What Is Triple Warmer? How Trauma and Overwhelm Keep the Body on Alert, with Donna Eden
Updated: 11 minutes ago
Episode 43. A conversation on The Biology of Trauma® podcast with Dr. Aimie Apigian and energy medicine teacher Donna Eden. Donna returns in Episode 62, which focuses on autoimmunity.
Meridians are channels described in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and triple warmer, called San Jiao in Traditional Chinese Medicine, is one of them. Donna Eden's Energy Medicine works with triple warmer as the meridian tied to the body's fight, flight or freeze response. She explains that when a person is traumatized or burned out, triple warmer is "running rampant," drawing energy from the rest of the body to stay alert to danger and holding on to that alertness as a habit.
Dr. Aimie Apigian, a double board-certified physician in preventive medicine and addiction medicine and author of The Biology of Trauma, found Donna's work when she was at her lowest point with her physical health. She started the daily energy routine Donna leads, and it gave her mornings a routine. Coming from conventional medical training, she says, it was a shock to find herself doing energy medicine. What her body was able to tell her was invaluable, and it helped pull her out of the very low energy state and the overwhelm she was in.
In this conversation, she asks Donna what trauma does to the body's energy. Donna explains triple warmer, why it takes energy from the spleen and leaves little room for joy, how missing nurturing in childhood keeps it on alert, and a short exercise she teaches to calm it and protect the heart. She also describes her own history with multiple sclerosis, in her own words, and what working with energy has changed in her marriage and her life.
Donna Eden is an energy medicine teacher and author of Energy Medicine, written with David Feinstein, PhD. Her publisher reports she has taught some 50,000 people worldwide, and in this episode she says she had a practice for 23 years before she began teaching on the road.
In Donna Eden's energy medicine, triple warmer governs fight, flight or freeze, and after trauma or burnout it stays on alert, takes energy from the other meridians and leaves the spleen with little to feed joy. Dr. Aimie adds that trauma includes what should have happened and did not, such as nurturing, protection and guidance, and Donna agrees that triple warmer pays attention to that too. Donna teaches a short exercise that traces from the eyes to the temples, around the ears and down the neck to the heart. Her own recovery from multiple sclerosis is presented here as her account.
What is triple warmer?
Triple warmer, called San Jiao in Traditional Chinese Medicine, is one of the meridians, the channels that Traditional Chinese Medicine describes. Donna Eden's Energy Medicine works with it as the meridian tied to the fight, flight or freeze response. Donna describes it as having "the mandate to be able to suck energy from any other meridian in the body or chakra anywhere in the body except for the heart," so that it can get the body through stress.
She explains that triple warmer also governs habits. Long ago, in her words, it learned to hold on to the habit of staying out of danger: stay alert to it, stay on top of it, do not let danger come in. That is why she sees it as so hard to simply talk yourself out of.
Donna also places triple warmer on a daily wheel of the meridians. In her model it comes in with more power between 9 and 11 at night, and its opposite force is between 9 and 11 in the morning.
Meridians: channels described in Traditional Chinese Medicine through which the body's energy is understood to flow. Triple warmer, called San Jiao in Traditional Chinese Medicine, is one of them. Donna Eden's Energy Medicine works with triple warmer as the meridian tied to fight, flight or freeze, and to habit.
What happens to triple warmer after trauma?
After trauma or burnout, Donna explains, triple warmer runs rampant in the body.
Because it is built to keep us alert to danger, it holds on to that habit and builds on it, so a person may find themselves "flying off the handle over something stupid or not important or not big," because the alarm is already on and they do not feel safe.
Dr. Aimie describes it in her own terms as an engine revving to keep her safe, hypervigilant and hyperalert, unwilling to let her relax. In her life there came a point where it gave out. With no more gas in the tank, she says, it went from stressed and anxious to overwhelm and collapse.
Donna adds a second idea she calls the grid, a system she says she began to see rather than learned anywhere. Someone may have spent years in therapy and talked everything out, and still feel something is off. If a trauma is severe enough, she says, the grid can be damaged, like a gridline that snaps in a building's foundation. The building goes up around it and holds together, but the person does not have the life they might have.
Why does joy feel out of reach when triple warmer takes over?
Joy feels out of reach, in Donna's model, because triple warmer pulls energy away from the spleen, and the spleen is what feeds the heart with joy and gladness. "If you're not feeling the joy and the happiness you'd like to feel, that's because spleen doesn't have anything," she says.
Dr. Aimie connects this to collapse: when the engine has run out of fuel, "there really is no joy. There's no happiness because there's nothing there." She has seen it in her own programs. In one 21 Day Journey group, when she began talking about joy, people stared at her as if they had no idea what she meant. Overwhelm had become their default, she explains, and the system keeps returning to what it knows.
