The Empty Empty Happy Happy Podcast
Empty Your Mind and Enhance Your Life
The Empty Empty Happy Happy Podcast
Sally Taylor: Deep Dive into the Elements
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Blessings everyone. So here we are for the third episode of Empty Empty Happy Happy. Why empty empty? We can clear our narratives, clear our stories, clear our mind, so then we can be available for the best moment there ever's been. This moment now. Happy happy. And today we have got a treat. We're not just in my favourite place, Jasri Beach, doing a deep dive into the elements on the east coast of Bali, but we've also got an alive audience. So Salamat Sodi. Good afternoon. And second best news is my colleague today, dear friend, one student, beautiful pu human, chantic, beautiful human, is Dr. Sally Taylor. Welcome, Sally.
SPEAKER_04Thanks, Quim. Thanks, guys.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, Sal. Everyone here loves you. So what's your day been like today, Sal?
SPEAKER_05My day has been awesome. We've been wrapping up the elements a little bit and then starting to deep dive into diagnosis and watching how the elements play out in each one of us in our own beautiful nuances.
SPEAKER_01Great.
SPEAKER_05So it's been a good day.
SPEAKER_01Well, I thought that would be a really great way to run this podcast is that we start to have a good look at the five elements and see how they play out in our daily lives, how they can inflate our life, how we can bring those elements alive in the way that we think, the ways that we move, the food that we eat, the relationships that we have. So that's where we're going to dive today, and what a better place to do it than Bali with the five elements. So in Bali, if you haven't been here before, we are nourished by this incredible earth that we're sitting around. We are full of, I think, at least three ceremonies every day into the metal element. I'm sitting here right now watching the ocean come in. There's a surf about maybe 50 meters away from me. We're sitting in a coconut forest, hello, wood element, and there are flowers everywhere. So hello to the five element. So here we go, the five elements in daily life. Before we jump into that, Sal, I think all the audience would know, would like to know, and I think the listeners would like to know a little bit about early Sally Taylor. What got you into that journey of being a doctor of acupuncture, which is all about the five elements?
SPEAKER_05Um, well, I'll keep it short, but I always wanted to be a doctor, and I was always interested in the medical system and the body and biology and science. Really spoke to me, especially physics, because it was like this outer world mysticism. But it was really just the luck of doing um some work experience with my best friend, and I was 17 at a naturopath's clinic, and I knew nothing about naturopathy, and I just stuck stickers on bottles, and it wasn't until he spoke about a rosebud and all of the therapeutic effects of a rosebud, did my whole world shift. Yeah, so I moved into naturopathy, and I just chose Chinese medicine as an elective because it was something completely different, something I've never heard about before. And it was really the poetry and the perspective on life and health that wrung me in. And I was over the world of science and enzymes and zooming all the way in till I couldn't really see anything anymore. And yeah, it really pulled me out into this wider perspective, and again, my whole life just shifted and I followed that and have been following it ever since.
SPEAKER_01So 19, 20 years old, into acupuncture school.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, straight. Um, well, I started studying when I was 18 in 2009.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01And and those that have been around Sally, the people in front of me will know she not just only teaches it, she lives it. She's incredibly passionate about it. For the listeners, Sally, a little bit, because we see the five elements show up in two different models. So for some clarity, the five-element model that you and I are passionate about, which is based around yin and yang, and the five-element model that others maybe studying or have an association association with the five-element model of Ayurveda or Yoga. What are the two differences between those two models? How would you describe that to a lay person?
SPEAKER_05Oh um, I'd say like in a lot of ways they're similar because they're they're using what's around us to kind of create personalities or archetypes or categories. I find with Chinese medicine we're very much in the world of qi or the world of energy. So for us compared to a lot of other traditional medicines, we're really interested in in the mind-body-spirit connection and how aspects of the mind and our emotions, which really is energy, yeah, just kind of changed from you know a tense energy to an open energy, for instance, and how that kind of relays throughout the body. And with the Chinese medical five-element system, we have two main um relationship styles that we focus on, and that's the parent-child relationship where they all um create each other and give each other purpose, and then we've got the controlling cycle, which is more about grandparents, grandchildren, and how usually the psycho-emotional stuff can really get passed through the body from one system to the other, and it's really an integrated way.
SPEAKER_01Yep. So both systems very interconnected, both systems really passionate about the holistic perspective that we do life, but the Chinese medicine system really turning up the volume on the emotional body, yeah, the way it plays out in the body and the spirit, and and and and and this deep web how elements play off each other, sinking around this whole dance between yin and yang or night and day. So good to go there. That's where we're gonna go. And I felt like it would be amazing in this episode if we could unpack each one of these elements in to see how it plays out in your life, how it you see the element come up in life with your clients, like problems that come up, and what are some things that we could do out there in the in the world to bring that element alive to I would say make our life more buoyant, more vital, which everyone's put their hand up for. So, yes, so um I think I remember meeting you, Sal, at the Zentai Centre at Ninderi, and you were definitely a fireball. A passionate ball of energy, and I couldn't fit her into the class, but something said to you said to me watching you radiate so much joy and passion that I've got no choice. This person has to be in the class, and I'm so glad I made that choice because I know from being a student we've become colleagues and dear friends, and I'm always um inspired, not just by by what you do and how you share, but the you know the joy and love you have for this incredible art. So let's look at the earth element. Like I said, we're sitting in Mother Birth Bali. It's I think I'm I think I just get nourished by looking around. So the earth element for you, Sal, how how does it play out in your life, the earth element in in your life?
