, these findings are particularly meaningful! In general these findings are exciting!

Repulse Monkey is not merely backward walking. It layers multiple neurological demands into a single, continuous movement. The practitioner is simultaneously regulating breathing, maintaining postural alignment, coordinating the upper and lower body, shifting weight with precision, rotating through the waist, relaxing unnecessary muscular effort, sustaining focused attention, and preserving an internal awareness of energetic continuity.

Each of these elements recruits different neural systems but together they create a remarkably rich sensorimotor experience.

The idea alone blows me away! As a medical scientist and a Tai Chi practitioner.

My body, mind, heart and spirit have been testimony to the art of Tai Chi and Qigong. And now in these last couple of years, I’m able to take my felt experience and find actual scientific and medical research to help bring words to the experience.

Tai Chi is a beautiful art, and a powerful elixir of health.

The Broader Tai Chi Research in Cognition

Tai Chi research has consistently demonstrated improvements in balance, executive function, attention, processing speed, memory, and overall cognitive performance among older adults.

Neuroimaging studies have further shown changes in functional connectivity within brain regions associated with learning, memory, and executive control following regular Tai Chi practice.

Although researchers continue to investigate the underlying mechanisms, the accumulating evidence suggests that Tai Chi supports healthy brain aging through the repeated integration of multiple cognitive and motor processes rather than through any single movement alone.

Perhaps this is the deeper lesson emerging from both the ancient tradition and modern neuroscience.

The brain does not thrive by exercising one function in isolation. It flourishes through integration.

Health is rarely the product of stronger muscles alone, sharper memory alone, better balance alone, or deeper breathing alone. Vitality emerges when these systems begin communicating with one another as parts of a coherent whole.

This has always been the genius of Tai Chi.

And the reason I often speak to the alignment of mind, body, heart and spirit.

The purpose of Tai Chi has never been simply to strengthen the body or quiet the mind. It is to cultivate harmony among movement, breath, awareness, structure, intention, and the subtle experience of being fully present within ourselves. The internal arts of Tai Chi speak to the transformational potential within the art as well and that this comes with consistent training and practice.

Every tai chi form becomes an opportunity to refine not only physical skill but the quality of our relationship with our own nervous system.

Repulse Monkey reminds us that even something as ordinary as taking a step backward can become an invitation to move forward in consciousness. And for those of us practicing Tai Chi we know there are multiple ways or moments where we step behind ourselves, but still, the body learns to trust unfamiliar pathways, the brain awakens, attention deepens, and movement becomes increasingly intelligent. What begins as a physical practice gradually becomes a practice of integration.

Perhaps this is one reason Tai Chi has endured for centuries. Long before we could image the brain or measure cortical activity, generations of practitioners discovered through direct experience that when movement arises from presence, rootedness, breath, and whole-body awareness, it nourishes not only the body, but the whole human being.

Happy Training!

And remember, you are your best alchemist!

In love, light, peace and joy,

Dr. Ellie

References

Berchicci M, Russo Y, Bianco V, et al. Stepping forward, stepping backward: A movement-related cortical potential study unveils distinctive brain activities. Behav Brain Res. 2020;388:112663.

Kupchenko Y, Dreyer-Alster S, Broscheid KC, et al. Prefrontal hemodynamics during forward and backward walking, with and without a cognitive task, in people with multiple sclerosis. Eur J Phys Rehabil Med. 2023;59(2):164-173.

Wayne PM, Walsh JN, Taylor-Piliae RE, et al. The impact of Tai Chi on cognitive performance in older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2014;62(1):25-39.

Pan Z, Zhang Y, Guo Y, et al. The effects of Tai Chi intervention on healthy elderly by means of neuroimaging and EEG: A systematic review. Front Aging Neurosci. 2018;10:110.

Shao X, Zhang Y, et al. The effectiveness of Tai Chi for patients with mild cognitive impairment: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Neurosci. 2024.

There is a subtle trap that exists along the path of healing, growth, and spiritual development.

It rarely announces itself.

In fact, it often disguises itself as progress.

A person begins meditating. They start practicing Qigong. They develop a yoga practice. They attend sound baths. They journal. They walk in nature. They read spiritual books. They listen to podcasts. They study ancient wisdom traditions. They become interested in nervous system regulation, breathwork, mindfulness, energy cultivation, personal growth, and self awareness.

At first, the changes are undeniable.

Their mind becomes quieter.

Their body becomes less reactive.

Their relationships improve.

Their emotions become more manageable.

They feel more connected to themselves.

For many individuals, these practices represent the beginning of a profound return home after years of living in survival mode, disconnected from their bodies, disconnected from their emotions, and disconnected from their deeper nature.

These modalities provide a doorway into another way of being. They offer moments of stillness. Moments of reflection. Moments of genuine presence. They create a space where healing can begin.

Yet somewhere along the journey, another possibility emerges, another invitation of the healing journey itself.

The healing itself becomes another project, another pursuit of achievement and accomplishment.

The practices begin to multiply.

The calendar fills.

The morning routine expands.

The evening routine expands.

More meditation.

More breathwork.

More movement.

More supplements.

More courses.

More workshops.

More healing.

More becoming.

What began as a pathway toward freedom gradually transforms into a schedule so full that there is little room left to actually live.

The individual becomes increasingly dependent upon the practices themselves. They begin to believe that the meditation is creating the peace. The Qigong is creating the peace. The retreat is creating the peace. The sound bath is creating the peace. The journal is creating the peace.

Without realizing it, they have outsourced their inner peace to the very modalities that were intended to help them discover it within themselves.

This is one of the least discussed forms of spiritual bypassing.

Most people think spiritual bypassing means avoiding difficult emotions by focusing on positive thinking or spiritual concepts, or turning everything into a new lesson for personal growth. Certainly that can happen. But spiritual bypassing can also appear as endless self improvement. Endless healing. Endless optimization. Endless seeking.

The person becomes so busy doing healing that they never fully encounter the deeper wounds that are driving the need to heal in the first place. And instead what becomes evident is the act of busy healing without the actual healing.

The meditation becomes easier than the grief.

The breathwork becomes easier than the shame.

The workshop becomes easier than vulnerability.

The spiritual language becomes easier than self honesty.

The practices become a way of managing discomfort rather than understanding it.

Yet beneath all seeking lies a deeper question.

What are we actually looking for?

If we are willing to be radically honest, much of human behavior, if not all of it, revolves around love.

The desire to receive and give love.

The desire to preserve love.

The fear of losing love.

The fear of not being worthy of love.

From infancy onward, our nervous systems learn that connection is not simply desirable but rather survival. To be seen, accepted, valued, and loved is one of the most fundamental human needs. When those experiences become disrupted, conditional, inconsistent, or painful, we begin constructing strategies to regain them.

We learn to achieve.

We learn to perform.

We learn to please.

We learn to perfect.

We learn to become what we believe others need us to be.

Over time, these adaptations become identities.

Most people never question them.

They simply carry them into adulthood.

Then one day they discover spirituality, healing, wellness, or personal growth. Yet instead of releasing the old pattern, they often bring the same survival identity into the healing journey itself.

The achiever becomes a spiritual achiever. The perfectionist becomes a healing perfectionist. The high performer becomes a high performer of personal growth.

The external landscape changes.

The internal mechanism remains the same.

At the deepest level, the individual is still attempting to answer an ancient question.

Am I enough?

Am I worthy?

Am I lovable?

And because these questions remain unresolved, no amount of healing activity ever feels sufficient.

There is always another course.

Another certification.

Another retreat.

Another modality.

Another breakthrough waiting just beyond the horizon.

The pursuit becomes endless because the problem was never a lack of practices.

The problem was a lack of self acceptance.

This is where the distinction between state change and trait transformation becomes critically important.

Many healing modalities are extraordinarily effective at creating state changes.

Meditation can create a peaceful state.

Qigong can create an energized state.

Prayer can create a connected state.

Nature can create a grounded state.

Breathwork can create a regulated state.

The experience is genuine.

The benefits are real.

But a state is temporary.

A state is something we experience.

A trait is something we embody.

The question is not whether peace visits you during meditation.

The question is whether peace has taken up residence within you because your heart finally revealed the answers you were seeking. Because the grief was honored. Because the shame was understood. Because forgiveness was extended. Because the parts of yourself that once felt abandoned were finally welcomed home.

And in that revelation, the inner conflict begins to dissolve.

What remains is peace.

The question is not whether you can feel aligned while practicing Qigong.

The question is whether that alignment has awakened within you through the direct experience of coherence itself. Whether you have become intimate with the feeling of mind, body, heart, and spirit moving together. Whether you have learned to recognize the subtle sensation of energy magnification that naturally emerges when resistance falls away and fragmentation gives way to integration.

At first, these moments may only appear during practice.

Yet over time something remarkable begins to happen.

The body remembers.

The heart remembers.

The spirit remembers.

You begin to recognize the difference between forcing and allowing.

Between effort and effortless action.

Between striving and flow.

Between controlling life and participating with it.

What was once a temporary experience gradually becomes an embodied way of being.

The practice is no longer creating alignment.

The practice revealed what alignment feels like so that you could learn to carry it into every aspect of your life.

The practice has begun transforming not simply your state, but your character.

Not simply your experience, but your way of being.

This is where many ancient traditions become profoundly misunderstood.

Meditation was never intended to manufacture peace.

Qigong was never intended to manufacture vitality.

Prayer was never intended to manufacture worthiness.

These practices do not create something that is absent.

They reveal something that is already present.

At their highest expression, they are laboratories of coherence.

They allow us to experience what it feels like when mind, body, heart, and spirit move in the same direction.

Most human suffering is not caused by a lack of energy.

It is caused by fragmentation.

The mind believes one thing.

The body feels another.

The heart longs for something entirely different.

The spirit quietly calls us toward a truth we are afraid to acknowledge.

This internal division consumes extraordinary amounts of energy.

The nervous system recognizes the conflict.

The body carries the burden.

The individual experiences exhaustion, confusion, frustration, anxiety, and disconnection without fully understanding why.

Healing is not simply the removal of symptoms.

Healing is the gradual resolution of internal contradiction.

The mind begins telling the truth.

The heart begins feeling safely.

The body begins releasing what it has been carrying.

The spirit begins leading rather than merely observing.

This is the foundation of personal alignment.

The true powerhouse of personal alignment is not found through perfection.

It is found through coherence.

When our thoughts align with our values, when our emotions are allowed rather than suppressed, when our actions reflect our deeper truth, when our relationships support our authentic nature, and when our lives begin expressing what we genuinely know to be true, energy that was once consumed by internal conflict becomes available for living.

This is why vitality and peace are deeply related.

Vitality is not simply physical energy.

Peace is not simply emotional calm.

Both emerge from alignment.

Both emerge from coherence.

Both emerge when the self is no longer divided against itself.

Even the nervous system reflects this reality. Beneath all of its complexity, the nervous system is constantly evaluating one fundamental question.

Am I safe?

Many people attempt to calm their nervous system without addressing the deeper sources of internal conflict. Yet when the mind is at war with the heart, safety remains elusive. When we suppress grief, deny truth, abandon ourselves, or live according to expectations that are not our own, the body continues receiving signals that something is unresolved.

The nervous system cannot fully settle when the self remains fragmented.

One of the deepest signals of safety is internal congruence.

Alignment.

Wholeness.

Integrity.

The feeling that who we are on the inside matches how we are living on the outside.

This is why true healing often requires tremendous courage.

Eventually we must stop running.

Eventually we must stop seeking.

Eventually we must stop accumulating practices and begin listening to ourselves.

We must become willing to sit with the grief beneath the striving.

The loneliness beneath the performance.

The fear beneath the control.

The shame beneath the perfectionism.

The exhaustion beneath the constant doing.

We must become willing to approach ourselves with curiosity rather than judgment.

Compassion rather than criticism.

Understanding rather than condemnation.

The heart does not heal through force.

The heart heals through relationship.

It heals through being seen.

It heals through being understood.

It heals through finally receiving the love it has spent a lifetime searching for.

And perhaps this is the great irony.

The peace we have been pursuing was never hidden inside the meditation cushion.

It was never hidden inside the retreat center.

It was never hidden inside the sound bath.

It was never hidden inside the Qigong form.

Those were only doorways.

Beautiful doorways.

Necessary doorways.

Sacred doorways.

But doorways nonetheless.

Their purpose was never to become the source of peace.

Their purpose was to help us remember where peace resides.

Within.

As alignment deepens, something extraordinary begins to occur.

The practices remain.

Perhaps they are even enjoyed more than before.

But they are no longer crutches.

