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Project Candor: Ordinary People. Unexpected Stories
40 Years Navigating Two Worlds, with Dr. Greg Yuen | Ship's Log #42
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“Through mindful touch, we reconnect and restore our wholeness and health.” — Dr. Greg Yuen
Episode Summary
When Dr. Greg Yuen was twelve, his grandmother died — and at the funeral, placing paper money on her coffin and touching her pillow to say goodbye, he was hit by the realization that one day he would die too. He handled the fear the way a kid does (a lot of Snickers bars) and made himself a promise: he was going to find the secret to living forever. That vow launched a forty-year voyage between two worlds of healing.
Greg became a psychiatrist who prescribed pharmaceuticals for his patients while quietly avoiding them in his own life, studying qigong, tai chi, and massage instead. On this episode he and Jeanne dig into Do-in — the practice of mindful self-massage he now teaches — and the idea at its heart: where the mind goes, the chi goes. He walks Jeanne (and the listener) through a hands-on demonstration of feeling your own vital force, makes the case for treating the whole body rather than chasing one sore spot, and explains why the tools for your own healing are already in your two hands.
Then it's Two Truths & A Lie: a medical doctor turned fortune teller, a milk bone dog biscuit that helped heal a staph infection, and a psychiatrist who creates transformation through karaoke. Greg tells all three stories before revealing which one he made up — and closes with a self-healing message and a complimentary gift for listeners.
Guest Bio
After his grandmother died when he was twelve, Dr. Greg Yuen made a vow to find the secret to longevity. More than forty years later — as a psychiatrist, tai chi instructor, and licensed massage therapist — he teaches Do-in, the practice of mindful self-massage for radiant vitality. His message is simple: the tools for your own healing are already in your hands.
Guest Links
Website: https://gregyuenmd.com
Website (Do-in): https://do-in.us
Speaking: https://gregyuenMDspeaks.com
YouTube: Do-in International
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/greg-yuen-29423120
Guest CTA
Greg is offering Project Candor listeners a complimentary video of his 10 energizing pressure points — his go-to sequence for beating burnout and fatigue. Reach out to him at gregyuen@cs.com to connect and claim it.
Speaking Engagement CTA
Dr. Yuen leads Do-in workshops and speaks on natural healing, longevity, and the mind-body connection. Learn more at https://gregyuenMDspeaks.com.
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Cold Open
Dr. Greg YuenThe basic point of the win is to become mindful of your body. Connect your mind to your body. Okay? What does that mean? On a particular point, if you
Intro
Dr. Greg Yuenfocus there, the qi is going to gather. And if you get into the habit of connecting your mind to every point in your body, the qi is going to be circulating everywhere. And you're going to be at your top of health if you get that qi flowing everywhere in your whole body.
JeanneWelcome to Project Candor, where ordinary people share unexpected stories. I'm your host, Jeanne Andersen, and today's guest has spent more than four decades crossing the boundaries
Meet Dr. Greg Yuen
Jeannebetween Western medicine and ancient Eastern healing, driven by a vow he made to himself at the age of 12. After his grandmother died when he was 12, Dr. Greg Ewen handled his fear of death by vowing to find the secret to longevity. And now, after more than 40 years as a psychiatrist, Tai Chi instructor, and massage
Greg joins the conversation
Jeannetherapist, he is committed to sharing the practice of dough in mindful self-massage for radiant vitality. Dr. Yuan, welcome to Project Candor.
Dr. Greg YuenThank you for having me, Jeanne. I'm really happy to be here today.
JeanneYeah, it's gonna be so great to ask you some deep diving questions because I've talked to you before, but I haven't been able to ask you some of the burning questions I have for you. So we'll get started right now with questions. Is that good?
Dr. Greg YuenThat's great. Wonderful.
JeanneYou ready to go?
Dr. Greg YuenYes, let's do it.
JeanneOkay. You were 12 years old when your grandmother died, and instead of just grieving, you made a vow to figure out the secret to longevity. What was happening
A Vow at Twelve: Facing Death
Jeanneinside you at that age? You were very young. And how did that moment plant the seed for everything that followed?
Dr. Greg YuenWell, I was living away from my grandmother, but we spent some time together when I lived in her home. And as the oldest grandson in the family with a family name, I was kind of put at a special spot in the family. So I was like confronted like with her funeral. I had to do special kind of uh things like put paper money on her coffin and go to her uh uh room and touch her pillowcase to say goodbye, and it was kind of special gestures, you know. But what hit me most was that if she was gonna die, that at some point in my life I was gonna die, and I was really freaking out with that, wondering what death was gonna be like. And uh had a hard time with that. I had a hard time with that. Um I ended up eating a lot of uh Snickers bars to deal with that emotional upheaval, honestly, to deal with it. And uh, you know, over the years I've come to better terms with it all. But way back when I said, hey, you know, I want to I want to live forever. I want to find the secret to this, man. There's gotta be some way out of this, you know. So looking back, it's a bit naive to think that, you know, because everybody that I've known has not lived forever. But back then, I just decided I'm gonna find that secret. So that's what I launched myself into.
