#210: Healing from the Inside Out: The Power of Qigong with Chris & Parisa Shelton

In today’s episode of Make It Visible, we dive deep into the world of Qigong—an ancient practice that harnesses energy, movement, and breath to restore balance, release emotional blockages, and improve overall well-being.

I’m joined by Chris & Parisa Shelton, founders of Shelton Qigong, who bring over 30 years of expertise in Chinese medicine, Qigong, Tai Chi, and holistic healing.

 Their journey is nothing short of inspiring—Chris went from being a butcher to a renowned Qigong master, after overcoming debilitating health issues and personal struggles through this practice.

In This Episode, We Cover:

✅ What Qigong is and how it works to heal the body and mind
✅ How negative emotions get stored in our organs and lead to disease
✅ The connection between stress, trauma, and physical pain
✅ How entrepreneurs and high achievers can use Qigong to avoid burnout
✅ The surprising emotional cause of neck and back pain
✅ Why food plays a significant role in energy balance & emotional health
✅ How facial features can reveal hidden emotional blocks

If you’ve been feeling stressed, stuck, or disconnected from your body, this conversation will open your eyes to a powerful healing practice that has stood the test of time.

📌 Connect with Chris & Parisa Shelton:

🔗 Website: SheltonQigong.com
📚 Books: How to Heal Neck & Back Pain & Qigong for Emotional Well-Being
📺 YouTube: Chris Shelton Qigong

About the host:

Michelle Kuei is a business and marketing coach for coaches. She helps women coaches across all niches stop chasing clients and start attracting them using her Client Enrollment Method. She's the founder of Elevate LifeCoaching, the creator of Coaching Biz Builder, and the host of the Make It Visible podcast.

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Transcript

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0:03

Hey, you're listening to Make It Visible podcast. I'm your host, Michelle Kui. I am a visibility marketing coach and soon to be your business bestie in the coaching business world. Not knowing how to connect with your audience, grab people's attention and get them excited to buy from you should never be the reason you give up on your dream to become a full time coach. I'm all about making marketing the easiest. part of your coaching business so that you can turn a passion for coaching into a visible and profitable reality. So buckle up, ladies, let's get started.

Michelle: 0:38

Welcome back to another episode. Make It Visible Podcast. Today I am joined by Mr. And Mrs. Shelton and Ms. Shelton and I go way back When we first met at one of the Mastermind that we both belonged to and I personally, had experienced what, , Parisa had to offer and her husband Chris is here joining us. To share their expertise in Qigong in case you don't know how to pronounce it. They're going to tell you exactly how, why it worked, how it worked and why you should know about it. Parisa and Chris, welcome to the show. Hey, Michelle. Hey there. Thank you.

Christ: 1:21

Yeah. Thank you so much for having us.

Michelle: 1:23

This is like my first time meeting Chris and the both of you just look amazing. You look so young and vibe is just so out there. And Perisa, remember you were doing like a teaching session for us during the mastermind call and I was just absolutely floored. Because being Asian and have this background knowing what Qigong is, I know what it does. But a lot of our audience don't. Can you tell us about yourself? How did you start in the business? And exactly what do you do?

Christ: 1:54

So I started Morning Crane Healing Arts Center back in 2001, , at the time, , because talking about being an entrepreneur, actually at the time when I started the business, , I finished my first four years of Chinese medicine and I sat on it for a couple of years because I was a single father of two kids and I was a meat manager. So I was a butcher. And I didn't know how he's going to transition from cutting up dead cows all day and managing these knuckleheads to healing people. And so, but I took a chance and then started the clinic in Los Gatos, California, which is near San Jose. And. So start teaching, , Qigong and Taiji as well, and then also classes in Chinese philosophy, the I Ching, Feng Shui, Chinese face reading, Chinese nutrition. I think I was Chinese in my past life., Because I understand for me, the whole concept of Qi in the philosophy , just makes sense. And then fast forward, what happened is, is that, I met Parisa back in , July 2010, and she was teaching Pilates in Las Gadas. Now I had moved my business over to , , Willow Glen, which is a small suburb of San Jose. And I had a clinic there, , plus a small classroom where I was teaching classes and such. And then from there, , we met and then we merged and then 2011, we spent probably like 250, 000, took over the whole half of the building. built a beautiful, fitness

Parisa: 3:12

studio,

Christ: 3:13

fitness studio with three treatment rooms and a Pilates studio. And, , yeah. And then since then we've expanded into Los Angeles.