They are no longer requirements.

They are no longer attempts to become whole.

They become expressions of wholeness.

The meditation becomes an expression of peace.

The Qigong becomes an expression of vitality.

The prayer becomes an expression of connection.

The walk in nature becomes an expression of gratitude.

The individual no longer practices in order to become someone.

They practice because they have remembered who they are.

This is the transition from seeking to knowing.

From performance to presence.

From fragmentation to coherence.

From survival to love.

From temporary states to lasting transformation.

And perhaps that is the deepest purpose of every genuine healing modality.

Not to give us peace.

But to help us discover that peace was waiting beneath the noise all along.

May peace arise not from what you do, but from who you remember you already are.

With love and light,

Dr. Ellie

There is a very deep conversation happening right now around energy.

People talk about protecting their energy.
Raising their vibration.
Healing burnout.
Avoiding toxic people.
Trying to find peace.

But often we are talking about energy without truly understanding what energy is.

And this matters because your entire life is shaped by your relationship to energy.

The way you wake up.
The way you eat.
The way you breathe.
The way you work.
The way you think.
The way you speak.
The way you react.
The way you love.
The way you recover.

All of it is energy management.

And most people are unknowingly living inside the roller coaster of borrowed energy.

We overstimulate ourselves to rise.
Then we crash.
Then we recover just enough to stimulate ourselves again.

Coffee.
Stress hormones.
Overworking.
Overcommitting.
Constant productivity.
Emotional drama.
Validation seeking.
Doom scrolling.
Noise.
Urgency.
Chaos.

Many people confuse activation with vitality.

But they are not the same thing.

You can feel highly activated while simultaneously becoming deeply depleted.

Modern culture rewards activation.

The person pushing harder.
Sleeping less.
Doing more.
Always available.
Always responding.
Always performing.
Always reacting.

But the nervous system was never designed to live in perpetual stimulation.

And the brain has an uncanny way of predicting the hormones you need to sustain stimulation.

Eventually the body begins speaking.

Through exhaustion.
Through anxiety.
Through irritability.
Through hormonal dysregulation.
Through inflammation.
Through poor sleep.
Through brain fog.
Through emotional volatility.
Through loss of desire.
Through numbness.
Through collapse.

The body is not betraying us.

The body is revealing the energetic cost of how we are living.

And this is where we need to have a very honest conversation about how people are actually coping with overstimulated lives.

Because many of the things we call rest are not truly restorative.

They are forms of distraction, sedation, stimulation, avoidance, or emotional redirection.

Modern life has created countless ways to temporarily escape ourselves.

Over drinking.
Overeating.
Constant scrolling.
Binge watching.
Living online.
Always needing noise.
Always needing stimulation.
Always needing emotional intensity.
Always needing something playing in the background.

And often beneath these behaviors is exhaustion.

More than physical exhaustion.
But emotional exhaustion.
Spiritual exhaustion.
Relational exhaustion.
Nervous system exhaustion.

Many people no longer know how to simply be with themselves in silence.

And so the moment stillness arrives, discomfort surfaces.

Unprocessed emotion surfaces.
Loneliness surfaces.
Fear surfaces.
Confusion surfaces.
Grief surfaces.
Identity questions surface.

So instead of turning inward with awareness, many people instinctively reach outward for stimulation.

Not because they are weak.
But because chronic avoidance has become normalized.

Sometimes this shows up in obvious ways.

Over drinking to soften the nervous system after a stressful day.
Using food for emotional regulation.
Seeking chaotic relationships or emotional drama because intensity temporarily distracts us from ourselves.

Sometimes it shows up more quietly.

Allowing the home environment to become chronically cluttered, disorganized, or neglected because there is no longer enough internal energy available for stewardship.

Falling asleep on the sofa every night with the television on instead of creating a nourishing sleep ritual.

Waking up at the last possible moment and immediately entering a cortisol driven state of urgency:
checking emails,
rushing,
reacting,
running late,
living in adrenaline before the body has even fully awakened.

Calling a day of nonstop movies, YouTube, social media, or binge consumption “rest,” while the nervous system remains continuously stimulated by noise, light, emotional input, information, and psychological absorption.

And this is important to understand:

Distraction is not the same thing as restoration.

Sedation is not the same thing as peace.

Numbing is not the same thing as healing.

Many people believe they are recovering because they are no longer working.

But the nervous system may still be highly activated.

The mind may still be racing.
The emotions may still be fragmented.
The body may still be carrying tension.
Attention may still be externally consumed all day long.

True restoration often contains qualities modern people have become uncomfortable with:
silence,
slowness,
presence,
simplicity,
rhythm,
nature,
stillness,
intentionality.

And this is where ancient wisdom traditions become incredibly important.

Daoist traditions spoke of Qi, life force energy.
Yogic systems spoke of prana.
Christian contemplative traditions emphasized stillness and communion.
Martial arts traditions cultivated conservation and refinement of internal energy.
Indigenous traditions emphasized rhythm, seasonality, and relationship with nature.

These traditions understood something modern society has largely forgotten:

Energy is not simply physical stamina.

Energy is coherence.

It is the harmonious relationship between mind, body, heart, spirit, behavior, environment, and purpose.

And when we lose coherence, we fragment.

We leak energy.

Not only through overwork.
But through resentment.
People pleasing.
Suppression.
Constant comparison.
Unresolved conflict.
Living out of alignment with our values.
Ignoring intuition.
Remaining in environments that continuously dysregulate us.

This is why two people can sleep the same number of hours and eat similar diets, yet one feels deeply alive while the other feels chronically exhausted.

Because energy is not merely caloric.

It is emotional.
Relational.
Behavioral.
Psychological.
Spiritual.

Eventually many people realize they cannot continue living in overactivation forever.

And so they begin searching for ways to regulate.

Yoga.
Meditation.
Prayer.
Breathwork.
Nature walks.
Tai Chi.
Qigong.
Journaling.
Silence.
Therapy.
Nervous system work.

These practices are deeply important because they teach the body safety again.

They lower unnecessary sympathetic activation.

They restore breath rhythm.
Heart rhythm.
Attention.
Awareness.
Presence.

They begin reconnecting us to ourselves.

And this is beautiful.

But there is something even deeper beyond simply calming the body.

There is the cultivation of coherent energy.

This is where life itself becomes the practice.

Not just the yoga class.
Not just the meditation session.
Not just the walk on the beach.

But your speech.
Your relationships.
Your timing.
Your boundaries.
Your responses.
Your environment.
Your work.
Your choices.
Your attention.

You begin asking:

What is the energetic cost of this?

Not from fear.
Not from avoidance.
But from awareness.

You begin realizing that not every conflict deserves your nervous system.

Some conversations create intimacy, truth, and understanding.

Others are cycles of exploitation, projection, manipulation, emotional addiction, or unconsciousness.

And maturity is learning the difference.

Not every battle deserves your life force.

Not every emotional impulse deserves expression.

Not every invitation deserves access to your life.

And this is where boundaries become deeply misunderstood.

True boundaries are not walls.

They are energetic discernment.

They arise from self knowing.

The more deeply you know yourself, the more clearly you recognize what creates coherence within you and what creates fragmentation.

You begin noticing:
certain environments dysregulate me,
certain conversations drain me,
certain habits cloud me,
certain media agitates me,
certain relationships destabilize me.

And equally:
certain people nourish me,
nature restores me,
movement clarifies me,
silence strengthens me,
truth stabilizes me,
purpose energizes me.

This is why I often speak about Moving Stillness.

Because eventually the goal is not merely escaping stress.

The deeper goal is becoming internally ordered.

To live from a place where your nervous system is no longer constantly whipped around by every external circumstance.

This does not mean you never experience emotion.

It does not mean life becomes conflict free.

It does not mean you become passive.

It means you become responsive rather than reactive.

And there is a profound difference.

Reaction is immediate.
Compulsive.
Protective.
Often unconscious.

Response contains awareness.

Even if an emotional reaction initially arises, you learn how to hold it long enough to understand it before acting from it.

You begin asking:
What is truly happening here?
What outcome am I trying to create?
What is the energetic cost of my reaction?
Will this create greater coherence or greater fragmentation?

This is wisdom.

And wisdom conserves energy.

One of the greatest energetic drains in human life is unconscious reactivity.

Ancient martial traditions understood this deeply.

The strongest warrior was not the most explosive.

It was the one who remained centered under pressure.

Calm was power.
Stillness was power.
Presence was power.

Modern neuroscience now echoes this understanding.

The brain is constantly predicting, regulating, scanning, and allocating energy across the organism.

The nervous system learns patterns through repetition.

What we repeatedly practice becomes our baseline state.

So if we repeatedly practice urgency, overstimulation, outrage, hypervigilance, emotional chaos, distraction, and fragmentation, the body adapts to that as normal.

But if we repeatedly practice rhythm, coherence, breath, recovery, discernment, groundedness, honesty, movement, and alignment, the body adapts to that too.

This is why changing your relationship to energy is not a quick fix.

It is a way of living.

A state of practice.

And there will always be new situations.

New stressors.
New relationships.
New environments.
New confusion.
New challenges.

Growth does not mean you never become dysregulated again.

It means your recovery becomes faster.
Your awareness becomes sharper.
Your discernment becomes wiser.

You stop abandoning yourself.

And eventually something very beautiful begins happening.

Life begins feeling less forceful.

You stop fighting every battle.

You stop needing constant stimulation.

You stop leaking energy into unnecessary resistance.

Much like sailing, life is not mastered by forcing the wind. By changing the sea.

The skilled sailor learns how to read conditions, adjust tension, understand direction, and move in relationship with forces larger than themselves.

Sometimes wisdom is knowing when to advance.
Sometimes it is knowing when to ease the sail.
Sometimes it is recognizing that fighting the current only creates unnecessary exhaustion.

Energy stewardship is very similar.

The goal is not controlling every condition around us.

The goal is learning how to remain internally steady while navigating changing conditions with awareness, responsiveness, and discernment.

You become more intentional with your attention.

You become more honest.
More embodied.
More peaceful.
More aware.

And paradoxically, this often creates greater vitality.

Not because you are forcing energy into the system through stimulation.

But because you are no longer wasting so much of it.

You begin living closer to your nature.

And perhaps this is one of the deepest truths about energy:

Vitality emerges through alignment.

When the mind, body, heart, spirit, actions, relationships, and environment begin moving in coherence with one another, energy naturally organizes itself differently.

There is more ease.
More clarity.
More steadiness.
More resilience.

Not perfect peace.

But a deeper inner stability.

And from that place, life no longer feels like something you must constantly survive.

It begins to feel like something you can actually inhabit with serenity, joy and creativity.

So perhaps over the next few days, begin asking yourself one simple question:

Where is my energy leaking unnecessarily?

Free your response from judgment.
Allow it to emerge from awareness.

Because awareness is often the beginning of transformation.

May you move with steadiness and ease,

Dr. Ellie

I wanted to personally invite you to an upcoming live talk I’ll be giving in Santa Barbara, California, which I’ve decided to livestream online for those of you who are part of the MenoQigong and Arcanium Alchemy communities.

I’m being hosted by Dr. James Kwako, M.D. who founded The Light of Learning Series from his Wellness Medical Clinic in Santa Barbara and for anyone in the area you are most certainly invited to attend live in person.

The talk explores a subject that has become central to my work and personal healing journey: Active Rest. I originally titled the talk: The Power of Active Rest, but as you will see, it’s actually, The Alchemy of Active Rest!

The livestream is completely free, and you’re welcome to share the registration link with friends, family, colleagues, or anyone you feel may benefit.

It is held on Saturday, May 16th, from 10am-12pm PT. Details on location can be found on my website.

Please note a few details about the zoom livestream format:

• Registration is required through my website in order to receive the Zoom link via email: Register : https://www.menoqigong.com/schedule
• The livestream will be one-way interaction during the event
• Online participants will remain muted throughout the session
• You will still be able to post questions in the Zoom chat feature
• The livestream will be recorded

Please do enter questions in the chat and we’ll aim to answer them live, but if we’re not able to get to them, I will review them after and address them through a follow up article.

I would love to have you join us.

Please visit the MenoQigong website for more details about the presentation:

https://www.menoqigong.com/pages/lectures

With gratitude,
Dr. Ellie Corigliano, PhD
Arcanium Alchemy | MenoQigong

P.S. If you are a member of both MenoQigong and Arcanium Alchemy Newsletter - please pardon the redundant emails.

There are moments when you begin to notice energy shifts in someone you love, shifts that ebb and flow with higher peaks and lower lows.