SPEAKER_05Uh in my life, well, being such a fireball, often my earth element, earth being the child of fire, um, usually gets a beating sometimes. And for me, it's generally the one that'll move out of balance them the easiest um in relation to my fire. And so with me, it moves in the way of sometimes being ungrounded and really quite busy in my mind. I wouldn't say scattered, it's just that there's so many thoughts and so many things happening. And with that, then I it's quite hard to focus on one particular thing at a time. And usually when that happens, it can kind of move into a state of worry and like, oh, I'm worried as what thought should I follow, what action should I do? And sometimes, yeah, it just ends up for me this kind of endless mental churning where I'm kind of overthinking things, trying to figure things out, and and not really allowing this full sense of stillness and quietness to come back into my mind and into my center. So usually that's how it plays out in an imbalanced way for me. But because I've um noticed that a lot throughout the years, ever since really our course or doing the course with you, because you brought the elements alive for me, um, I'm really a lot more aware about how I nourish myself. And it's not just in what foods I choose to eat at particular times in the day, but it's also how I eat those foods, what I combine them with, and being really aware of what I'm doing while I'm eating, what I'm thinking. But now, you know, with this world, we've moved into consumption that goes beyond what we put into our body and now into my our mind. And I'm noticing now I've got to be really, really conscious of the the thoughts or the things that I'm consuming generally off my phone and the information that I allow to become a part of me. So I've been watching my consumption not only in food but also in information. Because the earth element is very much about the mind and the thinking mind. Um so I've definitely felt if I'm eating, you know, processed foods and I do love chocolate, and that is my biggest thing. I love sweet foods, and that's often a sign my earth element's a bit out of balance. Um, but yeah, just watching what I'm consuming and making sure that it feels balanced and aligned with what I actually need.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, I really love this thing that you're bringing home there of that when we talk about consumption, when we talk about digestion, we're not only talking about food, we're talking about information, all the externals out there we're consuming and digesting every minute of the day, and how do we do that in an effective way? I like this idea of an earth monkey because the monkey is a very intelligent creature. But if you don't keep it in check, like you've just said, if you don't keep that earth monkey in check, it can be quite erratic. You can worry, you can have its mind jumping from boom, boom, boom, boom, and then we can have the monkey mind. I love that what you're saying, and then you've been seeing clients like I have, I've been seeing clients for probably 25 years now, and teaching lots of students. Where would you say that the earth element commonly shows up out of balance with your clients and with the people that you see?
SPEAKER_05Look, it it's most commonly in the mind and this worry and overthinking, and oh, did I do that right, or should I do this? And you know, this constant going over, going over. And I usually see it start there. Um, I do see a lot of clients with digestive issues, and it's usually just like the bloating, or most of the thing I see is actually lack of appetite, and people not fueling themselves with good food, especially in the morning. Like I see so, so, so many people who you know put their earth element out of balance really by having their coffee and their stimulants in the morning and jumping straight into action without actually taking that time of slowness, stillness, stillness in the morning, and that grounding nourishment that comes from having breakfast. So I'd say those who play out the most, and you know, that goes hand in hand with I think a story we're all quite familiar with with this self-nourishment of knowing I'm enough just as I am, and I I don't have to be anybody else to be great. Um, I see that a lot, especially these days in the clinic. It's a big story that sets people off balance and into an erratic state, like the the monkey, just reaching for bananas or sweet things to kind of bring them back to home.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the the I am not enough pandemic, yeah. It's a very, very prevalent mental story, and then it plays into so many areas of poor choices with food and and routine, so that's great. I really I I hear that, and then if you we stay in that earth element one more fraction of time, what would be say two or three take homes that you would give people just as I say, this is what you can really do to harness the earth element? I heard the hakunamatata means no worries. Anything else, Len? You know, like because we can say, well, no worries, how do we build no worries? How do we build more stability in our lives if we haven't got a home and we haven't got money and we haven't got those resources around us that give us a sense of belonging? How do we get some sort of hakunama tat in our life?
SPEAKER_05Hakunama duty.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_05I say sometimes it's easier to start with the physical.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_05And I what I would say to my clients is start to create like a routine. A routine. And it's got to be nourishing.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_05You know, not a strict routine where I've got to do this and cut this away, like you know, and really questioning them, and it's like what really nourishes you.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So getting them in a good routine of nourishment, and that's generally a regular breakfast, lunch, and dinner, yeah. And really good warm foods. Yeah. Yeah, well cooked foods that are the closest to nature as possible. So the more processed a food, the less we can process things. Yeah, because it's like the digestion's already been done for you, so you don't have to digest processed foods. Um, so I say eat good, organic, close-to-nature foods and make sure in the morning you've just got that moment of quietness and stillness, and and maybe breakfast is your moment of landing because it's a really big, busy world out there, and it's really easy to get trapped in all emotion of pretty much overthinking and worry.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. There's some great take-homes there. I'm hearing routine, good choices with food, yeah. Warm food, I really like that. And this breakfast, this 7 to 11, which is our earth time, making it the time for you to be nourished. Great reminders for us all. Usually the time we're rushing around. Destroying the earth element. Thank you for that, Sal. So then if we move around, we're going around the five-element cycle, we've moved from there. We're going to go to, if you can say it's child, which is the metal element. So let's go back to a little bit of self-reflection with you and the metal element.
