27. The Ecology of Health 

Written By alexa firmenich

“There are always two questions when a person comes in, and I think this is the same with the planet:

Is there enough? Is there enough stock, reserve, essence? And can it move? Is it flowing?”

- Dr. Mackenzie Hall

 

SYNOPSIS:

Where does your body end and the Earth begin? In this episode, we explore the real and poetic parallels between human health and planetary health, and how nature’s language moves in our bodies. 

Joining me is Dr. Mackenzie Hall, a doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Functional Medicine, who helps us trace the Earth’s vital systems through the lens of humans as ecological systems. We ask:

  • How could one imagine the Earth’s vital organs as reflected in human anatomy?

  • How does the Earth balance and health and detoxify, and how might this mirror how we work with our own bodies?  

  • How does the body's energetic system hold, manage and deal with pathology? 

  • How do we listen for the Earth’s pulse?

  • How could this affect how we work as earth protectors and regenerators? 

This brings up a profound point: if we are to ensure the Earth’s aliveness, we have to feel it as our own body. And, if we can sense the Earth’s rhythms as our own, can we also become its white blood cells, human agents of healing embracing and embodying its circulatory wildness?

 

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GUEST BIO:

Dr. Mackenzie Hall is a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine specializing in Functional Medicine. She founded her business, Aaro Wellness, to offer people a synthesized approach to healing chronic health issues in response to the growing prevalence of long-term and difficult-to-treat diseases.

With deep reverence for ancient wisdom, nature, and integrative healing solutions, she is passionate about helping people understand their unique inner ecology and the factors that create patterns of vibrant health versus disease. She is equally passionate about how the mind and unresolved emotion influences the body. Prior to pursuing a medical career, she immersed herself in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, which continues to enrich her personal and professional practice today.

QUOTES:

  • Traditional and classical Chinese medicine do such a beautiful job of getting this across—that we’re not in relationship to nature, we are it, in both an ultimate sense and a relative sense. We are a microcosm of all the movements that happen in nature, from the ebb and flow of the ocean to the movement of stars and planets. We are biological systems of movement.

  • There’s a very important term in classical Chinese medicine: mediumship. It really just refers to reserve, to stock. On Earth, as in the body, like water—Is there enough water? Is there enough blood in the body to move pathology out of it? Is there enough water on Earth to stabilize temperature and move toxicity through its meridian system?

  • There are always two questions when a person comes in. It really comes down to two things, and I think this is the same with the planet: Is there enough? Is there enough stock, reserve, essence? And can it move? Is it flowing?

  • How do we support a body when it’s been stripped naked of its most important necessities?

  • I think that instead of playing crystal bowls in the forest, we need to learn ways to soothe ourselves and to embody—so that the conduct is aligned in the first place.

  • The question with healing—and with the planet, the same question—is: Is the rate of injury faster than the rate of repair? We’re trying to create momentum of repair that meets or exceeds the rate of injury.

  • You’re interested in the whole channel activation because it isn’t just about single points. It’s never just the single person. The point is just the access. It’s the whole channel igniting that makes a shift. You would never treat a person based on points—you treat a person based on the channel, just like the Earth system.

  • The only cause of disease is unresolved emotion, which is really powerful to think about. Detox aside, there’s just this basic premise that what is unresolved ends up creating disease.

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