ABOUT
Radhika Sanclemente is Chinese Medicine and Traditional Western Herbalism practitioner, yoga teacher and artist working between the UK, India and the Caribbean coast of Colombia.
She has been studying yoga and plants since her childhood from her mother and grandmother and graduated from Chinese Medicine from University of Westminster. Since then she has been studying European Herbalism and Alchemy, South American and South- East Asian healing traditions.
Herbalism
The plants have always been our primary source of medicine, they are spoken of in a spiritual traditions all over the world. It’s been only recently that we have separated chemicals out of the whole plants. For example aspirin which is now considered number one drug used in the world, comes from willow bark ( salicin was extracted in 19th century), and willow bark has documented use in Ancient Egypt. So it is really slowly becoming that futuristic vision of humans taking pills instead of having actual food.
The way people would traditionally connect with the plants, was to understand that they are also living beings with higher consciousness. While it is easy to understand that they would have an effect on our bodies as they contain certain chemical substances, it has been widely perceived by people in all the traditions, all over the world that there is something deeper than that. (For the whole article and talk on energetics of Traditional Herbal medicine please check our blog).
Yoga
I found it hard to write a small note of what Yoga is. For many years I have been practicing postures and breathing techniques but with time I find more and more value in the internal shift of energy, focus that yoga practice has to offer.
Yet the physical part is so healing, allowing variety of movements, stretches, play, discipline to take place. And what I find most valuable, it regulates the nervous system bringing us to balanced aware and awaken mode of perception of reality.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is one of the tools used nowadays mainly in Chinese Medicine but was used through many healing systems all over the world.
It’s a practice of penetrating the skin with needles which are then activated through gentle and specific movements of the practitioner’s hands or with electrical stimulation.
Chinese medicine states that the human body has more than 2,000 acupuncture points connected by pathways or meridians. These pathways create an Qi energy flow, through the body that is responsible for overall health. Disruption of the energy flow can cause disease. By applying acupuncture to certain points, it is thought to improve the flow of Qi, thereby improving health.
Studies have shown that acupuncture is effective for a variety of conditions.