You notice how their energy begins to lift as you spend more daily time with them. They become more engaged, more curious, more willing to step into life.

And then, just as quickly, that energy fades when they are alone again, where before, their energy would continue whether you were there or not.

At first, it is easy to dismiss. It looks like they have fatigue, or boredom, or simply a passing phase. Something situational, temporary. The person themselves don’t really know how to describe it or that it even warrants pointing out.

But over time, it becomes something else entirely. What once appeared occasional begins to repeat, quietly and consistently, until within a few years it settles into a recognizable pattern that has reshaped the rhythm of their everyday life. Where the independence of living alone, of acquiring autonomy has blurred into isolation, into resistance, bewilderment, and in some cases, into depression.

This is not personal or unique to your loved one, or my loved one. In fact, these patterns repeat across people, across households, across generations, woven into the fabric of modern life, often surfacing most visibly as populations age.

It may be rooted more deeply than age itself, but rather in the way we have come to define success itself. A life of independence, autonomy, and security. The ability to make it on our own, or as a smaller family unit, create our own space, make our own rules, live as we want: these things are perceived as markers of achievement after all.

Over time, independence may become a generational pattern, shaping how we live, how we separate, and how we carry life on our own.

For me now, I am becoming more intimately aware of the magnitude of the fractured art of interdependent-generational living. In my very line, there are three generations living far apart from each other, coming together here and there, supporting each other during those times, but then returning back to our individual lives.

I sit in the middle of generations before me and after me, wondering if we need to make adjustments for greater inter-dependence across our generations in order to sustain the highest quality of life, for all of us.

I recognize the mass complexity, the contradictions of emotion, this paradox of gaining independence as a proud way of life, whilst simultaneously defining the conditions for separation, or worse, isolation and depression for later years in life if left unchecked.

I caution myself on the potential backlash of my own efforts to acquire independence and autonomy with the risk of life reshaping into something never intended, resistance to interdependence for fear of losing personal sovereignty.

What follows is an unfolding of observations, a reflection on the current literature of anthropological evidence on the psychology of interdependent-generational living, and of course my womanly view from the inflection point of being in the middle generation, being in my early 50’s and feeling vibrant enough to adapt!

Grab a pen, a journal, a hot cup of tea and join me for a read.

Read more

Wang Zongyue, Taijiquan Treatise:
“The mind leads the qi.
The qi leads the body.
When the mind is still, qi can gather.
When qi gathers, the body becomes light and agile.”

Over the past several weeks I stepped into a quieter rhythm, immersing myself in my own affairs and Tai Chi training, giving my body and mind space to settle before the new year.

Much of my writing in the last year has centered on women’s health, particularly the changing physiology of midlife, and the profound transformation that unfolds when we understand hormones, the nervous system, and lifestyle rhythms through a more integrative lens.

While this last year has been a deep exploration into the biology of perimenopause and menopause, the emotional landscape that accompanies it, and the ways movement, breath, and presence can restore coherence to a system under strain, my focus has been on helping women navigate this threshold with clarity and compassion with the roots of that work reaching into the internal arts of Tai Chi and Qigong.

But the internal arts themselves remain beautifully universal, albeit initiating MenoQigong practice for women, I have no bias on the teachings themselves for all of humanity.

Tai Chi and Qigong sit beneath all of my recent work like a quiet foundation, reminding me that before hormones, before diagnostics, before lifestyle prescriptions or modern frameworks, there is a deeper rhythm that belongs to every human body, to human existence.

These practices are genderless and timeless. They speak directly to our physiology, our emotional centers, and the subtle intelligence that underlies both healing and vitality. Whether a person is navigating the complexities of perimenopause, rebuilding after illness, or simply seeking steadiness in the pace of daily life, the internal arts offer a way forward. They restructure us from the inside outward, without hurry and without force, and they invite us to remember what wellness feels like at the most elemental level.

I have learned through teaching MenoQigong, and through studying across different lineages and philosophies, that class structure is often overlooked by student practitioners. Many assume it is a matter of convenience or tradition, or casual habit, or of little consequence, not realizing that the sequence of a class mirrors internal physiology through which the practice does its restorative work.

In a recent experience in my own Master’s school of advanced Tai Chi training a suggestion was posed to change our class structure to be more like a yoga class. Conversations of sincere debate ensued about tradition versus innovation, personal preference versus yogic practices and taking on a western culture of expressing high energy early and then slow energy to close class.

Admittedly, yoga and I do not know each other deeply, even though I have completed some yogic training. I hold genuine respect for its breadth and intentions, and I reference it here only through the suggestion from a fellow practitioner that our Tai Chi class structure be reshaped to resemble a yoga class that he is familiar with.

There is a valuable lesson here. I will share here the wisdom I have learned from Tai Chi, both empirically from practice and traditional teachings I have read thus far, and from modern medical science.

I invite you to take a moment and join me as we explore the quiet but powerful architecture that makes Tai Chi what it is. A tradition that I also plan to uphold as I continue to advance in my practice and my own school of teaching the art.

Grab a journal, a pen, a hot cup of tea, and join me for a read.

Entering the Landscape of Tai Chi

Tai Chi is often introduced as slow, gentle movement. Yet anyone who has stepped inside its living terrain knows how quickly that description dissolves. Beneath the surface lies a multilayered architecture that reorganizes the human system from the inside out.

There is an integration of breath, intention, connective tissue expansion, muscle release, neural rhythm, emotional tone, cardiovascular coherence, on and on, as well as the subtler layers of awareness that participate in this reordering.

Tai Chi is not merely a collection of forms and energies. It is truly internal medicine, natural medicine of healing prowess with longevity cultivation, beyond a subtle martial art capable of powerful expression. What allows all of this to emerge is not simply the forms themselves but the structure through which the practice is taught.

The structure of a Tai Chi class is part of the medicine.

Class structure itself holds traditional wisdom that has withheld the test of time, regardless of the family lineage from which the practice derived.

Why Class Structure Matters

In traditional schools, the order of a class is intentional. It mirrors the internal progression through which the practitioner shifts from cognitive attention, to somatic awareness, to energetic coherence. It sets the tone, the physiological rhythm, and the emotional environment for all forms and energies to be practiced.

Class structure itself is not administrative or an arbitrary preference, it is foundational. It is the very teacher behind the actual teacher.

Recently, in the school where I do my advanced training, a well-intentioned suggestion arose: begin class with the strongest expressions of movement, including the issuing of force known as ‘fa jin’, and only later descend into slower, quieter forms.

The suggestion seems harmless: if students arrive with energy, why not use it in the beginning of class?

But this suggestion, in my opinion, misunderstands the architecture and deep wisdom of Tai Chi practice.

There is a moment in internal practice when movement becomes more than movement. The breath deepens, the mind descends, and the subtle intelligence of the body emerges like a long-forgotten companion. Tai Chi was designed to meet us precisely in that moment, but it can only do so when we honor the sequence of effort that awakens it.

The Classical Learning Arc

Traditional texts often describe a three-stage progression that every practitioner must pass through.

In the beginning, the mind is occupied with learning the choreography. This is the cognitive phase, where attention is outward and the form is still unfamiliar. Neuroscience now shows that this phase strengthens explicit motor learning pathways in the brain.

In the second stage, once the sequence becomes familiar, awareness begins to sink into the body. Breath and attention weave together. Movements soften and deepen. The practitioner feels weight, spirals, rotation, and quiet internal currents. This corresponds to a shift into implicit motor learning, where somatic intelligence begins to guide the form. The mind has come to be more relaxed with curiosity and trust coming into the body and subtler energies of internal wisdom.

The third stage is where the art becomes truly alive. The mind quiets. The spirit becomes perceptible. The classical instruction that “the mind leads the qi and the qi leads the body” describes this beautifully. Modern somatic science would say that interoception strengthens, the autonomic nervous system regulates, and fascial continuity becomes the primary pathway of force transmission. This is the phase of moving stillness, of active rest, of meditative power, of transformational healing, of releasing and transmitting power to another.

Class structure exists to support this journey, irrespective of the level of the practitioner. For even the advanced student who knows the choreography, must still enter the sanctuary or temple and allow the mind to quiet, the inner body wisdom to emerge, and the qi to circulate with proper intention.

Why a Class Begins Slowly

Traditional teachers begin with stillness or slow preparatory movement because this is where the nervous system transitions from external demands to internal coherence. The practitioner has the opportunity to slow the heart rate, to deepen the breath, to warm and hydrate the fascia, to stabilize emotions, to draw on one’s presence and drop their attention into the body, mind, heart and spirit.

This is where the practitioner arrives.

It is often mistaken for warm-up, but it is internal preparation. It allows every student, regardless of the state in which they entered the room, to reconnect with their own sensory ground.

Health research affirms these effects. Studies from the Cleveland Clinic and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health show that Tai Chi supports cardiovascular stability, reduces inflammatory markers, improves balance and proprioception, enhances mood, and strengthens cognitive function. The beginning of class sets the physiological conditions for these benefits to emerge and prepare the body for coherence and suppleness that holds much power.

Cultivation and Continuity

Once coherence forms, the movements of the form become a medium for deeper integration. Breath synchronizes with motion. The center begins to lead. Elastic continuity in the fascia replaces muscular effort. The practitioner feels themselves move as one organism rather than a collection of parts.

This is the true cultivation phase. In classical language, this is where qi is gathered and circulated.

Li Yi:
"They guide the qi so that it becomes harmonious, and guide the body so that it becomes supple."

In medical language, it is where neuromyofascial communication strengthens and the autonomic nervous system reaches a balanced state.

This middle portion of class is where the transformation happens. If the practitioners remains in this state, where they are cultivating the deeper understanding of biomechanics, now they can move into the next phase of the class.

This next phase is where one can move into the ability to release the power of this energy. This power is known as Fa Jin.

Short Explanation of Fa Jin for Non-Practitioners

Fa jin is the term traditionally used in Tai Chi to describe the issuing of force, yet it is not force in the way most people imagine. It is not a punch, a strike, or an exertion of muscular strength. Fa jin is the rapid release of internal power that has been gathered, organized, and stored within the body through soft, continuous movement.

When the body is relaxed, aligned, and guided by breath, the connective tissues behave like an elastic network. They can receive force, redirect it, or release it in a sudden wave that travels from the ground, through the center, and outward through the limbs.

To the observer, fa jin may appear like a small, simple motion, but the power comes from inside rather than from effort. It is the expression of coherence. When the mind is quiet, the breath steady, the joints open, and the fascia engaged as one unified system, the body becomes capable of generating power without strain.

Masters caution that fa jin should never be overused or performed from a tense or unprepared state, because when the internal coherence is not present, the movement becomes mere muscular force rather than true internal strength.

Fa jin is therefore not simply an expression of physical ability. It is a measure of internal organization and the culmination of a sequence that begins in stillness, grows through softness, and returns to stillness again.

When and How to Use Fa Jin

Fa jin belongs only after the body has unified and the mind has quieted. It is not force in the ordinary sense. It is the rapid release of stored elastic energy transmitted through an integrated system.

When performed too early, before coherence has formed, the practitioner falls back into bracing patterns. Breath becomes shallow. The sympathetic nervous system activates. Muscular contraction replaces internal connection. The shape of the movement might look correct, but the inner method collapses.

This is why Fa Jin practices are typically reserved for more advanced students who hav developed the skills of coherence.

Traditional teachers warn against overuse of fa jin without stillness. They understood that the body produces authentic internal force only after the qi has been gathered and the mind has settled.

Modern movement science agrees. Introducing intensity before regulation disrupts motor learning, reinforces stress pathways, and prevents the fascia from entering the elastic, springlike state that makes Tai Chi power possible.

Class as Martial Foundation

Tai Chi is a martial art. Within a single form, a practitioner expresses peng, lu, ji, an, cai, lie, zhou, and kao. These energies require sensitivity, timing, and structural integrity that cannot be rushed.

When class begins with regulation and coherence, the martial qualities of the art can emerge without damage to the body. The practitioner learns to redirect force rather than oppose it, to move from the center rather than the limbs, and to access power without sacrificing softness.

When a class begins with intensity, these subtle energies may become distorted. The practitioner may confuse effort instead of experiencing elasticity.

Martial arts based on internal power do not begin at the peak. They begin at the root.

Why Class Ends with Stillness

The closing portion of class is where the system integrates everything it has learned. Slow forms, quiet standing, or gentle closing postures allow the breath to settle. The internal force sinks into the lower dantian. In classical language, the gates close and the practice is sealed.

This is essential for longevity. This is essential for the healing nature of the practice to continue far after the practice is over.

