(Episode 24) 4 Tips to Reduce Anxiety by Cooling Your Heart Fire

by Setareh Moafi, Ph.D., L.Ac. & Salvador Cefalu, M.S., L.Ac.

Once you’ve listened, let us know in the comments below — which takeaway will you apply to balance the Fire element in your life?

In this episode we discuss the role of the Fire element as it relates to anxiety. This is especially relevant during the Fire season of Summer but also to for anyone generally struggling with anxiety yearlong.

During Summer, Fire energy is naturally more exuberant and conditions like insomnia and nervousness become much more prevalent. 

People in the Southern Hemisphere who are not in the Fire season may also experience Fire related imbalances. Diet, life stressors and challenging life circumstances can all determine whether Fire energy becomes more pronounced, leading to anxiety. 

In Chinese Medicine, this imbalance is attributed to the Heart and Kidney relationship. In Western medicine, we often accredit this to an imbalance of the hormone cortisol caused by overstimulation of the adrenal glands. In Chinese Medicine the Kidney organ system also encompasses the adrenal glands, which produce cortisol, and govern the reproductive and urinary systems. The Kidneys also play a major role in controlling energy output to the Heart.

Excessive Fire in the Heart creates heat or inflammation that can also thicken the blood over time leading to clotting or stagnation.

Ultimately these imbalances can lead to cardiovascular disease, one of the leading causes of death in the United States. 

Diet is a major force in creating excess Fire—driven by high sugar content in our modern diet as well as excessive protein consumption in high protein diets such as the ketogenic diet.

In fact any diet advocating for excess amounts of a specific food can create energy imbalances so focusing on a personalized nutrition with your current health condition in mind is the best approach.

Since excess amount of anything — be it carbohydrates, protein, exercise, stress or even sex — can exacerbate Heat, moderation is the key to a balanced and healthy body. 

The natural state of Fire energy is to be calm, present and centered. More often than not we find ourselves burned out by doing excessive activities or taxing our adrenal glands and Kidneys and compromising their ability to temper the Fire of the Heart. This can lead to insomnia, anxiety and restlessness. 

Although Fire imbalance is especially prevalent in our modern society, there is still hope in addressing the root causes of the imbalance with Chinese Medicine.

Heart-Kidney communication is essential as the Kidney Water cools Heart Fire and the Kidneys are in turn stimulated by the Heart to encourage self-love and healing. 


4 Tips to Cool Heart Fire:

  1. Stay hydrated to support proper circulation of Qi and blood. It also helps keep the Heat balanced. 

  2. Eat more leafy green vegetables including spinach, chard and dandelion greens to cool your Heart and help it relax. Keep in mind to cook the vegetables.

  3. Add adequate sea salt or other natural mineral salts to your food or water to support the Kidneys. We’ve discussed the essential role of salt in a previous episode. 

  4. Eat more root vegetables to nourish the Spleen and help anchor your Qi. 

Joy is associated with the Heart element so when you help the Heart relax, you can naturally experience and express more joy. 

Want to learn easy ways to bring more joy and calm to your life, even during the most turbulent times?
Join us for the From Surviving to Thriving online course. 2023 enrollment begins for a limited time on August 1st! Click here to join the VIP waitlist and get your FREE eBook, 3 Toxic Beliefs that Keep You Stuck in Survival Mode, now!

Once you’ve listened, let us know in the comments below — which takeaway will you implement to balance the Fire element in your life?

(Episode 7) How to Open Your Heart to Experience True Love

by Setareh Moafi, Ph.D., L.Ac. & Salvador Cefalu, M.S., L.Ac.

Once you’ve listened, let us know in the comments below — how did the two tips we shared in this episode impact your life?

Not a fan of Valentine’s Day? You’re not alone. In the midst of a pandemic, it’s easy to feel more isolated and more alone than ever. And when we’re triggered, it’s especially important to cultivate tools to help us feel better about our lives.

In this episode we’ll discuss how opening your heart can help you experience the truest and most authentic love — self-love — and how experiencing this love can allow you to experience miracles and endless possibilities.




A Brief History of Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day was created to replace a pagan holiday called Lupercalia that was practiced February 13-15 in Rome. The focus was purification that would help ward off evil and removing curses that were causing infertility.

The Catholics eventually made a celebration of St. Valentine in its place. St. Valentine was a healer who is said to heal his jailer’s daughter of blindness.

This can be used as a metaphor for Chinese Medicine’s idea of vaporizing phlegm, which is a process that occurs when you open your Heart to then be able to experience miracles.

It can be more challenging to experience an open heart during holidays like Valentine’s Day when you may feel you’re being forced to open your heart.

So what’s necessary? Forgiveness.

It’s also important to focus on the love you feel for yourself — the depth and truth of the meaning of self-love; to know yourself, to feel self-esteem, self-confidence and self-worth. Because your relationships with others are rooted in your relationship with yourself and the love you feel for yourself.