SPEAKER_05Metal, it took me a really long time to connect with the metal element. I think probably because it's the weakest in me. Um, I see it come out definitely in that scientific mind of mine where I want to get the precise answer. And I want to, you know, get that prestige of knowing what the precise answer is and that real sense of um yeah, precision basically. And it doesn't really show up in my life. I'm quite messy um in life. You know, I don't brush my hair very often. I might clean my room once a week or a fortnight, maybe, but when it comes to my notes and writing out information, it's very precise, structured, because that's what's really important for me. Um, for me, getting information, especially around this stuff, is almost like a ritual and a ceremony. And I think because it brings me so alive, it's it's very sacred to me, this stuff. So when I kind of deal with that information, I deal with it in a sacred way. And I have a lot of methodical ways of taking my notes to make sure it's something pleasing to come back to. I could say I bring a little bit of ritual in my life with my morning cacao and tarot cards and things, and um yeah, it probably I probably see it the most in the clinic when I'm in that more sharper mind and I really have to start discerning, you know, what's useful information, what's not, and to pierce really the roots of someone's imbalances or disease and get really precise with what's necessary and not necessary. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's great to really hear how these elements come alive in so many parts of our life, and I'm exactly with you on that. I rarely brush my hair, my clothes are everywhere, but even my notes are messy as well, so I'm I'm running behind you.
SPEAKER_05Oh, you get the ritual, didn't you?
SPEAKER_01I do love ritual. I definitely bow down to all the sacredness in my day, so I do love my sacredness, yeah. And then again, if we come back and the metal element, what a what a thing in this time of of we're really getting called to do ceremony and do ritual and honour maybe some of those essential parts of living. Where do you see it commonly show up in imbalances with people around you, if your clients and your friends and your students? What do you see common imbalances here?
SPEAKER_05Common imbalance, I mean, mostly you'll see it in the in the physical in clients, and it's usually constipation diarrhea, these kind of um imbalances with the bowels. And I mean, when you start talking to those kind of people, like the physical really screams out, but getting to know those clients more and more, you often hear them talking about things that happened a really long time ago, and you know, their life has changed, but there's a there's a real holding on to something in the past. And I often see people like that, it's a it's a big thing for them to to actually let go or stop holding grudges and to to move out of the past and back into the moment. I see that a lot with those kind of clients. And um actually more and more these days, smoking has become a big thing because you know there's a lot of need to, I guess, for people close off because there's so much noise out there. And you know, we're sensitive beings, we can feel everything. And so really that feeling and being overstimulated by so much, we stop feeling our emotions. And most people I've seen turn to smoking whether it's cigarettes or vapes or whatever people get their hands on, but it's to kind of facilitate the shutting down of the emotional maturity and being able to feel our emotions without becoming them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Yeah, if we look, if we zoom out, we'll we should have some concern here. We're we're we're chronically depressed as a as a as Westerners. It's the amount of depressed people in our society these days is quite alarming, and there's this quite yeah, dangerous form of alienation happen. So it's really out there, and and I am I loving to see the amount of breathwork teachers, breathwork studios, people using this breath work to try and bring us into a bigger reality that we may have we may be closing off into. So we forget that we actually a lot of us aren't breathing properly. And can we bring the breath in? Nose, inhale, exhale, can we bring it in to to bring us into I would say a more um real part of living, real part, not a closed part. So other than breath work, I see that you know, teaching people how to breathe. What other things could we encourage people to jump into to look after this this player, this this metal element imbalance, other than breath work?
SPEAKER_05Other than breath work. Say um kind getting comfortable with your emotions, and by doing that, it's like yeah, making them not who you are. And I I even sometimes coach clients, and it's like instead of saying I feel sad, just like oh, I'm experiencing sadness because we get so stuck with the identity, and again, you see it in the wellness world, people's illness or their imbalance really becomes a part of their identity, and it's you know, just softly reminding people that we're so much more than you know what we think we are and who we say that we are, and to really start opening up that curiosity around, you know, emotions and these charges that run through us and and start to express things. And you know, it's it's not that easy to just go from depressed to expressing joy or grief or things openly, but you know, even just to start to speak up a little bit or finding ways that they like to express and really kind of charging and and cheering them on on that, yeah. I would say um one of the good take homes.