Michelle: 3:21

think that's absolutely amazing and truly inspiring well, what really caught my attention is going from a butcher to a Chinese. did that happen? Like, what was that story about?

Christ: 3:34

So backstory. What's so funny? Because I have a book on how to heal neck and back pain, but it was the backstory. The old story was that, , , I grew up in a dysfunctional home and , I grew up in East San Jose. I started doing drugs at a very young age, , before my 19th birthday, my senior year of high school, I had a heart attack from a crystal meth overdose. And, , overheard the doctor talking to my father outside the curtain said, , if he was any older, he would have died, but because of his age, So, , being an addict, I used a few months later, had a second heart attack and I realized like, Oh, I need to change something because if I don't change, I'm going to end up dead in prison or both. But I was always highly driven though,, so I still graduate high school with in my AP studies in art and I started actually becoming a butcher at age 15 and a half, and what happened was, that I started doing Taekwondo and I started competing in full contact right away. And then one night before match, I was accidentally kicked in the back. Left me with a devastating back injury and doctors were saying, Chris, if you don't have surgery, you move the wrong way. You might not walk again or do other things that you take for granted. And another physician, Dr. Nancy Bergman, she had a different perspective and she had a therapist working for her and, , he was a martial artist and he was talking to me about Chi, well, Taekwondo, they call it Chi, right? So when he's talking about Chi in this context, I'm now what, 21 years old. The closest thing to chi I was going to get was like cheese, it's a cheese whiz, , and, and so I had, other health problems too, severe digestive problems, I had severe sinus problems, I lived on all kinds of antibiotics and medications, doctors couldn't figure out why my digestive issues were so bad, luckily they did not take out my gallbladder because normally the symptoms they would have taken out the gallbladder, And anyway, I started taking these Qigong classes, and this was over 30 years ago, not many people were talking about Qigong, , they talk about Kung Fu, , Bruce Lee, , at one point was in the Bay Area, started his dojo, , in Oakland and such, but not Qigong, not talking about Qigong, and so anyways, after about six months of taking these, , Qigong classes, it was a realization that, oh, , when did my digestive issues go away? When did I stop living on all the medications? All my symptoms went away. I couldn't tell you an exact pinpoint day of when it went away, but it was just a realization that, Oh, wow, like things have changed. And so I thought if a specific guided meditation and specific guided movement could do this to me, there must be something to the medicine. And that's when I dove in deeper into Qigong as well as classical Chinese medicine.

Michelle: 6:02

really think that's , something my audience need to hear because a lot of entrepreneurs and coaches and speakers. I know we're so constantly,, working out a business, right? it's that constant, , drive of I want this to work and they're motivated. They want to start the business. They want the business continue to grow and continue to run. And oftentimes we are at , the risk of running into major health problem. And most people don't, see the major health problem until they got to point where you have, those symptoms that shows up and you're questioning, well, how, did I get here? And how do I resolve this? And by that point, if you don't have the correct solution, It's kind of like already too late, right? You need to go to surgery or you take a whole bunch of medication. So tell us exactly what is Qi Gong for those who don't know.

Parisa: 6:52

Oh yeah. So Qi is the life force energy that's in all things from physical, our bodies, the table, this computer to non physical, like our emotions, our senses, sight, smell, it's everything around us and within us. Gong is the skill. So essentially, Qi Gong is an energy skill. We're utilizing movement, breath, and posture in order to harness life force energy to create balance inside our body.

Parisha & Chris: 7:23

And mind intent.

Parisa: 7:24

Mind intent. the leading cause of death and disease is negative emotions., and stress and just like you said, Michelle, if you don't take care of yourself, then eventually one day you'll wake up and you'll go to pick up something off the floor and you won't be able to stand up. So it's really important for busy entrepreneurs to take that time on a regular basis, to invest time in ourselves, to turn your cell phone off, go inwards, do some sort of practice where you can recalibrate and rebalance yourself so that you can. Show up and serve the people that you want to serve at your highest potential and your highest level.

