Candice Wu 0:00

This episode with special guest Monique Wheeler, a licensed acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist is about getting rid of emotional gunk, finding the root causes of disease through the human complexity, muscle testing, and essential oils and trauma, and traditional Chinese medicine.

Candice Wu 0:09

Hello and welcome. You’re listening to the Embody Podcast, a show about remembering and embodying your true nature, inner wisdom, Embodied Healing and self-love.

Candice Wu 0:16

My name is Candice Wu, and I’m a holistic healing facilitator, intuitive coach, and artist sharing my personal journey of vulnerability, offering meditations and guided healing support, and having co-creative conversations with healers and wellness practitioners from all over the world.

Candice Wu 0:27

This episode is brought to you by the Soul Body Women’s Retreat that will happen in October 2018. This retreat is a very special small group retreat for women who are inspired to deeply connect their soul and body so that they feel at ease and at home in themselves, and to transcend beyond soul into spirit and into a conscious and free way of being. This five-night retreat is full of Yoga meditations, ancestral healing through Family Constellations, Somatic healing, and each woman will get personal attention through whatever it is that they personally intend in their lives. For this and other retreats, you can visit CandiceWu.com/retreats. And now let’s jump into the podcast.

Candice Wu 1:29

So we have Monique Wheeler today, a licensed acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist and what I love about Monique is that she is completely down to earth and grounded in reality yet, also in touch with the magic and intuition, the intuitive power of herself that support someone in healing. Monique’s practice is Meridian 87 which is a Chicago acupuncture and Chinese medicine practice located in the neighborhood of Lakeview.

Candice Wu 1:49

Monique just loves being an acupuncturist. She works with a variety of patients wherever they are, and is particularly passionate about working with people who struggle with respiratory issues, chronic diseases, fertility and women’s health, as well as pain and orthopedic conditions. She doesn’t limit her practice to these issues, though, but she’s always learning more with and through her patients and she just loves her job and loves finding the fascination in the human body and condition. So let’s welcome Monique.

Candice Wu 2:41

Hello, Monique. It’s so good to have you today.

Monique Wheeler 2:44

Hi Candice. How are you?

Candice Wu 2:46

Oh, I’m so well. How are you doing?

Monique Wheeler 2:48

Pretty well. It’s evening time here so I’m kind of wound down-ish. But I don’t think it’s evening time for you.

Candice Wu 2:56

No, it’s not. So you’re in Chicago and I’m in Bali, and it’s morning here. And I’m just so happy to have you. And I understand this year is your 10 year practice anniversary.

Monique Wheeler 3:07

It is. I’m so excited!

Candice Wu 3:09

Congratulations!

Monique Wheeler 3:10

Thank you. It’s kind of a mind-blower because it went really fast.

Candice Wu 3:16

So how has your practice changed over time?

Monique Wheeler 3:19

Oh, that’s a good question. Well, when I got out of acupuncture school, I immediately, almost immediately got my license. I was super lucky that I was able to take my board exams during school and so I applied for my license right at the end of the schooling. And then once they have my graduate certificate, my diploma, they sent it to the state and I got my license in three weeks. That doesn’t happen for everybody, I was so lucky.

Monique Wheeler 3:46

And so I started in June of 2008 and I had a couple of people contact me right off the bat. And I did some home visits, and I worked at a chiropractic office. So I had this really piecemeal practice. And I knew I was interested in some things, especially things that I had experienced myself with, which were respiratory conditions and women’s health issues. So I knew I like to treat those. I had some experience in school treating those, but I didn’t know how important treating pain was going to be for my practice, which is, it is a big part of acupuncture. It just wasn’t, I liked it when I was in school, some aspects of it. But as I’ve practiced more and more, I am so much more comfortable with a wide variety of pain conditions, I should say.

Monique Wheeler 4:33

And when I first got out of school and started practicing, I had to work with a bunch of different locations to make ends meet. I couldn’t have one physical location where my patients came and I was there four, five days a week. And I’m lucky enough that I think it was about four years into my practice that I was able to just be in one spot, or permanently there and not have to have multiple jobs. Well, it wasn’t multiple jobs, I was doing the same thing, but it was essentially in different locations. So that’s one of the big changes and — we were just talking about now, I’ve started using some essential oils. I’ve learned a lot about a bunch of different supplements, too. And I’ve also learned a lot about Lyme disease and mold toxicity, which I was not taught in school and I know how to identify that often. I know when I can suspect it in someone. I know what some of the warning signs are. And so that’s really different from 10 years ago, or even five years ago, probably.

Candice Wu 5:35

And so the essential oils, that sounds fascinating, and you were mentioning to me earlier about each one touching in on an Oregon and a channel. And can you tell me more about it? And what’s been fascinating to you about it?

