The Ancient Taoist Beauty Tonics with Mason Taylor (EP#29)

Time to talk tonic herbalist people. Maybe some of this little mushrooms and philosophy for longevity. So pour yourself a tonic and get ready to get superhuman baby. Start the show.

 

Mason: Hey everybody. Beautiful to be here with you today. I've literally got a beautiful podcast for you because we're going to be talking about the orient's most revered beautifying tonic herbs. We're looking at herbs in a very ancient system have been put on the pedestal; on bringing about and helping us to cultivate our inner, and therefore our outer, radiance. Now, when it comes to tonic herbalism, it's kind of hard to isolate a herb that wouldn't, with long term usage in being integrated into the diet, especially if you're matching it with other lifestyle factors which we'll talk about, you're going to be hard to come by to find a herb that's not actually going to have a beautifying effect on the body, in the sense of beauty which we're going to explore.

 

Mason: But in that system, there are a few that have just come out of the creme. So that's particularly schisandra, goji, longan and pearl. Of course there's others that I love and talk about, but I'm going to really focus on those today. Let's take a little bit of a wide view of beautification and why a herb would be same primarily as a herb that is beautifying or tones our inner radiance. Or, in once sense, we could call anti aging. I flipped that on its head because, in the west, that just has a yuck kind of tone to it because it's like resisting aging.

 

Mason: But these are the herbs that most likely to help that external, especially skin, eye, nail expression of graceful aging to occur because it's particularly toning various organ and meridian function. So these tonic herbs, the beautifying tonic herbs, their ability to enliven the body's detoxification pathways and channels is especially appreciated and especially effective. We're going to see that corelation between various detoxification pathways and our inner radiance is they're absolutely wrapped in with each other.

 

Mason: Now, these beautifying tonic herbs, they're synergistic herbs in a way. They're quite often used to bring synergy to a formula or a blend. Now I like to kind of go and create a beautifying blend, like when I did the beauty blend. I bring all these synergistic herbs together, all these beautifying herbs together, so the whole blend brings a synergy to the body. Now that's because beauty comes through integration.

 

Mason: So normally when we talk about tonic herbs, and I will down the track, we're going to talk about it toning particular organ systems or particular meridian channels. However, the beautifying herbs have an ability to harmonize various organ channels and meridians and bring them into harmony together. Now all tonic herbs, of course, do this, but goji, schisandra, longan, especially those three beauty sisters of the tonic herbal system, they do this magically. You put them together and make them the front runners of a formula, far out you can have some incredible integration and harmonization going on in the system, especially schisandra. It's such a powerhouse in that, and you'll see why.

 

Mason: So basically these herbs, when you go down the line of what their benefits to longterm usage emerged to be, it's bringing vitality of the hair, the skin, the nails, the fascia, especially through that fascia to allow strengthening, and allowing that facial system to flourish. That comes through heightened ability for the body to remain hydrated and remain in an ability to create blood and sexual fluids, and then move them through the body. That's got a lot to do with our beauty and vitality, but especially with hair.

 

Mason: Quite often, people come to us and ask about what they can do to strengthen their hair, or they might start losing their hair, or be going gray. It's not always something that herbs can help with. Sometimes it's lifestyle factors and super amount of stress can help with that. But sometimes it's genetic, but sometimes it is just deficiency within the body, especially deficiency of blood, deficiency of ability to circulate the blood and get blood up into those follicles with the hair, and basically an excess, a lowering of liver function, lowering of immune function, and a lowering of connection with the natural world. Therefor, a lack of ability to keep in check free radicals.

 

Mason: So you see a heightened amount of free radical damage emerging throughout the body, and that can go and damage various parts of the body. For some people, that goes and damages the hair follicles, and we see either an ability to pigment the hair any longer, or hair starts falling out. So sometimes, just to give you a corelation because quite often, in the ancient Taoist language, it can be very poetic, and it can just seem like just spouting benefits to you. But it's really nice to get practical.

 

Mason: I'm going to go deep into the absolute magic of these beautifying tonic herbs today, however I'll talk about it from an Eastern sense and what we look to gain through taking these herbs longterm and bringing them into our diet, and keys long term. Of course, you're going to get short term benefits from having goji schisandra, especially through detoxification pathways, energy levels, replenishing energy, but that's minor compared to what happens when you string them into your diet over years.

 

Mason: That's not necessarily saying you have to have them every day. You can start to circulate them the same way you'd circulate kale, the same way you'd circulate bananas, these things that you just kind of get a handle on where they sit on your diet, and then you know when you feel like them and when you don't. But when you do string together longterm usage of these beautifying tonic herbs, I'm going to go into basically these flowery beautiful deep intentions or qualities that we wish to really nourish and cultivate throughout the next few decades of our lives. Then I'll also go into a little bit of the Western classifications and how we'd use these herbs clinically.

 

Mason: Other ways that we see these herbs emerge at the top of the beautification categories is they are herbs that have a particular affinity for brightening the eyes. We'll go into why that is, especially the connection between the eyes and the liver, and the affinity these herbs have on the liver. Bring vitality to the blood, replenishing the yin ging essence within various organs, especially within the kidneys, the home of the yin ging. Then that correlates to lowering in the excessive stress hormones, increasing the efficacy of the way the adrenal is releasing its various hormones, and also increasing sexual fluids.

 

Mason: Basically, these herbs instill holistic beauty to the entire being, body, mind, and spirit. So I absolutely love them and, as you guys will probably know ... I don't know if you're getting sick of me saying it, but the herbs are really all well and good, but they will be a glass ceiling on their effectiveness if you don't alter your lifestyle. So it's why I like to say, let's start with an intension long term. We have, think about your 80 year old self and your 90 year old self, and feel about that graceful aging process you're going to have from now up until that point.