Modern research shows that the end of class supports neurochemical recovery, consolidates neuromuscular learning, and protects hormonal rhythms involved in energy, sleep, and metabolic balance. Without this closing phase, the practitioner leaves stimulated rather than nourished, and the deeper benefits of Tai Chi remain unfulfilled.

Ending softly does not diminish the power of the practice. It preserves it.

The Structure Is the Medicine

The sequence of a Tai Chi class is not ornamental. It is essential. Regulation leads to integration. Integration leads to expression. Expression must return to stillness. This is how the body heals, how the mind clarifies, how the spirit emerges, and how authentic internal power develops. This internal power can be used for healing, for exertion, for longevity.

When class structure is respected, Tai Chi becomes a pathway for resilience, emotional steadiness, and deep presence. When the structure is altered, the outer form remains but the inner transformation may become much harder to access.

Tai Chi opens the fountain within only when the pathway into that fountain is allowed to do its quiet work.

This is the ability of moving stillness, but first one must come to know the state of moving stillness itself.

Much love,

Dr. Ellie

Dr. Ellie Corigliano, PhD
Founder of Arcanium Alchemy and creator of MenoQigong
Exploring the science, soul, and sovereignty of midlife vitality

References

Cleveland Clinic. Tai Chi and the Health Benefits of Mindful Movement
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Tai Chi: What You Need to Know
Wang, C. et al. Tai Chi for knee osteoarthritis. Arthritis Care and Research
Yeh, G. et al. Tai Chi exercise in patients with chronic heart failure. American Journal of Medicine
Wayne, P. and Kaptchuk, T. The challenges of Tai Chi research. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine
Scientific Reports, Nature Portfolio. Tai Chi, neural regulation, and motor control
Classical Tai Chi sources including the Taijiquan Treatise and the writings of Chen Xin

Ever get that feeling that you can’t go fast enough, or catch up enough, especially when you’re excited about something?

What is that? Do we all have it? Or just some of us? That feeling of urgency. That feeling of so much to do, so little time.

Yeah - many of us know this feeling.

It is knocking on my door these days. Let me tell you!

I’m surprised, but not surprised, and I’m having to face it dead on this time. I haven’t felt urgency for the last several years.

Why is it here?

I know! Because I’m energized and equipped to use my energy. And it is SO tempting to give in, to befriend urgency once again. My long lost friend.

Women in my age range, age 52, we were raised to have it all, do it all, and by all means, do it as quickly as possible, with a dire sense of urgency! And quality.

Those of us in corporate, entrepreneurial, research worlds, or managing everything under the sun became absolute experts at urgency. Urgency was our oxygen. We were fanatics for doing it all and doing it well. Some of us are still that way!

I don’t even want to list all the things we do with urgency. Just writing these few sentences, I feel an allergic reaction from how much I governed my life under the state of urgency, with high precision I might add. My nervous system still gets triggered at the very memory. Whew!

I have been in the ‘Slow Down to Speed Up’ zone for the last few years, and it has felt good. My energy, stamina, endurance, resilience, radiance, have all resurfaced and I keep saying I’ve been reverse aging! It’s been powerful.

For the first time since I was a teenager, I have not been living in survival mode urgency. I have been living in the state of ease and flow, productive and present, aware and steady, balanced and bold. My Temple Path Life.

I had to learn what rest actually meant: deep rest, active rest, restorative rest, repose, even how to breathe. After 3 years, I can say I’ve come out the other side from those learnings with excellent health and a renewed life. One that other women can have too without all the chaos. (I’m not going to digress here, but that is my wish for women!)

Even now, just writing those words about the types of rest, I observe how they soften me back into calm.

I’m amazed, at this very moment, as I’m writing this article, how the act of writing on urgency and rest actually signals my body’s somatic signatures to switch between urgency and rest. I’m amazed I can just readily switch between them! I was stuck on urgency for such a long time. And now my body, mind, heart and spirit have come to know rest. It’s the best learning I’ve ever had.

Most women don’t experience calm or rest for very long. Maybe during a retreat or a vacation (if they are not over-scheduled) they get a glimpse of it. But the moment they return home, their mind rewires to urgency and the nervous system reverts to overdrive. The body, mind, heart, and spirit get hijacked again by the to-do list, the survival list, the stress list. Urgency!

Because that is what life has taught us: urgency, to-do lists = normal.

But urgency did not start with us. It was inherited.

Our mothers and grandmothers marched into workplaces that were never designed for their biology (not sure it’s designed for men’s biology either but we’ll save that topic for another time - andropause!). Our mothers and grandmothers had to move faster just to be seen. We inherited their courage, but also their pace. The rhythm of ‘proving’ has become our collective womanly pulse.

Every year in corporate life, we would revisit our priorities and values. Every year, without fail, “Act with urgency and maintain integrity” made the list.

We managers were tasked with trickling this down, training our teams to make faster decisions so that results came faster, but be precise.

And at the time, in my life, my story, it made perfect sense. We worked in medicine, drug development, diagnostics, and clinical trials. Behind every decision was a human life. A deeply valued life. Urgency with precision was noble. It saved lives. And yet at other times, it changed none. That is the complicated truth of it. The paradox of urgency with precision. It is an investment risk with no clear pattern of success.

I am sitting here in nostalgic disbelief. That phrase, urgency paired with precision, was baked into our professional DNA. But we also know this is the recipe for burnout. The human body, human physiology, female menstrual life, is not built to accommodate living under that culture in any sustainable fashion. Yet, it is constantly present, even from organizations who aim to support health.

A noble approach, in theory.

I feel it in me now, that same urgency returning as my health has been restored. I can finally approach business again with energy and focus, and just like that, the culture of urgency swept back in.

There is no Board of Directors, no next year priority setting. It’s just me. My mission. My purpose. My goals determining what I would like to do with Arcanium Alchemy.

I’m all excited about the prospects ahead. I’m energized when I think about it. And then boom! It hit.

My heart racing. My breath quickening. My mind running scenarios. My hands reaching for my computer, notebook, pen, tea, snack.

I am ready for urgency!

Except it is not funny. Yes, I’m laughing at this moment.

It is muscle memory and I actually feel scared. I know what happened to me living in that state, why would I so automatically come back to that mantra of urgency? Good god, urgency. For the sake of my menopause and my health - BEHAVE! Stand down.

It is as if my body has been wired to seek urgency the moment it has energy reserves. Sure, for years, urgency was how I knew I was alive and advancing in purposeful living. It was my deliberateness. It was my love language with the world.

And yet, it was also what fractured me. My nervous system, my hormones, my equilibrium, my life. Urgency. Wanting to do it all. Seduced by the impact it could have on the world.

So here I am, witnessing it rise again, observing this familiar companion wave me on down the path.

Ah! This time, this 2nd initiation, I can no longer indulge such a path. And so I do something very different, I invite urgency into the atrium for a cup of tea.

There is a saying:

“When you are healthy, you have a thousand things on your mind. When you are sick, you have only one.”

I lived that. I do not want to live it again. So awareness and hindsight are powerful tools.

Urgency is so deeply embedded in our culture, in our bones, that it starts before we can even form memory.

“Hurry up! We’re late! Get the baby ready! Get your shoes! Come on, move faster!”

And we grow into adults still sprinting through school, work, marriage, motherhood, careers, homes, and vacations, racing to have it all. Get it all as quickly as you can.

Damn - but that’s truth. Maybe not for all of us, but for many of us, especially if you were raised in a two-person working household.

I love medicine, philosophy, science, spirituality. I love the work of helping others live healthier lives. That passion will never go away.

But I have learned the hard way that excitement and stress can look like twins in the same body. Biochemistry does not care whether it is labeled purpose or pressure, if it’s not lived in the right balance, it signals the nervous system to be on high alert.

I know as women, we want to blame peri-menopause or menopause in general, but we must look at our imprints, our tendencies, our choices of “friends” that lead our drive in life.

And this is exactly the awareness that helps change our course: to notice the somatic signature before it drags you back into overdrive.

Old habits are sticky. They do not simply vanish. Especially when those habits created a lot of positive and only later seeing the association of something not so positive.

Old habits unwind through awareness, practices, rituals, associations and understanding. When you make the link between cause and effect (a hermetic principle) the choice becomes easier. You come back to your rooted values. The ones that hold you steady.

So yes, invite urgency for a cup of tea. Thank her for what she has shown you. For defining your upper limits of what the HumanWoman in you could manage while sustaining a state of Vital Health - not managed health, or symptom relief health - Vital Health. Thriving health. Radiating health. Define it - that is your responsibility, your duty in this life.

Efficiency has been our altar of devotion for a very long time. We learned to pray by burning ourselves in its flame. But menopause changes the covenant. The body begins to speak an older, wiser language, one that values rhythm over rush, connection over competence, being over doing.

So what to do? Change your life? That feels like another impossible to-do list.

So maybe the change begins here, with urgency itself, over that cup of tea, in conversation.

Inquiring about it’s presence and then:

-Noticing where we over-extend and over-book ourselves.
-Seeing how we abandon well-being to make sure everything gets done.
-Telling ourselves there will be time later to get rest.

But “later” is a myth built on urgency’s playlist.

I see the women doing incredible work in menopause awareness, and the inner voice of urgency still whispers:
You are behind. They are doing it better. You need to move faster.

Yes, urgency, sit and have another cup of tea, and let’s see what would be the best use of our time together.

The voice of urgency is the ghost of the old system, the one I no longer serve. Now instead, I ask what it has to serve me. Why are you visiting? What is that you offer? What would I need to exchange in order to receive your offer?

I think many of us women are trying to learn how to live between the old pulse of urgency and the new pulse of enough, balance.

The truth is, I do not want to indulge in urgency.
I want to stay faithful to the philosophies that brought me back to health, the ones that align with the biology of being a woman.

Because vitality does not live in urgency.
It lives in rhythm.
It lives in coherence between body and mind, heart and spirit, breath and thought.

In boundaries.

Life now is a practice of remembering, re-patterning, and reclaiming sovereignty.

Cognitive sovereignty. Spiritual sovereignty. Physical sovereignty. Emotional Sovereignty. Aligning them all for my greater purpose - to live in Vital Health.

Urgency is simply not allowed past having tea if it means compromising my state of Vital Health, my state of calm, my state of presence.

It’s not always easy - but I know the signals now. They don’t need to get really loud to get my attention, my attention is present.

So, as urgency comes knocking, I’ll continue to invite it to sit down for tea.
But I will not let it drive anymore.

Epilogue

Sometimes I think menopause is a retrieval mission. A divine intervention to remember who we are.

We go back for the parts of ourselves that urgency left behind.

The body teaches us the tempo of truth, and it refuses to keep up with what is false.

I have learned that slowing down is not a loss of power. It is the moment we remember how much power we actually have.

So if urgency shows up at your door today, invite it in for tea, and thank it for the lessons. Then choose your own rhythm.

And if someone asks, “What are you working on these days?”
Smile and say, “My nervous system. My Vital Health. You?”

Because when those things are well, everything else gets done right on time.

Much love,

Dr. Ellie

Dr. Ellie Corigliano, PhD
Founder of Arcanium Alchemy and creator of MenoQigong
Exploring the science, soul, and sovereignty of midlife vitality

Say Goodbye to “One Size Fits All”

Menopause care is entering a new era. The long-held one-size-fits-all model is dissolving, replaced by precision-driven approaches that honor each woman’s unique biology, timing, and life context.

Hormone therapy, once prescribed generically and later abandoned in fear, is being rediscovered through the lens of individualized medicine. Modern research confirms what some of us have long intuited: when the right therapy is initiated at the right time and delivered through the right route, for the right woman, outcomes improve and risks decline.

This mirrors a revolution I intimately worked with in oncology: the emergence of the right patient, the right treatment, at the right time approach, a precision medicine approach that reframed cancer therapies. That same framework is finally reaching women’s health, and perhaps, at long last, we are arriving sooner than forecasted.

However, science is only part of the story. This week’s briefing explores how clinical precision parallels another kind of precision, one that arises from within. We will see how relief may begin with evidence-based care, but reclamation unfolds through alignment of mind, body, heart, and spirit.

The literature may speak of mind-body-spirit, but for me, the heart is the true bridge, the connection that brings harmony to the whole. If you’ve followed my work or are discovering it now, this integration is my signature: the marriage of science and soul, the union of intellect and intuition. The heart is not an accessory to healing; it is the intelligence that makes healing coherent.

When I see these new studies emerge, I feel a collective exhale. It signals that the worlds I have long walked between (precision medicine and spiritual practice) are somehow converging, beyond my own convergence, and women are being heard for the first time.

