As we head toward the spring equinox this year, how can Traditional Chinese Medicine principles help us come into balance, transform anger, and reach toward our highest potentials?

The emerging field of neurocardiology shows that love, gratitude, compassion, joy, and other generative emotions associated with the heart are some of the most influential for mental, physical, emotional, even spiritual wellbeing. Research is revealing just how the heart communicates with the rest of the body, setting the tone for a cascade of biophysical and emotional reactions. This research brings us full circle, validating the cross-cultural ancient wisdom concerning the role of the heart. 

While January 1 is arbitrary, marking any new year can create opportunity for renewal, for reflection on what has been and resolution on what might come. 

Here’s what I’ve learned to be critical ingredients for creating meaningful, sustainable change in our lives (and not one of them involves guilt, shame, or willpower)…

At MN Integrative Health Studio, whatever holidays you celebrate (or tolerate, or disregard altogether!) we hope to support you during this time of year. And if you are looking for ways to invest in small, local businesses through your gift-giving this year, as well as ways to find comfort and peace amidst the frenzy—we’ve got you.

As I write this, we at Minnesota Integrative Health Studio find ourselves well into the deep and darkening of fall, descending into winter. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is rooted in nature itself. As human beings, we are not separate from nature. Indeed, we are nature, interconnected with all of life on our planet. TCM is based on this understanding. I asked some of our practitioners to share what wisdom TCM can offer during this time.

Reiki is a mind-body-spirit practice in which this universal life force energy is transmitted through the practitioner to the recipient, promoting balance throughout the human system. 

What is it like to experience Reiki?

The Monthly Recharge Membership was created by our providers, with results and value in mind.

A few months back, our team of TCM practitioners met to discuss creative ways to encourage our community to get the best results possible for the greatest value. Out of this meeting, the Monthly Recharge Membership was born.

The membership is an incredible value, and the beating heart of the Monthly Recharge Membership is the 4 community acupuncture treatments per month. Find out what our experienced acupuncturists say about the benefits of regular acupuncture.

What is qi? Ki? And what do these concepts have to do with medicine, healing, and with living the best life possible? Can understanding qi, ki, help us to better flourish in relationships–and even as a society?

Today we are going to take a trip into the heart of Minnesota Integrative Health Studio: the Community Acupuncture room. I asked our excellent team of community acupuncturists to share their love for community acupuncture, what they want people to understand about this unique model, and what makes it a good fit for so many people–including hesitant newcomers. Then I dove into a bit of history to weave our team’s insights into the fascinating legacy of how community acupuncture came to be.

Let’s go!

Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine can help LGBTQIA+ folks in a multitude of ways, here are a few important ones: 

- gender-affirming care/ reproductive health (pre and post surgical care, scar healing)

- hormone balancing 

- mental/ emotional health (including PTSD)

- personalized treatments

In April I did my first 1:1 Pilates session with Larissa Vados, PhD, LAc, and certified STOTT PILATES® instructor, here at Minnesota Integrative Health Studio. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I just knew I was supposed to wear comfortable clothes, that we might work on that big machine (which, spoiler alert: I now know is called a “reformer”), and that Larissa is pretty amazing. I learned that I love Pilates! It was fun, fascinating, and felt great. Here’s what else I learned.

Minnesota Integrative Health Studio owner, Said Isayed, is proudly offering limited quantities of Palestinian Extra Virgin Olive Oil straight from his family's olive tree groves in Al-Khalil (Hebron), Palestine. The olives are hand-picked from trees that have been in his family for generations, with some of the olive trees as old as 600 years!

This week, Minnesota Integrative Health Studio celebrates its one year anniversary. Since Said and Larissa officially announced that MIHS was open for business on March 7, 2023, the earth has completed full rotation around the sun.

Breathing is unique among the functions of the human system in that it is both an unconscious process, and a conscious process. We breathe all the time, including in our sleep, without any awareness required. And our breath can be manipulated to achieve certain desired outcomes. In fact, bringing conscious attention to our breath is a way to shift our unconscious breathing patterns to be more supportive, restorative, and even transformative. Breath is a doorway to healing, and can be practiced intentionally.

This is breathwork.

In this jacked-up, adrenaline-fueled, time-is-money, obscenely unequal society, most of us are living lives that make rest and relaxation complicated at best. Elusive. Challenging. Sometimes seemingly impossible. Fraught, heavy, uncomfortable, raw, frustrating, enraging.

Can you relate?

As we sat on the fire escape and watched the early evening sun set over this little corner of northeast Minneapolis, Said Issued shared a bit about Traditional Chinese Medicine, his family’s deep history with herbalism, Minnesota Integrative Health Studio itself, community, and Palestine.

Reiki and Integrative Health & Wellbeing Coaching are two paths to the same destination: the still, quiet inner wisdom that resides within all of us. Combined, their synergy invites opportunities for depth, reflection, and insight.