Michelle: 8:04

So you can correct me if I'm wrong because a lot of time I go with my mom and My grandmother to the park and there's a lot of people like doing these body movement and I have no idea of what they're doing But they tell me oh, it's a qigong. There is something called the 18th movement or something like that.

Parisa: 8:21

Yeah. Form.

Michelle: 8:22

Yeah. And I have no clue what exactly it does and how does it help? So how does it restore your body's, , overall balance?

Parisha & Chris: 8:32

So I train diligently with Tai Chi, so Qi Gong is actually the foundation of Tai Chi, it's also the foundation of Chinese medicine or acupuncture. And so a lot of times in the park what you're seeing is Tai Chi, and most people do practice Yong style Tai Chi, we practice and train traditional Chen family Tai Chi Quan. And, so the gentle movements that happen, , , like what Priscilla was saying, there's proper posture. So it's proper body mechanics and alignment, and then it's mindfulness too. So Qigong is more direct. Taiji takes longer to learn because it's a whole system. It's a whole form. Qigong is not a whole. It's not a whole set., there are some Qigong systems that are whole sets, but the style of Qigong that we are teaching is to balance out the internal organs. Because a lot of people don't realize that the five major organs of your body, your heart, your lungs, your liver, your kidneys, and your spleen, are mainly responsible for sustaining your life, but also are affected by different negative emotions. So some of the Qigong practices that we teach are to be able to release those negative emotions from those internal organs. practice, when we see patients in clinical practice, We do a lot of Q& A, , so if you come in with IBS or you come in with GERD or something, we do a lot of Q& A and a lot of times, for example, those symptoms are due to repressed anger or anger not expressed appropriately, which affects your liver. And your liver and gallbladder play a huge role in your digestive system. So what these Qigong practices do is it helps you release, whether it's a current resentment, but if like what you're saying, If the symptoms have already showed up where you're having a chronic condition of a IBS or whatever, this has been accumulating. So chances are it's old anger and old resentment then coupled on to what's going on in the present moment. So these gentle movements and practices don't want the mind intent because I'm focusing on the organ. I'm focusing on the emotion. I'm focusing on the color associated with the organ. And then these gentle movements then help you connect. With the internal organism of the body and then this is what starts to create the release

Michelle: 10:35

as you're talking about the IBS one of my client actually she's been a chronic struggle for IBS. And so she Pick out her food. She's been very strategic about her diet. She only eats certain food,, because it triggers her IBS. For someone who's completely new to Qigong or any of the energy restoring the balance and, that process of how we restore our energy, how would one go about doing it? If I were to talk to her, like, what should I tell her?

Parisa: 11:06

Oh, what came to me right away was probably some repressed, , anger and a lot of worry. And so with the pillars of Qigong being the mind focus and mind intent coming into grips of, okay, this is actually what's been bothering me. And then you do the flow. There's the five organ cleansing exercises. So for digestive issues, we would recommend the spleen cleansing exercise where you concentrate and you focus, okay, this is what I feel worried about, you do the movement. You focus on the breath and literally by doing it five, ten, fifteen minutes later, like release valve. Like on the planet Earth, we have geysers that come up that releases the Earth pressure. Humans too, we're a micro and a macro, so it's like we get so much pressure and if you don't have like a way to release some of that pressure, then it shows up as things like IBS.

Parisha & Chris: 12:04

Yeah. Yeah. And also too, we look at Chinese nutrition as well too.

Parisa: 12:08

Oh, yeah. You want to look at it.

Parisha & Chris: 12:09

Because Chinese But she

Parisa: 12:09

is looking at the diet.