Monique Wheeler 5:49

Sure, for sure.

Monique Wheeler 5:50

I was introduced to this by a woman that I see for acupuncture. Her name is Shelby Baylor and we went to school together, and she’s here in Chicago. But she was connected through other friends and colleagues to a woman who practices in Madison, her name is Michelle Merrimore. And she’s been in practice like 20 years, I think. Why she had done it, I don’t really know the origin of why she started looking at essential oils. But she started using essential oils with her patients, and over 10, 15 years, determined through muscle testing, and I can explain that a little bit more too, what oils worked with what problem in the body in terms of Chinese medicine.

Monique Wheeler 6:34

So in Chinese medicine, we have 14 named channels, we have 12 that are connected to organ systems, and then one that goes down the front of the body, one that goes down the back of the body, but the 12 that are connected to the organ systems, what she did, and she did this for the front and the back midline channels as well. But what she did was she found how to test people’s bodies to see if they had, for example, the gallbladder channel starts on the face and runs to the foot. And so people can have a problem along the gallbladder channel. Like say, they could have one-sided headache. That’s a very common gallbladder channel problem. People can also have gallbladder organ problems, which would be like trouble digesting fats, or a gallbladder attack, where they have a lot of pain and digestive distress.

Monique Wheeler 7:23

Sometimes patients, when they come to me for acupuncture, they’re not in an acute crisis all the time. Sometimes they’re, you know, somewhere on the spectrum of having a problem, but maybe they’re not in the acute crisis. And the thing about these oils is she developed number one, which oils go with which organs and channels and then placing them on the body. What I do is I put the bottle of the oil on the person’s body, and when I press on an organ or channel referral area, it’s usually an organ referral area, and people will feel a change in pain just with the bottle of the oil on their body. I don’t know if that makes sense to you. It’s the trippiest thing, it’s really cool.

Candice Wu 8:05

That’s so cool. It pulls together so many things, and just for me, I do understand because I work with somebody that does that. Not with oils, but with other things like everything else. So I’m like, “yup, gotcha”. But for the audience. Yeah, if you have any way you want to explain that feel free. But that’s amazing.

Monique Wheeler 8:25

The field is muscle testing. Michelle does this with supplements too, chiropractors do this, naturopath, lots of different healing types of folks do it where you hold on to a substance and it makes a change in your body. And that change tells the practitioner if your body’s going to like it or need it, or if your body isn’t going to like it or need it right. And see, the thing about the way that the oils are working is the patient has to do nothing, they’re laying there, and I’m palpitating places on their body that correspond to different organ systems. And patients will say to me, like, this is magic, the bottle isn’t even open it’s just on my abdomen and that pain on my side is gone. So it’s kind of cool.

Monique Wheeler 9:06

And now some people are very complicated, and they have a bunch of stuff going on. So they might have not a complete change in the pain but a 50% diminishment. I mean, I’ll take it. And what I do then, is I put the oil on their body.

Monique Wheeler 9:19

Michelle knows way more about the oils. And the oils that I’m using are produced by the Young Living company, because of their manufacturing process produces really clean, high-quality oils. There are other companies out there, and I’ve tried other ones, I like these the best, but you put them on the body and they do help too, what Michelle says, is like cleanse hormone receptor sites. So the oils will do something to kind of reset the body. The points will do something to kind of address the condition, herbs, supplements, they all do different things but they can all work together to be more powerful. And I’m finding that when I get to do this with people, they have, I don’t want to say quicker results, but I think they get deeper faster. So it’s pretty cool. And sometimes I have really complicated people. Yeah, so that’s one of the things that I’m pretty fascinated with, lately. But Chinese medicine is just plain old, fascinating. So there’s no lack of stuff for me to learn.

Candice Wu 10:20

I know there’s so much, it’s such a complex system. And when you have a patient, what goes on in your mind in this sort of inner mapping of how you see what’s happening, and what is needed, and what the root causes are, if that’s where you’re thinking.

Monique Wheeler 10:37

Well, it usually takes time. Initially, when I see folks, and you probably have a parallel experience, I would imagine from a psychodynamic or therapeutic perspective, because people can come to me and give me a list of their symptoms. I will look at their tongue. I’ll feel their pulses. I might ask them to do some sort of movement if I’m trying to do orthopedic tests or palpate referral areas. But really, I might have an idea of what I think the root cause is. But for some people, the root cause is quite buried. So I really start with what do we have to work on today, to get you on the path to feeling better? Whatever that looks like. And I do use along with the oils, Michelle has some recommended point prescriptions based on the different oils and I will use some of them and some of them are really great. They’re based on a Korean 4 needle treatment.

