“What Should I Take?”
We live in a time where wellness has become synonymous with taking things. Supplements, powders, protocols, detoxes.
If something feels off, the instinct is often to ask: What can I add?
And while supplements absolutely have their place, this mindset has quietly led many people away from the very thing that actually creates health: consistency and daily decision making.
I see this often, patients doing “all the right things,” taking handfuls of supplements, yet still feeling exhausted, inflamed, anxious, or disconnected from their bodies. Not because they aren’t trying hard enough but because health isn’t built through intensity, it follows rhythm. This is why emphasis on syncing with cycles, whether it be menstruation, the seasons, or circadian. When you follow the flows around you, your internal world falls into flow and rhythm as well.
The Wellness Trap of “Taking More”
The modern wellness world has taught us that healing comes from fixing, hacking, or optimizing the body. We have also fell into the habit of seeking a new product for each symptom, whether these supplements are herbs or not, this is not how the human body works.
Our symptoms are messengers and by only addressing symptoms it is the same thing as putting our bodies on temporary “Do Not Disturb” rather than addressing the root of the message and who is sending it.
Not to mention, the obvious symptoms seem larger than the underlying patterns most of the time.
You cannot out supplement chronic stress, irregular eating, poor sleep, or a nervous system that never gets a chance to feel safe.
This doesn’t mean supplements are bad. It means they are not the foundation.
Health doesn’t come from what you take occasionally, it comes from what you do repeatedly.
What Chinese Medicine Has Always Taught:
Chinese medicine has never viewed health as something created by isolated interventions, it is a lifestyle medicine at its core.
For thousands of years, healing has been rooted in:
Daily habits
Regular meals
Seasonal awareness
Emotional regulation
Rest and restoration
Moderation over extremes (!!!!!)
In this medicine, the body isn’t something to constantly correct, it’s something to support.
Rather than asking “What should I take?” Chinese medicine asks:
How do you eat?
How do you sleep?
How do you respond to stress?
Do your days have rhythm?
Does your body feel safe?
Consistency Builds Qi and Extremes Deplete It
In Chinese medicine, Qi is not built quickly, it’s cultivated slowly.
The Spleen: the Stomach’s partners, the system responsible for digestion, nourishment, and energy, thrives on regularity and consistency. It does not respond well to extremes: fasting one week, overeating the next; strict protocols followed by burnout; cleansing, restricting, then “falling off the wagon.”
These patterns thoroughly exhaust the body and what you do most often matters more than what you do perfectly.
Healthy Decisions vs. “Taking Things”
“Taking things” often looks like:
Chasing the next supplement
Starting new protocols without finishing old ones
Detoxing instead of nourishing
Looking for quick relief instead of long-term balance
Healthy decision-making looks like:
Eating warm, grounding meals regularly
Sleeping at consistent times
Saying no when your body asks for rest
Spending time outside
Creating space to slow down
These choices may not feel exciting but they they are deeply regulating.
The Nervous System Needs Consistency
Constantly trying to “fix” yourself sends a subtle message to the body that something is wrong. Over time, this keeps the nervous system in a state of vigilance, always searching, never settling. Consistency, on the other hand, signals safety. Regular meals, predictable rest, gentle movement, repetition.
These tell the body: You are supported.
From a Chinese medicine perspective, this helps anchor the Shen: our spirit as well as the part of us responsible for mental clarity, emotional regulation, and inner calm. Healing happens when the body feels safe enough to repair.
Where Supplements Do Fit In
Supplements are not the enemy, they are just tools.
When used intentionally, they can:
Correct deficiencies
Support specific phases of healing
Help the body recover during stress or illness
But they work best when the foundation is already in place. Without consistency in lifestyle, supplements often become a crutch instead of a support.
In Chinese medicine, even herbal formulas are rarely meant to replace lifestyle, they work with it.
Health is not built through doing more.
It’s built through:
Showing up for yourself daily
Making small, supportive choices
Creating rhythm instead of restriction
Choosing consistency over intensity
Healing happens in ordinary moments you repeat every day.