 

Mason: Or maybe you're a 90 year old listening to this. Well talk to your 110 year old self. But what's the quality internally that you wish to allow to bring out and flourish? What's the intention that you have that you want to strengthen. That's a good place to start, so you're just not externally grabbing for some short result through using these herbs, and they can be tantalizing when we go through all their beautifying effects, but really going into that inner quality.

 

Mason: You take the glass ceiling off tonic herbalism when you meet it with that intention and that desire to cultivate that quality because, of course, then your mental thought patterns, your lifestyle, the way you're consistently hydrating, your diet can also alter, and unify with that inner intention, along with your tonic herbalism. Then the results the flowery poetic, beautiful languaging I'm going to be talking to here, becomes an absolute reality, especially as we go into it now when you take away the concept of beauty being something that we see through reading clear magazine, which I know none of you are. But in the west, we've got a heavy external identification with beauty, but we see how we really start to take control of our perception of beauty.

 

Mason: I mean, when I created the beauty blend, I take the naming of the blends very seriously, and my formulas very seriously. I just couldn't shake the name beauty blend, even though it was irritating me. I was like, it's so lame, but I like alliteration. So the beauty blend kind of got me on that, but I'm really ... it's been years, five years since I released that blend to hundreds of people, maybe thousands now, are really getting beautiful transformational results. The biggest one is, yeah, we see the skin vibrancy come through, brightening the eyes, and of course energy levels and all that, fertility and all that magic stuff coming through.

 

Mason: But it was kind of like I realized it was my defiance against that external portrayal of beauty that we see through to contemporary social media platforms especially. I really just wanted to tap into that ancient [inaudible 00:08:56] tonic herbalism that shows us that beauty is a sovereign thing. Beauty is something that emerges throughout consistent thought forms, the way our liver is functioning, the way we're building blood, the way we're circulating blood, the way we're cultivating that deep sexual essence within our kidneys.

 

Mason: So I really wanted to encourage people to go inward to get that perception, to feel the innate wisdom of the organ systems, the meridians, to take that journey of self discovery through these systems and channels, and allow that personal insight and perception of beauty and radiance to emerge. Basically that lights me up, gather an understanding of the concept of beauty and how it can be felt and experienced on all levels, not just this external medium. That really excited me, and it continues to excite me. That's what I feel like the gift ongoingly of these beautifying tonic herbs are.

 

Mason: So we know that beauty doesn't come from makeup or surgery, or the clothes that you're wearing. We know it definitely doesn't come from putting a photo on Instagram and getting validation and lots of likes and shares. I don't know if you get shares on Instagram. That's more Facebook, isn't it? Look at me, I'm so up with it kids. But rather we know that beauty ... gosh, it's just a portrayal of internal health of your organs, and we go tend to that organ health and start to just understand our organ health.

 

Mason: I hope we're going to continue to educate you all on what your immune system's doing and what the functions of your liver and your kidneys, and the energy and the songs that they sing, and the dance of the chee moving through various organs. There's nothing necessarily get or completely understand, but continue to be in that conversation of gaining a relationship with your organs because, when you're 80 and 90, you're going to be very happy that you have a perceptive relationship with your liver or with your kidney. You're still got a libido in you, not deteriorating, and all these kinds of things.

 

Mason: So basically, when our organs are youthful, they're clean, and they're buoyant, the external representation you'll just embody it. So we're going to start digging in a little bit to herbs. What do you say? We're talking about tonic herbalism. We're talking about from the Western perspective, we lean west. We go into it's adaptogenic herbal medicine, lean east, we're talking about tonic herbalism. But remember, these adaptogens. To be classified as an adaptogen, a herb must put no additional harm or stress on the body. Basically promotes healing and adaption within the body systems in a non specific way, so basically providing more of a holistic support for the body's vital systems, including nervous system, endocrine system, immune system, to come back into harmony within themselves.

 

Mason: It must have an accumulative benefit basically in the body. That's what we need. That's what we're talking about when we're talking about tonic herbs, and tonic herbs, from the ancient times, we're looking like BC times over 2000 years ago, they need to tone one of the three treasures. Ging, she and shen. Ging being our primal sexual essence in our kidneys. You know it's our capacity to be born, and that's what we burn through. If we burn through it too quick, we're going to age very rapidly. So that's why a lot of these herbs are ging herbs.

 

Mason: She herbs, our vitality, our ability to mobilize our tissue and move the blood and fluids through our body. It's basically movement. And shen, our spirit, our consciousness, our ability to have a calm mind and develop our consciousness. So of course, through our beautifying herbs, we are toning all those three treasures, ging, she, shen. Actually, let's go a little bit further into the ancient use of these herbs.

 

Mason: These were the herbs that were used by emperors, empresses, concubines. They're basically vested in living a long time and staying useful, and antiaging. It's said a lot by the Taoists, that whole claim to, no these were used by they emperors and empresses, and the concubines to stay beautiful. The did, the definitely did use them. It was used for the affluent, especially held, because we didn't have the growing methods that we do today, or even as many people wild harvesting herbs as we do today, so there was a limit to the amount of herb that was available on the market, and it would be gobbled up by the affluent.

 

Mason: I'm so happy that we can all get access to these herbs now. But basically, when you hear them saying it's the emperors and empresses and all those kinds of things before that, it was just the men and women just being in nature, living their lives, taking these herbs, and showing that they were staying hydrated, not eating pathogenic foods. A bit easier back then, a little bit harder now. But we're still making that effort, aren't we? And developing their consciousness and making sure that we're staying herbs that we're going to keep their livers and spleens and yin ging rocking. Keep their mind calm as much as possible and just grow and develop themselves and, in the process, really cultivate that inner radiance through using herbs like these, because everyone cares about how we look on the outside, but it can remain shallow, but it can get very deep and beautiful when it comes from an organ place.