Monique Wheeler 11:39

But sometimes I’m just sort of intuiting what I think that person needs or I’m doing a lot of palpations on different points to see how reactive they are. It’s really, I want to say it is often different for every person. But you have to start somewhere. And people are complicated, especially when it comes to the way Chinese medicine looks at people. Because we’re looking at every aspect of your health. Of course, the chief complaint is the chief complaint, and we need to address that. But I need to look at other factors, too, for the root cause.

Monique Wheeler 12:10

So I don’t know if I’m answering your question. But really, what I tried to do is say, let’s figure out what’s going to provide the most change the quickest and get that addressed and then more will be shown as your body changes. Because sometimes people don’t even tell me about things that are going on. And I’ll start them on an herbal formula and they will be like, you know, we’re working on indigestion or something, and they’ll say, Oh, my legs don’t twitch at night anymore. And I’m like, I didn’t even know your legs twitch anymore, you know. So it’s like, Okay, great, and how, and their indigestion is better too but that’s like, of course, once you’re digesting food better, other things are going to work. And that makes sense when you think about it. But you know, sometimes I am just waiting to see what that person comes back with the next time I see them. Like, what changed? How much did it change? What did you notice in between the treatments?

Monique Wheeler 13:07

Because it’s definitely a process. It’s, I mean, thinking like therapy, you know, it’s a process.

Candice Wu 13:12

It’s definitely a process in staying with what’s there in the moment, and then seeing what kind of feedback the body gives this sounds like what you’re saying, and this piece about, oh, my leg stop shaking or twitching, I experienced that myself, I didn’t even know about certain symptoms and whatever my healer or chiropractor and I were working on, it just like revealed itself or became somehow aware of it. And they’re like, why didn’t you tell me that before? And so that happens to me more so in the past when I wasn’t as aware, but I can see how that can happen.

Monique Wheeler 13:46

Well, and when we’re in our body, I think it’s hard to know what’s, when we’re in our body, which is all the time of course, but in my body, I know what I think is normal and then I come to somebody and I say, like this is happening, and unless I get some feedback from somebody else, or maybe my friends will tell me, you know, I’m thinking of women and menstruation, which, who knows if we want to talk about this, but you know, what’s normal for a woman? I’ve had women tell me, like, isn’t this normal? And I’m like, gosh, you’re in so much pain, that’s not normal.

Candice Wu 14:18

Yeah.

Monique Wheeler 14:19

Or, you know, it’s your period is so heavy, it doesn’t have to be like that. But they’ve been to their doctor, their doctor has been like, yeah, that’s fine. And I don’t want to, again, say all doctors are bad, but I think they’re pressed for time. And maybe, you know, patients aren’t always with them as much as I am. So they don’t get as much information. I mean, I’m asking like, tell me about the flow every day.

Monique Wheeler 14:41

So yeah, I think that it’s really a lot of folks live with things that they don’t actually have to because it sort of feels like, Oh, this is how my body is. And I know, yeah, doesn’t have to be that way.

Candice Wu 14:53

It’s like, we don’t even know that there’s something different until we do and then it becomes apparent.

Monique Wheeler 15:00

And that’s okay. Because life is about healing along whatever path, right, whether it’s emotional, or physical, or both, I think. So, if that person then gets relief from that, great, but undoubtedly, we all have stuff for the rest of our lives, too.

Candice Wu 15:17

Yes. Right.

Candice Wu 15:18

I’ve heard you talk a little bit about trauma with your interview with Sarah Buino and working with that, can you say more about your experience with it, or what you see, and if there are any common themes within TCM and trauma that you work with?

Monique Wheeler 15:35

Well, that is very interesting to ask.

Monique Wheeler 15:38

I guess what I can say is, I don’t specifically work with trauma where I say to somebody, we’re going to do a trauma treatment today, for example, but I do tend to have people show up in my practice who have had trauma and I don’t know maybe that’s every acupuncturist experience. I can’t really speak to the whole practice. But I think what I said on Sarah’s podcast was that I did have a person say to me a psychic say to me, you are going to have a lot of people who have been through hard stuff show up in your office, because you have as well and not to like, go into all of that. But I do think I am hopefully a compassionate person. That’s my number one goal, to say to someone: this is affecting you. And there are ways to get through it.

Monique Wheeler 16:38

Trauma is stored in the body, I think, and I think there’s a lot of research about that. And that is certainly a tenant of Chinese medicine, for sure, emotions can make people sick.