SPEAKER_01And I really love it on that. I think it's such a powerful topic. I feel like you know, maybe education systems could start to really is it possible to bring in emotional maturity as a subject. So we make we are able to talk about emotions and not feeling identifying with them. You know what? I'm experiencing anger doesn't make me an angry person. I'm experiencing depression, it doesn't make me a depressed person because then we have this identity associated with it. Well, I'm not going to talk about it. And it's very well known, very well read that when you make something mentionable, it's manageable. And maybe when we can't talk about it, when we can't share it, we don't have the emotional maturity, we go down a slippery slope. So I really feel it's not really an option in this world where we're actually moving into a very, very chaotic and and quite uncertain future that feelings need to be expressed. Yeah, and and and and as as wise elders and as teachers and healers, we all have to be part of that, especially for our young children.
SPEAKER_05Anything we've got breathwork, we've got emotional maturity, emotional maturity, and like I was just thinking the ritual. Oh yes. Again, it doesn't have to be, you know, the big show of everything. You can make a ritual around your cup of tea. You can make a ritual around feeling your emotions, you know. Grief is a big one for the metal element. And in a lot of other work I've done, we talk about grief altars. And it's like, you know, starting to channel that emotion into a ritual so it can become out of the body and into the body. And I'd say that would be a big one, but just having these moments of going, yeah, even just going, this is really sacred to me, I'm gonna have that space around that and treat it as sacred.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love that.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and if I mean if you think about the bowels, you know, have good fibre, eat all your veggies because that's what keeps things moving, yeah, mostly. And um yeah, just get curious around what's getting stuck in the body. Because you know, if we go back, most of those guys who are constipated in the body, constipated in the mind and stuck in the past.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, my spiritual teacher has shared with me quite a few times, it's quite inspiring, it's very simple. Less of this closed fist and more of this an open palm. And we say, Wow, how do I do from this this closed fist? Because I need to, you know, this is where I feel safe to do this, it's quite challenging. And then maybe that is okay. That to that is a ritual. So match, you know, by putting this intention into this prayer or into this flower or into this bucket or into this this mantra, I'm gonna allow I'm I'm gonna be allowed myself to do that, this open palm. And we I don't know one person in this world that doesn't want to be free. I don't know one person in this world that wants to carry a backpack their entire life, but we do. So yeah, how do we I feel ritual is powerful. I know that the barn is it's very, very, very important in their life that they are always or surrendering or giving it up or offering to something bigger than them. So thank you. Metal, and I'm hearing the surf. Okay, maybe you can hear the surf. I'm looking at the surf. Yeah, I'm being distracted by the surf. I love the surf. Yeah, so if we go into the water cell, um yeah, you can say it's the seed uh of the five elements. So I love this idea and the five elements in Chinese medicine. They remind us when we can look at it through mental states, emotional states, issues, feelings, and then it stops moving into the tissue. So then we move it. If we can actually address it in this, we call it the software, it doesn't become an issue in the hardware. When it starts moving down the hardware, it starts moving into bones, starts to move into tumours, starts to move into real deep, sometimes terminal ailments, it's quite hard to deal with. How do we look at it in that software state? And I feel that this Chinese medicine poetry, which has been such a dear gift to me, is that's where it's from. I can oh wow, I've got this issue that I'm dealing with. I'm gonna deal with it while it's in the software state, and then we can move it before it gets into a hardware. Much effective, more effective, and more simple way to deal with it.
SPEAKER_04Much possible.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So water element, how would it how do you how do you how do you like your water? Are you you you you feel a bit watery? You've got lots of creativity.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I've got creative I don't well, I feel like Chinese medicine in a lot of ways can be very creative. You know, the way you meet people and you know, the points and the things that you have to change, but gosh, creativity. I mean, I do like drawing and I like to sing. I don't do it that often because I'm probably more in my metal mind of just studying and information. How else does it come up? I mean, I drink a lot of water and I think that's good. And I think probably that I like to move away from tension. I actually I like that freedom in my body and to feel loose and to feel strong. Like I like to feel like I'm capable of anything in case anything happens. Might be a bit of a fear-based thing, but um how else does the work?
SPEAKER_01I think I think I'll be echoing all this audience. You're you're very intelligent.
SPEAKER_05How old are you? I'm 35.
SPEAKER_0135, you've got lots and lots of encyclopedias in that 35-year-old brain. She's quite clever, isn't she? I go, wow, how does she retain all that information? So yeah, I think that we yeah, there's a lot of intelligence there. Yeah. And and and also your your capacity to, I know it's wood element as well, but you you're able to effortlessly move with what's showing up.
SPEAKER_04Thank you. It's a nice reflection. It's nice to learn about yourself in the podcast.
SPEAKER_01And and and where do you and I I I don't know, I'll let you speak, but I see the water element. Wow, I see it really come up big time. I th I I rarely treat a client that hasn't got some sort of weakness there in that in that adrenal area. Because when we go to the water element, we're more talking, all these elements we're talking about organs, and the organ that we're talking about today is the kidneys and the adrenals, uh, the two organs that I would say get the most taxed through our Western lives of burning the candle at both ends. So where else? Well, well, what's your insight into that? Kidney adrenal fatigue, where the water element shows up as an imbalance?