Parisha & Chris: 12:11

Yeah. No, but what I'm saying is Chinese nutrition that was different than Western nutrition. So one of the things, for example, that we would recommend too, , that here in the West we think is healthy is we say no smoothies and no cold and raw foods. No salad. No salad, especially in the winter months., so we also have to look at the energetic properties of food. Everything is chi. Everything is a form of chi. So even if we're talking about food, food also has different energetic properties and affects positively or negatively different internal organs of the body. So we'd also look at that as well too. So I would say at least the style of Qigong, when we look at giving people tools for emotional wellbeing, it's almost like going to therapy because I'm asking you to pick off the scab, relive a situation, feel the situation, who's involved, what's involved. But by connecting with the situation and by doing this specific movement, this. Thousands of years old. I didn't just make this up like oh, this is a good idea to do this This works with the liver i'd tell everybody it works with the liver they'll believe me Anyways, and a lot of people don't realize that different colors associate with different organs Like the color green associates with the liver and gallbladder and people say well, how can you know that? Well, look at bile or gallstones. What color are gallstones? They are dark green, right? Right. So you focus on the color green, you focus on the anger, the situation, and then as you do the movement and or the healing sound, then you imagine that leaving like a dark cloud going several feet away from the body and deep into the ground. So yes, I'm picking off the scab, but I'm giving you a tangible tool that connects with where we actually store a lot of this stuff. Yeah, we have memories, but where do we store this stuff in our tissues? And that old saying, we have issues in our tissues is so true. And specifically within specific organs of the body. And one of the cool things about Qigong and acupuncture is I understand how the organs function according to science. But because of thousands and thousands of years of study on the human organism, these organs have a much, much, much greater functionality. So, and that actually also too, energetically will show up on the face. So one of the ways that I diagnose or assess is I read a person's face when they come into clinic, besides their tongue and pulse.

Michelle: 14:18

Mm mm Makes me want to stick out my tongue and say, Chris, can you take a look at my tongue?. ? The answer is yes., , I love healthier of color association because I think it's easier to understand now that you said that the gallbladder will, because it's producing these, secretions, right? Then it's associated with color of green, which we also brought up the fact that, a lot of food, the way that we eat., it also that overall picture of the energy. Then do you change your diet because of the season goes because the season changes, right? Okay. And so what other colors are there in terms of the color that's associated with the organ? And I do want to talk about your book because know that you've been working on a book. So I'm really excited to hear about that book that you've been working on.

Parisha & Chris: 15:08

Two books.

Michelle: 15:09

Well, I'm just looking at your

Parisa: 15:11

sweater, Michelle, and it's red, which is the color associated with the heart. And the emotions of the heart are over excitation, abandonment, loneliness, lack of joy. Whereas the positive virtues are love, gratitude, acceptance. So it's very powerful.

Parisha & Chris: 15:32

Yeah, and then the color orange or yellow is associated with the spleen in the stomach

Parisa: 15:36

And

Parisha & Chris: 15:37

the spleen is affected by the negative emotions of thinking too much being stuck in your head worry anxiety The color white is associated with the lungs And the lungs are affected by grief, sadness, sorrow, and loss. And then we have, , the color blue or black is associated with the kidneys. And the kidneys are affected by fear and shock. And what is shock? Shock is, , surviving a severe illness. Abuse, neglect, , , trauma. Yeah, some kind of trauma. PTSD. So if you're a war veteran, for example, whatever you've seen overseas, , at some level that PTSD has. The thing about those kidneys is, is that those kidneys are responsible for how long our life will be., not if you get hit by a car or something, but , your overall longevity is rooted, constitution rooted in the kidneys. Which at the time of conception between God and your parents and your environment predetermines your kidney. Well, so essentially what happens is, is that when you practice these chikung practices, and there's other practices to that help to stimulate the acupuncture meridians that focus on the different seas of energy, which are like chakras in the yoga system or Ayurvedic system. And when you do these practices, what happens is when these emotions , start to release, then the organs really start to function the way that they're supposed to be. And when that happens, then the person has a lot of vitality, they have strong energy, their qi is strong, and they will age more slowly.

Parisa: 17:05

They have what we call in the qi club, that good ass qi. I love that. I must have good ass chi then. Actually, you do have good ass chi, Michelle. You have good energy. You do. got that good, good

Michelle: 17:19

ass chi.

Parisa: 17:20

So

Michelle: 17:23

So , you mentioned that you'd be working on two books., tell us about your book. Okay.

Parisha & Chris: 17:28

So the first book is the back book on how to heal neck and back pain yourself. And I was working on that for about 10 years. We spent about a hundred thousand dollars. We had

Parisa: 17:37

some nightmare story. That's another podcast. That's

Parisha & Chris: 17:39

another podcast. It's been

Parisa: 17:41

birthed.

