Whatever comes to mind. Sometimes a story I read, sometimes something that came to me while holding my mala beads.
My coworker said stressed. My mom said fire. One word my language has that English can't hold — and a two-thousand-year-old way of reading the body as weather.
A bottle of melatonin gummies from a business trip, a wooden foot-soak basin from my mother — two civilizations answering the same sleepless night. Melatonin shouts "it's dark!" on behalf of the body. Foot soaking invites a mind that has been sprinting all day to finally stop. Insomnia is often not a sleep problem; it's the day's unpaid bill, collected at night. Settle the heart first, then the eyes.
A blonde girl on TikTok doing Ba Duan Jin with imperfect form. After three years of practice, I realize — it doesn't matter if your form is perfect. What matters is whether you're willing to give your body eight minutes a day.
After three weeks of overtime, my back started protesting. My mom pulled out a bamboo cup inherited from my grandmother and gave me my first cupping session. Seven circular marks — purple, black, red, pink — like moons on my back, like a map of my body.
When the temperature dropped, I felt cold to my bones. My mom pulled out moxa sticks and ginger, and gave me my first ginger moxibustion. The moment the heat penetrated through the ginger slice into my body, I understood what "penetration" means.
Mouth sores, acne, sore throat, swollen gums — why does Chinese medicine call all of these the same thing? After retracing a rough week, I started understanding what my body was saying.
A friend visited from the States and felt inexplicably heavy. I brewed adzuki bean tea and talked about dampness in Chinese medicine - not mysticism, just the body speaking.