The implications are profound. This new precision is not only about easing vasomotor symptoms, sleep disruption, or bone loss; it is about sustaining vitality, preserving cognitive clarity, strengthening the cardiovascular system, and restoring the feeling of a life fully inhabited, a heart-felt life, a life of Vital Health.

That has been my mission: to move the conversation from symptom management to Vital Health, from surviving to thriving. Inside this article, we explore how to move beyond relief-only thinking into what I call Relief & Reclamation, a movement that weaves clinical science with the inner intelligence of womanhood. This is where the sacred and the scientific meet, and where the next era of menopause begins.

And as always, you are not reading this alone. Across the world, women are rediscovering themselves through this same threshold of reframing biology as an initiation to a new rite-of-passage.

Executive Summary

Recent evidence confirms that the benefits and risks of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) depend on timing, formulation, route, dosage AND lifestyle psycho-spiritual practices to extend beyond the body and into mental and emotional wellness, meaning and purpose. The two aspects together make a powerful approach for Vital Health.

Early initiation of MHT, within about ten years of the final menstrual period or before age sixty, yields a more favorable benefit–risk profile. Transdermal estradiol appears safer for venous thromboembolism than oral combined regimens, particularly oral estrogen paired with synthetic progestogens.

Low-dose transdermal or vaginal estradiol, often combined with micronized progesterone when a uterus is present, achieves symptom relief with lower systemic exposure. Across outcome domains:

• Cardiovascular: Early initiation improves lipid and inflammatory biomarker profiles.

• Bone: Combined MHT and structured exercise yield the greatest gains in bone mineral density.

• Cognition: Early, short-term MHT shows cognitive neutrality—neither benefit nor harm.

• Longevity: Low-dose transdermal or vaginal therapy beyond age 65 can still confer favorable outcomes when individualized.

In parallel with these biomedical advances, new evidence highlights the importance of psycho-spiritual integration. Mindfulness-based interventions, Qigong, and other meditative movement practices improve menopause-specific quality of life, emotional regulation, and sleep quality. They complement medical therapy, help refine the nervous system, shift emotional, mental and spiritual perception, and supports meaning for a body’s unfolding changes.

Later in this article, we’ll explore these findings more deeply, showing how psycho-spiritual science complements precision medicine to create a truly integrative model of Vital Health - a model where Relief meets Reclamation, and where science listens to the soul.

Grab a journal, a pen, a hot cup of tea, and join me for a read!

Continue reading for the full deep dive into precision hormone therapy, psycho-spiritual integration, risk management, and Dr Ellie’s Wisdom.

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Too Much of a Good Thing

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) can be life-changing. For many women, it restores sleep, libido, body temperature, improves mental clarity, general wellbeing and even helps with weight loss, amongst many other things. Yet, even when the original prescription was balanced, the body’s needs can shift over time. This is especially true if you’ve done the deeper work of lifestyle alignment and restorative recovery.

When you live a Temple Path lifestyle (slower pace, restorative movement, nourishment, breath, emotional honesty, spiritual connection, alignment of mind, body, heart and spirit, etc.) your body becomes exquisitely sensitive to fluctuations beyond physiological tolerance.

In other words, your nervous and endocrine systems communicate with greater coherence, optimized biochemical pathways and improved overall physiology, especially as you live in greater emotional wellness from honoring the union of the heart and spirit with the mind and body.

After months or years of hormone support, you may begin to notice subtle cues that remind you of where you were before you began treatment: restless sleep returning, irritability, breast tenderness, headaches, mental fog, high highs or low lows, or a sense that your once-stable energy feels “off.”

You may wonder why you are backtracking. Well, often times your doctor will also think you have backtracked or that you hit a dose tolerance that no longer alleviates your symptoms, and will think it’s time for an increase.

However, since you’ve made lifestyle adjustments and symptoms have returned, it’s time to look at the other side of the coin - Are you on too MUCH replacement? Is it time to reduce the dose?

Your intuition knows that answer. You may feel a shift in your receptivity to when you apply your treatment. You may have a subtle nudge, that your hormone replacement holds a different energy than when you first started. Remember, when you get more in tune with lifestyle alignment, your intuition grows stronger, and you’ve also improved your ability to “sense” it.

This is the same type of trust and listening you’ve worked on to align your mind with your heart. Only this time, because it’s around medicine, you may doubt it, only you're also recognizing the signs that make you trust your inclination.

So, let’s honor the inner voice, and work with medicine to help navigate what you’re picking up on.

If you haven’t done the inner work, the lifestyle work, it’s okay, the following information is relevant. And I’d like to encourage you to begin the inner work so that you can trust the wisdom within and discover a path of greater wellbeing.

Considerations and Next Steps

One challenge facing this situation is that many doctors are still not running diagnostic tests, and most often they work based on how you may be feeling. What makes this tough is you may not have a rolling biomarker trend to associate with your symptoms. That is okay. It’s never too late to start doing biomarker trends.

There are many HRT/BHRT protocols, but two common physiological approaches:

1. HRT/BHRT static doses of estrogens and progesterone, and maybe testosterone (if you pay out of pocket) over a 28 day cycle.

2. BHRT on a rhythmic dose, meaning the dosage mimics the natural fluctuations of a menstrual cycle over a 28 day cycle.

In either case, biomarker testing can be done to check serum levels of estrogen and progesterone, along with FSH, LH, and even a thyroid panel.

In the 1st approach, biomarker testing would show evidence/data for absorption and utilization of HRT, while also reporting respective levels. The test is typically done on any day in a 28 day cycle and represents a snapshot of your physiology.

On BRHT with a rhythmic cycle (2nd approach), often serum tests are conducted on Day 12 and Day 21 to assess hormone peaks, estrogen and progesterone, respectively. This also addresses absorption, utilization and levels.

If you haven’t had test done, and are starting to feel off - it’s simple…

Request the test.

There are menopause and HRT insurance codes to cover the costs of serum tests and since most doctors like to add the next level dose, it’s a good time to really partner with your doctor on these next steps versus stepping back and ignoring your inner voice.

What to Re/Evaluate:

• Serum for estradiol, estrone, progesterone, LH, FSH, testosterone, SHBG, thyroid panel, DHEA, and cortisol rhythms.

• Urine Tests can help with metabolites and elimination products

  • DUTCH Complete is my favorite urine test: Out-of-pocket expense

    • Metabolite analysis (especially the 2-, 4-, and 16-hydroxy estrogen pathways) to assess detox and balance

    • Cortisol production, activation vs storage

Symptom Tracking

Symptom tracking is your key responsibility when on HRT or BHRT. Your doctor relies on your feedback and the more detailed your reporting, the better they can tailor your care. This is truly a case of helping them help you.

Symptom tracking + testing form a living map. It’s unreasonable to rely on lab tests alone without considering symptoms, and equally unwise to adjust doses based solely on symptoms without context.

Many clinicians default to increasing the dose, but as noted earlier, if you’ve been living the Temple Path, your optimized physiology may now find the same dose too high.

Remember, most doctors don’t often work with women who have entered this level of self-responsibility: integrating mindfulness, nourishment, and restorative living. You are doing it differently. Remind them of that and invite them to factor it into their analysis.

Common Symptoms to Track:

Interpreting Your Labs

If your labs show:

• Adequate levels, but you’re symptomatic and your body whispers “too much,”

• High levels with balanced ratios, but symptoms persist and your intuition still says “too much,”
  

Then, it’s too much.

Here’s an interesting thing about the biochemistry of hormones: they have both positive and negative feedback loops. Excess hormones, especially estrogen or progesterone, can mimic deficiency symptoms through receptor desensitization or altered metabolism. When this happens, your body may feel low even when your labs look high, which is why both symptom tracking and testing are essential.

Additional Guidance

• Emphasise the clinical context: Symptoms (sleep, mood, libido, hot flashes, breast/pelvic comfort), physical findings, and lab results must all be weighed together. Labs alone are never the whole answer.

• Because hormone levels can fluctuate (especially estrogens, progesterone), one test is a snapshot. If a level is near a boundary but symptoms suggest “too high” (or “too low”), then consider repeating the test, looking at metabolite testing (for example estrogen metabolites), or altering route/dose and then re‐testing.

• When using a static dose, if you see very high levels without symptoms of over-replacement, or conversely low levels despite full dose and symptoms persist, then absorption/metabolism/distribution need reviewing (skin vs oral vs patch, liver clearance, BMI/fat distribution, SHBG alterations).

• For safety and long-term care: annual review (or every 6-12 months) is common once stable. Request additional review if symptoms arise prior to the annual review.

Rebalancing:

Rebalancing doesn’t mean stopping replacement, it means fine tuning. Small dose reductions, pausing certain applications, or altering timing (morning vs evening, transdermal vs oral) can restore harmony.

Your doctor will give some suggestions and this is when you want to feel the agreement. Don’t agree if you don’t emotionally, spiritually, mentally align. Let your words reflect an authentic yes from within.

Trust that you will recognize it - just like when you find that perfect shoe! The beautiful bracelet. That gorgeous crystal. The right answer will make you smile!

Closing:

Health, biology, wellbeing - it’s not static. It is a living conversation of human existence. Your hormones are part of that sacred dialogue, and sometimes the most sophisticated medicine is reducing treatment.

There comes a point in every healing journey when the body has learned enough from the medicine and begins to lead the way again. When you’ve cultivated alignment through nourishment, rest, movement, and inner coherence, your biochemistry evolves with you. What once needed external support may now only need subtle guidance.

Medicine is most powerful when it partners with consciousness, your consciousness.

So, listen closely. The whisper of “too much” is not resistance, it’s refinement. It’s the sign of your physiology integrating what your spirit has been practicing: balance, trust, and attunement. Think of the hermetic principle, “as within so without”. The spirit is within, the body, without.

The true art of hormone therapy lies in partnership, between medicine and mindfulness, data and intuition, the body’s wisdom and your willingness to listen. When medicine, lifestyle, and consciousness unite, healing becomes an embodied art, a rhythm you live as an attunement of aligning biochemical balance with the harmony of a well-lived life.

Much love, trust and balance,

Dr. Ellie

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or medical services, medical diagnoses, or medical treatment that would otherwise be given by a licensed medical provider. Talk with your clinician on what options may work for you in your personal journey.

News Flash!

FDA Approved: A New Non-hormonal Hot Flash Drug

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has now approved elinzanetant, branded Lynkuet, for the treatment of moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes and night sweats) due to menopause. Lynkuet is a once-daily, hormone-free oral medication.

This drug is a dual neurokinin receptor antagonist: it blocks both NK1 and NK3 signaling in the brain’s thermoregulatory network, specifically acting on KNDy neurons (kisspeptin / neurokinin B / dynorphin), which are now understood to be central in triggering hot flashes. By dampening that misfiring thermostat loop, Lynkuet reduces both frequency and severity of hot flashes.

In Phase III OASIS trials, women saw clinically meaningful drops in hot flash counts by week 4, with improvements sustained out to 12 weeks and continued benefit through 52 weeks in extension data.

Why this matters clinically:

• It’s not estrogen or hormone therapy. That is critical for women who either cannot use menopausal hormone therapy (for example, some cancer survivors) or those who prefer to avoid hormones.

• It works at night. Night sweats and 2–3 a.m. “thermal wake-ups” are among the most disruptive symptoms. Trial data showed reductions in both daytime and nocturnal vasomotor symptoms.

• Safety is being watched, but to date, the most common adverse effects in trials were fatigue, dizziness, headache, and mild GI symptoms. There is monitoring for liver enzyme elevation, and patients are advised to avoid grapefruit and to use caution with drowsiness.

In fact, until recently, the only FDA-approved nonhormonal drug in this class for menopausal vasomotor symptoms in the U.S. was fezolinetant (an NK3 receptor antagonist).

Elinzanetant expands that space by blocking both NK3 and NK1, which may influence not only flash intensity, but also sleep disturbance associated with flashes. We touched on both of these a few weeks back in the Oct 7th Briefing.

The take-home: we are watching the formal birth of a new therapeutic category in menopause that is centrally acting, non-hormonal, flash-specific neuromodulators.

This is the kind of innovation women have been told doesn’t exist. It’s also a testament to the deeper scientific investigations on the complexities of menopausal biology and the multi-system involvement beyond the reproductive organs.

Mechanism matters here. Both of these current non-hormonal drugs are neuromodulating, vs hormone modulating. Menopause medicine is an exciting place to be - we are on the precipice of great change for women.