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Yeah, so um the water element, like it, like you said, it's our seed, it's the root. So in Chinese medicine, it's the they're really the organs you want to take the best care of. Um, because they're gonna really decide whether you live a long, long life and you live slow and die old, or if you live fast and die young. But our the way we run our society is massively adrenally charged. We're in sympathetic nervous system all the time, most people, because we celebrate achievements, we celebrate action, and we're not really good at celebrating rest. You know, the amount of clients that I see come in and say I say, Oh, what did you do on the weekend? Oh, you know what, I was really, really lazy and I did nothing. And a lot of the time it's like, hey, well, what do you do for the rest of the five days? Or I work 50 hour weeks. And it's like, so do you really think it's lazy to do nothing on the weekend, or do you think it was just relaxing? You know, and heaps of people were trained to think if we're not constantly active or productive or doing, then we are lazy. And it's become a really big um kind of stigma in our Western world, you know. Oh, you see someone on a you know, Monday midday at the beach, who's like, what the heck? Why aren't they at work? All those lazy buggers. Excuse my language. So um I see it all the time because we're just driving all the time, you know. 20, but pretty much um expected to be on 24-8. I say, you know, they want an extra day out at each week, 24-8. So I see so many people adrenally taxed because the nervous system is always uh I'm I'm trying to change that. Our stimulation system is always on, and mostly in a nervous state, which just eats up life force because you know, most people are out there living like something's gonna kill them, if it's the deadline or you know, disappointing the boss or things like that. You know, there's this real survival instinct pulse running through the Western world. And I mean, when you look at it compared to all of the other places in the world, we have so much abundance everywhere, but we've closed ourselves off to that sense of vitality and abundance from nature, and you know, we're just eating it up and churning it. It's a really unsustainable world that we live in. So I see that in most clients. Most people will have a low kidney energy, and once that starts to move into the hardware, then we see lots of things like back pain, um, knee issues, tightness in the back of the legs, and that's usually what I'll see in those guys.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, isn't it interesting? We think that the harder we work, the more we push, the more we drive, the more we get done, and the more successful and abundant we'll be. But if we actually look through the rearview mirror, we'll see when we step out of that pattern, we actually get more done.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we we start to become, we start to become people that involve more in quality than quantity. So yeah, that's interesting to notice that. I've noticed, I noticed in COVID that people went, wow, they were forced to stop. And the big thing I heard lots of people saying, Wow, I'm doing half the amount of things I usually do, but I'm getting a lot more done because they just changed the way that they were doing it. So very interesting concept. I noticed when I have a retreat and zoom out and have rest and have reflection, I can reorientate patterns and I'd step back in, it's far more productive, but we sometimes find it hard to jump off the horse. There's another topic I'd like to just jump into while we're on this one, because I think many of the listeners in this will be interested in this, and that's this issue about fertility and reproduction. Because I'm in my sixth decade now, when and when my friends were going through that 25, 30, 35, we're all worried about no, no, no one, you know, not getting pregnant. It was so easy, everyone was falling pregnant so easily. I felt I guer felt pregnant two months after I met her, so it happened very quickly, and it was always that wow, you know, be very careful, it very easily happens. And I look at a lot of my my 30-year-old students and friends in that age that are wanting to feel pregnant uh or or are looking for fertility, are having trouble doing and having having trouble falling pregnant now, and they're really working hard to do it. And is there something in between what's happening in the world that that why that's happening? Do you feel?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I think like I mean, a lot of people, well not a lot of people, but some people that are here and like talking about babies and things, there's a lot of fear around it because there's a lot of scarcity mindset in our world. And it's like, oh God, but children are so expensive, and oh, what happens if this happens? And you know, like back in the day, lots of births were very successful, a lot of them weren't, but it was just a part of life, and now there's a really big fear story around birth and fertility. Um but I would say as well, it's this adrenal tax, and like if your if your stimulation system, yeah, that central nervous system, that's the that's a blueprint of the energy that's moving through your body. If you're in a constant state of survival, the body is not going to accept a pregnancy because you're not safe. And that's how intelligent our systems are. If we're not in a state of full safety and calmness and stillness, then our body isn't gonna feel safe to bring a child in because that's another thing to worry about and look after. And really, you know, a lot of our biology is about the new generations and what are we gonna bring forward. And I s again, with the adrenal way that we live our life, what we call our jing, which is our essence or our potential, and these deep reserves, you could say it's kind of like DNA and genetics, or maybe telomeres, if you want to go into that um story, but it's getting degraded more quickly, and then we don't have that real essence of life and vitality to create a new life because it's a big thing to create life, and because we're draining ourselves so much, we don't have that energy to fully bring in and support a pregnancy. And look, to be honest, most of the time I'd say it's the survival because a lot of doctors and will say if someone's trying to get pregnant and the hormones are pretty good, bloods are good, just say go on a holiday. Most women get pregnant on holidays these days because they're finally relaxed. You know, the amount of people, oh, I'm trying to get pregnant, we're trying really hard. And it's like, you know, life and connection and love is beautiful. And it's like we're turning it into a chore. And so I remind my clients as well go on a holiday, come back to the love that you share with that person and create from that space. If you create from a space of stress, you're not gonna create you know, your greatest work. So I would say, you know, it's a lot about this this stress system and really replenishing the self first because you know, in Chinese medicine we say, you know, your jing or your essence, whatever you've got, you'll pass on to your children. And if you keep using it up on, you know, partying, staying up late, never sleeping, working 50, 70 hours a week, you know, you're not giving a lot of essence to the new generations. And I think that's maybe why we're seeing a lot more illness in younger people because we don't have that substance anymore.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, hear that. So some some good take-homes. What I'm hearing from you is actually this, let's have more holidays. Yes. This takes stress out of our life for somehow, like the you know, the stressful life, and I really get it, there is an uncertain future for children, and that and that does put a lot of you know, background noise. Do I want to bring children into this world about something I don't really know is going to be here with 8.5, 8.6 billion people trying to be pushed into one space. I hear that. Um, and I hear these telling me a story. I've heard through uh a lot of dear friends that are right into substance medicine that quality water is so important.