JeanneWell, that's pretty heavy for a 12-year-old to make you do all those rituals because I remember my mom died when I was 16, and I didn't want to see her in the coffin.
Dr. Greg YuenOh, yeah.
JeanneThey made me go once, and then I wouldn't go again because it just I just couldn't handle it. And I was 16, you were 12. So why do you put money on a person's coffin?
Dr. Greg YuenWell, it's sort of like uh you're giving them riches for the afterlife in that way, the Chinese and we we would burn that money, and then it would kind of go into the spiritual realm for them, and that's kind of the the idea of it.
JeanneOh, wow, that's an interesting ritual, but it's for a 12-year-old, that's gotta have been impactful. Like, oh, what am I doing? Yeah, this is heavy, and then touching the pillow?
Dr. Greg YuenYeah, I think it was more like kind of getting in touch with her in the as close a way as you can, intimately, and just saying sort of goodbye, like my final goodbye to her, just making contact that way. I I I really didn't understand it. I was just told to do it, you know, kind of thing. It just makes sense that that might be the way to understand what was what it was for, you know.
JeanneYeah, I guess it was intimate because that's where her head would lie and you know, touching the pillow. Wow, that's heavy. So let's go to question two. But I it's interesting that that would trigger something in you to eat Snickers bars.
Dr. Greg YuenWell, I didn't I didn't know how else to deal with it, you know, kind of thing. I guess I grew up, my mom used to bake a lot of cookies and so forth, so maybe I got into sweets a bit, and that was my way of getting comfort, you know. So I think maybe that's how I, you know, used the bars to give me some comfort through the difficult time. And I didn't even talk to my parents about it, honestly, what I was going through. I just handled it on my own, you know. Oh, wow. Yeah, that was tough. That probably was tough.
JeanneThat is very tough. But Snickers bars, that's one of my favorite ones. I have to stay away from them. So um, yeah, they're just good all over. It's got everything in it karma, peanuts, chocolate.
Dr. Greg YuenWe can resonate with each other.
JeanneYeah, exactly. Yeah, that's the candy uh like you know, you buy at the store for Halloween when you have trick-or-treaters, and you're like, um, get me a bag that has Snickers in it, because if they don't take it, then I can eat them. Uh let's move on to question two. So um, you worked as a psychiatrist, a Tai Chi instructor, a massage therapist. So, how
Psychiatry, Tai Chi & Massage Come Together
Jeannedid these disciplines gradually come together into a deeper understanding of the mind-body connection?
Dr. Greg YuenHmm. Interesting question. I guess it really started more with psych I was studying psychology in college, so I was kind of getting into the mind kind of thing. And then while I was in college, I started uh learning qi gong, which is basically to help cultivate your vital force or energy, and it was kind of a more natural way of dealing with health. And eventually, after I'd been learning qigong for some years, I started learning tai chi and became uh an instructor on my own. Back around that same time while I was in college, I recognized that I enjoyed sort of petting cats and animals and so forth, and I realized that, hey, I have this kind of knack for massage. I kind of like that feeling of petting things and all that. So uh I wandered down the street, I happened upon this uh massage studio, and this uh gentleman, Stanley Burroughs, who's quite well known if you look him up, uh, was here in Hawaii and he turned me on to massage and reflexology of his own kind. He called it Vitaflex at that time, and I decided to get a massage license. So all through my medical experience, I was never really big on using medication for help. I was really kind of more leaning towards the natural approaches to things. But as I turned out, as a psychiatrist, I spent a lot of time prescribing a lot of pharmaceuticals. So in my work, I prescribed a lot of medications, but in my own personal life, I stayed away from medications most of the time. Hardly at all.
JeanneWell, you have to you said you like to pet cats and dogs and stuff, and they respond almost immediately to touch when you're they love it.
Dr. Greg YuenThey love it. I when we had a cat named uh uh Sammy, she would want to sleep with me on the bed because I was always petting here at the time, you know. So I mean, I know they love it, you know. So I just it's a good connection. I love to do it, they love it. It's a great connection.
JeanneYeah, it's so funny because that's just the way I get my dogs to like me. My husband's like, why do they all like you? Because I like massage their like hips and I massage their feet.
Dr. Greg YuenThey love it, you know?
JeanneYeah, they just roll over like, yay, it's her again. So you live in Hawaii. I didn't even really talk a lot about that. So that's um interesting too, because that's where even hula is expressive. The native dance is expressive to for emotional as well as physical. You know, they like to bring out a lot of emotions as they're moving hips and swinging arms. I mean, I tried to take a hula class when I was in the Navy, but it just didn't resonate too well with me. But uh, how is it living in Hawaii um doing this?