Parisha & Chris: 17:42

Anyways, and that's a beautiful book. It's one of its kind. There's no other book out there like it. Of all the diseases that I see in clinical practice, back pain is number one. And most people don't realize that back pain attacks or affects women the most. Hence also the reason why my friend Nare, she's on the cover of the book. Is because back pain affects women the most. And, , also when we did market research, all the other back books out there mostly had nude men on the cover. So I wanted to shake it up. Anyways, so I talk about what is the emotional aspect for this neck pain, mid back pain, lower pain, lower back pain. I talk about qi, I talk about yin and yang, five elements. I talk about internal climatic conditions, all these types of things. And , so it's in color. She's the model in the book. We're demonstrating the techniques for the reader to be able to essentially take care of themselves. I did the illustrations and then there's beautiful graphics as well too., so if you're a geek like me and really love Chinese philosophy or Chinese medicine, read the first part of the book. If you just want to say, Chris, I just want to fix my neck pain, go to that part of the book. And what's cool is that there's QR codes in the book as well too, so we have all these videos that, , once you purchase the book, you, , scan the QR codes and there's graphs, there's all kinds of things. So anyways, It's going to help you. It's a masterpiece. Yeah. It's going to help a lot of people.

, Michelle: 18:55

what is the cause? Like, , what is the emotional cause of these neck , and back pain?, I'll tell you, I'll be super transparent here. I struggle with the neck pain. Like it feels like it's just tight here all the time.

Parisha & Chris: 19:10

Yeah, I've

Michelle: 19:11

learned to deal with it and feel like it's because , I carry so much weight on my head, the weight of the world,

Parisha & Chris: 19:18

the weight of

Michelle: 19:19

the world,

Parisha & Chris: 19:20

yeah,

Michelle: 19:20

yeah,

Parisha & Chris: 19:21

yeah, , so , every single neck issue that I've seen in clinical practice, , unless you're doing jujitsu and someone popped your shoulder out or your pitcher popped your shoulder out, every single issue has to do with emotions affecting the heart. Every single one or some kind of grief and so reading your face, I'm not going to say this on the podcast. I see certain things on your face that tell me. And so, , and I'll just give a quick example though. There's a famous rock and roll star, , from this rock and roll band. He had cervical arthritis in his neck and, , , people in Chicago said, Hey, before you have , that next surgery is cervical surgery. Why don't you fly to San Jose, see Chris. So when he flew in to San Jose, he came into the clinic and I said to him, I'll call him Joe. Is it a joe I said, you know two years ago what was happening in your life before the pain showed up And he said what everybody says. Oh, I think my pillow was bad. My mattress was bad He said, Oh, I think the stress of being on tour. And then he said, No, I think the way I hold my guitar on stage. And then he paused and he thought about it. And he said, Actually, two weeks before the pain showed up, my horse died. And so his horse died. He took care of business like we all would. He went back on tour and one day his body said, Okay, listen, that hurt you more than it did. So it starts off as what we call as channel pathology first, and then shows up as actual pathology. And he's a funny guy, because if you go to, , our YouTube page, , Chris Shelton Chigong, , he did a testimonial for me on the TV show Celebrity Sweat, and he said, Yeah, Chris Shelton got rid of my arthritis in 30 minutes. And then essentially what happened was I facilitated his body to then heal itself. That's what happened, his own DNA. So all neck issues , , it could be something like, not expressing childhood stuff, and then, or something that revisits, that reminds you, , of that, or something that, , a spouse says, or somebody else says, in, , a family member, and then you suppress that, or don't express it appropriately, , and, especially if it hurts you, like it hurts your heart, like, or made you upset, , and, because the heart and lungs are closely connected together, like I said, , grief and sadness and shame and guilt affect the lungs. The heart is the empress of the body. It's the center of your consciousness. So it's going to dictate how much emotion is going to be expressed or suppressed. And so, yeah, so it's looking at doing an inventory. Okay. Honestly, what was going on before the pain showed up? Don't blame the pillow or the mattress. Let's look a little bit deeper than that.

Michelle: 21:42

Oh, this is amazing. And I'm really curious what you see now on my face.

Parisha & Chris: 21:50

Did

Michelle: 21:51

you cover that in the book? Can you hold up the book again? Yes, of course.

, Parisha & Chris: 21:55

I talked about it a little bit., we actually have a course on

Parisa: 21:57

face reading.