SPEAKER_06So important, so important.
SPEAKER_01We must bring that one home. Quality water, holidays, and and no stress.
SPEAKER_05No stress. Have a restful state of mind and a restful state of being, okay, and make your sure you drink really good clean water.
SPEAKER_01We'll keep moving because I like to give these guys in our live audience a chance to talk to you and bring it out as well. So we've got two more elements to go, and then the the woody element, we're in a coconut forest. Uh I know there's wood in you, it's wood in me. We're we're here as leaders. Obviously, we are wood element, liver and gallbladder organs. Um, how does it show up for you?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, wood element shows up for me throughout my life. Um, I can get pretty driven, and in my younger years was very competitive, mostly in sport. And um, yeah, I was training every single day, pretty much 11 months of the year. And when I went on holidays, I'd ski and do exercise the whole entire time. So um yeah, it shows up in my drive and in that in that action of really going, okay, I now know what my goal is, and to really drive forward towards that. I think that shows up for me. If you asked my mum when I was younger, it definitely showed up with tantrums and a bit of anger and frustration, but I feel like I've brought in a lot more creativity and just understanding and knowing, you know, when I've got that real energy, you know, to start pulsing it towards something that has a lot of meaning.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the real rrr energy can be used really well. How do we how do we how do we channel it? And and in clients, where do you see this this this show up in a lot of clients other than just headaches and sore eyes?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, look, I see it a lot in clients. It kind of goes back into that overworking story, and that overstriving, and it's like, oh, and especially now we've got so many options, and it's like, oh, well, I'm gonna work hard all day, and then I've got to go to this bar, and then I've got to go to this party, and then I've got to do this workshop. So it's great because it's very driven, but I do see a lot of people in that, and look, it it creates tension. So I see it in the joints, I see it in the physical body, but I also see it in the mind. And often what we do when we feel tense, we go to something to relax us, and generally that can be alcohol, recreational substances, and things like that. So depends on the community you're working with, but um generally a reliant on substances to either relax or stimulate. I see in a lot of woody people.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and the liver's having to deal with that.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I see that too. I see I I and I and I also see this Ticknut Hani saying to his followers, his teachers, one of his greatest lines, it's like a uh a mantra in the back of my head, be careful of habit energy, be careful of getting caught in the same habits, because then you can just be a rehearsal of what happened a decade before or two decades before, and you don't get to live this full free life, which has so much possibility. Yeah, so yeah, watch the habit energy, watch our drivenness. Yeah. Any anything else for a wood element that's out of balance?
SPEAKER_05Out of balance. Look, yeah, the liver wants freedom.
SPEAKER_01It wants freedom.
SPEAKER_05We want to flow freely, and we want to f flow freely with life and what it brings us. So, you know, don't pack things too full. Like give space for magic to happen. Yeah, we miss it by being, you know, so booked out, so driven. Um, so creating that space for freedom. And what was the question? Well, how else do I see it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we had a few there. We had no habit energy, or we sort of like watch those substances that how they are just used to addictions are used to free ourselves of tension. Can we have other ways to free ourselves of tension? Like body work? Body work? Dancing.
SPEAKER_05Body work, dancing, you know, that and it kind of comes, you know, water is the mother of wood. So that creative expression in whatever way that is for you. Beautiful. You know, for me when I was younger, it was running.
SPEAKER_06Yep.
SPEAKER_05And that got rid of that tension and I could be creative and it moved into different things. So yeah, having that space to be creative and really think like, how can I move this energy without yelling at everybody or you know, sinking a cut a six-pack to just feel relaxed once again.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So those things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I see it in my friends when I see the frown on their face, the tension in their bodies, that wood element, that frustration, that resentment. I said, just go punch a bag.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And just get it out. Because a lot of it's in the body. You just get to, you know, go for a run up a mountain and lose your breath, and you go, wow, I've got a new life right now. It's great. Okay, I love this. We're going to finalize it with the fire element. The flowering of our heart. The sun is open. You've got lots of fire there. When I first saw you, you were just popping around like a beautiful butterfly. Like, oh yes, I found the next best thing, Zen time. And you have been, you've been a great gift for this community. So, where else does it show out of in your life other than that passion that you have?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, big passion. Um, it shows up in my life with a lot of excitability. Like, I like to be up there and in that kind of high energy summer kind of vibes, the party. Um, it comes out in the social. Like, I love relationships. It's really big for me. And just cultivating good relationships with people.