Dr. Greg YuenIs this like very well accepted there as far as Tai Chi and Yeah, we have a lot of Asians living in Hawaii, so there's a Asian culture. Like I grew up going to uh theaters and watching samurai movies. That was kind of like the weekly thing with me and my dad and family and all that. So I grew up, I had my own kendo sword, which is the practice bamboo sword. They're fighting, and I have, you know, I and I took karate when I was a kid, you know. So it's it's part of the culture here to get into martial arts and kind of have an Asian slant on a lot of things, you know. So easily Tai Chi, there's you know a lot of Tai Chi schools here, and uh so it was easy for me to get into that. And I think that the Asian culture is more amenable to natural ways of healing rather than just using pharmaceuticals. You know, they use herbs, uh they use massage and uh different you know, acupuncture, that kind of thing.
JeanneRight. When I lived there, I did take Kempo karate. I'm not gonna say I did very great in my belt, but I did take it and I loved it. And then that was where I got my first acupuncture um treatment, and man, that was so fantastic. I've never found anybody in the mainland that can do anything like it. What I got there was just phenomenal. So I can see how you could, you know, just kind of like that could be your lifestyle as you live there.
Dr. Greg YuenWell, I'm glad you're excited about acupuncture because my work in Dao Yin is all about you activating that energy on your own without the need of an acupuncturist. That's the whole idea of what this dough is all about, you know.
JeanneOh, that's wonderful. So I was getting ready to ask in my next question for you to tell us that. So for listeners hearing about this for the first time, what exactly is Dao Yin and how does it differ from other forms of massage or body awareness practices?
Dr. Greg YuenRight. Okay.
JeanneSo that was perfect. So let's hear more about that.
Dr. Greg YuenSo Dao Yin is actually a Japanese term and it's derived from the Chinese, they called it Dao Yin. And Dao Yin, uh, they have manuscripts going back 2,000 years old. So it's been around a long time. The full scope of Dao Yin is not just self-massage, it includes like um movement exercises, kind of like qigong or tai chi in a way, movement. But um, I kind of learned the discipline of Dao Yin through the uh discipline of macrobiotics, which is a dietary regimen using natural principles of yin and yang
What Is Do-in?
Dr. Greg Yuento determine how what how you eat to be healthy. But they on the side they did this dough-in self-massage practice. They included a little bit of movement in their practice, but I've kind of narrowed it down to basically just self-massage. So basically, what it's all about is you being able to massage your whole body on your own. And why is that important? It's important because in the Tai Chi classics, they say where your mind goes, your qi goes, your vital force goes. Okay. So when you do qigong, you do yoga, or if you do tai chi, you will cultivate the vital force. The vital force will be more plentiful. Okay. Why I like Dao Yin and why I think it's so special is that when you massage yourself down deep to your bones, the qi is going to penetrate more deeply down to the bones. You'll be assured that it will do that. Okay. And if you do this to your whole body, you'll get this vital force flowing through your whole body, and it'll just make you fully alive through your whole body. Okay. You want to try something with me right now? And uh maybe this would be a good example for the audience.
JeanneYeah, that's fine as long as it doesn't distort me into contort me.
Dr. Greg YuenJust rub your hands together. Just rub your hands together, Jeanne.
JeanneOkay.
Dr. Greg YuenOkay. And get it kind of hot and warm. Okay. Okay. Okay, then pull it apart, pull it apart, and try to notice what you feel in between your hands.
JeanneLike a tingling, but not really not tingling as much as like a vibration.
Dr. Greg YuenOkay, okay. Well, there's a lot of ways to describe it. It's not so easy to describe, but what you're feeling is the vital force, the qi. Okay. But you notice you have to do all that rubbing and whatever to get that to come to the surface. Okay. When you practice tai chi or yoga or qigong, or in this case, Dao Yin, you can get to the place to train yourself to get to that feeling so that you can just hold your hand out, put your awareness to your palm, and you
Feel Your Own Chi
Dr. Greg Yuenstart to feel that tingling, that buzzing, that sensation in your hand. But it takes a little bit of training to get you there to that point. Okay. So after 40 years of my own training of Tai Chi and Do Win, I've got to the point where I can get that feeling in my whole body. I can get kind of go like bzz.
JeanneOh wow.
Dr. Greg YuenFeel it. And so basically, I can sort of fill my body full of qi, this energy, like my skin is like the skin of a balloon, and I fill it up like air filling a balloon. Okay.
JeanneWow.