Executive Summary

That surge of heat in your face and chest, the snap-awake at 3 a.m. in a sweat, the daytime wave of irritability and pressure, is beyond simply “hormones dropping.” It’s a mixed biosystem intertwining the thermoregulation system, the nervous system, the circadian timing, and blood sugar control; all trying to renegotiate safety at midlife as a vasomotor response.

Hot flashes are not random. They’re not “you being dramatic,” and you’re finally not expected to just tolerate them as a normal passage of menopause.

Here’s where you have empowerment. You don’t have to keep guessing or sensing your body’s changes on your own. You now have science and medicine to help validate and affirm how your lifestyle is impacting your health, for better or for worse.

And what could be better than the mechanisms of a HOT FLASH to lead the way!

In my work with women in perimenopause and post-menopause, I teach what science has shown around the “heat valve” being governed by three levers working together:

• nervous system load (are you in sympathetic overdrive),

• circadian rhythm and sleep regulation (is your body aligned with light/dark timing),

• and metabolic steadiness (is your blood sugar spiking and crashing, especially at night).

When those three are regulated, the heat valve eases and vasomotor activity goes back to running smoothly again. Heat can release without hijacking you into a hot flash at anytime, anywhere, and no warning alarms to run for cover.

Inside the full article, I’ll walk you through several practices that are powerful whether or not medical intervention is used. All of these practices are backed by clinical trial evidence and biology:

• The seven-breath “Cooling the Fire” practice to calm the nervous system.

• The Light Discipline on how to live 30/1/1 as a circadian rhythm reset.

• The Sleep Window plan to train your body when to settle.

• How to structure evening meals to reduce the 3 a.m. glucose crash-surge-flash cycle.

• A one-week self-tracking template you can take to your clinician so you’re bringing data.

We will move through four lenses. First, how Qigong and Tai Chi style practice helps guide heat back down through breath and calms the nervous system. Second, how circadian timing and sleep interact with vasomotor symptoms and those 3 a.m. wake ups. Third, why blood sugar stability matters more than most people are told. Fourth, how to live this inside an actual week as a lifestyle map.

If you’re burned out, overheated, not sleeping, or waking angry in a body that won’t cool, peri- or post-menopausal, or just wanting to feel better overall and perpetuate Vital Health, this article is for you!

Grab a pen and a journal, a hot cup of tea, and join me for a read.

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Most of us know the feeling of moving through a day on momentum alone. The kettle sings, the dog needs to go outside, makeup and breakfast intersect at the vanity, a message arrives, a meeting begins before the breath has fully landed — and we continue on this thread for the rest of the day. We carry ourselves across thresholds without arriving in ourselves first, and somehow get accustomed to the drive adrenaline provides.

Qigong teaches another way. It teaches the art of sensing before acting, of breathing before speaking, of letting the body remember its natural rhythm so the mind can soften and the heart can lead. This is the spirit of Moving Stillness.

In practice, we begin by touching the earth with awareness so that our feet truly find the ground. The knees soften and the pelvis settles into its natural bowl. The breath drops lower and widens; the shoulders release; the jaw softens; the tip of the tongue gently rests behind the front teeth on the roof of the mouth.

From here, movement arises rather than being pressed into existence. The arms lift because the breath invites them to. The weight shifts because the body is organized around a steady center.

Qigong and Tai Chi reveal that the space between forms is a teacher in itself. The transitions between forms, between inhales and exhales are where presence heightens, where intention becomes clear, and where movement and meaning merge.

In those few moments of transition (of breath, of awareness, of presence) one experiences life as a moving meditation. To the observer, Qigong appears as graceful synchronicity of movement, breath, energy, intention and subtle shifts they can’t describe. Yet beneath the visible flow lies an ancient truth: yang arises from yin, for yang to appear, yin must first yield; for a movement to rise, it must first lower; for a step forward, there must be counterbalance. Within these transitions, slow-controlled movement and embodied awareness sculpt the next form.

This same principle is true for our own lifestyle transitions. When we honor the space between one activity and the next, the nervous system experiences safety and coherence. Focus becomes clearer without rigidity. The day begins to flow without fraying our attention. We use the space in between to slow down so we can speed up, to sit so that we can rise, to repose so that we can act.

Taoist wisdom calls this living with the current rather than against it. Yin receives and nourishes; Yang expresses and builds. They are not rivals but companions, trading places in reverence to sustain the larger movement of life. When Yin has replenished, Yang acts with clarity. When Yang has expressed, Yin restores the well.

Health is not a fixed point. It is a living conversation between these two states. As is lifestyle. In the language of daily life this becomes a simple practice. We choose fewer, truer actions and we give them our full presence. We let breath lead and timing follow. We allow pauses to gather wisdom rather than fearing that a pause means we are falling behind.

Midlife draws this lesson close. The old pace can no longer carry the weight of a full calendar and a divided body–mind–heart–spirit. The body asks us to listen in a new way when sleep changes, focus drifts, or anxiety hums beneath the surface. It is easy to believe the only story is aging or hormone decline, but often, it is the lost rhythm, the forgotten pace, that quietly dulls a woman’s radiance.

When we steady the pace of life, and move as we do in Qigong, the whole day changes. We become less brittle and less scattered. We begin to meet the doorways of our life with awareness and step through them with a quiet authority. We live the moving stillness way, living in a moving meditation.

This way of living may sound like a spiritual practice hidden inside ordinary movement, but it is also deeply physiological uniting the body and life with a natural rhythm of vital life force energy. It is a refinement of how purpose travels through a human life. We let the inhale gather us into one piece. We let the exhale settle us into the next right action. We speak plainly. We carry ourselves with kindness. We end what we begin with care, so the nervous system can trust that one loop has closed and the next can open cleanly.

From this ground, the practical becomes elegant:

• Before the next meeting, feel your feet.

• Place one hand on the lower belly and take a longer exhale.

• Let the shoulders drop by themselves.

• Name the next right action in one clear sentence.

• Walk to it without haste or urgency, but rather slow and controlled.

• When you finish write one line about what you learned.

Transition. Arrive. Presence. Complete. Reflect. These five movements turn a busy schedule into a coherent sequence. They are small gestures, but they change how attention behaves in the body, and how energy moves through the day.

The MenoPace Upgrade was born from this understanding: that the still point within movement is not a luxury for quiet days, but the center that holds when life is full. It is a moving stillness method that translates the inner logic of Qigong into a living cadence for modern responsibility. It honors the body’s language, respects the heart’s timing, and creates sacred space in the in-between.

Qigong extends beyond mind and body where it builds an inner alignment that allows us to know our true nature in mind, body, heart, and spirit. From this recognition, choices become cleaner. The right yes is easier to give. The necessary no is easier to speak. Joy returns in reliable ways because attention is no longer scattered across too many thresholds. It is gathered where you are, and it moves with you to what is next.

None of this requires perfect discipline, only the willingness to arrive. One breath is enough to begin. Feel the feet. Let the breath fall lower. Soften the shoulders. Sense the quiet between the last thing and the next thing. Step through with intention, not reaction.

When we live from this rhythm, life itself becomes our living Qigong form, where each moment a brushstroke of presence appears. The joy that once felt elusive no longer hides in the future or the past; it lives in the gentle continuity of breath, in the awareness that we are always arriving. Moving Stillness isn’t a goal to master, it’s a way of remembering that the sacred pulse of vitality was never lost, only waiting to be felt again.

In much love, light, peace and joy,

Dr. Ellie

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or medical services, medical diagnoses, or medical treatment that would otherwise be given by a licensed medical provider. Talk with your clinician on what options may work for you in your personal journey.

Executive Summary

• Why now: Menopause research is accelerating beyond hot flashes to include microbiome shifts, brain-immune interactions, and the economics of midlife health.

• Sleep & Circadian Health: Across the transition, sleep tends to get lighter and more fragmented, especially with night-time hot flashes. That’s not just inconvenient; it reverberates through mood, attention, and metabolic health. Treating sleep as a first-order target (not a side note) often improves the whole symptom picture.

• Microbiome matters: Estrogen transitions reshape gut, oral, vaginal, and skin microbiomes, implicating infection risk, GSM, and oral health. This opens integrative avenues (dietary patterns, probiotics, local therapies) alongside standard care.

• Work & wellbeing: Symptom burden: more than menopausal status alone can affect concentration, sleep, and productivity. Recognition and accommodation reduce silent attrition and preserve earnings.

• Practical moves: Screen earlier (late 30s+), include microbiome-aware care, and align workplace support with clinical plans. Biomarker Testing Options.

What paid subscribers get today: The full briefing with clinical detail on sleep and circadian health, a concise microbiome roadmap, implications for practice and policy, and a clear set of take-aways you can implement this week.

Grab your journal and pen, a hot cup of tea, and join me for a read.

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Keep reading for a free gift in honor of World Menopause Day!

Free Section

By our thirties many of us are already living on a fast track: calendars packed, goals stacked, a five-to-ten-year plan humming in the background. We say yes to the extra project, yes to the carpool, yes to the late text that asks for one more thing before bed.

The week fills, and from a distance it looks like abundance: work, partnership, family, community, a spiritual life, and a handful of practices meant to keep us healthy. Yet the lived experience can feel different.

The day becomes a series of sprints between obligations, juggling many hats and forgetting to pencil in the time to transition from one activity to the next. We rush the in-between; parking lots, doorways, handoffs, frantic, shouting spells we later apologize for, and then expect ourselves to arrive composed, as though everything is amazing, and we walk in either smiling or venting.

That is the moment the nervous system learns to brace, to posture, to contradict itself. And that very physiological polarity creates survival mode tension. It is also why joy can get lost in the noise, even when life looks good.

Midlife makes this pattern louder. Declining hormones and a haywire nervous system seem to be the culprit, or are blamed as failing biology, but they are instruments of feedback, of communication, and hoping that we’ll pay attention and make a change.

What you label “anxiety,” “brain fog,” or “I just don’t feel like myself” may actual reflect a problem with the pace of life, in addition to an outpaced capacity of life. Here we will focus on the pace and the transition between spaces of activities, how the body is telling you the truth about the velocity and the way you cross from one thing to the next.

If you only increase or focus on production (output) without also expanding your resources (capacity), you will eventually produce more than you can handle. This will lead to problems such as burnout, reduced quality, or delays, or extreme peri-/post-menopausal symptoms!

If you adjust the in-between, the transitions, the same life will naturally unveil a designed life that gets restructured to a truer capacity. And in that process, your joy will return, it has the room to return, and it becomes deeply felt in the midst of an active life,

The shift I teach is practical: regulate pace and transitions so attention stays continuous and the body can trust your day. It is a redesign of the spaces between activities to help reframe the capacity of life from a place of understanding your values and how to create a continuous thread of peaceful living

It’s generally simple with these basic principles:.

Transition. Arrive. Presence. Complete. Reflect.

If you want a quick win now, do three things today:

1. Add a seven-to-ten-minute buffer between two heavy blocks.

2. Use one plain, kind boundary line: I can stay for 45 minutes (for a 1 hr meeting) to allow adequate time to transition between appointments.

3. End the day with two sentences: “I slowed here ___.” “Tomorrow’s bridge ___.”

You will feel the difference by tonight because you changed the handoff, not the whole day.

The heart of what follows in the full article is about shifting the design of daily living so that in the reality of creating the dream, you’re also creating joy:

I call this shift Moving Stillness. Stillness is not the absence of movement; it is the quality of how you move. When you root into calm with felt feet, a lower breath, and a soft jaw, urgency thins and precision returns. Speech becomes economical. Actions become clean. The day shifts from a string of collisions to one continuous thread. You do not step away from life to find peace. You let everyday movement become the meditation. Walking to the sink, buckling a seatbelt, passing through a doorway. This allows physiology to naturally lower allostatic load. You move with a spiritual presence rather than adrenaline. It is practical care that reduces errors, clarifies boundaries, calms the body and keeps the heart open.

In the article below I describe how to see the pattern, how to change it, how to keep your life full without running yourself thin, and how to recognize when you’ve come to the crossroad of making a shift to alter your trajectory toward Vital Health.

In celebration of World Menopause Day, October 18th, I’m also offering guidance documents that walk you through how to upgrade your life through basic reset strategies that won’t feel like you’re abandoning your life.

These downloads are being hosted on the MenoQigong website where you can get other free guides and gifts with a single click.

• Free download: The MenoPace Upgrade - LITE ( 5 pages: bridges, boundary scripts, and a 7-day tracker).

• Full system: The MenoPace Upgrade: A Moving Stillness Method (21 pages: complete Script Bank, Edge Check visuals, Redesign playbook, worksheets, metrics, and a final reflection). World Menopause Day pricing available during the month of October!