 

Mason: Basically, when we're going to go through all these herbs, what we're looking for to get that beauty is a smooth flow of chi through the liver and the kidneys. Now especially a dispersion of chi through the liver, we need the liver intelligence to be really rocking, and we need also a nice smooth flow and a cultivation of chi in the spleen. That's what we're looking for, helping to build blood through the spleen to mobilize fluids, to move blood through the body is what we're looking for through the cultivation of that chi, and tonifying of the heart as well, and definitely maintaining of essence in clearing stagnation. That's what we see emerging.

 

Mason: So these actions support the liver's ability to then cleanse the body, the kidneys to cleanse the blood, and increase the body's capacity to eliminate toxins all over and cultivate vibrancy and lightness as well. Beautifying herbs lighten the body, one of the core intentions of tonic herbalism. These herbs, especially through the schisandra goji, we're looking to nourish the deep yin ging essence of the body, supporting the functions of the kidney, spleen, heart and lungs, and allowing the body's foundational energy stores to accumulate. Actions which are expressed through physical health and the appearance of the skin.

 

Mason: So it's not hypothetical when we say beauty comes from within. It's an actual manifestation and expression. These herbs are very high in antioxidant content, or they're catalysts for the cultivation and releasing of very potent antioxidants. They act to preserve the protein structures of the skin via these methods, and the hair, but skin through the collagen and the elastin. That's one of the ways that we can see they help to promote the youthfulness, by supplying potent mineral, phytonutrient, herbal nutrition that the body requires basically to rebuild and preserve itself.

 

Mason: So that's why I say these beautifying tonic herbs is a part of my diet. One of the other things we're going to see come through, especially when it comes to the schisandra and the pearl, and to an extent the lung in which we're going to talk about, four herbs that we're going to be talking about, is the shen. So the shen tonics, such as pearl as I just said, and schisandra, will encourage the body to release stress and tension. That's on a physical, emotional, spiritual level. That's relieving the burden of a nervous system, to an extent the adrenal system as you take pressure off the mind, and basically the body as a whole.

 

Mason: If you're going to have ongoing beautification and graceful aging where you're just radiating as you enter into your older years, or even currently, we need to be tonifying the shen, and our lifestyle needs to match our desire to have a calm mind and consistently taking steps forward in developing our consciousness, working to understand our emotional flows, our thought patterns, and evolving them to make them more functional. That has such an incredible effect on the way that your skin will look, or the way you'll perceive the way your skin looks in 50 years.

 

Mason: Basically shen tonics, they're traditionally used to integrate life experiences as well, but through the lens of an all embracing love that resides within the heart. That's where shen's emerging from, the heart. That's where [inaudible 00:16:30] wisdom surface from, brings the individual, you, me, into harmony and balance. That's the key thing. We get the balance between internal and external environments and perceptions. So that's what's internal, what's external, and we need an ongoing relationship to actually balance between them.

 

Mason: So it's like the difference between someone really needing to be liked. I need to be liked, I need to be liked. Then dichotomy is there where you go to a yoga class now where that's the ongoing pursuit to try and be liked. They're like, okay great. I don't need to be liked. But then there's that part of them that goes, oh but that was really nice being liked and appreciated. I really enjoyed that. It's like, oh my gosh, which way to I go about it?

 

Mason: Through the development of shen and consistently developing yourself, you can kind of find that middle ground after a while of being likable, but you don't really need to be liked. Your cup is full. You don't need that external validation to fill your cup. It's enjoyable. Everyone likes being appreciated and liked, and we're grateful for it. But that doesn't fill us up. Our internal cup in our heart is innately full.

 

Mason: So, in the Taoist system of tonic herbalism, the heart is governing the blood and the shen. So blood building herbs, such as goji and longan, which we're going to talk about, they contribute to this medicine magically as well. So you can kind see why I chose these schisandra, goji, longan, pearl for the beauty blend, for that formula, and just even to talk about today. They're just so magic.

 

Mason: So let's start with schisandra. Schisandra is so bloody magic. The Taoists would say you used it consistently. Remember, we're going to use this poetic language, but bringing in the framework that I said before. You use it consistently through your diet. This is where you're going to remain youthful, both in appearance and physiology, and even take it as far to say psychology because it's a shen tonic. They have this thing called the hundred days of schisandra. It's one of the initiations into tonic herbalism.

 

Mason: There's several ways to do it, but when a lot of people hear ... you've gone through that process where you get off the western lifestyle train, and you kind of start cleansing your diet out, and you get off factory farm mates and pasteurized, homogenized milks, and you get into organics, and you stop putting toxic chemical makeups and sunscreens on the body, and you start cleansing out. So one of the things that you can do at this point is called the hundred days of schisandra.

 

Mason: So they say that this is believed to purify the blood, bring sharpness to the mind, optimize memory, rejuvenate the kidney essence, astringe the body so you can lock in that kidney essence, because quite often people, I think, come from degenerative lifestyle. We need to lock up and seal that kidney essence, that jing, yin jing. That precious jing, J-I-N-G guys, and supporting sexual function, because that's a huge one when you start getting on the health kick. You need to get that sexual function restored. Schisandra's the way to do it.