Dr. Greg YuenAnd the benefit of that, the long-term benefit, is longevity, because most diseases, according to Chinese medicine, are caused by a blockage in the flow of that qi or an imbalance in the flow of that qi. So if you can get that flow going well within you and have it be balanced automatically, you're going to be at optimal health. You see. And you'll sleep better, you'll get better energy, you'll be able to deal with stress. Aches and pains will get just reduced. Most chronic diseases, I believe, will be better symptomatically if you do regular dough-in self-massage. And that's what I'm all about. Trying to spread the word about this.
JeanneYeah, well, I need it. I definitely need it. Well, it's so interesting when you're talking about it. Does this help with just, you know, the basics, you know, like help helping you feel more energetic and sleep better and, you know, deal with pain. But how about if you have uh an affliction or somebody has said, you know, we did test and you have cancer? That's the big C word everybody talks about. Does this help with that?
Dr. Greg YuenOkay. Well, I can't say that this is going to reverse your cancer diagnosis or your cancer condition. And I don't have enough experience working with people who do it regularly to really see the effects. That's why I'm really glad to be on this podcast because I'm looking for warriors out there that wanna defeat their illness and their their bad health conditions, to regularly use this tool to help them at least minimize, reduce, or even overcome whatever they're afflicted by. Okay. So what I say about cancer is that if you do regular dough-in mindful self-massage, whatever you're feeling, whether it's pain or discomfort
Can It Help With Illness?
Dr. Greg Yuenor malaise, just fatigue or whatever, you're gonna get more comfort through it. Okay? Okay. It would be great if it would totally reverse things. I I won't say that, you know. I don't think it's a good idea for you to say that. You gotta work with your doctors. But what I would say is you're gonna get more comfort, and whatever you're going through is going to be easier for you.
JeanneOkay. Yeah, well, that's what I just wondered because there's a lot of um people that go through various illnesses and you know don't know what to do because they're taking a lot of medications, and um, but at least if this could help them relax right during some of those things. Like I, you know, chemotherapy is pretty tough. I've had friends going through that, and um that just weakens your body physically.
Dr. Greg YuenOh gosh, in so many ways, so many ways, yeah. Yeah, I'm really appealing to people that have tried the medical approach, as though in is a self-healing approach, devoid of medications and so forth. He's really trying to heal yourself, really gaining to the source of your vitality, the qi, you know, cultivating that energy, that healing energy. This is what the acupuncturists are trying to balance with the needles, trying to balance it. You can do it yourself.
JeanneYeah, that'd be good because there's no good acupuncturist around here. Yeah, I have looked. I even they used to have a reflexology place here, but that closed down.
Dr. Greg YuenYeah, okay. I'm offering workshops, so maybe that might be something we could can do at some point, you know?
JeanneYeah, that'd be great. That'd be great. So bringing an ancient uh body-based healing practice into the world that often defaults to prescriptions and procedures and surgeries isn't easy. So, where have you hit the hardest walls and what keeps you moving through them? Because you just touched on that a little bit, that you you're not there for medical, like cancer or that's the only thing that comes to mind right now. But you know, for a medical condition, right? So, what is the hardest thing you deal with in this practice?
Dr. Greg YuenI think the toughest thing to deal with is like anything else, people know what they ought to do, but they don't do it. You know, and people know that eating well and exercising is good for them. But a lot of people still they want the fast method, they want the silver bullet that's gonna do it. I would say that Dao Yin is a tool that if they use it regularly and consistently in the long run, they're gonna get quite a lot of benefit. Because think of it this way every day you have a choice, you're either gonna choose an activity that's gonna lead to better health, or an activity that will not lead to better health. Okay. If you consistently choose an activity that's gonna lead to good health, you're gonna get there eventually. Okay, it may it's not gonna be overnight, but you've got to put a little bit of the work in to get it there. So I think that to me is the biggest hurdle, is just I mean, even the people that take my workshop, when I check in with them later, they're not doing dough-in the way that I would like them to do Dao Yin. I mean, because I believe in this what I call the principle of the whole. You want to do the whole body, okay? And most people, you know, they get a little eight campaigns, they'll do a little bit of the techniques we learned, they learn in the Dao Yin workshop, but they don't
The Hardest Wall: Knowing vs. Doing
Dr. Greg Yuengo back to doing the whole body. Why do I want to do the whole body? Because you take the Greek word holos, H O L O S, okay? That is the derivative for the word whole, W-H-O-L-E, the word health, H-E-A-L-T-H, and the word holy, H-O-L-Y. So when you keep the whole in mind, you're gonna be healthy and holy. Okay, so in my practice, I'm recommending they use this massage tool called a back knobber. It's an S-shaped massage tool. They can massage their backs because otherwise they only have access to the front of their body and they're not doing the whole, which it does include the back. And there's important points, acupuncture points in your back along both sides of your spine, okay, on the same levels on the back, correspond to what's in the front of your body. So those points at the same level in your back are stimulating all your organs in the front of your body. It's really a good stimulation. It's one of my brief protocols in the uh douin class that I teach.
