What keeps us going—day after day, breath after breath—isn’t just calories or caffeine. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, it’s a web of vital substances: Qi, Blood, Body Fluids, and Essence. These are the behind-the-scenes players that help us think, feel, move, rest, and recover. In this post, we’ll walk through what each one does, how they work together, and what it means when something’s out of sync. No jargon, no lectures—just a thoughtful look at the stuff that keeps you going.