Monique Wheeler 16:50

So, you know, I guess for me, I guess I would think about like, fear and anger, and probably grief, but not so much as the immediate emotion associated with trauma. And fear is related to the kidneys in Chinese medicine, and anger is related to the liver. So again, everybody is different. But what I do see is people who have, you know, maybe trouble with alcohol and they need to quit drinking and they may have had experienced, like, physical emotional abuse in their life. I do encourage folks to get therapeutic help because I certainly don’t think this actually happens right now. But I don’t want to be the only person they’re talking to about this stuff. That’s not my training. I personally have done EMDR.

Monique Wheeler 17:39

I think you and I had a conversation about this like years ago and after talking to you I was like, I really want to do EMDR. I knew about it before then. But I hadn’t pursued it and then I had somebody else, again, my spiritual advisor psychic said, I think EMDR would be really helpful for you, for your childhood trauma and I did it and I just saw such huge results in myself.

Candice Wu 18:03

Good.

Monique Wheeler 18:04

Huge results.

Candice Wu 18:06

Well, plus combined with everything you practice with TCM. I imagine it was just such a nice, like, in tandem fit.

Monique Wheeler 18:16

Yes, I absolutely agree.

Monique Wheeler 18:19

We have a protocol that is called the NADA protocol and it is a protocol developed, was developed by, I’m not going to remember his name, maybe it was Michael Smith, Michael White, I think it was Michael Smith, was by a gentleman in New York who was working with, I think, Heroin Addicts. And he started doing these auricular points, those are points in the ear. And he developed this protocol of certain points to use, to help these men and women who are in this rehab facility, stop using drugs. And they were going through other types of treatment as well. But his work and research really developed that as a very effective adjunctive therapy to help people who are trying to quit something that they were addicted to.

Candice Wu 19:09

So great.

Monique Wheeler 19:11

It’s really cool and you can do it with somebody in a chair, they don’t have to disrobe and it works for trauma too. There are some acupuncturists who do, there’s an organization called Acupuncturist Without Borders, and they go like Doctors Without Borders. But they mostly go I think, in the United States. But after Katrina, they went and treated the first responders. And it was just all of these ear ports, all the people who were living that. And I mean, essentially, what it does is just calms your nervous system down, because being in that fight or flight mode over time is so terrible for your body. And, you know, I’m sure I think, you know, this, I don’t even know if this is true. But I think trauma is so deeply stored, right, it’s always kind of coming back for people, if they have something like PTSD, the memories, or the reactions, correct me if I’m wrong, I really don’t know how it works.

Candice Wu 20:03

If something is incomplete in their experience and what I’ve found is not just in their personal experience, but also in the family lineage. And so if things are incomplete, they’re going to want completion somewhere, and it will find its way down the line of the ancestry. So if in the nervous system, there’s a fight or flight response, like a need to protect, a need to run away or to scream that didn’t get had, then that experience will kind of get stuck and want that completion.

Candice Wu 20:37

And so the body’s just trying to do that. When we have the flashbacks and all those symptoms. It’s just trying, but it’s also in the space where it doesn’t feel safe. Because if you don’t complete that, the animal body is saying to you, “you’re still not safe, still not safe!”. So that makes so much sense to just calm the nervous system. I think about it all the time, just like calming the collective nervous system would just be so great on so many levels.

Monique Wheeler 21:06

Oh, my God. Yeah.

Monique Wheeler 21:08

I don’t know if I ever told you about this. But I did a, well, we talked about that I had been at a Family Constellation retreat, maybe you don’t remember it.

Candice Wu 21:19

I do.

Monique Wheeler 21:20

And there had been, there was a guy there and it was really great. That was — is that the only one that I’ve ever done? I’ve done the individual workshops, one on one with a gentleman here in Chicago. But I did that weekend workshop with a guy I want to say, from North Carolina, and again, I’m not going to remember his name. But he was telling us about people doing these Family Constellations for the earth and for like, the United States. And I was like, that is so awesome because we totally need that.

Candice Wu 21:52

We so need it.

Candice Wu 21:53

And I can’t help but think about your background as a city planner. And that you are saying, the Oregon channels, the meridians are the mapping for the body. And then we have this idea of doing Constellations to heal the earth and the country’s everything has energy.

Monique Wheeler 22:12

Yeah, for sure.

Candice Wu 22:15

And we see it in Constellations work, and we can bring it to life in a sort of personified way and so we get it like, oh, there’s something happening between the US and X country.

Monique Wheeler 22:27

Yup. Well, and that was one of the, when I did that Constellation workshop, it just blew my mind. Number one, I did not think I was going to be able, I’m so rational that I thought, there’s no way they’re going to put me in this field, I guess. I don’t know what you call it. But it was kind of like a field. And I’m going to be a person in this person’s story, not know, but have feelings that reflect that person in their story. And maybe I told you this, but I played someone dead in someone’s Constellation and I literally could not open my eyes. I kept saying, open your eyes, open, I didn’t say it the whole time I tried initially, but it was so, I just really loved it. Because it proved to me, you know, yes, you can actually do this, you’re not so stuck in your rational mind. So powerful. Anyway, you’ve done a lot of those.