JeanneI have had something called a trigger point cane.
Dr. Greg YuenRight.
JeanneAnd that's is that similar?
Dr. Greg YuenIt's similar, yeah. Similar because you're trying to get in the back of your body, you know. Yeah, it's it's a really good. And I recommend doing both sides of your spine, not right on your spine, from the top of your shoulders all the way down to your tailbone. That's a great practice to do on a regular basis. But again, it's only what I call a brief protocol. I still believe, imagine doing your whole body, getting your whole body alive by awakening that energy every day. And if you do it, it'll take maybe 20 to 30 minutes after you kind of know the sequence. You'll be able to get it down pat in that amount of time, you know?
JeanneYeah, that sounds interesting. So let's go to this uh like the commercial industry of massage clinics. So there's a lot of massage clinics, they're franchised. Right. You go to those. You could pay $70, $80 for one massage, and then you tip, and so you're out a hundred and some bucks. And if you add any oil or hot stones, then you're up in $150 to you know to go. So help everybody out, like me, who says that I don't want to spend that kind of money. And so I go and then I get a different masseuse every time, and they're always arguing about something they want to go out on their own. Okay, start their own big franchise, right? And you're just like, this is not enjoyable. So just help us understand how yours is gonna be the answer to that.
Dr. Greg YuenWell, if you want to save money, though-in is really a way to do that, so you don't have to get massages all the time. And in fact, I mean, I'm a licensed massage therapist, so I know what it is about massage therapy and giving and receiving. Thing is that if you really get to know your body, you're gonna know it better than any massage therapist. It'll take them time to get to know your body. And the other thing is to know what depth of pressure to put, if you really learn your body, you will learn the depths that are appropriate for you, how much pressure to use or not use. Uh, some of the Thai massages that I've been to, these little ladies are putting so much pressure, and then I'm yelling and telling me to stop, and they won't let up. You know what I mean? It's like they just keep going. I don't really agree with that procedure, but for me, I don't mind
Clinics vs. Knowing Your Own Body
Dr. Greg Yuenit because you know it's a whole idea of connecting my discipline of connecting my mind to my body. So if they go really, really deep and it's hurting me, hey, maybe my mind needs to get that deep. So I allowed that to happen, but I don't think that's a good thing for other people to experience, okay?
JeanneYeah, I've had a bruise on my back before for them going too hard, and I just said, nah, I'm not gonna go anymore. But I've gone to a lot of places.
Dr. Greg YuenRight. The thing is, is that when you really learn your whole body, you'll discover what we call what I call gold points. And I call them gold points because they're valuable, valuable information to you to remember. Now, recently I went through a little a bit of a situation where I was having a cough, and I was noticing that the special particular point is called stomach 36, was kind of like more sensitive than usual. I'm trying to understand that because how is the stomach related to you know your coughing and you know, it's all Chinese medicine, how how is that all you know related? I still don't quite understand the actual dynamics of it, but I ran into an acupuncturist the other day, just happened to, we went to this Buddhist meeting, and I was telling him about my cough, and he was trying to tell me that stomach 36 was a point that could be valuable for and I think there was I discovered it myself by my own doing myself massage. I I realized that somehow that point was an important point for that. So so it's it's really an interesting discovery, you know, that I was able to see that.
JeanneWell, I don't think I didn't really follow stomach 36. What?
Dr. Greg YuenIt's the acupuncture point.
JeanneOh, oh, okay.
Dr. Greg YuenWhen I was talking to him about the cough, he was saying, oh, that point might be a good point for your cough. And he had known that I was already kind of alerted about it because when I was feeling that point, there was something unusual about it that never was that like that before. You know, I was like, hey, somehow it's related. I still not quite clear how it's connected, but he mentioned it, and so gosh, it kind of validated my own discovery, you know?
JeanneOh, yeah, that's interesting. I I of course I don't know. I can touch places on my body and relieve certain tensions, but I don't know anything about Dao Yin.
Dr. Greg YuenSo Well, but then there might be other areas that you're not aware of so much that only when you press them then you feel kind of a tenderness or a little bit of tension or whatever it may be. Otherwise, you're asymptomatic. But once you really get to know your body, you'll find some of these goal points that maybe you never really knew before, you know.
JeanneWell, that's sort of like reflexology. I've seen that map of your foot, and so supposedly if you touch your big toe, it's supposed to do something, and the side of your foot's supposed to do something else. But I've never had anybody do massage like that. So I I don't know if it would do anything for me. But it it's interesting that it's mapped, and I guess it's the map of your nerves in your body.
Dr. Greg YuenAll well, there's a there's a connection, but forgive me, all due respect to reflexology. I I'm sure that it has value, but what I again I'm trying to get back to the whole idea of the principle of the whole. Okay.