Donna describes the spleen as more than a meridian. It is also part of what she calls the radiant circuits, which are what close down when triple warmer is too strong. Radiant circuits are what let us feel awe and thrill, the way we do watching a sunset.
Under all that stress, she says, people are often surprised to find they had happiness underneath.
Radiant circuits: in Donna Eden's energy medicine, the energies that carry joy, awe and wonder, which she says close down when triple warmer is too strong.
Can missing nurturing affect the body the way trauma does?
Yes, in both of their views. Dr. Aimie explains that trauma includes events that happen to us, and also things that should have happened and did not: nurturing, protection, guidance. Most people would not call that trauma, she says, because they are looking for a big event, yet with enough time the lack of what we needed becomes a trauma to the body and is still a hit to the energy field.
Donna said no one had ever asked her that, and agreed. When a child does not get the nurturing they need, triple warmer pays attention and stays even more on alert. She sees children begin analyzing their parents very early, and describes watching that alert start to turn on in her own young grandson. Over a lifetime, she explains, relationships are affected, because a person does not expect to be nurtured, taken care of and loved just for who they are.
What is Donna Eden's exercise to calm triple warmer and protect the heart?
The exercise traces from the eyes to the heart while breathing slowly. Dr. Aimie asked about it because protection of the heart comes up so often in people with trauma patterns, and in her experience it can be part of why some people find it hard to lose weight: in survival mode, the body wants to hold on to everything.
Donna first points out that the heart already has its own protector, which she calls circulation sex, also known as pericardium, and that the spleen helps protect and feed the heart with a sense of safety. Then she leads the exercise, as she describes it:
Place your fingers sideways across your closed eyes and take one deep breath in and out.
Drag your fingers to your temples and take another deep breath. She calls these neurovascular points for triple warmer, and says holding them calms it.
Breathe in and move your fingers above your ears, then breathe out as you go down behind your ears.
Bring all your fingers down the sides of your neck to your heart. She describes this as following the vagus nerve down to the heart.
If you do it a few times, Donna says, you might find you actually feel safe. If you cannot remember the steps, she suggests putting your hands over your heart, taking a deep breath in, and coming home to yourself.
Why is there tenderness under the rib cage?
Donna links tenderness right under the rib cage to the small intestine meridian, which in her model decides whether what you take in, food or someone's negative opinion of you, will become part of you or move through. When that is a struggle, she says, it hurts there, and massaging those points helps things move so they do not accumulate.
Dr. Aimie found this tenderness herself when she started the morning energy routine. She had never noticed how much pain she had there. In her work, she says, this is also where many people feel their insecurities, sometimes describing it as the little child who was abandoned or left alone.
Donna connects that area to the third chakra, the solar plexus, which carries "what I should do, better do, have to do, need to do," and the second chakra just below, which she often sees as the freer, happy-go-lucky child that does not play anymore. An energy she calls the belt flow crosses around the waist and, she says, can cut off the connection between the two.
What does Donna Eden say about her multiple sclerosis?
Donna says she was very sick with multiple sclerosis, asthma and allergies, that five specialists told her there was nothing more they could do, and that she then began working with her own energy. Everything in this section is her account, in her words. The episode does not include medical records or follow-up, so it cannot show what caused her improvement.
In her words: "I was very sick. I had multiple sclerosis. I had asthma. I was allergic to everything under the sun." She says she was barely walking, that two of the specialists told her she was "winding down," and that in that moment she decided she would not go back to Western medicine. At home, she held one hand near her hip and one at her knee for about three minutes, felt the energy connect, did the same on the other leg, and kept working with her energy systems from there.
She describes what followed in her own words: first her allergies dropped, and "after that, I began to walk better and in time I began to really walk well and feel good and have vitality and energy." She also describes a time before she was well when she could feel her heart "drowning" in her lungs.
Dr. Aimie has her own experience with this path. At the end of their conversation, she thanked Donna for the difference her work made in her life: "You, you pulled me out of an autoimmune pathway. I was already having signs of multiple sclerosis... I had been in medicine long enough that I knew what that path looked like. And I did not want to be on that path." She describes starting to apply Donna's work, doing things she "thought were weird at first, because this is not conventional medicine and yet I could feel this shift happening to my body." This is her experience, in her words.
Some context for reading her account. MS can follow a relapsing-remitting course, in which periods of new or worsening symptoms are followed by periods of partial or full recovery (Lublin 2014). Research also finds a consistent but modest association between stressful life events and MS relapses, though it cannot tie a specific stressor to a specific relapse (Mohr 2004). Nothing in this episode suggests stopping or replacing medical care for MS.
What changes when the body's energies come into balance?
For Donna, the biggest change was in her marriage. She and her husband, David, are "so different in every which way, shape or form," and she says there is no way they would have survived without working with energy. She describes the first time she won an argument with him: she was falling apart crying and about to leave, did one of the daily energy routine exercises, and suddenly could say clearly what she needed to say. Today, she says, being with David is as easy as being with her best girlfriend.