 

Mason: Works to illuminate one's inner radiance and bring the glow of beauty to the skin. So basically they believed that, if you used schisandra consistently, it'll allow your body to rid itself of toxins before they had the change to unfill in any tissue damage. So it's basically you're bringing in a herb like schisandra. So, whether you go down this route of initiating yourself into the hundred days of schisandra club, you can either do it with the beauty blend as a whole. I'd probably recommend it, or you can do the individual schisandra.

 

Mason: I wouldn't recommend it because it's bad to do it in schisandra, but it'd like it that way. Or you can do schisandra individually. Basically you're just giving all the systems of your body ... you're going to see why next, but you're going to give your whole system big upgrade, a unifying upgrade, an ability through the liver to get a massive upgrade, so you can start releasing toxicity. You do that in conjunction with things like taking dietary clays, getting very, very hydrated, and then basically getting the body really cleaned up.

 

Mason: So, in China, schisandra's known as [inaudible 00:20:09]. That translates to five taste fruit. It's different translations. I think I say it differently all the time. Now, that illustrates the herb's capacity to basically enter and influence all the five major yin organs of the body. So we're talking liver, lungs, kidney, heart, spleen. It carries all the five flavors as well, salty, sweet, sour, bitter, pungent. It's the quintessential herb guys. It's amazing that flavor profile. That basically then correlates to all the core energetic essences of the body, the elements within the body, wood, fire, earth, metal, water.

 

Mason: So that's why it's one of the core harmonizing herbs, because it can actually enter into all those systems, every organ, and then every meridian because it's so energetically adaptive. It's also turning jing, she, and shen ... it's a beautiful yin tonic, all the five flavors. So let's get into the Western classification. So it's the berry that's used, and it's a bit of a warming herb. So, when we look at the actions that it has, it's an adaptogen, it's an immune tonic, antioxidant, anti inflammatory. It's an astringent. It's a hypato-protective, so it's magically protecting the liver. It's a kidney and adrenal tonic. It's a lung tonic. It's accommodative for the central nervous system. It's a mild expectorant, and it's anti intrusive. So any coughing, excessive coughing going on, could be a useful one. If you need to eliminate any phlegm, could be a useful one. It's a magic lung tonic as well.

 

Mason: The general indications in which they use it for is liver congestion. That's my favorite. It's used for hepatitis, supporting both phase one and two of the liver, supporting phase three, that releasing of those broken down compounds, especially through phase two, into the bile and into the small intestine to then go and be released from the body or into the blood to be filtered out by the kidneys. When there's fatigue, stress, highly used, diarrhea because it's an astringent, external vaginal discharge likewise, and then premature ejaculation. It was used a lot for hot flashes, but it's a bit of warming herb, so you want to make sure the hot flashes are actually at the core of it, but especially menopausal hot flashes. A herb like schisandra would supplement the jing, very useful.

 

Mason: For shallow breathing, it was used for deficient pattern of anxiety. They'd even use it for nightmares, insomnia, and then getting the mind rocking, no concentration, sharpen the mind up. Schisandra combination with neural nectar is magic. Then general hormonal imbalance, sexual disfunction, endocrine disfunction to strengthen the eyes, to seal the essence of the jing if someone's jing was leaking, and to calm the shen, and also to release tension in the nervous system.

 

Mason: Yeah, it's like my gosh it does so many things. I know what it's like hearing about these herbs. You go, my gosh, I have to have schisandra in my life. Yeah, you probably should, but again, make sure you just allow these things to come through your filter. It's good to get excited about herbs, but don't allow the excitement to drive you. Allow your connection to that inner quality that you wish to cultivate to then reach out and see whether schisandra, and these beautifying herbs are right for you.

 

Mason: I always gotta say that because sometimes it can just get a little overwhelming, just how would all these herbs sound and how good they are. They kind of are, but I just want to make sure they stay off the pedestal. Let's have a look at goji berry. Goji berry is used throughout Asia as one of the longevity herbs. As a blood tonic especially, I really love it as a blood tonic. So many people have just kind of got the super food aspect of goji.

 

Mason: It's amazing. If you go on the beauty blend and get a super strong, wild crafted goji berry extract into your body, you feel that blood building. You feel that yin jing entering the system. It's an absolutely magic herb. In the cultivation of yin essence, yin ching, that foundational essence, it's right up there with hishuwu as the primary. For bringing brightness to the eyes, improving vision, and as a sexual tonic for men and women, absolutely revered. Working to enhance fertility, potentially that sexual fluids. Between schisandra and goji, sexual fluids bringing circulation through the pelvis, especially for women, but for men as well. Absolutely magic for building back semen levels. If a guy's building back semen levels, it' be on beauty blend of jing blend, or ashwagandha.

 

Mason: Especially when you've got a deficiency of sexual fluids. That's for women and men, but for men a deficiency of semen, you be on the beauty blend and ashwagandha. Between the goji, schisandra and ashwagandha, you'd just be absolutely rocking it. Goji is said to bring strength and also vigor to the legs, promote strong lower back, knees. It's a gin tonic. They all do that. Also, they love it in an ancient sense for promoting a cheerful spirit. I really get that. It's got a real young energy, and it brings a young sprity energy through it. That's a lot of the liver, that would sprouting energy, which we want that to stay in feeling youthful. That's beauty.

 

Mason: Traditionally used to fortify the entire system as well. That's like harmonizing. It's goji believes to be basically a protector against disease and providing energy needed to overcome obstacles. I really like that. So goji, you might know as wolf berry. It's also called earth bone. But we're looking at neutral in its energetics, sweet taste obviously, so it's entering the liver, kidneys and lung, and it's the berry that's used.