SPEAKER_01Like she loves connecting, doesn't she?
SPEAKER_05I do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, everyone in the audience is going, yep. They all want to take Sally home in their suitcase.
SPEAKER_05I want to take them all home now, um, yeah, and for me, I think a really big thing is just to make things fun. You know, like we can get really serious and really close down. I mean, it's good to be serious, and I think that's been a bit of my lesson is you know, I've got to take some things a little bit more seriously.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_05But for me, it just shows up in I really want to make everything fun. I want to make the experiences that I have, you know, joyful and and meaningful in some way. So, you know, I'm not gonna avoid the hard times. But for me, you know, it's not just relationships with people, but those hard times bring me back into the relationship I have with myself and going, wow, like this is fear or this is anger or this is grief, or you know, this is an injury, and it's really this joyful experience where I can learn about myself a lot more and create a deeper connection with who I am. Like that's massive for me.
SPEAKER_01I hear that. Yeah, I love this line of Alan Watts. He says, to care deeply, put all your love into it, put your whole passion into it, but love lightly because it all moves, it's all moving through an empty sky. So can we love lightly knowing that it could be different in another day? Love is, as it said, perennial as the grass. So we want to put our whole heart into it with all the grasping that can sometimes be quite heavy, can be challenging. I love that, and and then do like we have a big disconnect at the moment with all the devices that sort of make it make make us connect to a screen rather than to the physicality, which I feel why Xentai is so alive that we actually get to touch people and see people and hear people without judging them. Is there anything else you feel like people have a problem with other than that disassociation that's quite rank at the moment, other than that?
SPEAKER_05Other than that, look, you just see people looking for the big great experiences. The big rush. Yeah, the big rush. And it's like, you know, the we want to find the find the fire and the spark because with this disconnection we've lost the internal spark. So we're going, what I say in my classes is like the sex, drugs, and rock and roll to try and bring that spark back. And you know, it doesn't have to be that. Sometimes those big, big experiences that are out of worldly come in plant medicine or sometimes in breath work. And it's this real clutching on to I have to have the greatest and the biggest and the most expansive experience all the time. And you know, people are hunting that consciously, but it also comes through, you know, stimulants. I used to love coffee and red cordial and things that made me feel hyperactive because I thought that was joy, and then I was happy and joyful and fun, and then next minute I'm crashed and I I don't have any fire left. So I see that a lot in the world, you know, in this, yeah, and it's like you know, a real lack of self-love, you know, and that comparative story. Yeah, yeah, focusing so much on what are other people doing, how are other people living? Look at that, they're living the life, and and we're starting to take the love and the appreciation out and putting it externally. And it's really, I feel like the journey of the fire element is to remember that all of that is within that spirit, that love, that everything that you can touch outside and makes you feel good or happy or full or joyful, you can find it within here. And I it's the big journey that you know the new generations coming through are really gonna have to step up in.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I really hear that. Maybe it's a good moment if you're not driving your car right now, if you're sitting, just to bring your left hand to your heart and just connect to where the love is really, really, really derives from this center. Again, tick not hun, in is the way out. If we want to move out with passion and impact and and care, it needs to come from this love in, and I really hear that. It gets missed quite often, and so yeah. Love thyself. What a great line. Ho, I really hear that, and I hear this big rush, which is why I see insomnia of every second client, because it's the big rush, all the yang rises up and then it gets trapped, and you go, Well, no wonder why you can't sleep, you know, because it's all sitting up here in our heads and our shoulders and our tension and the next big thing. So maybe just the just that being okay with this big long spacious gap that's devoted to God. So good to see you smiling. Hope you're smiling on the other side of this podcast, guys. I'm smiling here. Um before we actually I I'm gonna finish with you and then we're gonna show it to the audience for some last questions. The last thing I thought I would come to you with with the empty, empty, happy, happy. Um we've had a look at the five elements, and we know and I love how people like to like to play in it, they like to see it, they like to see how they relate to it, they put themselves in it, and I really feel that's quite fascinating because it allows you to understand it. The flip side of that is they want to put themselves in a box, in a category, give themselves a prescription, I am a water element, and these are the things I need, and how that can be very, very out of context of what Chinese medicine is, because we are the elements weaving in and out and through, and they're all alive in us right now, in everything we do. So, on that, in this present day, we've spoken a little bit. Do you feel that there's one element that's like standing out? I'm not saying that it stands out alone, but standing out as an element that as a culture of Western people, it'd be good to have a a good just check-in on. We've spoken about quite a few things here.
SPEAKER_05Gosh, that's a good one. Yes, you could bring it into any, but look, to be honest, I probably lean mostly towards the water and the fire.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think so too. I hear that's what I hear. The chaos of the fire, and how do we bring the water in to support that?