Her other lesson is about personality. Depending on a person's element and sensory system, she explains, they react to life differently, and recognizing that a spouse reacts differently does not mean he is rotten. Working on the energies brings enough balance that people "can reach across the bridges and find one another."
Dr. Aimie ties it back to biology. Energy and biology are the same thing to her: either working against us, so we are fighting what the body wants to do, or brought into alignment so they work for us. When we are not fighting our biology, she says, we have so much more space and energy for what we want in life.
Key Takeaways
In Donna Eden's energy medicine, triple warmer governs fight, flight or freeze and also governs habit.
After trauma or burnout, she says triple warmer runs rampant and holds on to the habit of staying alert to danger.
In her model it can draw energy from every meridian except the heart, leaving the spleen with little to feed joy.
Dr. Aimie describes the progression from a revving engine to an empty tank: from stressed and anxious to overwhelm and collapse.
Trauma includes what should have happened and did not, such as nurturing, protection and guidance.
Donna sees missing nurturing keep triple warmer on alert from early childhood, and later shape relationships.
Her calming exercise traces from the closed eyes to the temples, around the ears and down the neck to the heart.
Tenderness under the rib cage is, in her model, the small intestine meridian deciding what to take in and what to let move through.
Donna's recovery from multiple sclerosis is her own account. The episode does not test energy medicine as a treatment for MS.
Dr. Aimie's view: we can work against our biology or bring it into alignment so it works for us.
Notable Quotes
"There is one meridian called triple warmer and it governs the fight, flight or freeze response." - Donna Eden
"When you're traumatized or burned out, that meridian is running rampant in your body." - Donna Eden
"There can be events that happen to us. But then there can be things that should have happened that didn't happen. Things like nurturing, things like protection, things like guidance." - Dr. Aimie Apigian
"If you don't get the nurturing you need... triple warmer pays attention to that." - Donna Eden
"I can't think of anything that kills curiosity more than a survival state." - Dr. Aimie Apigian
"For me, I'm not looking for a story. I'm just looking at your nervous system and seeing what patterns do I see?" - Dr. Aimie Apigian
"That is small intestine meridian, and it is the meridian that decides whether whatever you're taking in, whether it be food or somebody's negative opinion of you, or whatever it is, is it going to become you and sit in your body or move through." - Donna Eden
"I could never have thought my way out of what my life was about. I, I had to work with my energies." - Donna Eden
"I was very sick. I had multiple sclerosis. I had asthma. I was allergic to everything under the sun." - Donna Eden
"You, you pulled me out of an autoimmune pathway. I was already having signs of multiple sclerosis... I had been in medicine long enough that I knew what that path looked like." - Dr. Aimie Apigian
"My answer is always, as long as someone is breathing, we can make things better." - Dr. Aimie Apigian
Episode Takeaway
I found Donna's work when I was at my lowest point with my physical health. I was a very conventionally trained physician, and I cannot tell you what a shock it was to find myself doing energy medicine every morning. Yet what my body was able to tell me through that routine was invaluable. It helped pull me out of a very low energy state and the overwhelm I was in. I was already having signs of multiple sclerosis, and I had been in medicine long enough to know what that path looked like. I did not want to be on it. As I applied Donna's work, doing things I thought were weird at first, I could feel a shift happening in my body.
One of the first things my body told me was that it hurt right under my rib cage. I had never noticed I had so much pain there. Later I saw the same thing in the people I worked with: that area is often where they feel their insecurity, sometimes as the little child who was left alone. The body had been holding it the whole time. It took a practice that brought my attention there for me to notice.
What Donna describes as triple warmer maps closely onto what I see in the nervous system. It is the engine that revs to keep us safe, hypervigilant and unable to relax. For a while it works. Then the tank runs dry, and stress and anxiety turn into overwhelm and collapse. That is when joy disappears. In one of my 21 Day Journey groups, when I started talking about joy, people looked at me as if they had no idea what I meant.
Overwhelm had become their default, and the body returns to what it knows.
That is also why I do not go looking for the story. Many people are waiting for a big event to explain how they feel, when what their body is holding may be the nurturing, protection or guidance that never came. Given enough time, the absence of what we needed becomes a trauma to the body too. So I look at the nervous system and ask which patterns I see: patterns of fear and insecurity driving someone's health and life, or patterns of safety, growth and curiosity.
Curiosity matters here. I cannot think of anything that kills curiosity more than a survival state. You cannot be focused on survival and stay curious at the same time. When the body starts to feel safe, curiosity comes back, and with it the ability to learn what your body is telling you.