If you don’t feel good about yourself or you’re judging yourself or feeling guilt about something you’ve done in the past then you inhibit the Lungs from expressing their virtue, which is forgiveness.

Loved this episode?

Please subscribe and consider rating & reviewing our podcast on Apple Podcasts. Five star reviews help us reach & support more listeners like you. You can also follow us on Spotify to be the first to hear about new & bonus episodes!

Thank you!

The Fire & Metal Elements

According to the Five Element system of Chinese Medicine, the Heart is part of the Fire element and the Lungs are encompassed in the Metal element. These two elements have an important relationship. In an optimal state, the Fire energy of the Heart helps to control the Metal energy of the Lungs which tends to be critical and even judgmental.

But when there’s an imbalance of Metal energy, which can cause feelings of regret and judgment of oneself and others, this can insult the Fire energy, oppressing the Heart’s ability to open and therefore give and receive love.

The Metal energy is also associated with forgiveness, which reflects your ability to let go. The Lungs let go of the breath and the Large Intestine, or colon, which is the other Metal element organ, lets go of toxins through the excretion of waste.

Forgiveness is a virtue of the Metal element. When you’re able to forgive, you free the Lungs and allow the Heart to open.

Through the action of letting go, we can experience the depth of forgiveness to allow the vaporization of phlegm in the Heart so you can experience miracles.

Letting go also anchors us fully into the present moment. Fire energy is about being in the moment. This is reflected in love, in being in the zone, in being in a flow state — all experiences that only happen when you’re fully present.

When people have Heart Fire manifesting as anxiety, nervousness and overstimulation of the mind they often reach for active exercise. But this creates a lot of heat in the body, which creates an acidic state in the blood that then exacerbates anxiety.

We reach for this type of exercise to release stress but also since the Lungs are overwhelmed, subconsciously we may be wanting to do intensive exercise to open the diaphragm and free the Lungs and this often doesn’t help in this way.

Chinese exercises like Qi Gong and Tai Chi are slow because the idea is to quiet the system and quiet the mind to reduce the static energy in the body and allow for the smooth flow of Qi to circulate.


2 Tips to Cultivate a Feeling of Self-Love

Tip #1 Alkalize Your Diet

Cultivating self-love involves freeing the Lungs to open the Heart to experience self-love and therefore endless possibilities and miracles.

When there’s Heart Fire, you can’t settle the mind and be still in the moment very easily. Heart Fire is a state of heat in the blood that manifests as an acidic terrain in the body. This is a concern when people are utilizing a ketogenic diet because establishing ketosis creates an acidic state in the body.

Heat generated by your diet can spread to all the organ systems.

We often think we’re healthy and on trend with diet, but nutrition and diet is highly personalized so not all trends will be pertinent to your particular body.

Fat can generate dampness and protein generates heat and too much of either creates an acidic state which can be dangerous for people with weak Kidneys as the Kidneys try to clear this acidity.

Greens are especially important to clear this heat, especially the bitter greens like dandelion, chard and spinach.

In Chinese Medicine, we say it’s important to cook your foods so avoid kale and spinach salads which can damage your digestive system and impede the function of the Spleen and Stomach organ systems. It’s better to cook greens and eat them with any meal throughout the day.

Fresh water algae have a cooling effect and are also high in protein for those looking for additional protein sources. These can include chlorella, spirulina and phytoplankton. You can also have more seaweed in your diet.

Drinking chlorophyll or chlorella or any of the fresh water algae help to cool down the system so they can calm your nervous system but should be taken moderately especially during the cooler Winter months.

Chlorophyll is made from alfalfa sprouts and can help start your day with an alkalizing effect.

If you have a busy mind, this can indicate excessive Fire that can also be accompanied by a lot of thinking and processing. Meditation and relaxation practices are also important, but diet is most important.

Placing your tongue on the tip of your mouth during Meditation can also help you cool Heart Fire.

If you have a cherry tip tongue, this indicates Heart Fire.

To learn more about the topic of Heart Fire, go to acenterfornaturalhealing.com/blog and type in “heart fire” in the search bar for more support.

Tip #2: Breathe Deeply and Retain Your Exhalation

When a person is nervous or anxious, they breathe shallow and this causes a buildup of carbonic acid.

When you take a deep breath and hold your exhalation, this helps release the carbonic acid and it helps you settle more into the moment.

Salvador guides this breathing exercise. Breathing out of the mouth helps clear heat and clear the Fire from your Heart.

Remember that it takes time to calm a body that’s acidic. Give yourself time to do a daily practice and you’ll see how your day will change — you’ll be less anxious, the day will seem to go more slowly and your life won’t pass by so quickly. As you can imagine, this is a technique of longevity and to reduce the aging process. This is why tortoises are one of the longest living creatures on earth, because they’re so slow.