 

Mason: It's actions, and they're on the western sense, it's a yin tonic, it's anti inflammatory, super antioxidant, but unique antioxidants. It's a pattern protective, it's a liver tonic. Blood sugar regulator, magic one at that. It's an immune tonic, so it's got those polysaccharides. Not the same bit of [inaudible 00:25:20] that are unique to the medicinal mushrooms, but its got it's own unique polysaccharides, which are magic for the immune system. So it's got a bit of an immune modulating thing going on, but super nutritive. It's a blood tonic. It's helping with cholesterol. It's a demulcent of the lungs, and it's a liver tonic.

 

Mason: I said hypato-protective, but it's just like you've just gotta keep on reiterating just how much of a tonic it is for, not just protecting the liver, but bringing that nourishing essence into the liver. It's a mild sedative, and it's actually anti fungal. Really beautiful thing to be aware of with goji. The indications that they'd be using it for would be weak muscles, weak ligaments, sexual disfunction, night sweats, weak vision. If anyone who has week vision through the orient, bang, goji, to build blood and yin ging as well.

 

Mason: That's in the liver and the kidneys, and also yin deficiency within the lungs. So, if there's a dry cough, barking cough, you want a demulcent coming in. So, in that instance if there's real dry coughing, it's like beauty blend and tremella might be a really good combination, really nice and demulcent. For those of you thinking in the back of your mind, why are you talking about tremella, I think I'm going to have to do a whole podcast on tremella mushroom. That's a beautifying combination.

 

Mason: So back on the goji, increasing sexual fluids and lubricating the body. So think about it, lubrication of the body, not just in sexual fluids, lubricating of the joints, lubricating of the valves within the digestive system. That's screaming beautification. It's antioxidant support. They've used it definitely for ... that's when it was indicated as well. When the see someone was over oxidized. Then of course liver support, skin, and basically just luminosity.

 

Mason: Just a trace mineral content, iron, copper, zinc, calcium, germanium, selenium. That's the other thing I like about these beautifying herbs, and the beauty blend is it's just magically magically mineralizing as well. I could talk about goji all day, but let's move on.

 

Mason: Longan, this is like bringing in the trio then. You've got the schisandra, goji, and then the longan, the three beauty sisters of the orient. This is kind of like a lychee. You know what a lychee looks like, but more of a smooth, pale, light brown shell. It's not spiky or bumpy as a lychee. They're called dragon eyes. So this is a chi tonic. This is ... in the beauty blend, I needed a full dedicated chi tonic, just dedicating itself to the spleen, and then to the heart, but also having this beautifying nature coming through the skin.

 

Mason: Now we've already talked about the fact that the goji and the schisandra are lung tonics, and they're entering in that lung meridian. They're incredible lung tonics, so in the Taoist tradition you see that lungs are actually governing the skin, governing the pores of the skin. You can also see why we're going to be getting a lot of benefits coming through from the skin. It's not just all the liver, but longan, chi tonic, it's also used to tone the blood. It increases physical stamina. The Taoists saw it as really nourishing the heart, building energy deeply in the body and add a luster and radiance to the skin. It's a real verberation from the spleen and our digestive capacity, and our ability to cultivate chi and move chi, and radiate it from the inside out.

 

Mason: Longan is celebrated as a potent sexual tonic, and that's both men and women. More and more men are taking this beauty blend and these beauty tonics. Get on it guys. The herb is believed to promote peripheral circulation to the hands and feet as well. With that, it also brings a deep sense of calming to the entire body because basically, with a chi tonic and a spleen tonic, and you combine that with lung tonics, you are basically assisting the body to move chi and then blood out right into the external capillaries and vessels.

 

Mason: If you have those cold extremities, you've got to look at your lifestyle, you've got to look at your movement practice, you've got to look at your diet to make sure that it's warming, it's nourishing. If you have a spleen deficiency, you're generally going to need to get off cold foods, but you can get on herbs like longan and really support the movement of chi, tonification of blood, and get it circulating to the extremities.

 

Mason: Longan is also, it helps to potentiate the action of other blood building herbs, also help to deepen feelings of tranquility when combined with shen tonics, which is really nice as well. So that's why we kind of combine that in with the pearl and the schisandra. But this is why all these herbs are potentiator. They're all synergistic herbs. We've put them at the forefront of this formula.

 

Mason: Longan, I think I've told you that it's called dragon eyes as well. It's a beautiful name. So that's entering to spleen and the heart. It's quite warming. The treasure is turnings all chi. It's very sweet taste, and it's the fruit that we're using. So basically the western actions, we'd been using it as a blood tonic, a spleen tonic, a chi tonic. Calm the mind, and the spirit through its actions in the chi, and it's actions of the heart, but it's not a shen tonic in itself.

 

Mason: Anti-inflammatory, it's immune tonic, and it's especially a beautiful sexual tonic. The general indications when someone's overthinking, or they're overworked, they get them on longan. Manifestations of the heart and spleen deficiency, such as insomnia, forgetfulness, dizziness, heart palpitations, to increase the luster and radiance of the skin, to promote peripheral circulation we talked about that calming the extremities, and to support deep and refreshing sleep. Also, to increase physical stamina.

 

Mason: But just on the sleep thing, I just had someone write to me the other day just going like, I just had a nap. The only thing I've done is included beauty blend in my life the last couple of days, and for the first time in they say forever, now we're able to sit down and have a nap. Then, after napping, they normally have disrupted sleep, they have a hard time getting to sleep, and then waking up through the night, they said they slept through the night.