Parisha & Chris: 21:58

Yeah, we actually have a course on face reading, , that we're launching. And, , it's great because it's a six week course, but you could take it., whenever you want, you teach each section. So I recommend, setting one part, anybody can learn this stuff. And what's fun is, is that , you can start to read other people. So it's really good for personal relationships and business relationships. But, , the face doesn't like, cause the face doesn't only tell me the personality. What it does is it tells me, , how a person thinks, and then it tells me what emotions are still trapped inside the body. And then more importantly, what, potential diseases are in the body.

Michelle: 22:33

What are some of the things that you notice that's trapping in mind?

Parisha & Chris: 22:37

Okay, so like what Parisa said, you have what is called is, , very night. You have a, what we call is peach lock, a very strong spirit. You have a very good spirit, spiritually open., you think a lot, you get stuck in your head a lot., and good

Parisa: 22:50

listener.

Parisha & Chris: 22:50

Yeah, you're a very good listener. Very generous. You laugh a lot., have good stamina, good energy., you can be a little bit flirtatious sometimes.

Parisa: 22:59

Don't like to be teased.

Parisha & Chris: 23:01

Yeah, you don't like to be made fun of or teased., but when we look at, going deeper. Then we see years of tears, we see years of where you had to endure something and probably from younger age, time, and it has not been fully processed, and so that stays in there, , so , as we age, and we start to look at, oh, where did this high blood pressure come from? I eat right, , I'm exercising, we have to go back to that, , and then also, some of the old anger as well, too. We see, that as well. Where

Parisa: 23:31

do you see that?

Parisha & Chris: 23:32

just gently on her brow bone.. And a reluctancy to cry. You're strong. I was thinking that. Yeah, , , you're a strong woman. And, when you say something, you want people to respond.

Michelle: 23:44

Well, I shoot all the women, right? I mean, who doesn't? I shoot all the women. And

Parisha & Chris: 23:50

so, but we have a saying when we see this one feature that I'm seeing right now is that, tears did not have been fully shed.

Michelle: 23:59

don't think Perisa and I have met in person, but everything that you just said is so true. And my audience, the followers, , they probably know more about my back stories and how I got to this point, with physical injuries and that started in childhood. So everything you said, oh my goodness, , I cannot say enough a good thing about you. Oh,

Parisa: 24:21

thank you. I just got goosebumps too. Yeah.

Michelle: 24:23

it's crazy how this is our first time of meeting, , through our podcast. And you have talked about so many of the things that's true for me. And this is our first time we meet. where will people find the book and also,

, Parisa: 24:37

your course? Go to SheltonChigong. com and we have all the information, the social media is there, the books are there. We also on January 14th coming out with this book, Chigong for Emotional Wellbeing, it's the third edition. And then we have a new course that starts on January 15th. What's the new book about?

Parisha & Chris: 24:57

Well, the new book is based upon my first book for Qigong practices, but this one is directed towards people with emotional wellbeing, , because mental health, there's not a lot of tools. And, , during the pandemic and stuff we saw because we have government contracts in the Bay area. And I was successfully seeing patients with COVID. We also were seeing patients with depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, and suicidal ideologies. And so this book is dedicated to all people that suffer. It's meant for everybody, but to deal with stress. But this book is really guided to give people tools who suffer from, depressive disorders and have thoughts. Or somebody who has recovered, maybe a family member, a friend, , the good friend of ours, who actually brought me to Los Angeles, started bringing me here in 2000,

Christ: 25:45

2012,

Parisha & Chris: 25:47

Actually, he was a Hollywood physique expert, he actually committed suicide two years ago on Thanksgiving, and there was warning signs ahead of time, , and so this book is really dedicated to give people tangible actual tools. And what I like to tell people is that this is not a belief structure. You don't have to believe in it for it to work. And if it was fake, it would have done itself in years ago, but it's been around for thousands of years. And what I love is that it does not discriminate against age, gender, religious, or spiritual belief structure. It's not that type of thing. What it is, is that we work out, we do all these types of things. We go for walks and we go for hikes, whatever, but there's not a lot of tools that go inward. True mindfulness meditation is so good for you or Vipassana meditation is so good for you because it really gets you into yourself. That's what we call the Yin aspect of Qigong. encompasses that, but also has a Yang aspect where every single practice, no matter how simplistic the practice is that I'm teaching you, every single practice is meant to do something medicinally inside the body. So relaxation is just a byproduct.

