Six words to ensure longevity

In recent years, the popularity of TCM health preservation has continued to rise. People are enthusiastically learning how to eat, exercise and prevent diseases through television and books. However, few people can clearly explain what the key to health preservation is. In fact, TCM health care is not as simple as a few prescriptions, a few Chinese medicines and acupoints. Its profound connotation can be summed up in six words: follow, be quiet, cultivate, adjust, supplement and consolidate. If you truly understand and do these points, longevity will not be far away from you.

"Shun"

Health care follows the seasons. The ancients believed that changes in the human body are consistent with the cycle of the four seasons, so diet, clothing, food, housing and transportation must be appropriate to the season. The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine says: "Follow the time of heaven and the advantage of the terrain." The "time" here refers to the yin and yang of the four seasons, specifically nourishing yang in spring and summer and nourishing yin in autumn and winter. Health preservation in the four seasons should conform to the characteristics of birth, growth, harvest and storage. In spring, all things grow, so we need to nourish the liver and nourish the yang; summer is the growing season, so we should nourish the heart, go to bed late and get up early, be less angry, and sweat when we need to; midsummer is hot and humid, so we should pay attention to nourishing the spleen and eliminating dampness; autumn is the harvest season, so we should nourish the lungs and nourish the yin, go to bed early and get up early, and keep our emotions calm, otherwise we will hurt our lungs; in winter, we should pay attention to nourishing the storage, kidneys, and yin, get more sun, and go to bed early and get up late.

"quiet"

Calm your mind. Modern people like to live a lively life and fill their days with activities for fear of loneliness. In fact, this kind of impetuous life is extremely harmful to health. The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine said: "When one is calm and empty, the true Qi will follow. When one's spirit is kept within, illness will never come." When one is quiet, a lot of unnecessary consumption can be reduced, especially the consumption of "Qi", thus achieving "energy conservation" for the body, which can prevent disease and prolong life. You may want to slow down the pace of life, take the approach of sitting quietly, closing your eyes and relaxing your mind to nourish your body and mind.

"build"

Cultivate yourself and do good deeds to reduce worries. The "Book of Changes" said: "A family that accumulates good will surely have surplus happiness; a family that accumulates evil will surely have surplus disaster." In fact, people who usually accumulate virtue, do good deeds, and are open-minded and generous can often live in harmony with the world, reduce a lot of worries, and be in a good mood. It can be seen that if you cultivate your character, treat others with kindness, be indifferent to fame and wealth, and be kind to others, you will gain health, happiness and longevity.

"Adjustment"

Take more deep breaths. People will inevitably encounter many adverse factors such as nutritional imbalance, excessive fatigue, and disease attacks. This is when the word "adjustment" comes into play. The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine says that one should adjust one's mental will and seven emotions and six desires according to the changes of the four seasons. It also emphasizes the regulation of breathing, namely "breathing regulation", and practices breathing in and out. It is recommended that you take deep, slow and even breaths more often. You can practice "Dantian Breathing". After inhaling through your nose, use your mind to send the air to the lower Dantian Qi Hai position, which is 1.5 inches below your navel. Then exhale slowly. While practicing "Dantian Inhalation", swallowing saliva and regulating body fluid will achieve better health care effects.

"repair"

It is healthiest to have both tonifying and purging methods. The ancients advocated the use of tonic medicines to regulate yin and yang, internal organs, qi and blood. There are three principles: first, syndrome differentiation, second, food supplementation first, and third, a combination of tonic and purgative.

Traditional Chinese medicine says that medicine and food have the same origin, and all food has the function of regulating the body. In terms of taste, sourness nourishes the liver, bitterness nourishes the heart, sweetness nourishes the spleen, spiciness nourishes the lungs, and saltiness nourishes the kidneys. In terms of color, red nourishes the heart, black nourishes the kidneys, yellow nourishes the spleen, green nourishes the liver, and white nourishes the lungs.

Nourishing food should vary from person to person, and appropriate dietary supplements should be made according to one's physical constitution. People with qi deficiency should eat staple foods, and can also drink chicken soup and eat chicken, duck and fish. You can use dates, pork liver and various red meats to replenish blood. To replenish yin energy, eat more raw foods from aquatic areas, such as duck meat, sea cucumber, turtle, etc. To nourish yang, you should eat beef, mutton, chicken, donkey meat, leeks, etc. In spring, you should nourish your liver by eating more bean sprouts, bean sprouts, strawberries, pineapples, etc. But eat less toon and coriander to prevent allergies. Eating something bitter in summer can help relieve heart heat. Eat more melons and beans that ripen in summer. In autumn, you should eat more seasonal fruits and nuts such as chestnuts, pine nuts, as well as lilies, lotus roots, almonds and ginkgo nuts which are good for moistening the lungs. In winter, you need to preserve your body and eat more root vegetables, such as yam, potato, sweet potato, radish, and cabbage.

Health preservation cannot be achieved by simply nourishing the body, but by combining nourishment and purgation. In summer, you can eliminate dampness by eating more winter melon, loofah, watermelon, and coix seed. If you have heavy internal heat, you can eat bitter melon and bitter herbs, and eat mung beans to eliminate heat toxins. In autumn, the air is dry and many people suffer from constipation and dry mouth. They should eat more moisturizing foods such as pears and radishes. It’s very cold in winter, so you can eat more ginger and cinnamon to drive away the cold.

"solid"

Strengthens essence, qi and spirit. A very important point in health preservation is "solidification", which includes solidifying the essence, solidifying the qi and solidifying the spirit.

To retain semen, you need to protect kidney qi, and most importantly, exercise moderation. In addition, you can also eat foods that nourish kidney essence, including various meats, beef is the best, and you can also eat yam, polygonatum, and wolfberry.

To strengthen the Qi, first, you need to reduce the consumption of Qi and talk less; second, you need to get more sun exposure to replenish the Yang Qi; third, you need to do more aerobic exercise to increase the amount of oxygen; fourth, you need to get the Qi from food and water through your diet. In addition, sleep can nourish the qi of the five internal organs, so you must not stay up late. To strengthen the spirit, we must regulate the seven emotions, not being too happy, too angry, too thoughtful, too sad, or too afraid. If the emotions are well controlled, the body will suffer less harm.