JeanneAh, okay.
Dr. Greg YuenYou can say, you know, reflexologists, well, your hand has a map too. This different point for the spine, this is for the stomach, this is for the head, and all that, you know, they're all they have all these sort of representations. Even the ear. In the ear, the whole ear has like over 200 acupuncture points. It corresponds
Gold Points & Stomach 36
Dr. Greg Yuento your whole body as well. So you could just just massage your ear and you could get stimulation to your whole body, technically speaking, okay? But in spite of the fact that that is probably some truth there, I still believe to the whole body, okay? You're not gonna regret it. You're gonna get a lot of benefit. It's a synergistic benefit, okay? So, like you can massage your hands, you can smash your feet, you can massage your abdomen. That'll be a great stimulation to your whole body. But there's a synergistic effect that goes beyond just adding up the parts so that it's gonna be two and two is gonna be greater than four. Okay.
JeanneOkay.
Dr. Greg YuenWhen you do the whole body, there's a synergistic effect. The only way you're gonna know about it is by doing it and feeling the difference, you know.
JeanneWell, you also teach Tai Chi, so do you feel like they go hand in hand?
Dr. Greg YuenOh yeah, I think Tai Chi is very much in line with Dao Yin. But as I was trying to say, after my you know, 40 years or more of teaching Tai Chi, I realized Dao Yin is actually more fundamental at cultivating this vital force, this qi, because as I said, when you go deep, it penetrates more deeply, and you get to really experience what that vital force feels like. And the more that you can feel it, the more it's gonna be uh accessible to you. Because you can kind of train your mind to return to that uh feeling of the energy flowing a lot better. You can get benefit from Tai Chi and Yoga and Qigong, but the Dao Yin to me is more fundamental.
JeanneOh well, that's a good place for us to um kind of break because we're gonna go to play our two truths and a lie here. Did you have anything else you wanted to add um just about Dao Yin general or just anything we've discussed?
Dr. Greg YuenWell, the basic point of Dao Yin is to become mindful of your body. Connect your mind to your body. Okay, what does that mean? On a particular point, if you focus there, the qi is going to gather. Okay? And if you get into the habit of connecting your mind to every point in your body, the qi is going to be circulating everywhere. And you're gonna be at your top of health if you get that qi flowing everywhere in your whole body. So that's what Dao Yin is all about to get you to get to that point.
JeanneThat sounds fantastic. Well, great, thank you so much. This has been so enlightening, and I just enjoy hearing you talk about it. I could ask a whole bunch more questions, but I want to play Two Truths and a Lie. That's our signature game on Project Candor. And so for those listening along, I want to let you know how the game is played. The guest has provided me with three headlines from his life. Two are true and one is a lie or exaggerated truth or just maybe a little twisted truth, but we won't know until the end of our game. I'm gonna read off the headlines, then I'm going to guess which one I think is a lie, and then we're gonna let Greg take us through each of those stories separately, tell us the details behind it, and he won't reveal them, whether it's truth or lie, until the very end. So remember that, Greg. Don't tell us along the way. That's a lie. This episode is sponsored by Rebel 180, the home of brave pivots and fresh starts. Rebel 180 is all about helping you rediscover what's possible when you stop settling and start listening to that little tug inside that says, Life can be different. Whether you're navigating a career shift, dreaming about a new direction, or standing at the crossroads wondering if it's time for your own 180-degree turn, Rebel 180 is a reminder you don't need permission to change your story. And now, as we open the door to our second sponsor, we're stepping into the world of tech. Simple socket print, the lightweight blazing fast label
Two Truths & A Lie
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Dr. Greg YuenOkay, well, I was kind of uh well into my career as a psychiatrist, maybe 20 years into it, and I was invited to speak about Tai Chi at this uh Chinese cultural festival in Anchorage Museum. So after I gave that talk on Tai Chi, uh they kind of asked me, hey, we noticed that in your bio that your family is kind of a lineage of fortune tellers. And it is true. My name Ruan, which is Chinese, is kind of uh means seer, some kind of seer kind of thing.
JeanneOh man, I've been pronouncing it wrong the whole the whole time.
Dr. Greg YuenOh well, no, that's that's a Chinese Mandarin pronunciation, but uh the Anglicized is Yuan, you know, so but in Chinese it's Ruan. So anyway, they said, Hey, have you had any experience with fortune telling? You know, they gotta ask me. And uh I told them that I did, which was a lie. Here we are, I'm talking about the truth and lie.
JeanneWere you telling me you told a lie before we No, I lied to them.
Dr. Greg YuenI lied to them.
JeanneOh, oh, okay.