 

Mason: Now it doesn't work like that for everybody, but of course, if you have herbs that ... and we're going to get to the pearl soon, so you see, but there's herbs that are stabilizing the shen in the mind. So the mind can sync in with the body and with the endocrine system, with the melatonin, and know right okay, it's time to start winding down and sleeping now. Then supplementing that yin jing. So the yin ging is quite often implicated, if you can't stay asleep, you can't anchor yourself down into sleep. So supplementing that yin jing is really magic.

 

Mason: Then your traveling spirit, shen. People say it's like your consciousness, but it's not the soul. [inaudible 00:31:05] the liver. That's your traveling soul. That's where you sleep. If you've got a nice strong flowing liver that's not overburdened with toxicity, from the Taoist perspective anyway, allow your soul to really travel out there through the dreaming, through consciousness, and do a lot of integration of basic, your musing and happenings of life.

 

Mason: It makes sense. A lot of people get really beautiful effects on their sleep when they get on these herbs, and you start matching your lifestyle to create a real sanctuary around your sleep. You're going to start getting some beautification going on there because it's all beauty sleep. Just so you guys know, I'm not putting these herbs on a pedestal. They have their place. They're super effective. They'll hit a glass ceiling unless you match your whole lifestyle to that inner intent, but then far out sky's the limit, especially if you're sleeping really well, and your [inaudible 00:31:47] is really strong because you live in a safe place, and then you sleep, and then sky's not the limit. You can go out into wherever you want, into the cosmos with your traveling soul. But I digress.

 

Mason: Let's go into pearl. So this is actually micro ground pearl. Very ancient shen tonic. One of the most revered tonic herbs in the whole Taoist system. Basically, this herb carrying a bit of a cold energetic, so it's in the beauty blend to help pacify that inevitable heat in the liver. [inaudible 00:32:14] in the rising yang. So much of the hot headedness, the heat in the face, things stuck in your head, it comes to just the fact that we're just so in our yang, and our go, go, go, and our livers just can't stop needing to process excess hormones and toxins. We're just like, the yang just rises up, and we feel tension within our shoulders and within our shoulder blades, and within our collar bones. At that point, you start seeing that you get a lot of physical degeneration over time, the locking in of the shoulders, and shoulder disruption, and then you lead to headaches and that kind of thing.

 

Mason: So the reason I've got that pearl in there is to really help subdue that rising yang to treat that facial acne, reduce heat and redness in the face in general, stiffness in the neck and shoulders. I've said this, but I want to make sure we're really hitting this. Then to brighten the eyes. So we'll get into a little bit of that later and why the eyes brighten, but the pearl is considered primary shen tonifying, so bringing your consciousness forward, but also stabilizing your shen, and that consciousness, and that mental activity you have now. Super important.

 

Mason: You know when you come and monkey mind, and you have a little bit of the meditation like, okay. It's like solid ground. Now my mind is actually able to set in solid ground, and I can actually now have a bit of space to think rationally and consciously about developing myself forth, so I'm a bit more of a functional person to be around. That's stabilization of shen and definitely herbs can do it. Absolutely, you experience it if you really start hitting that beauty blend and getting that pearl in. Basically these characteristics that allow the herb to relive that uneasiness in the heart and mind.

 

Mason: When the shen is disturbed, that's when you start to experience a bit of restless sleep and nervousness, and fatigue, and that feeling, general ambiguous feeling of disconnection, the consistent use, it's said to really help basically harness and maintain energy and vitality while remaining in a tranquil state. I love it. I love that. It's like, to really get up and go and be able to boom, I can feel my core energy. I'm going to go out there and whatever your terminology is. I'm going to go and crush it. But you don't need to get into this agitated state. You don't need to rely on agitated monkey mind that's frantic. You stay in this tranquil state. That's a beautiful herb for helping you with that, especially combined with schisandra, and it's super high in minerals.

 

Mason: We'll get into them a little bit, but basically pearl is used in China to support also the health of the muscular skeletal system. Basically improving the health of the bones and the teeth, you've really got to make sure you're paying close attention to your skeletal system. Really gotta make sure you're paying super close attention to the mineralization, protocols you have, the minerals you're getting through your diet, and your herbs. Pearl's a magic one.

 

Mason: Botanical name is margarita. It's just basically a mineral family. So going into more of the western perspective, or just the material medical classification, organs and meridians, we're looking at heart liver. It's a cold energy. It's tonifying shen. The taste is like salty sweet, and it's just the pearl of the oyster that's used. So it's western actions. It's an adaptogen. Oh yeah, anti convulsant, hypato-protective, it's antioxidant, it's a cardio tonic, anti ulcer, it's a shen tonic, shen stabilizer, and it's really a good topical as well. It also acts as a little bit of an astringent.

 

Mason: Then the general indications of this herb, you can piece it together. It's anchoring, settling, to calm the mind and the spirit, the shen, bring harmony to the heart, settle palpitations and tremors, tone the liver, bring brightness to the eyes, clear liver fire, heat and toxicity, for acne, facial heat, red blotchy face, stiffness in the neck and shoulders, this kind of thing. If any of you are like that's me, heat in the face, liver on fire, acne in the face, you don't want to go just diagnosing yourself. If it's been really insidious, and you can't hit it with your own tonic herbal practice, go and see a lactician practitioner. You can get an underlying patent, but a lot of the time you can get some budge when it comes to pearl, when it comes to the beauty blend as well.

 

Mason: But, if you need to get it a little bit more ... if that's really you, red blotchy face and heaps of stiffness in the neck and shoulders, you can go and get chrysanthemum tea and just brew up a chrysanthemum tea and add your beauty blend to that. That's really nice and draining of that heat from the face. It's a real nice combination with the pearl. Now the pearl, we go a little bit of the actions as well in terms of what it's doing for the skin. Some of the actions they're finding in terms of it's contributing factors to helping with not allowing the melanin, that brown pigment. When you get a nice healthy tan, that's melanin. That's the one that shaga mushroom is the highest containing food source of. That's why we love shaga for skin protection as well.