Candice Wu 23:26

It’s so powerful. Do you see anything like that in your work? Whether that’s maybe your intuition sensing in or the experience that you can access that?

Monique Wheeler 23:37

I don’t know. I mean, I guess, you know, I’m not sure — I mean, I think I get your question now, initially, I was like, do I see Family Constellations on the table, and I don’t, but I do see, of course. I talked to people about their family histories or their medical histories and then they will tell me x, y, & z happened to me, you know, mom, she had trouble having a baby. I had trouble having a baby, or she was two weeks late with all of her deliveries. I was two weeks late for all my deliveries. I mean there are interesting things like that. Not always exactly the same. But yeah, I do try to access my intuition with patients too.

Monique Wheeler 24:19

I’m lucky to have another woman who’s a mentor to me, who’s a chiropractor and I’ve known her for a long time now, since I moved to Chicago, almost, she’s been a chiropractor for 20 years. Her name is Stephanie Mage, you know, she’s like, you’re going to get more intuitive with your patients where it’s not going to be. So this is the problem, then this is the proper prescription. She didn’t know those terms, you know, but that you’re going to decide. Okay, well, today, this person, I think this is what they are going to need and that’s what I try to do when I’m actually doing my treatment. Even though I’ll talk to a patient now, walk out of the room to wash my hands, kind of collect my thoughts about what are we doing today, and I’ll come up with the plan. I’m already making the plan when I’m in there talking to them. But I’ll come back in and I may change my mind based on what I start noticing or feeling when I’m with them. And we’re usually talking about other stuff, too, and then I’m palpating their body. So I do try to get in touch with that because I think it can be helpful. I mean, I’ve definitely had other, you know, intuitive flashes more so as I get older. I think when I was younger, I just really didn’t want to, not that I didn’t want to be intuitive but I was more cloudy and unclear myself.

Candice Wu 25:39

Yeah, that sharpens over time, or that refines.

Monique Wheeler 25:42

Well, and I’ve had to do a lot of work on myself. So the more work I do on myself, I think, the less gunk I have and so maybe I can be more useful to my patients. Because I’m hopefully a little more of a clear channel.

Candice Wu 25:59

That’s the clinical term, right? Gunk?

Monique Wheeler 26:01

No, it is not. But that’s how it feels like, gunk.

Candice Wu 26:08

Yeah.

Monique Wheeler 26:09

Emotional. I mean, I’ve had to do, I don’t want to say I’ve, I mean, I’ve had to do a lot of my own work and I’m really grateful for it. Because my life is amazing. I have a really, I really cannot complain about my life. There are things I wish were different. But I feel very fortunate. I get to do something that I love. I have really wonderful relationships with my friends and family. I like myself most of the time, and you know, that’s really awesome. All of those things.

Candice Wu 26:40

That is really awesome.

Monique Wheeler 26:41

Yeah.

Candice Wu 26:42

I’m so happy for you. And you’ve worked to get here. So that’s, it pays.

Monique Wheeler 26:47

Well, it does. But I will tell you, I’m very intolerant of discomfort and pain. So, emotional or physical. So I’m always looking, I am a seeker. I’m like, Oh, this might help me. I’m gonna try that. Well, you know, like, I’ve done.

Candice Wu 27:03

Yeah.

Monique Wheeler 27:04

Kinds of stuff, you know, because somebody says, this could help you. And the thing with the Family Constellation that I did that one time I was given more information. I have this kind of mystery side of my family that I don’t know a ton about. I was given more information and it was pretty dark. And also, then when I did another Family Constellation, trying to get more information, it was sort of like, No, they’re not really going to tell you anything else. And so, you know —

Candice Wu 27:32

Interesting.

Monique Wheeler 27:32

Yeah, so sometimes, like, Okay, stop worrying about the past. Just look at what you’re doing here. You’ve got enough information. I

Candice Wu 27:39

I had that experience in a Constellation for myself, where I kept wanting to turn around and look at certain people, and what was happening back there. And the facilitator, notice that pattern in me and she was like, face the future, just don’t turn around. And I was like, but my dad is, you know, and she’s like, no.

Monique Wheeler 27:59

Wow.

Candice Wu 28:00

It’s none of your business.

Monique Wheeler 28:02

That’s crazy.

Candice Wu 28:03

It’s none of your business. And yeah, and that was kind of upsetting but powerful.