As you slow down, yo’ll be able to naturally experience self-love, which is the natural state of Fire energy when it’s in balance.

You may feel a sense of joy begin to bubble up, which is a reflection of this balance in the Fire energy.

We hope holidays like Valentine’s Day can feel like an opportunity rather than something that triggers you to feel bad about yourself because you can change your experience of any experience to change the experience itself.

Now, we want to hear from you — how have these tips impacted your life? Let us know in the comments below!

Ready to open your heart & experience endless possibilities?

Download this free audio guide to learn four pillars that’ll transform your health & life.

(Episode 3) 2 Keys to a Healthier Life

by Setareh Moafi, Ph.D., L.Ac. & Salvador Cefalu, M.S., L.Ac.

“The first wealth is health.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the absence of health, you’ll struggle to have the energy or clarity to set goals, let alone achieve them. You can’t enjoy quality time with loved ones.

But In health, all things are possible.

This is why in Chinese Medicine philosophy, health is the first of the Nine Palaces that bring us to completion in our lives.

Nevertheless, we realize that if you’ve ever struggled with your health, the word or topic alone can be overwhelming and instigate a variety of feelings and responses. 

You may even feel shame and guilt about your choices with your health or think that creating a healthy lifestyle may be too costly or too time consuming. 

And quite frankly, with all the information that’s available about the topics of health and wellness, it can be challenging to know what to believe or even where to begin. 

By definition, health is “the condition of being well or free from disease.” And to be healthy means “enjoying health and vigor of body, mind, or spirit.” 

So, to be healthy is to be well, free from disease and have vigor of body, mind or spirit. 

Loved this episode?

Please subscribe and consider rating & reviewing our podcast on Apple Podcasts. Five star reviews help us reach & support more listeners like you. You can also follow us on Spotify to be the first to hear about new & bonus episodes!

Note that the spirit is also contained in this definition, which is why we’re going to look at why being healthy is fostered through a deeper relationship with ourselves. 

Having a healthy lifestyle does not mean letting go of all the fun and pleasure in life and it certainly doesn’t mean making healthy choices all of the time. In fact, being healthy means doing things that keep you feeling good physically, mentally and spiritually. 

The World Health Organization’s definition of health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease” illuminates just that. We’re all comprised of a physical body, a mind and a spirit. So why is it that most of us forget about at least one of these parts of ourselves throughout the day?

The most complicated element of the human experience is the mind - and it’s also the most difficult to condition and change. Luckily, if we notice that our mental state is imbalanced early on enough, we can use our physical body to reshape our thinking. Ancient practices such as Yoga, Qi Gong and Meditation are designed to help us do this.

The ‘monkey mind’, as many of these ancient traditions call it, is like an animal that needs to be trained. Otherwise, the mind can lead us to the demise of both our physical body and our spirit.

You truly are the healer in your life.

When you’re able to focus your mind on healing, you can more effectively uplift your spirit to then help the body recover. This can be done through a variety of spiritual practices and very simply through the daily and routine practice of gratitude. 

Gratitude creates space for positivity and joy to flow into our lives. 

The more you focus on the good you have, the more you magnify those things and begin to cultivate better things to come into your life. This is the fastest way to heal the body, which really is simply a reflection of the health of the mind and spirit.

To be healthy then doesn’t necessarily mean eating the right foods and exercising right and sleeping well. 


2 Keys to a Healthier Life:

  1. Each morning when you wake up, move your body & write down 3 things you’re grateful for in your life.

    If movement isn’t possible, close your eyes and visualize yourself moving. That’ll begin the process to move the Qi in your body.

    Just visualizing yourself moving will enhance your physical body because your mind moves the Qi, and as you use your mind you’re conducting Qi through all your tissues and cells.

  2. At the end of each day, review the challenges of your day and do your best to make peace with and let go of those things.

    This practice comes from a Daoist alchemist named Ge Hong who used to teach this practice.

    This process will help you not carry the challenges of today to the next day.

    These things aren’t always easy when we have challenges, but this is the cultivation when we come up against uncomfortable aspects.

In its very essence, health is cultivated through a sound, peaceful and positive body, mind and spirit. 

Health is the state of ease you cultivate through an intimate relationship with your body and mind.

This means that you care about and pay close attention to both your body and mind. 

To pay close attention, you have to be fully present. 

Being mindful about how you start and end the day is essential to wire your subconscious mind so you can create a healthier relationship with yourself.

By simply creating a regular morning and evening ritual, you become more present and more aware of your needs.

For many of you this may mean that you do less, rest more and spend time in fewer yet more nurturing relationships and surroundings.

Once you really slow down and pay close attention to yourself, the realization of a truly fulfilling life simplifies making healthy choices.