Donna's own story is hers to tell, and I am grateful she told it. What I take from this conversation is the principle I see in my work every day: our biology, and our energy, can work against us or for us. When we are fighting our biology, everything costs more.
When we bring it into alignment, there is so much more energy left for the life we want.
This is the Biology of Trauma®: what happened, and what did not happen, is held in the body as patterns, and those patterns can change when the body learns it is safe. If you are wondering whether what you are carrying is stored trauma, start with the Steps to Identify and Heal Trauma guide. When you are ready to build that safety with guidance, the Foundational Journey is where I take people through the essential sequence, with somatic exercises and parts work, before deeper work begins.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does trauma affect triple warmer?
In Donna Eden's energy medicine, yes. She explains that when a person is traumatized or burned out, triple warmer runs rampant, takes energy from the other meridians and holds on to the habit of staying alert to danger.
Can a lack of nurturing count as trauma?
Dr. Aimie explains that trauma includes what should have happened and did not, such as nurturing, protection and guidance, and that with enough time the lack becomes a trauma to the body. Donna agrees that triple warmer stays more on alert when nurturing is missing.
Why does it hurt under my ribs during energy work?
Donna links that area to the small intestine meridian, which in her model decides whether what you take in becomes part of you or moves through. She suggests massaging the tender points. Dr. Aimie found this tenderness herself when she began the morning energy routine.
What is the daily energy routine?
It is a short routine Donna Eden leads that she says balances the body's energies. She suggests finding it on YouTube by searching for the daily energy routine. Dr. Aimie did it every morning when her health was at its lowest.
Does this episode say energy medicine cures multiple sclerosis?
No. Donna describes her own recovery from multiple sclerosis in her own words, and that account is presented as hers. The episode does not test energy medicine as a treatment for MS, and nothing in it suggests stopping or replacing medical care.
Why do I feel no joy after a long time in survival mode?
Donna explains that triple warmer pulls energy from the spleen, which feeds the heart with joy, and closes down the radiant circuits that carry awe and wonder. Dr. Aimie describes the same state as an empty tank after a long time in overwhelm.
Is it too late to work with my body when I am older?
Dr. Aimie's answer is that as long as someone is breathing, things can be made better. Donna says she worked with older adults and saw them become more engaged over the months she spent with them.
In This Episode
3:54 What does Donna Eden say about her multiple sclerosis?
7:32 What does trauma do to the body’s energy?
8:22 What is triple warmer?
9:54 Why does joy disappear when triple warmer takes over?
10:43 What is the grid?
12:22 What happens when the engine runs out of gas?
16:53 Can missing nurturing be a trauma to the body?
21:13 Why is protecting the heart so important after trauma?
22:06 How do you calm triple warmer and protect the heart?
25:00 Why is there tenderness under the rib cage?
26:51 What do the second and third chakras hold?
29:09 What changes in a marriage when energies come into balance?
36:09 What does Donna want people with trauma to know?
Resources and Guides
Steps to Identify and Heal Trauma (free): a guide to understanding whether you are carrying stored trauma and the steps to begin healing it.
The Foundational Journey: a 5-week guided journey through the essential sequence, with the somatic and parts practices that lay the foundation for deeper trauma work.
The Biology of Trauma by Dr. Aimie Apigian, with a foreword by Dr. Gabor Maté.
Energy Medicine by Donna Eden with David Feinstein, PhD (Tarcher).
Related Podcast Episodes
Donna's second conversation with Dr. Aimie, for listeners living with an autoimmune condition.
For when the body's alarm has been on so long that the immune system has started to follow it.
For when the nurturing that was missing in childhood shows up later as illness.
About the Guest
Donna Eden is an energy medicine teacher and author of Energy Medicine, written with David Feinstein, PhD, and coauthor of The Little Book of Energy Medicine with Dondi Dahlin. Her publisher reports she has taught some 50,000 people worldwide, laypeople and professionals, to understand the body as an energy system. In this episode she describes her own history with multiple sclerosis as the beginning of her work.
Your Host
Dr. Aimie Apigian, MD, MS, MPH is a double board-certified physician in preventive medicine and addiction medicine with master's degrees in biochemistry and public health. She is the author of The Biology of Trauma, the founder of Trauma Healing Accelerated, and the creator of the Biology of Trauma® framework. She guides self-help individuals and trains practitioners in safely opening up stored trauma that has become biology. Her work came out of her own experience of being a physician with stored trauma she did not recognize as trauma.
Research
Lublin FD, Reingold SC, Cohen JA, et al. Defining the clinical course of multiple sclerosis: the 2013 revisions. Neurology. 2014;83(3):278-286. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000000560
Mohr DC, Hart SL, Julian L, Cox D, Pelletier D. Association between stressful life events and exacerbation in multiple sclerosis: a meta-analysis. BMJ. 2004;328(7442):731.
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Thanks, great episode