Monique Wheeler 28:08

Yeah, but that’s a cool message, right? Face the future, because I think people do get stuck in the past. It’s easy.

Candice Wu 28:17

It is. We want something to happen or we’re just used to, we’re just used to looking that way. Because there’s a part of our unconscious world that’s working something out there.

Monique Wheeler 28:28

Yeah.

Candice Wu 28:29

And then we miss out on what’s in front of us, or what’s here now?

Monique Wheeler 28:34

Yeah, for sure.

Candice Wu 28:35

Well, I remember I saw you for the first time just years ago. And I think that that’s why I’ve wanted to stay in touch with you. I just appreciated you and your authenticity. Yes, you’re welcome. Especially your authenticity. And I know that you’re very professional, with your patients, and, you don’t share your world because this is a space for them. But here in this conversation, I’m just wondering how you’re experiencing yourself now? What challenges are you experiencing, if you want to talk about anything?

Monique Wheeler 29:13

Sure. Well, and I mentioned this on the last podcast that I did, and it’s something that I do feel pretty passionately about, but I do have chronic Lyme disease right now. I’m not suffering a lot because of it. But it’s always going to be with me, yay. And I feel like that is something that a lot of people have and don’t know they have. So that’s kind of awful. But I’ve gotten such great care. And I’ve learned a ton about what that condition is like. And it’s a very complicated situation. So everybody is different. But I’ve learned a lot.

Monique Wheeler 29:51

And then a couple of years ago, I was in an office that had a major water leak and it did not get addressed rapidly enough and they didn’t actually remedy correctly. So I got sick again, with, it’s kind of like a chronic inflammatory condition or mold toxicity, people will call this building: sick buildings or sick building syndrome.

Monique Wheeler 30:17

And so lately, what I’ve been working on is detoxing from being exposed to that mold. The strange thing is that people who have Lyme disease, when they are exposed to mold, they have very similar symptoms as to having like active Lyme disease, it is the best way for me to say it.

Monique Wheeler 30:37

Mostly, you know, I’m not an expert so I don’t want to purport myself to be one but mostly what it looks like is just a ton of rampant inflammation in your body and it’s awful. It’s not very fun. And part of it I’ve learned is because my genetics, my makeup doesn’t detoxify well, and so when I was going to my acupuncturist, they would be like, wow, you’re so stagnant, that’s the term like, if you have a lot of pain, a lot of gunk, like things aren’t moving, but I was underneath that stagnation. I was deficient, they would say like, wow, you’re stagnant, but you’re so deficient. And that’s what a person who has chronic Lyme disease looks like. That’s what a person who has mold toxicity looks like. I’m sure there are other conditions that look like that because the body can’t identify the toxins correctly to be able to get rid of them, and they’re called mycotoxins with Lyme disease. They’re called, Oh, my gosh, what they call mycotoxins? No, because mycotoxins are from mold, but they’re like all of these inflammatory chemicals that are made by the bacteria, or by the mold toxins, my body can’t recognize those things and get rid of them properly. So it’s just trying to do what it can to get rid of it. But it really doesn’t know what’s going on.

Monique Wheeler 31:59

And when I started seeing the doctor who helped me the most to identify the Lyme disease in me, I was having markers for autoimmune diseases — were starting to come up for me, because my body did not know how to get rid of and identify correctly, the problem, essentially. And so it’s really fascinating. And I will tell you part of the process, my doctor said to me, oh, have you experienced trauma? You have to deal with, you got to do some trauma therapy to heal.

Monique Wheeler 32:30

A lot of people have to do trauma therapy to heal from Lyme disease. I’m like, Okay, tell me what to do. I’ll go to — you know, that wasn’t my whole motivation. I was really grateful. I’m grateful she told me that. And I also knew I had stuff that a lot of the work I had already been doing had not taken care of this really old childhood trauma stuff. That’s what I’ve been thinking about and working on myself for the past four or five years. It’s been a long kind of road.

Monique Wheeler 33:01

So I do attract people who have Lyme disease, and don’t know it a lot of times, I think, but you know, and it’s unfortunate, because what happens and what happened for me as I was just going to like my general doctor, and she was like, well, you’re fine. Your blood sugar’s a little high, but you’re fine. I’m like, I know, I’m not fine. I don’t feel right. But nobody could figure it out or they didn’t know how to look. That’s the thing. So that’s a big thing. And the mold thing is just really no party at all, either. But I have gotten better with that and I’ve learned a lot about like, how to help detoxify, what you do, what supplements and all of that stuff. So Chinese medicine is really powerful. Acupuncture herbs are so helpful with those things, too.