Happy World Menopause Day!

If you’re ready for the complete article….

Grab a journal and pen, a hot cup of tea, and join me for a read!

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Enjoy these bite-size briefings to stay current in a rapidly evolving health landscape where we discuss the latest in midlife women’s health, evidence updates and complement lifestyle strategies.

Grab your journal, a pen, a hot cup of tea, and join me for a read.

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or medical services, medical diagnoses, or medical treatment that would otherwise be given by a licensed medical provider. Talk with your clinician on what options may work for you in your personal journey.

Executive Summary (Free Access)

Menopause research in 2025 has expanded beyond symptom control. The scientific conversation now reaches into liver health, metabolism, cancer prevention, digital health, and earlier symptom onset in younger women. These findings reveal menopause as a systemic transition (thank god) not just hormonal decline but a reorganization of body, brain, and behavior (mind, body, heart & spirit).

This year’s breakthroughs include:

• Recognition of menopause as a metabolic inflection point linked to fatty liver and insulin resistance.

• New research showing that symptoms often begin decades earlier than most women realize.

• Evidence that certain hormone-based therapies, such as Duavee, might hold cancer-preventive potential.

• A global shift toward patient-driven research priorities, reshaping what studies get funded.

• The rise of digital health tools and AI as menopause companions: promising, but requiring ethical oversight.

In the full brief below, we explore what these developments mean for clinical care with all medical references included at the end for more in-depth reading. Also included is how integrative lifestyle practices such as Qigong, Active Rest, and rhythmic living can help the body adapt to this profound evolutionary transition at any juncture of the transition. The younger a woman begins these lifestyle hacks the greater the ease of the transition and beyond.

🜂 Paid Subscriber Content Below 🜂

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or medical services, medical diagnoses, or medical treatment that would otherwise be given by a licensed medical provider. Talk with your clinician on what options may work for you in your personal journey.

Menopause Now: What Changed, What Matters

Menopause medical care keeps moving, and the practical question remains the same: What helps most for whom, and at what cost? Three fronts deserve your attention right now: 1. targeted nonhormonal options for hot flashes, 2. disciplined use of hormone therapy (HT) with honest talk about cognition, and 3. clearer guidance on genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM). Together, they let clinicians and patients make decisions that are more precise than a simple “HT or not.”

After reviewing these medical option, I provide lifestyle complements that can be tried in the absence or as a complement to medical intervention.

Executive Summary

Menopause care advanced this year on three fronts. First, nonhormonal hot-flash treatments matured beyond antidepressants. Fezolinetant (an NK3 antagonist) remains effective but now carries a boxed liver-injury warning—so clinicians build in baseline and early follow-up labs. A second NK3 antagonist, elinzanetant, produced strong phase-3 and 52-week data and is approved in some countries; a U.S. decision is pending. These options expand choices for women avoiding systemic hormones.

Second, hormone therapy (HT) is still the most effective treatment for vasomotor symptoms and helps GSM and bone while on therapy, but it is not recommended to prevent chronic disease (heart disease, dementia). Timing matters: benefits generally outweigh risks for healthy women under 60 or within 10 years of menopause onset, with careful route/dose selection (e.g., transdermal estradiol and appropriate progesterone). On cognition, new tau-PET studies in older women suggest faster biomarker accumulation with remote HT exposure; use HT for symptoms, not brain prevention, and pair care with proven brain-health basics (sleep, exercise, metabolic control).

Third, for genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM), cross-disciplinary guidance is clearer: local low-dose vaginal estrogen is first-line (including to help prevent recurrent UTIs); lasers remain outside routine care. Early, local treatment is often transformative.

Paid section includes: full evidence write-up with references, a practical decision flow you can take to clinic, and a targeted lifestyle complement (GSM comfort strategies, cognition-reserve routines, and autonomic co-regulation for hot flashes).

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Menopause is far more than a temporary hormone shift, in fact it is a turning point for the integrity and endurance of your bones for the rest of your life. Most women enter their pre-menopause years with strong, quiet bones, yet the years around the final menstrual period show the steepest shift in bone biology and most women are not presented with how to address it.

Many women continue to believe that bone loss is something to be concerned about in their 70’s and older, yet, large cohort studies show that the fastest bone loss begins about one year before the final menstrual period and continues for roughly two to three years after the last period, with loss slowing down, but not stopping, in later post-menopause.

In the lumbar spine and hip, up to a decade’s loss can occur in this narrow window, which is why timely attention matters, knowledge matters, guidance matters.

In fact many this is the time many women find themselves complaining about bone pain, or joint pain, or even muscle pain and believe it’s simply part of natural aging. Hmm…

Let’s see what the stats say:

Among U.S. women aged 50 and older, low bone mass is strikingly common. In 2017–2018, NHANES reported that about half of women 50 and older had low bone mass and about one in five had osteoporosis; age-adjusted prevalence across all adults 50 and older was 43.1 percent for low bone mass and 12.6 percent for osteoporosis.

Approximately one in two women over age fifty will break a bone because of it, and hip fractures carry serious consequences, including about a twenty percent mortality in the year that follows. In my view, this is a serious outcome that requires greater attention.

Many women, including myself, are not paying much attention to this, certainly not in the way we pay attention to our brain fog, or hot flashes or UTI’s. Much of that is because we’re told that bone pain, joint pain, are relatively normal and we don’t feel the same daily annoyance of the other menopausal symptoms, and therefore tend not to make it top of mind. The underlying truth though, is that underneath your skin and muscles, a different story is unfolding.

The fact is, most women seeing their OBGYN in the pre-menopause window are not being educated on how to prevent bone loss, or being informed that they should be concerned with bone loss in the near future. This lack of “warning” continues the false myth that osteoporosis is a concern for later in life, grandma’s life.

There is also a higher risk for women who undergo, or have undergone a partial or complete hysterectomy where there is a rapid cutoff of hormone production, especially if done during pre-menopausal years. [I was one of these women, and my doctor did not recognize the impact or communicate with me that I needed to be concerned with this, and it ended up being one of the most difficult medical conditions I’ve dealt with over these last several years. I made a short YouTube video.]

These statistics also increase over the age of 65, underscoring the importance of education, proactive measures and preventative care. This is even more important because when a woman reaches the age of 65, the average life expectancy grows by greater than 20 years, with the average age, in the US, reaching 85+. And in that time window, we need our bones!

In spite of the statistics around bone loss, it is not a foregone conclusion that this will happen to your bones!

The interesting component that we really want to focus on is that our bones can remain healthy and vital post-menopause because they are alive, dynamic and wildly resilient.

Under the microscope healthy bone can look like a renovating city with many construction crews constantly being called in to remodel, reorganize and restructure.

At any moment small teams are on site, clearing what is worn, laying new framework, and checking the load-bearing frames.

These teams have names: Osteoblasts, Osteoclasts and Osteocytes.

They are powerful teammates and turn to our physiology, biochemistry, hormone signals, nervous system, our movement and nourishment to know what to do and when to do it, but if these systems themselves are not optimized or in a state of homeostasis, these teams adjust and in turn optimize according to the biological environment.

That’s great news, because that means we have a lot of empowerment to help steer our biological environment.

In today’s newsletter you meet the living architecture of healthy bone and the pivotal years of when it becomes most vulnerable, yet most responsive, the MenoJourney Transition! I’ve explored all the latest medical literature (references provided), synthesized the data, and examine the translation of science to clinical impacts.

I take you through the biology and then provide both medical intervention practices and personal empowerment practices that help maintain bone health, life long. You’ll also read about the non-negotiables for bone health, the things to consider in the first five years, and then a weekly plan for bone practices that pairs strength training with Qigong, food planning with calcium anchors and protein targets, and other important interventions to help maintain bone health as you age.

Consider this your investment for the woman who will look back at this time, and give gratitude for all that you did with her in mind.

Grab that journal, a pen, a hot cup of tea, and join me for a read.

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For all my readers, I hope you enjoy this free post on the beautiful art of Qigong and it’s potential on the heart and longevity during the MenoTransition and beyond!

Qigong is often described as a gentle choreography of breath, energy flow, movement and grounding oneself with the earth while connecting with the heavens. It looks simple from the outside, yet inside it quietly rewires how we relate to our bodies, our thoughts, and the pulse of life itself.

In fact Qigong is better known as a practice of the internal art of Know Thyself.

In regular practice we learn to connect the mental with the physical, the physical with the spiritual, and the spiritual with the heart center through he power of breath. We often hear about the mind, body, spirit trifecta, however, seldom do we consider the impact on the heart center, or the energy that can emanate from the heart center.

The more we open the body’s channels and soothe the mind through a practice like Qigong, the more readily the spirit becomes felt as presence. In the presence of the spirit, the heart awakens as a bridge between worlds, and everyday life begins to flow in a different frequency, a different vibration, a different overture. The symphony plays a new concerto, composed, by life itself, and you, the receiver of its blessings.

Spiritual traditions describe the heart as a temple of wisdom. In Qigong we experience this directly. The messages of spirit arise in the heart as felt-sense and clarity, and then translated through the mind and the body into right speech, right thought, right action, and right emotion. Over time this translation becomes fluent and you become proficient in the experience of it that you begin to fully embody it.

For example, you may enter a room with an unmistakable steadiness that somehow draws in the attention of those around you. They are simply drawn to look over in your direction and to watch you for a moment, perhaps smile, and then return to what they were doing. You may wonder what just happened. You happened.

In that moment, you become a beacon of light, not because you try to shine, but because your body is simply present in the light of your spirit and in your way of being. Your spirit invites your essence to be present, and you simply become the being of your natural existence.

There is poetry here, yes, but there is physiology too, important physiology that is essential for longevity and quality of life.

Why this Matters for Women During the MenoJourney

The human heart is far more than a cardiovascular pump or the place from which we love, or the center of our heartache. Its electrical activity actually produces the strongest biomagnetic signal of the body, measurable with sensitive instruments known as magnetometers. In clinical research this signal is captured as the magnetocardiogram.

Current biomedical instruments detect the heart’s magnetic field at short distances from the body, and there is promising research in quantum sensors that extend the range and practicality of measurement to further distances.

You may have also heard that the heart’s field reaches extraordinary distances, collapsing space and time, to be felt by someone in your inner circle living across the world. Spiritual lineages often speak in metaphors of boundless radiance and the ability for the heart energy to change lives across the world, and those images can be profoundly inspiring, as can the experience itself.

One instrument many of us are familiar with is the electrocardiogram (EKG/ECG). An EKG records the heart’s electrical activity from sensors on the skin, creating a waveform that reveals rate, rhythm, and conduction patterns. Clinicians read these patterns to identify issues such as arrhythmias, ischemia, electrolyte disturbances, or structural strain, and to also monitor how treatments are working.

The same signal can be analyzed for heart rate variability, which provides a window into the autonomic nervous system assessing balance and stress resilience. When stress is high and recovery is low, variability often narrows; when “stress management” techniques such as breathwork, meditation, exercise, and improved restorative sleep are practiced, variability tends to widen, reflecting a calmer, more adaptable nervous system and a healthier heart. In practice, EKG-guided insight pairs well with lifestyle and meditative practices to support both heart health and everyday steadiness.

Furthermore, it is well established that heart rate variability (HRV) is demonstrative of the flexibility of the autonomic nervous system (both parasympathetic and sympathetic), and it can be trained and strengthened through regular physical and meditative practice.

Qigong belongs to a family of “meditative movement” practices that consistently improve heart-rate variability, which is linked to vagal tone, stress resilience, and emotional regulation. In recent research on Tai Chi and Qigong, investigators report shifts toward parasympathetic balance and healthier variability patterns. These shifts are not merely technical, they map onto what practitioners feel as calm alertness, steadier moods, and a deeper ease in the body.

You’ve read some of my ideas on the Doing-Dosing Cortisol Loop as well as how perimenopause may be exacerbated by an inactive parasympathetic nervous system and an overactive, or worse yet, burned out sympathetic nervous system. I’m ever more convinced of these hypotheses as my understanding of Qigong and ancient wisdom grows deeper, but I digress. Let’s continue as I have more science to share.

There is a story about cellular aging that takes us beyond the science of the heart, but to the science of our DNA and our longevity. In 2009, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine honored Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak for discovering how telomeres protect chromosomes and how the enzyme telomerase maintains them. That work did not study Qigong directly, but it opened a door to understanding how stress, lifestyle, and contemplative practices might influence biological aging.

Subsequent small studies followed people engaging in comprehensive lifestyle programs that included “stress management” and contemplative practices.