Dr. Greg YuenThis is but this is a true story, right? I lied to them that uh I was a fortune teller. I had experience in fortune telling, but I had not. I mean, you look at me, I was a you know, psychiatrist, so we're dealing in science and all that. So I you know, even though my family was kind of like that, I never really delved into it myself. So anyway, I told them that I had some experience. So it ended up, I got a little booth and I was using the i Ching. It's a kind of a book of divination. I was using the I Ching and giving different readings and so forth, and uh I made them $500. Oh my gosh! Yeah, but because I'm a psychiatrist, I can I can sort of read where people are coming from, you know, kind of what the answer they want, whether leaning slow. So I kind of like use some of that experience and kind of giving them a positive fortune telling experience. So that's that's what happened.
JeanneOkay. I won't ask you about my fortune telling. Don't tell my fortune. The ones I get out of the fortune cookies are really ridiculously annoying anyway. So if I had um if they had been true, I would have had a million dollars by now from all the ones that said you'll have great fortune and riches. Yeah, sure. Okay, number two, medical school and a milk bone dog biscuit.
Dr. Greg YuenOkay. So I was doing a rotation in medicine. I forget exactly, I think it was it was actually in psychiatry rotation on Maui.
JeanneOh, just shut up. You get to go over there just to go there.
Dr. Greg YuenYeah, yeah. So then when I was body surfing and I scraped my leg on the on the reef, and it turned to a staph infection. So at that time, I was getting studying this gentleman called Master Ida. Okay, and Master Ida was all about natural healing, okay. And one of the things that he included in his regimen was doing milk bone dog biscuits. And I gotta tell you, they're not they're not real tasty, but they're not, you know, they're not unpalatable. I mean, they're kind of alright. You ate it? Yeah.
JeanneOh, I thought maybe you laid it on some you wound or something.
Dr. Greg YuenNo, no, no, no. You you you eat them. I mean, it's good fiber. I mean, you want fiber. That's there's a lot of good fiber there. Okay. So, anyway, that was part of the regimen that he had. Another part of the regimen was using warm water on your back, sort of like to stimulate your kidney energy, which is a very vital energy. And then also he would uh have a practice of using body warmers, which are these kind of cloths, kind of like a like a like a woman has a tube kind of thing, but it was around your abdomen, that doesn't cover your breast or anything, just your abdomen to keep your central body core warm. And that was some practice. And then he also had some yoga thing. So I know the headline kind of makes it seem like the dog biscuit by itself cured my staph infection, but it was a whole combination of his practices, including the dog biscuit, that helped me get over the staph infection.
JeanneSo you got you you said you fell in the you were body surfing and got scraped by on the reef. Right.
Dr. Greg YuenIn that coral. Yes, coral.
JeanneYeah, because I was uh snorkeling in Hadama Bay when I was in the Navy, and I they said don't watch out for the eels. Like the eels will come up out of the holes and be careful and don't step in a hole. And so obviously uh my foot went in, and then I pulled it out really quick. Well, actually, it was my whole you know, knee down, um, went in and I pulled it out and scraped it, and it got massively infected.
Dr. Greg YuenReally?
JeanneIt was awful. So is that the same thing?
Dr. Greg YuenSame kind of thing. Did you use antibiotics for that?
JeanneYeah, because I was in the Navy, so they they got mad at me for one because they said you did this to shirk duty or whatever. I'm like, no. Um, but they gave you antibiotics because they said the coral was alive and it would grow in your leg. I still have a scar.
Dr. Greg YuenOh my yeah, kind of thing. Uh my I don't think I have my scar anymore.
JeanneYeah, I have one down there.
Dr. Greg YuenHere I was in medical school, and I was like defying all of the things that we would learn about infection and using medications. Yeah, that's all kind of rebellious at that time.
JeanneWell, I always wondered what dog biscuits tasted like. I don't want to taste one, but they're they're all right, you know.
Dr. Greg YuenBut now they've got all these you know fresh food things that the for the dogs, I mean, I've I've been tempted to press them.
JeanneLike those frozen frozen dinners. We ordered stuff for our dogs, and our dogs won't eat them.
Dr. Greg YuenSo we're really they don't like them.
JeanneThey just like uh they just like freeze-dried raw meat, real meat. I don't know.
Dr. Greg YuenOh, I see. I gotcha. Wow.
JeanneOkay, so you got healed. So what about the karaoke? Do you sing? You want to sing something for us?
Dr. Greg YuenOh, okay. Not particularly. I could I could probably I could probably do a little bit of things. Uh it's right that I should care about you. I need I need my I need my uh my background uh music. It's hard to do it a cappella, man. But any anyways, so my my dad used to sing in piano bars.
JeanneI love those.