 

Mason: Pearl is seizing the melanin from forming in clusters, so there's sun spots, to an extent possible moles. So basically those blemishes that occur on the skin, that mispigmentation. Pearl, they've found, is allowing with that nice distribution of melanin. So it comes across in a very nice all over tan, rather than just like a blotchy tan. Wonderful for that, and as well as increasing the metabolic capacity through the skin. So your ability for your skin, your epithelial layers, to release toxicity and get it into the lymph and then get it moving. It's an incredible herb.

 

Mason: People think it's just like a ground up calcium. No, but it's got good calcium. It's not like that crap supplementation calcium that they give that just gunks you up. It's a beautiful usable form of calcium, high magnesium, zinc, iron, copper, selenium, silica, titanium, and it goes on. It contains a variety of amino acids and eight of those are essential, and a bunch of antioxidants. It's just such an incredibly safe herb on that. So I wouldn't mind bringing a connection now between the liver and the eyes because the eyes are such an important one.

 

Mason: I kind of touched on if you're really red and inflamed around the eyes, this blend can be super beneficial. But the schisandra is a little bit warming, so it might not be the exact medicine, but if you bring in that chrysanthemum tea, it'll massively balance this out and help you drain that heat from the eyes. In traditional Chinese medicine, basically you go further back before that was commodified in Taoism, the liver is believed to open to the eyes. It does. It's not believed to. It opens to the eyes.

 

Mason: So the eyes are on that same facial line as the liver, and the liver meridian opens to the eyes. Any herb that has a tonifying action on the liver, they feel will have a tonified action on the eyes. We see this again and again, working to enhance and strengthening the vision this way. So we've gone through the three herbal beauty sisters of Taoism that schisandra, goji, longan all have that invigorating action on health on the eyes, especially via the potent actions on the liver of the goji and schisandra. But the goji containing very high levels of flavonoids and carotenoids. These compounds which are a magic to help stabilize the tiny capillaries of the eyes.

 

Mason: We also see that schisandra is having almost a calming effect. Combine that with the calming shen effects of the pearl, you're going to see that the central nervous system gets tired, and the eye's being a part of that nervous system, you can start to peel tension off away from the eyes. It's a really important way how these beautifying herbs help to protect our vision. That vibrancy in our eyes has a lot to do. It's a window to the soul. It's also the window to what's going on in your liver and your other vital organs.

 

Mason: One other thing I just want to go in terms of practicality is just talking about methylation and how these beautifying herbs are influencing that body mechanism. So the body employs a process called methylation. That's to assist with proper functioning of various metabolic pathways, endomatic conversions, taking place in the cells and the organs every moment. Methylation vital to keep the body in vibrant health, to keep it balanced. Methylation is controlling many of the vital physiological process, and that's including dun, dun, dun, gene expression, right? Detoxification and neurotransmitter creation.

 

Mason: That methylation can be viewed simply as the body's way of switching things on and off genetically. That's at least contributing to it. Here, the cellular processes can be activated or deactivated to allow specific functions and reactions to occur. An impairment of the body's ability to methylate effectively can lead to metabolic disorders, decreased immunity, heavy load falling on the liver, and generally lowering levels of health.

 

Mason: Well, it's interesting we find over time that, especially these most revered tonic herbs have got an incredible ability encouraging the body's detoxification channels, and assisting the body's ability to process and release toxicity. So these actions that these beautifying herbs, especially goji, especially schisandra, they're actually supporting methylation, and can be attributed a lot of the time to the high antioxidant profiles carried by each of the herbs. That does then go down beyond the two I just mentioned to the longan and the pearl also.

 

Mason: Now, that's particularly the super potent, free radical scavenger that activated by these herbs, super oxide dismutase. Goji berry contains really potent levels as well of this compound called betaine, which acts as one of the primary methyl donors in your body. It's a really good idea for you to be ingesting methyl donors so that they can come in and contribute to this methylation process, so you can get all those wonderful metabolic processes that we just mentioned going.

 

Mason: Basically, as we age, the innate ability to methylate declines, increasing degeneration, that's especially the neurological and hepatic liver capacities, and that's along with genetic expression and potential, huge. Consuming foods that are high in betaine and other methyl donors such as goji, and actually beet root is the highest containing food in betaine. That's why it's considered a longevity food in itself. Goji is second though. It encourages the body's methylation process to unfold with fluidity. What equals longevity, graceful aging and beautification more than fluidity, right?

 

Mason: This influences the body's capacity to preserve and maintain itself on a cellular level. I just realized, the other thing that goji is supporting us to secrete more of, and is one of the only foods to actually be able to do it, is human growth hormone. So when you look at the core ancient intention of these tonic herbs, whether it's schisandra, pearl, longan, goji, the four that we've talked about today for bringing beautification, graceful aging, or as the way the west might like it, antiaging and herbs that make you look and feel younger. But we're finding out all the incredible things like goji is one of the most incredible foods for bringing in betaine, this methyl donor.

 

Mason: It helps us create human growth hormone, and then everything else, all the magical antioxidant, really unique antioxidant, all the very unique minerals and array of minerals and array of functions, blood building functions they're having ... We're starting to validate these now, but the ancients knew, and they incorporated these herbs into the diet. They keep their whits about them in terms of going, is this herb constitutionally right for me because, despite the fact that these benefits all might be sound all well and good and everyone might be like, great I'm onto it, some of the herbs might not be few. Some people just don't do well with goji, and that's fine. If that's the case, you can just sit on schisandra berry from the super foods range, or you can go and find these other herbs if one's particularly singing to you.

