"Traditional Chinese Medicine aims at maintaining one’s health through continuous self-knowledge. To achieve this goal, TCM is built on eight pillars: Meditation, Body Movement, Diet Therapy, Feng Shui - Environmental Health, Herbal Medicine, Moxibustion /Cupping, Acupuncture, and Massage Therapy. These are divided into two groups with the first four pillars (Meditation, Body Movement, Diet Therapy, Feng Shui) considered central because anybody can do them without help and these four are aimed at maintaining a balanced life using “self-healing”. The second set of pillars are secondary and support the first four because they represent actions that usually include the help of a specialist."

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Chinese medicine starts with understanding Qi – vital energy - that exists throughout the world, including in our bodies. When we are born, we receive a set amount of Qi essence from our parents; when it is gone, we die. This is only one kind of energy our body uses. We can influence the use of this vital essence which causes us to live more or less time through postnatal Qi – energy that comes from two other sources: air and food. For this reason, breathing is so important and why meditation is an important pillar to TCM.

 Traditional Chinese Medicine and Life: First, Meditation (part I) (taiqiconvergence.com)

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