Dr. Greg YuenWith some of the uh you know notable musician, piano players here in Hawaii. I never saw him actually. I just knew that he had done it. But he would sing around the house and I would get into singing, and when I was in high school, I had a guitar and I was playing folk tunes, uh, Peter, Paul, and Mary and that kind of thing, and then Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, you know. And then later on, um, because we have kind of an Asian influence here, there's a lot of karaoke bars here in Hawaii. So I started singing in the karaoke bars. And then there was this guy that I met there, he worked for the Department of Defense, and uh, you know, I talked to him about, hey, you know, do you sing? Or no, no, I don't sing, I don't sing. But then I met him over a period of time, and I did see him sing every now and again. So I would kind of question him, hey, you know, like you said you don't sing. Now I don't I don't sing, I don't sing. Okay, so anyway, I kind of invited him to kind of join with me on a regular basis with me and a couple of other buddies to kind of have this karaoke time, right? So gradually he started to sing more and more with us, and then eventually it got to a point where he was he was singing, and then I would say, Hey, hey, hey, Wayne, you did pretty good on that song. He says, No, no, no, I'm just I'm just lip singing right now. This I'm just lip singing. He admitted that he was actually singing, okay? So he got to that level. So now, after all this time has passed, he's singing Neil Diamond songs.
JeanneOkay.
Dr. Greg YuenHe never did before. He's singing Neil Diamond songs, and forgive me, all due respect to Neil Diamond. He's not one of my favorite singers.
JeanneOh, come on, sweet Caroline.
Dr. Greg YuenBut I won't be too excited about that, honestly. But he keeps singing them, and then and then he's doing it on his own, and it's almost like he's he's on, he's gone, he's he's doing it, and he's like he's becoming a star. And I'm a little worried that he's gonna start singing better than me, honestly, because he's just honestly really going off on his own. So that to me was a very uh you know good feeling kind of transformation to watch him go through that, you know. Enjoyed that.
JeanneOh, that's wonderful. So, well, all right, you got all your stories out. Which one is the lie? Time for the reveal.
Dr. Greg YuenOh, you said that you thought the second one was a lie.
JeanneYes.
Dr. Greg YuenOkay, so the actual lie, drumroll, was me being a fortune teller.
JeanneAh, okay.
Dr. Greg YuenThat was a lie.
JeanneSo you actually ate milk bones. I'm still blown away.
Dr. Greg YuenYou know, they're they're not so unhearted, you know, it's sort of like what I say, it's kind of like granola without sweetening, you could say. It's just a crunchy kind of wrong.
JeanneOh my gosh. I know I ate one as a kid. I just had that curiosity, but I wouldn't have thought you would eat it.
Dr. Greg YuenYou crush it up, add a little bit of uh honey to it, maybe a little milk if that helps, and then uh easier to take. But I used to just do them, do them straight out, just rah-rah rah-rah.
JeanneOh, that must be something funny if people saw you like, oh, I've got to get my snack out, and then you bring out the show.
Dr. Greg YuenNo, nobody, nobody was a witness of that. I did it all by myself.
JeanneThat's hilarious. Well, Dr. Greg, I am so glad you came on the show. I know people are gonna want to get in touch with you. You're so interesting, and you've given them something that could really help them in their lives. So I want to show everybody how they can get in touch with you. So here is the information. Connect with Greg. And he's also given us a great quote there. Through Mindful Touch, we reconnect and restore our wholeness and health. I think that's a fabulous quote.
Dr. Greg YuenYeah, if you could put my email address in there, that would be really great.
JeanneWe'll try to put it on the show notes. But um, for now, if you're watching, this is how you're gonna get in touch with him, and then all of this information will be included in the show notes and then the transcript, of course. So we're so happy that you joined us today. And if you had um an offer for anybody on the call that wanted to get in touch with you, and now it's the time because I didn't have one from you specifically.
Dr. Greg YuenOh.
JeanneAre you holding the class or well?
Dr. Greg YuenAnyone that is willing to talk with me from chat for uh maybe half an hour, I will give them a complimentary video of 10 energizing pressure points. So you'll learn the 10 energizing pressure points that would help with getting your energy flowing and help you to get out of burnout and fatigue. So that could be a complimentary offer.
JeanneOh, nice. So uh if they wanted to get in touch with you to do that, it would be off of your website.
Dr. Greg YuenI would say email me. That would be the best thing. Okay. GregU at cs.com, charlie samuel.com.
JeanneOh, great. That's easy. All right. Well, thank you so much for being here. Um, it's just been a real pleasure to have you here. And um, for those listening, I hope you join us next week for another great uh guest that we have on Project Candor. Um for now, uh I'm
Connect With Greg & Closing
JeanneJeanne Andersen, your host, the your Admiral of the Unexpected, and I wish you all smooth sailing. Thanks for joining me on Project Candor, where the doors are open, the stories are unexpected, and the treasure is always real. If today's episode made you laugh or think, follow the show and share it with your crew. Otherwise, I might just make you swab the deck. I'm Jeanne Andersen, your Admiral of the Unexpected. See you on the next voyage.