 

Mason: It's just so beautiful to see the reasons why, in all these ancient texts, these combinations and formulas, and these beautiful herbs were said to help brighten the eyes and bring this lightness to the body, and bring this exuberance. Now we're seeing how closely it is associated with organ function, especially through of course the Taoist knew that it was associated with organ function and the movement of chi. Now we're seeing on a real cellular level how they're contributing, even down to what it's contributing to easing the load of the body so that it can bring fluidity to the methylation process, therefor the heightened ability to embody detoxification and, of course then, when we embody detoxification, we are then creating a beautiful environment for our genes to express themselves and turn on those genes that are really lending themselves to longevity, a sharp mind, long term ability to maintain libido, long term ability to remain potent our heart health.

 

Mason: At the same time, we're supporting the methylation metabolic processes, which has its say in influencing, which genes we're turning on and off as well. So yes, these blends, these herbs, these formulas, they are magic. You can see why I love them. You can see why I believe they have a longterm place within our diet. I really do encourage you to touch that inner quality, that radiance and that beautification that's going to be there, and you're going to grow and flourish and bloom, in the next decades hopefully, and allow you to go and find those herbs and find those ways to integrate them into your lifestyle, and feel what herbs are right for you. Generally, I like the tonic herbs because generally they're pretty much good for everybody. But as I said, sometimes goji's not for someone.

 

Mason: Schisandra is generally for most people, but if you've got a particular pattern of acne, it might not be the herb for you until you get that underlying pattern resolved. You might need to work with an acupuncturist or a naturopath to resolve it, and then you might be back on the schisandra train. So stay smart about it. It's not one size fits all, but when it comes to that beauty blend, we've got that equaling combination there, that formula of these four herbs.

 

Mason: We've talked about how do you use it? I really like having it in kind of an instant tonic. If I feel like I've been hitting it too hard at work, and I'm congested a little bit around my eyes, I will use a little bit of that chrysanthemum tea, and I'll add my beauty blend, and I'll drink it just like that. It's also really just good with hot water, and I might add just a little bit of grapefruit juice, a touch of honey. That's a really good, like an express beauty tonic right there.

 

Mason: You can add it to smoothies. Beauty blend, with the schisandra and goji, it's got an interesting flavor with the pearl, the mineral floweriness of the pearl. It's not one that generally mixes well in with coffees and hot chocolates. It's not one like the medicinal mushrooms where we're just adding it into sauces and broths necessarily. It kind of sits in that floral kind of tea place, so you can add it in with green teas. If you're having anything like rose hip, anything you consider really beautifying. We've got some notes. We've got lots of recipes. There's a beautiful shop that I use. I'll either put schisandra, but especially now beauty blend. I'm just all over this beauty blend guys.

 

Mason: Our livers need so much support in this day and age. If you're supporting your liver, getting off toxic crap, getting of petrochemical skin creams and sunscreens, and all that kind of stuff, you clean up your diet, you're tending towards organic, and then you start really getting on to these beautifying herbs. You can add in other liver herbs if you really support. You can get milk thistles in there and turmerics, and dandelions in there as well, and get some flow going through your liver. Far out, you want to add in the beauty blend. If you've got that intention between the pearl, the goji, and the schisandra, and then the supportive nature of the longan, far out you're going to create some magic there.

 

Mason: Yeah, we'll put those recipes there because I like doing it in a shot as well. I call it my immortal beauty shot. I used to do it with just schisandra, but I now do it with the beauty blend heavily. That's just like aloe vera gel, beauty blend, tumeric, a bit of black pepper, touch of honey, get the MSM in there, the methyl sulfinyl methane. That's that beauty mineral, so you get the beauty blend with all the beautifying herbs with the MSM, the beauty mineral in there, methyl sulfinyl methane, methyl, methylator, methylation, detoxification, cellular detoxification. That's what I've got in my diet.

 

Mason: You've got two mineral kind of tonic herbs going in there between the MSM and the pearl. Then I'll put a little bit of spring water, and I'll blend all that together, and that'll be my little shot. If it's winter, maybe you can put a little bit of elderberry concentrate or something in there, far out, you're looking at immortal beauty. So check the notes. I hope you've enjoyed talking about these beautifying Taoist tonic herbs, learning about them as much as I've enjoyed talking about them.

 

Mason: I'm going to go and make myself like an instant beauty blend tonic right now. As I said, that little bit of grapefruit, little bit of honey, boiling water, mm, it's going to be absolutely delicious. Please ensure that you are subscribing to this podcast, and I haven't done this reach out in a while, but I'd really appreciate it if you'd go and leave a review because we're really starting to make some trend. I know for us now listening, for a lot of us, it's like these tonic herbs we've really embodied them into our lives now. But it's just been so magic in the last couple of months. We've had so many, so many new people start discovering these tonic herbs. So the more you go and review and subscribe, and if you're feeling its relevant share it out, the more we get to go and bring this magic to a lot of people. Together, we can ensure that our 80, 90, 100 year old selves are absolutely rocking in health, rocking libido, and have beautiful skin, and we're radiating from that beautiful cultivated vitality of our inner organs, and we're radiating that out to the world.

 

Mason: Everybody, thank you so much for tuning in today. Now time to take that information, round it into your lifestyle, so you can amplify your health to the next level. You can really help amplify the help of this podcast by going onto iTunes and subscribing, and leaving us a review. It really helps us spread this information around tonic herbs, around sovereign health, further out there to the community so we can help more people experience the best out of this life. Thanks guys, I'll speak to you next time.