Researchers observed increased telomerase activity over a few months and even lengthening of telomeres over several years; which some consider to be “reverse aging”. Separate research in intensive meditation settings linked positive psychological changes with higher telomerase activity. The evidence is still emerging and not a prescription to “cure aging,” but it suggests that what we do with our attention, breath, and daily choices can reach all the way into the nucleus of our cells, into our very DNA, and our longevity.

That’s powerful.

When we practice Qigong, we quiet the sympathetic urgency that keeps the body in vigilance, in doing, in moving from one place to the other. Randomized trials of Tai Chi, a martial form of Qigong, have demonstrated reductions in circulating inflammatory markers such as interleukin-6 among older adults with elevated levels, and gene-expression studies point to down-regulation of NF-κB–related inflammatory pathways.

This means there is a reduction in the inflammatory response that can get activated by an overly stimulated sympathetic nervous system, which can also cause havoc on the heart!

These shifts echo what practitioners often report. Sleep deepens, the mind settles, the body recovers its rhythm, and mood becomes more buoyant, intentions become more clear, and a joy of life rises from within as the confidence in the essence of spirit is present.

For women navigating perimenopause and post-menopause, these changes matter. Hormonal transitions can amplify sleep disruption, mood variability, and vasomotor symptoms. Carefully designed studies with postmenopausal women suggest that Qigong programs improve the severity of menopausal symptoms and enhance health-related quality of life. Other trials show improvements in anxiety, depression, and sleep quality. These are gentle, accessible practices that meet the body where it is and help it remember coherence of mind, body, heart and spirit.

Finding Peace & Trust in Wu Wei

All of this brings us back to the heart center as an experiential bridge between the physical and the spiritual. In Qigong the physical body becomes less obstructed, breath moves without strain, and attention grows spacious. When that happens the heart begins to lead, not as sentimentality, but as an integrated intelligence uniting spiritual with physical.

The heart’s rhythm entrains the brain’s rhythms, posture aligns with intention, and the mind stops arguing with the moment. From this place, intuitive messages become practical guidance, and signs and symbols appear like red and green lights to help you discern.

The body recognizes what food, what movement, and what pace of life serves it best: it comes to Know Thyself. The mind recognizes which thoughts are true enough to live by. Speech grows kinder and cleaner because it comes from coherence rather than reactivity, or more simply, from the mind alone.

Practice, life practice, is a Temple Path cobblestone of life. The more you practice the more you get familiar with what feels right for yourself. In Qigong, you first learn to gather the energy. using the power of breath, your attention, and simple postures. Your practice continues to cultivate energy, circulate it and then ultimately transmit the energy.

Transmission is not something mystical you force, or have to work on. It is what happens when a coherent field of energy meets the world. A coherence of mind, body, heart and spirit, accepting your very nature and trusting in your very nature. The greater the coherence the further the distance of your magnetic field is detected by the magnetometers - it all ties together!

You will see casual shifts in your day life. People you’ve never met before will feel relaxed around you, their shoulders drop, and they seem to breathe a little deeper, without knowing why. You become, in the best way, contagious, and soon enough people just begin to approach you, even for a simple hello. A moth to a flame phenomenon.

There is a beautiful paradox here. The more we practice expanding from the heart, from living the essence of our spirit, the less we conjure reality to be in our favor from our mental perspective, and the more we receive and open ourselves to our deeper alignment, receiving the flow of life. And the more we let go, the less stress we endure, and the less stress we endure, the more active our parasympathetic nervous system, and the more we engage in the flow.

You begin to recognize that there is a current already flowing beneath your plans. The Tao Te Ching calls this current the Way, the Tao. When your intention is aligned with that current, and you are in the flow of Tao, you experience Wu Wei. Wu Wei is the art of non-doing, or effortless action, or effortless effort. It is not passive, not inert, but rather that state of “going with the flow”. You still make decisions, and you take action towards your intentions, however, the work itself feels like listening and responding, versus conjuring and pursuing.

In the state of Wu Wei, you become more inviting of life’s blessings, and trusting in receiving the natural flow of life, and in this state of being, the parasympathetic nervous system is activated and the sympathetic nervous system is in active balance, resulting in what I like to call moments of Active Rest (in the West we call it “stress management”.

Either way, life’s orchestration becomes more obvious, and the sense of having to push everything uphill softens. The paradox? Well, you have to begin to trust in an alternative approach to life, which in and of itself can feel stressful, over-activating the sympathetic nervous system.

Often times we would rather continuing trusting in what we’ve been doing rather than trust in something new, let alone something that asks us to release our thoughts and let our heart guide the way. Only we know within that something needs to give.

The beauty of Qigong practice is that it calms the nervous system while allowing us time to get familiar with opening the heart and with living from the essence of spirit.

Bridging Science & Spirituality of the Heart

Practices that raise heart-rate variability and settle inflammation also tend to improve cognitive flexibility and emotional regulation. In everyday terms, that means we notice opportunities that fit, we say no to what does not, and we recover quickly when life surprises us. The spiritual language says the same thing with different poetry. When the heart leads, the path reveals itself.

Daily Qigong is not a heroic undertaking. Thirty minutes in the morning can set the tone for hours if not the entire day. As you become familiar with the movements, you can practice for a few quiet breaths between meetings, at the kitchen sink, or before sleep. Soon your lifestyle includes Qigong throughout the day as simply breath and movement.

Over weeks, and especially around the 100 day mark, the effects begin to compound. The nervous system becomes more balanced and you begin to feel energy in your day, inflammation markers tend to move in healthier directions, and you notice you’re more mentally clear and focused.

Over years, you notice you no longer live from stress as a default driving force, but rather a calmness and grounded-ness that helps you respond to life. The mind remains capable, yet it no longer needs to dominate. The heart is now in conversation with the mind, and the spirit is no longer relegated to weekend or annual retreats.

The spirit is present in moments that may have previously caused frustration: the grocery store line, the decisions you make about your work, the red-taillight traffic jams. You begin to magnetize a reality that fits your deepest integrity, not because the universe is delivering wish lists, but because you are coherent enough to recognize, discern and cultivate what belongs and what doesn’t. The Law of Alignment.

During perimenopause and post-menopause, shifts in estrogen, sleep, and stress responsiveness can narrow the “window” of regulation. Gentle coherence practices such as Qigong forms, breath work and heart-centered attention have the ability to expand that window. They support vagal tone, improve HRV, and help the brain-heart loop move from vigilance to spacious presence. That presence is what many are sensing when they say, “Your energy changes the room.” It’s the lived, embodied side of the heart’s field, and somehow subtle, measurable and undeniably felt.

The heart center is not a metaphor you need to believe in. It is a place you can feel when you give it room. Qigong gives it room. Spirit gives it voice. Science helps us put words and comprehension to what’s happening and encourages humility as we continue to explore. The Nobel work on telomeres reminds us that what seems intangible can become measurable. The trials on heart-rate variability and inflammation tell us that gentle practice changes how we age and how we heal. The ancient teachings remind us that the deepest medicine is alignment.

When the heart leads, there is less noise. When the body is anchored in the spirit, there is less fear. When the mind serves the heart, there is more clarity. Qigong is a powerful pathway into this light of alignment. Practice, and let the light do what light does, illuminate the path.

Find your practice and trust the process. In person practice is the most powerful and I encourage you to look in your area for a place of practice. In the meantime, all are welcomed to begin a practice at The MenoJourney Sanctuary, MenoQigong. This offering is intended to provide you with a resource for self exploration in the art of Qigong. It has certainly been pivotal in changing my own MenoJourney, and yes, I believe all women would benefit from this practice.

As always, pair practice with appropriate medical care. Qigong is a very gentle practice and supports healing and alignment, and it sits beautifully alongside evidence-based treatments and the wisdom of your own body.

LabNotes on the Science if you care to read more in depth:

• In studies with postmenopausal women, Qigong programs improved the severity of menopausal symptoms and enhanced sleep quality, anxiety, depression, and health-related quality of life. PubMedLippincott Journals

• The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine recognized the discovery of how telomeres protect chromosomes and how telomerase maintains them. This foundational work inspired later clinical studies exploring how lifestyle and contemplative practices relate to telomere biology. NobelPrize.org

• Lifestyle programs that included “stress-management” and contemplative practices were associated with increased telomerase activity over three months and with telomere lengthening over five years in small cohorts. Intensive meditation training has also been linked with higher telomerase activity. These findings are promising and still developing. The Lancet+1PubMed

• The heart’s magnetic field is the largest biomagnetic signal of the body and is detectable with sensitive instruments near the chest. Heart-rate variability reflects autonomic flexibility and can be favorably influenced by Tai Chi and Qigong. PMC+1Lippincott Journals

• Trials in older adults show Tai Chi can reduce inflammatory markers such as interleukin-6 and down-regulate pro-inflammatory gene expression. Reviews of mind-body practices, including Qigong, report beneficial shifts across immune and inflammatory outcomes. PubMedeScholarshipPLOS

You are your best alchemist!

In Love, Light, Peace and Joy,

Dr. Ellie

Menopause is more than just a biological event, it’s an invitation for spiritual and philosophical growth, right? From the experience of a postmenopausal woman, YES! A resounding YES.

But isn’t it strange then, that this topic is not addressed by our well known philosophers, spiritualists? Did it ever exist?

Many of us think about the topic of philosophy as contemplations reflecting on society, the human spirit, life, our individual existence, and so on, and while philosophical traditions may offer tools for navigating one’s life, there is not much that actually discusses the journey of menopause for women.

Menopause is a universal biological transition amongst women, but how it is understood, experienced, and supported is predominantly shaped by the family lineage, or maybe by one's community culture and the broader societal culture from which she resides versus hearing about it from well known philosophies of life.

In fact, as I dive into different philosophies I can’t find much of anything until the 20th and 21st century. While I’m not surprised, I can’t help but feel alarmed. How is it that the life of a woman has been given such little attention on this topic. Did our philosophers not connect that this time in a woman’s life was embedded with great philosophical and spiritual growth, or that as women transitioned past menopause they somehow became more involved in spiritual leadership, community healing, wisdom tellers, perhaps even oracles. Were they oblivious or just plain resistant to honoring such a time for the life a woman that they neglected to write about, or opine about it?

Or did they, and it remained in a black void somewhere?

Perhaps, historically, philosophy would not have centered around menopause explicitly, especially within the dominant patriarchal traditions of Western thought. However, the themes the menopause transition raises on transformation, mortality, identity, embodiment, and the passage of time, have always belonged to philosophy’s domain.

And this is what we are going to embark upon in today’s Newsletter! Join me as I overlay some of the most historical philosophies onto the experience of menopause and the self-reflections that many women contemplate. We’ll also look at how different cultures embrace or vilify this time in a woman’s life. And of course I have some wonderful practices that lean on ancient philosophies to help you embody this beautiful time in life with tools of empowerment!

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Many of us have seen the transformative nature of the garden. Where each seed, each sprout, each unfolding leaf whispers the language of transformation where suddenly the garden awakens with abundance as though a quiet miracle has occurred.

This reminds me of the power of MenoQigong. Similar to the garden, when tended with presence, love and devotion, the garden continues to impress us with life force energy beyond the fruits, the stems, the roots, the flowers by inviting us to alchemize the potential into teas, balms, oils, candles, medicine and perfumes. These gifts are far beyond the presence of the moment of the garden, they are the lasting effects of life force energy, Qi. Teaching us that the power of Qi cycles from becoming, transforming, and becoming again as a beautiful journey of creation.

The garden teaches us how to listen with our hands, our breath, our spirit. And so it is true with MenoQigong.

MenoQigong draws from the same life force wellspring energy of Qi. Each breath, each spiral of the arms, each stillness of the stance is a cultivation of energy far beyond the moment it moves through us. Just as a rose becomes more than a flower as we drink our rose tea, or smell the perfume, our practice becomes more than a moment of cultivating stillness.

MenoQigong becomes a sacred harvest of vitality, insight, softness, and strength that continues to nourish long after the movement ends. The body becomes supple. The mind clear. The heart spacious. The spirit quietly luminous. Creativity abound.

So you see, just as the garden offers more than food, MenoQigong blossoms beyond the moment and becomes part of how we meet the world, how we care for others, how we root into something deeper than the noise from the lasting gifts of nourishment, beauty and wisdom.

MenoQigong classes are open. Come sign up and start of your transformative garden experience today.

Enjoy a 20% Discount when you purchase a package of 10 Sessions: 10PACK20

See you in practice,

Dr. Ellie

P.S. LittleCityFarm LA was my inspiration for the this writing.