In this blog post, we’ll delve into the world of holistic wellness with Simon Brown, a seasoned practitioner of macrobiotics, feng shui, and other ancient wisdom traditions. Through their studies with renowned masters like Michio Kushi, Simon has developed a unique approach to well-being that integrates mind, body, and spirit.
How did your experiences with mentors like Michio Kushi shape your approach to macrobiotics, feng shui, and holistic wellness?
I studied with four Japanese teachers, Macrobiotic with Michio and Aveline Kushi, Shiatsu with Shizuko Yamamoto and Feng Shui with Takashi Yoshikawa. This cultivated a love of Japan within me and an infinity with Zen, Wabi Sabi and Japanese food. I was fortunate to be invited to teach in Tokyo for three weeks a year up until covid.
I love the simplicity the Japanese approach encourages. If we can cultivate simple surroundings, enjoy natural foods and find beauty in nature then we can be very happy with little.
Add in the idea of Ma and the contribution of nothingness to life and we have a beautiful balance of activity and rest, work and play, talking and listening, creativity and appreciation, expression and contemplation. In terms of yin and yang if we want to be yang and active, creative, expressive or productive we need the yin. Without the yin sleep, rest or perhaps meditation we cannot enjoy the yang.
Could you share how you integrate disciplines like face reading, feng shui, and macrobiotics to create a holistic approach to well-being for your clients?
All the subjects I use, teach and coach people in are based on qi, yin yang, five elements and eight trigrams. These combine to form the ba gua, which is like an energy diagram of time and space. So with this approach, all the practices combine very easily. The advantage for my clients and students is that the same understanding will apply to their body, home, face, emotions and things they are doing in life.
When this happens it is easy to see how everything is connected and how an issue in one area might be influencing other areas. The ba gua can be seen as the universal cycle of nature. In farming it is like a seed germinating, sprouting, growing, flowering, ripening if fruit or vegetables and becoming sweeter, then harvesting and storage for the winter. This cycle can be applied to relationships, projects, businesses, careers and even life. Where are you in the cycle and where would you like to be?
In your work with diabetes care and health coaching, what unique benefits have you found that macrobiotic principles bring to managing chronic conditions?
The diabetes project was interesting as I was working with people who had little interest in macrobiotics or anything similar. The people had basically just received a diagnosis and now told they would have to change their eating. For them if felt like bad luck. Normally, my clients choose me with the intention of making changes in their live. They want to be healthier and try new food etc.
The diabetes work forced me to simplify everything to the few essentials that would get the best results. Using the 80 / 20 rule I kept trying to find the few things that would lead to the best control of blood glucose. As the patients were tested daily for blood glucose and every three months for an HBA1C test we could test out the recommendations. The best results came from very short daily meditations, as the biggest glucose spikes tended to come from stress, along with eating as many high fibre foods as possible.
Whole grains, fibrous green vegetables, fresh fruits with skins helped along with avoiding sugar, especially in drinks. It taught me to be more efficient with my recommendations and work over a longer period with clients so there is more experimentation to find the fewest changes that can bring about the biggest benefit for each person.
What role does emotional well-being play in your practice, particularly with techniques like EFT and NLP, and how do you see these methods complementing physical wellness?
We might claim that our emotions are an expression of our qi. If we visit a different building with feel different emotionally because of qi there. We probably all feel differently in a large cathedral and small crowded cafe. At the same time our emotions have such a big influence on our hormones, biology, chemistry, decisions and behaviours that they are essential to explore with everything else. Stress, anxiety and depression can be the stimulus for many illnesses over the long term.
I find EFT, NLP, meditation and philosophy very helpful for helping people find strategies to help maintain healthy emotions. We are emotional beings, perhaps to help us develop societies and develop strong relationships. It appears that we have always been social animals and success is very much dependent on being part of our tribe, community and group.
There is now so much help enjoy healthy relationships, not only for family life but to succeed in all areas of life. I think it is essential to master the art of being a helpful, kind, generous, inspirational, virtuous person who is of service to others. This was a huge part of Greek philosophy and there is much to learn to become that best version of ourselves.
How do you see traditional practices like feng shui and macrobiotics evolving in today’s wellness industry, especially with the increased availability of online consultations and courses?
Ironically, covid really helped people move to online and online opened up more specialist practices to a much wider audience. My online feng shui and macrobiotic courses are very international and I work with people all over the world. I think this helps connect teachers and consultants with people who want to try subjects like feng shui and macrobiotics. As a result many of these subjects are taking on a whole new life. The online format works better with many shorter sessions where people can receive recommendations on what to do next, implement the new practices and then report back in the next session and develop further.
If the sessions are recorded the client has ongoing references. This works very well if our relationship with a client is primarily educational. I was surprised at how effective online has been. I thought I would hate talking into a screen, but now I have learnt how to make it work I enjoy it and feel I provide a better service through online than before.
