So, what are the top Daoist Shen tonic herbs and how do they work? So, these Shen herbs were, so famed and so revered and have been for thousands of years and were staples in the herbal diets of Daoist and many people who just wish to become more stable in their mood, and bring forth their virtuous nature in their joy for life, and they're different from the clinical usage of herbs to stabilise Shen when there's mental disturbances and things of the like and insomnia, things that can be seen as a Shen disturbance or Shen deficiency.

Whereas the tonic herbs, sometimes used clinically, but the way we use it is to bring forth a greater expression of our Shen longterm, and so, these Shen herbs were seen to be able to do that, by being in the diet on rotation. And, you know, it can be used over decades to make sure that it shines brighter, and so, the way they're working is through especially coming in and stabilising, in a nice gentle, and almost adaptogenic way, a way to bring us into harmony, and nourish the Heart Fire, and the Heart Fire Qi, so that it can run smoothly, it can go through its transformation cycle of Yin-Yang with ease.

And then when that's happening, when we're in harmony through our organ systems, remember the Heart's the emperor, and so, it is what all the other organs are serving, and so, when that Heart Fire Qi , is moving smoothly and the Heart Fire is able to do its dance with ease, then we see its Spirit expressing, its Spirit is the Shen, and the Daoist and the ancients saw that Spirit, coming from that Heart Fire organ system as being so important that they said that's a Treasure, that's one of the most important elements of the world but of the human body. And those Shen herbs, and as I said are stabilising that energy, that fire, and then nourishing that fire, so we can see that greater expression of Shen.

What are the top herbs, Shen herbs, reishi, absolute number one. Over 2000 years ago, first Materia Medica ever, Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing the number one herb above ginseng reishi mushroom, it's reishi that's depicted in heaven, it's the number one Shen herb, number one Tonic Herb. And of course it's a favourite, we it's, it's such a beautiful, heart nourishing, all over body, all over the body tonic, such a calming influence on the nervous system and the mind that really enables you to bring your, your Spirit forth very beautifully, very pivotal, for a lot of people on their human and spiritual journey.

We have albizzia flower, and this, this beautiful Shen herb comes through and really does bring that, that gentle blossoming of our Shen, it comes from what's known as the tree of happiness, and it's such a beautiful gentle herb for bringing a stabilising to our mood and a potential for happiness further in our world. So that, you know, we don't always have to be happy, but it's nice to have the potential for happiness always there sitting there, sitting on the edge.

Then we have asparagus root, and this is a favourite, for especially for meditators, and asparagus root can come in working on many areas in the body, and, and I didn't mention this, the Shen herbs are often working in conjunction with other organ systems to ensure directly that you're gonna get a real smooth flow, of that Heart Fire and therefore expression of our Shen. asparagus root is definitely doing that, as well as working on the Heart directly, and what we see with asparagus root, the way the Daoists saw it was it enabled you to fly, and so in your meditations, in life you can fly up and get more of a birds eye view of life. and that was seen as being very useful, so you didn't get stuck in the story and minutiae of what's going in your every day life, very beautiful herb.

Then we have spirit poria, so we know of the medicinal mushroom poria, but the spirit poria is the sclerotium that part, as it's growing out of the pine, and it's kind of halfway through transforming that, that wood into mushroom and we capture that part, that's known as the spirit poria, and it has all the longevity benefits and the water metabolism benefits of the poria mushroom itself. But then it has this capacity, this, this mushy capacity to come through and bring a bursting forth of our Shen in a very integrated way, because mushrooms are very integrating.

Then we have pearl, microground pearl, is one of the number one Shen herbs favourite, some of you know it from the Beauty Blend and it's in the Beauty Blend to really make sure that we are we we're bringing our Shen, Shen forth, because having strong Shen is very, it's a, it's a part of embodying beauty and I've included in the SHEN Blend as well because it brings this beautiful cooling, to the Liver, and the Liver is the mother of, of the Heart Fire. And so as it's, just to make sure that we're cooling down the Liver so that it is able to express it's love for the Heart, and ensure that it's not enraged or too excited when we get to that, the Qi being accumulated in that organ system. And it's a beautiful stabilising herb, it brings this nice calm cool, it's mineral, you know, it's a pearl, it's heavy, real that expression of Shen, 'cause sometimes we think Shen's all about like, coming out of the body, you know, and expressing and not blowing out of our, you know,, out of our head and going into the spiritual realms, but this is a very grounding, then bringing out our most virtuous spiritual nature forth.

Polygala is an incredible root, the will strengthener, and there's much I can say about this very interesting Shen herb, but what I wanna say about it the most, as a will strengthener it's, it's used for when that, what's considered the Fourth Treasure, Jing, Qi, Shen and Xi 'Will' which we've talked about, before you can go back and see that IGTV, that 'Will' is of course what allows us to overcome obstacles, you know, ensure that we're not, have the will to not engage too much in excesses, so we distract ourselves from walking a more harmonious middle ground.

But what that 'will' strengthener does, is it takes through what the Daoist called, the psychic channel, penetrating vessel, it connects the Kidneys, and the Kidneys then are able to, through connection to the Kidneys to the Heart are able to better manage and regulate the Heart so that it's not flying off too much on fire, we can have that water cooling it down, that's helping us ground the Shen, making sure that the fire isn't too erratic, too monkey mind minded, etc.

And through that, we connect that, sexual energy to our spiritual energy and we can become a more integrated person, and we find the Shen it can come really potent at that time as we become an, a beautiful integrated person. There are many more Shen herbs, they are my favourite, and you're gonna find those featured and brought into harmony along with, along with others, to bring further harmony and stability to the blend, in to find those in the SHEN Blend. And yeah, let me know down below, if you've had any experiences, with these Shen herbs, what you've experienced, you know, has it been like mood stabilising, able to calm your mind so you can engage in the day with your more virtuous nature. Have you combined it with meditation, yogic practice, Qi Gong, so on and so forth. Yeah, let me know below, otherwise, if you've got any questions, hit us up as well.