Candice Wu 33:45

Is there an herb that just counteracts the mold inflammation? You know, the magic answer?

Monique Wheeler 33:51

Oh, my gosh, wouldn’t that be —

Candice Wu 33:53

Please?

Monique Wheeler 33:53

No. But the magic antidote, probably from old is activated charcoal. So, or there are drugs that do this. But what you have to do is you have to bind it up. You have to bind up the toxins and get them out of your system. And so there are drugs that do it. There’s a cholesterol drug that I took last year to do it, there anyway, there’s a variety. But you can use chlorella, you can use activated charcoal, there’s Bentonite Clay, they all have their specifics because different types of mold cause different types of toxins too. It is a complicated party. If there was one thing that would be so great. I would love that.

Candice Wu 34:32

Oh, well, I hope it continues to clear up.

Monique Wheeler 34:36

Yeah.

Candice Wu 34:38

Yeah. That’s a lot to work with.

Monique Wheeler 34:41

It is, but I do, you know, for the most part, lately, I’ve been feeling really good and I’m so grateful for that. I do have a team of professionals that helped me. Yeah, so, you know, there’s definitely hope for people in that situation too. It’s just a long process and it takes a lot of different appointments and research and being tenacious.

Candice Wu 35:06

And being so much attention to self, returning the attention sounds like — yeah.

Candice Wu 35:12

So, Monique, I want to switch gears and go to what I shared with you earlier, the lightning round. So I’ll just ask a few questions and just say whatever comes to you, and there’ll be just short and brief.

Monique Wheeler 35:26

Okay

Candice Wu 35:26

This is one I’m just so excited to ask you. If you were an Oregon channel, which one would you be?

Monique Wheeler 35:33

Oh, I think I would be the gallbladder.

Candice Wu 35:37

And why?

Monique Wheeler 35:38

Well, it goes all over the body. I mean, it just gets to be on both sides. So it’s not yin. It’s not yang. I mean, it is technically yang channel, but I don’t know it just zigzags. And I think it’s got a really interesting pathway.

Candice Wu 35:54

That’s so fascinating. Cool. Okay, if you didn’t have to sleep, what would you do with your extra time?

Monique Wheeler 36:00

Oh, my god so much. Definitely. I like to read. But I do also love to watch TV. I had been playing a lot of games on my phone. That sounds so unprofessional. I like to play the design game where you designed these different rooms. It’s really interesting.

Candice Wu 36:18

Oh, fun.

Monique Wheeler 36:19

Yeah, it is fun.

Candice Wu 36:20

Like an interior design?

Monique Wheeler 36:22

Yes, it is an interior design game. So smart. That thought this up, Design Homes, is what’s called. If I didn’t have to sleep, I would go on little trips during the night. If I go to, like, I would love to time — not time travel but space travel, like to the mountains and back or to the ocean and back. But, you know, another fun thing to do would be to go sailing. So —

Candice Wu 36:44

All of those sound great.

Monique Wheeler 36:46

Yes. That’s so awesome.

Candice Wu 36:47

What has required the most courage of you in your life so far?

Monique Wheeler 36:53

Probably being openly gay. So it wasn’t something I thought about talking on the podcasts about, but I’m happy to, you know, being open with my family. I have a very big family and my mom was one of 13 children and I’m the only openly gay person so that was pretty intense.

Candice Wu 37:14

Wow. Yeah, that sounds intense. Thanks for sharing.

Candice Wu 37:18

Okay, what was your first job ever?

Monique Wheeler 37:22

I’m not sure if it was working at this chicken restaurant in Baton Rouge called Mrs. Winners. It was like a fried chicken place. The chicken was delicious. Or, I also, in high school, worked in the lingerie department at a department store. I think I didn’t do much babysitting. So I don’t want to count that I can maybe set maybe once a year or so yeah.

Candice Wu 37:45

We always get some interesting responses to what’s your first job. Yeah, I mean, my first job was at, I guess it was babysitting, and I didn’t do it very much early on. But then my first more official job was at a driving school.

Monique Wheeler 37:59

Oh.

Candice Wu 38:00

And my best friend and I decided to try to get a job together so we could work the same hours and hang out and we managed to do it.

Monique Wheeler 38:09

That sounds so fun!

Candice Wu 38:10

It was very, it was so fun. It was a really disorganized driving school and he just — the owners had like a stack of permits that he never got to his students and we just created a job for ourselves. And it worked out.

Monique Wheeler 38:23

Wow. So you weren’t teaching driving? You were filling out the form. Okay.

Candice Wu 38:28

We were just like, typing up permits and returning phone calls that were never returned.

Monique Wheeler 38:32

Wow.

Candice Wu 38:33

If we weren’t. Yeah.

