My neighbor practiced Chinese medicine and it changed how I thought about my body

I had a neighbor who practiced Chinese medicine and would check up on me regularly. Not in a formal way. They'd just notice things I wasn't paying attention to myself.

How I was walking. The color of my face. What my tongue looked like. They'd explain what those signs meant in terms of what my body was missing or needing, and recommend things accordingly. It was a completely different framework from anything I'd encountered before, the idea that your body is constantly communicating its state through visible signals if you know how to read them.

That relationship opened me up to exploring things I would have dismissed before. I ended up trying moxibustion through them. It wasn't what I expected but it wasn't unpleasant either. A different kind of body care than the chiropractic and massage therapy I'd been relying on, but with a similar intention behind it, helping the body release what it's been holding.

I haven't tried acupuncture or cupping yet. The needle hesitation is real. But conversations in this thread have made me more curious than cautious at this point.

What I took from that neighbor more than any specific treatment was the idea that your body is always signaling something. Sleep problems included. The question is whether you're paying attention to what it's trying to say.

Has anyone else come to alternative or holistic approaches through someone in their life rather than through research?