Michelle: 26:55

love that. It sounds very, , well rounded. It covered yin and the yang, because it's really the whole balance of how our universe work and, our body is that small universe where , it needs to be the whole as

Parisa: 27:09

well. Exactly. It's all encompassing and, having it benefit all people is a marketing nightmare.

Parisha & Chris: 27:18

Yeah, so it's like our target audience, , years and years ago, she would ask me, who's our target audience? I said, everybody. It applies to everybody, you know.

Parisa: 27:26

So what

Parisha & Chris: 27:29

we realized is that actually our target audience , is women., and actually our Qigong teacher training course is guided more towards women. And the reason why is because there's another style of Qigong,, that's a martial arts style. There's , something called internal martial arts. A lot of people don't know that Tai Chi is a martial art. I used to fight with it in tournaments and I was the ranked 10th in the U S at one point. So a lot of people don't realize that they say slow, that slow movement. They think, how do you fight with Taiji? And you go, ah, tag, you're it. And like, no, no, the slow movements. There's a reason why the slow movements. Right. But anyways, , and so because of the, , internal martial art component with some styles of Qigong, , I noticed over the years, cause I've been doing this for over 30 years, mostly men instructors with big egos. Now I'm not saying that women can't have egos too, but these men instructors. A really big ego. So it's like, okay, well, let's shift the balance here a little bit., let's produce more highly qualified women instructors. And our Qigong teacher training course, , is the most comprehensive course out there. In fact, there's other well known Qigong instructors who are copying what we're doing and tagging their advertisements on our YouTube page and stuff like that. So it means we must be doing something right.

Michelle: 28:39

Yeah, yeah, honestly, I just had the experience that one session with Perisa during our call. And it was just absolutely amazing. I was so much relaxed afterwards. And I said, Well, , I wonder if she can come and talk to my audience, even though it's not her, like, quote unquote, target audience back then. But I do feel that a lot of my audience, they're stressed out, overwhelmed. Entrepreneur who's always doing things and a lot of us came from a background of that past, , trauma. Yeah, yeah.

Parisa: 29:13

Michelle, you are our target audience. You are. Yeah, you totally are. We want to work with people who are into Development and putting it out and helping other people. So

Michelle: 29:26

and this is another reason why I think it's such valuable, , insights that you're bringing to the show, because a lot of us were sitting at home. We think we're just , settling in for the fact that Oh, yeah, I got this neck pain. Oh, yeah, I got this back pain. But we really don't talk about https: otter. And just from the conversation I had with Parissa and Chris today, it just opened my eye to a new possibility, right? I definitely need to give them a visit. So tell us again, where can we find you? And when is that new book going to come out so that more people can benefit and hear from?

Parisa: 30:02

Okay, find us at sheltonchigong. com. We have all our information. You can get both books there, all the social media. We have a weekly blog., we're really putting out content on a regular basis. We have an office here in downtown Burbank. So if you're in California, come see us fly into Burbank if you can., and then we have affiliates in San Jose and Pacific Northwest. We have a teacher training program. We have a weekly subscription class that you can join us on zoom and catch those recordings., we have a clinical practice So we've been pretty busy. You've been pretty busy. Yeah,

, Parisha & Chris: 30:45

and what brought me into Hollywood to begin with was by this Hollywood physique expert is because I expect to see transformation right away, not two or three visits down the road. But more importantly, like we talk about in both books, is giving the power back to you. Meaning, how can you be the best version of yourself and understand your body at a deeper level and give you the tools to be able to take care of yourself, so then that way you don't have to see a practitioner like me.

Parisa: 31:10

Exactly, because I was going to say, what we've been programmed to believe about aging and the human body, Potential and capacity is very underwhelming. Like our potential is so much greater than what we've been programmed to believe. And with these tools in your hand, you can literally unlock a world of your highest potential, greatest health, and whatever you focus on and put your mind to, you can achieve. It's like Napoleon Hill. He says. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve. Mm

Christ: 31:46

hmm.