SPEAKER_05Exactly. So bringing the grandmother, so we're in a we're in a state where the fire is a bit out of control, where we're disassociated not just from our friends and our family and those connections, but we're disassociated from the connection with ourselves and that inward connection. And um, if we bring in the grandmother cycle, you know, the big loving grandma, she's always got extra energy for the kids, especially if mum's super tired. So, yeah, bringing in that water element and really silence, yes, gentleness, gentleness, meditation, and that doesn't have to be sitting still, but yeah, really bringing that sense of restfulness and calmness. And I love you know the Dao De Ching, um, where they say water's greatest strength is its softness, to start moving back into this world of softness where instead of being sensitive and overly stimulated, we can start to be receptive. And then we're receptive to life. And then, you know, really the water element it holds our truth, it holds our essence and our greatest potential. So to start quieting the noise, you know, turning off devices, letting the stimulation system come back into rest and regeneration and healing. Yeah, because their body can heal itself. And the amount of therapies and doctors and things and modalities out there really speaks to how much our body is not healing itself. Oh so to yeah, step into that water element, come back to your truth and and have the courage to live it, which is big. It's big in this world with lots of you know, judgment and cameras everywhere and fingers pointing and influences and all of that. You know, come back to the silence, quit the noise, and and really get curious into seeking out what is your truth, and when you find it, get passionate about it, and get passionate about relationships and get passionate about connection.
SPEAKER_01I love it. I really I felt like you were teaching yoga right then. Quiet in the noise so we can clearly see. Yeah, stay curious, huh?
SPEAKER_07Stay curious.
SPEAKER_01I keep asking questions, guys. So keep coming. The world of possibility is is should not be confined by your conditioned mind. Let the let your mind expand to feel or tap into the world of unlimited possibility. So I think that's a great way to step into being happy.
SPEAKER_06I reckon too.
SPEAKER_01Empty empty. So thank you so much, Sal. I'm gonna close my conversation if you're here, and then I'm gonna open up a conversation with these beautiful faces in front of you because I'm sure there's some great questions. But empty empty and uh happy happy.
SPEAKER_04Happy, happy. Thanks so much, Gwynn.
SPEAKER_02This is uh Mountain Bear Twan here. We probably have about five minutes of live questions, so it might be one or two questions. So is anyone want to go first? And Yellen just need to hold the mic here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm very inspired by Gwinny. I was out in the surf a couple hours ago just watching, I'm like, wow, this man is just so aligned in his Dharma and the way he has taken action on his dreams. If he didn't take action on these dreams, none of us would be here, and I'm so inspired. Um I see, I know within myself I'm a big dreamer, but sometimes I I get blocked from from taking actions on my dreams. So, through the lens of the elements, what could be blocking us from taking action on our dreams?
SPEAKER_05Oh, that's a good question.
SPEAKER_01That's a great question, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Um, look, to be honest, I'd say it can be the earth story of I'm not enough, you know, because we dream big, yeah? Some people, some people dream small, but if you've got big dreams, like what I hear a lot with, you know, graduating students and even people, you know, not just from Zentai, but yoga and stuff, it's this imposter syndrome of oh, I'm not the greatest, so therefore, who am I to be able to do that? So I'd say imposter syndrome and not believing in yourself is generally the biggest block. Yeah, because you we we see so much greatness and so much comparison comes in there where it's like, oh, they're so much better, Quinn's so much more poetic, you know, Lucy's so much more precise and poetic as well. You know, who am I to teach yoga? So I think it's coming into the earth and nourishing yourself and really celebrating who you are, and remember that the more you do it, the more you become it. So by sitting in that fear and that frozen of the imposter syndrome, which is water, you know, we want to step back to the grandmother, which is the earth, and get solid in yourself. And you know, it's funny, it's like believe in yourself. We often say, Oh, I believe in fairies because not everyone sees them or something. We can all see you. You guys are all very real, so start believing in yourself because you are real, you're not a made-up imaginary thing that we've all created, you're a real substance on this earth, and you've got a real gift to bring in. So I'd say to people, turn to the earth, you know, come back to that stillness, quiet the mind. Because you know, the mind is tricky. And in the evolution, we've been gifted mind, but mind often cuts us off from the root of our potential and our desires and our dreams. So, you know, get good with your mind. And when those stories come up, you sit with them, you know, and bring that compassion, bring that sense of sweetness back into yourself, and then drive, you know, really believe in yourself. I'd say that's the biggest thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a great you've nearly nailed everyone. Everything is a small step, so there's a small step. So I've loved all the small steps on the way, and there's gonna be so much adversity. People will have knocked me down, people have criticized me, I've had circumstances come up and be blocks. I say, nah, I'm believing in myself. This is my path, and you find yourself, you find your path. I say, find a path that has heart, and then you walk it impeccably. Not to say it's an easy road, but you walk impeccably and and and it'll and it'll it'll happen. But there's small steps and it needs a small plan. But it's a it's great. It's it's great to see be Yogananda said be around an environment that supports that, be around the people that inspire you to do that. It's like if you're just gonna want that, but you're just gonna sit in eating popcorn and watching, you know, cartoons or useless movies or news, it's not gonna happen. Be around the environment.
SPEAKER_03We give thanks a pray for all blessings that have come.