Monique Wheeler 38:36

That’s amazing.

Candice Wu 38:37

Yes. The last question is, what is the strangest dream you’ve ever had?

Monique Wheeler 38:43

The one dream that I’m thinking of, which is not really that strange. But I did dream once that my brother was shot. It was such a horrible dream. So I’m going to call that the strangest and indefinitely probably worst dream because I think I had it in my 20s and that was 20 years ago, and it still stays with me.

Candice Wu 39:02

That sounds painful. Like, I can’t even — I just feel something when you say that.

Monique Wheeler 39:06

Oh, it was very painful. And in the morning I woke up, I was very shocked. But my brother is alive and well. So I don’t think that it actually is relevant to anything except my brain doing weird stuff when I lived in New Orleans, and it was there that the dream was set to. Yeah.

Candice Wu 39:23

Oh, fascinating.

Monique Wheeler 39:24

What about you? I want to know your strangest dream.

Candice Wu 39:26

Strangest dream? Well, what just came to my mind at this moment that I laughed out loud was, this was maybe three years ago and I don’t know the context of it. But all I remember when I woke up was, there was a lady cake.

Monique Wheeler 39:42

Wow.

Candice Wu 39:43

Lady cake. And it was literally a giant, like life-sized cake in the form of a woman.

Monique Wheeler 39:52

Wow.

Candice Wu 39:53

And it was like the coolest thing. I didn’t eat it. It was just —

Monique Wheeler 39:56

Wow.

Candice Wu 39:57

Fascinated by the fact that there was a Lady Cake, and I shared it with my friend, and she was like, that is the coolest thing. I’m going to start calling you Lady Cake. Like, isn’t that a cool name? Lady Cake?

Monique Wheeler 40:08

That is a cool name.

Candice Wu 40:09

Yeah, so that’s stuck with me. I don’t know if it’s the strangest one because I have really strange dreams. And I also have very mundane ones. But I just love my dream world. So that’s just one piece.

Monique Wheeler 40:24

It’s been recommended to me more than once to keep a dream journal. And so I do dream a lot. I think it wouldn’t be a bad idea. But I have yet to do it. Maybe I’ll start now.

Candice Wu 40:34

Oh, yeah, keep me posted. It’s, I find that I am often on with my dream journal and I just do it on my phone. Because I can’t write in the dark and I don’t want to turn the lights on. And usually, if I don’t write it right when I wake up, and I usually wake up at some point in the night, then I forget. And so I’m just like, in the middle of the night, texting myself on this. Like one note, you know, note —

Monique Wheeler 41:00

That’s awesome, though. That’s a good plan.

Candice Wu 41:03

Well, fun. Thank you so much for being on the show. Is there anything else that you want to share today?

Monique Wheeler 41:09

I don’t think so. I think that was a great talk. It is so nice to talk to you. And it’s so fun to watch you travel the world and have all your adventures. I admire what you’re doing. And I’m glad, I am going to say regardless of the ups and downs, it looks like it’s going amazingly well. So —

Candice Wu 41:27

Thank you. It is and part of it was to give myself that space to have the ups and downs in our like natural and slower pace and Chicago is just so fast-paced, and so I just couldn’t stay there too much longer.

Monique Wheeler 41:42

No kidding. It’s fast. It’s true.

Candice Wu 41:44

Yeah.

Candice Wu 41:45

Yes. Thank you. It was so much fun to talk with you and I learned so much Monique. Thanks so much.

Monique Wheeler 41:51

Well thank you, Candice, for asking me, it’s been a joy.

Candice Wu 41:57

Thank you so much, Monique, for joining us on the show. I loved how you shared your personal stories, as well as all of the fascination that you have with the human body and essential oils and applied kinesiology. It’s just wonderful to have Monique today. She’s just so respectful, thorough and down to earth.

Candice Wu 42:18

If you ever go to her practice, she just does the works with the assessment which is really fun, tongue diagnosis, pulse diagnosis and just getting to know you. You can find her practice at www.meridian87.com and that’s linked in the show notes with this episode at CandiceWu.com/podcast.

Candice Wu 42:39

And if you liked this episode, if it speaks to you, or you like what I do here and would like to support my work, please go to CandiceWu.com/patreon to make a donation of any amount which will just support me and making more episodes, interviewing more people and bringing wholehearted meditations and practices to you continually on the Embody Podcast.

Candice Wu 43:01

Also, I invite you to subscribe to my weekly newsletter and become a member of the Embodied Community at CandiceWu.com/embody where you can get lots of free resources, healing meditations and information about future retreats, workshops, private sessions and other offerings that I have. Thank you so much for listening. See you next time on the Embody Podcast.