Michelle: 31:48

will back it up by saying that this is thousands and thousands of years of Chinese. Medicine and they've been around for a very long, very long time. So, I think that is your true testimonial. It's been around, so learn it. Yeah.

Parisha & Chris: 32:03

Yeah. honestly, I believe in integrated medicine, , if, , , there's, some things in Western medicine science wise that we can't even touch, but if you have a condition where the only solution is surgery. I mean, sometimes you might need a emergency surgery or something like that, like an appendectomy, for example, so you don't die. Sometimes that's needed, but if you have a chronic pain condition or something like that, and they want to do surgery, or they want to cut something out, , or they just want to medicate, that's really where you start to look at these other modalities. Because, , Like I said, I do believe in integrated medicine, but when you're not getting the answers and when you have a certain condition or symptom and they're just medicating you and making more symptoms, or they tell you, well, we can't figure out why you have this kind of pain. It must be in your head. Here, take these antidepressants. You must be depressed., that's where you really look at these types of practices, , to be able to, , offset and discover, Oh, this is actually the root cause. What is the root cause? The branch is the manifestation of the symptoms. And again, I understand how these organs function according to science, but in Chinese medicine, they have a much greater functionality and they're interconnected, just like we're interconnected.

Christ: 33:16

All

Parisha & Chris: 33:16

beings around the world are interconnected. Nobody is separate. For as much as people think, Oh, I'm so different from everybody. No, we're not.

Christ: 33:23

Yeah,

Parisha & Chris: 33:24

we might have different personalities or belief structures or whatever, but we're all interconnected. Same thing inside the human body as well, too. Those organs are interconnected. And we don't a lot of times think of our liver unless we have a liver condition, we don't think of our kidneys, right, but they are interconnected and when you have these symptoms that show up and if you're not getting the answers, you know, this is where it comes in and going back to the Qigong. Is that the yellow emperor said, , , in order to fight disease after disease sets in is like digging a well after one has become thirsty or forging one's weapons after engaging in battle. Wouldn't that be too late? So the other part of this Qigong practice too is preventative. Don't allow for these symptoms to show up.

Parisa: 34:06

Oh, I was going to say one more thing, which is some people might think like, Oh, Qigong, it's like new agey. Or maybe it goes against my religious beliefs, but in the Bible, Jesus literally says greater works than, thee shall ye do. And this is a person in God form who is healing the sick. He's turning water into wine. He's performing all these miracles. He's saying. greater works than thee than me you will do too and through these practices what we're really focused on is first healing ourselves because that's the greatest thing I can do for you and that's the greatest thing you can do for me and then helping facilitate and guide others to empower themselves with this It's a way of expressing knowledge that goes way, way back way back at the beginning of time. So,

Parisha & Chris: 34:56

yeah., and if you're listening to this,, we don't advertise, especially for the clinical practice. We don't advertise. So people go, they say you have to see my Chinese medicine doctor and people come in and they see me, they're like,

Parisa: 35:06

what? You're not Chinese.

Parisha & Chris: 35:08

You're not

Parisa: 35:09

Chinese.

Parisha & Chris: 35:10

Yeah. You do have

Parisa: 35:11

Buddha vibes though.

Parisha & Chris: 35:13

What's funny , is that when I was a butcher, when I was a meat manager, that's one shop, it was a very, , Small shop is being one of the butcher and, , he was Chinese and spoke, , fluent, , Cantonese. And so after I got done doing my orders and stuff like that, we had a break room inside the meat shop. And so I studied my Chinese medicine books. That's where I would study, , and finally he was very sarcastic. His name was Alvin. He said, he looks at me, he goes, you think more about my culture than I do, Guailo? Screw you!

Michelle: 35:42

That's hilarious. Again, everybody, you can find them at sheltonchigong. com. You can learn everything about the course, the book, and just send them a message, email them, connect with them, go to their building, visit them. They're just an amazing couple, and I really have fun. Thank you so much for joining me on this podcast. I had a lot of fun.

Parisha & Chris: 36:05

Yeah, me too.

Parisa: 36:06

Thank you.

Parisha & Chris: 36:06

Thanks. Nice to see you. Yeah. Nice meeting you. Just stop by the office sometime.

Parisa: 36:11

I will. Okay. Bye.

Parisha & Chris: 36:15

Ciao.

Parisa: 36:16

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