Unity of mind and body, harmony of movement and stillness, the wisdom of movement and stillness in Chinese culture

"Life lies in movement" is a familiar saying, proposed by the French Enlightenment thinker Voltaire. There is also an old Chinese saying: "Flowing water will not rot, and door hinges will not be beetrooted." Exercise is an important means to delay aging, prevent and fight diseases, and prolong life. Regular exercise can keep physical strength from declining, and proper use of the brain can keep mental power from declining. There used to be a basic view that life lies in stillness, but later I found that this view was incorrect. In fact, life lies precisely in the space between movement and stillness. In fact, this has been discussed in Chinese studies for a long time. "Book of Changes" talks about "exhausting the principles of Xing to lead to fate" and talks about the cultivation of Xing Gong. The so-called Xing Gong is the cultivation of partial body, and the so-called Ming Gong is the cultivation of partiality. In short It is the unity of body and mind, the harmony of movement and stillness. This wisdom of movement and stillness can be seen in the Tai Chi diagram, the first icon of our Chinese culture.

A Tai Chi diagram shows yin and yang

A Tai Chi diagram can distinguish whether each person’s constitution is yin or yang. There are two articles in the "Huangdi Neijing·Lingshu", one is called "The Twenty-Five People of Yin and Yang" and the other is "Tongtian". The human body is classified according to the five-point method, divided into five types of people, twenty-five people, and twenty-five people. The five people (there are five types within each five) are wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. In fact, they are two pairs of yin and yang plus a "middle" earth. Two pairs of yin and yang, namely water and fire, are one pair. Yin and Yang, wood and metal are another pair of yin and yang (metal overcomes wood). The two pairs of yin and yang, wood and metal, fire and water, have an opposing side, but the more important side is a harmonious side, which is reconciliation, so it is called mutual generation and mutual restraint. Two pairs of yin and yang, plus a "middle" earth, the earth is in the center. The center is not in the four directions. The center does not occupy the four directions but governs the four directions. It does not occupy the four seasons but governs the four seasons. The "center" is more powerful than the "top". The Chinese value Zhong, and the "Zhong" in the Tai Chi diagram is the S-curve in the middle. Fire is the sun, wood is the shaoyang, water is the taiyin, metal is the shaoyin, and earth is in the middle. There are yin and yang in the earth, and there are yin earth and yang earth. Therefore, by comparing the Tai Chi diagram, we can quickly distinguish between the yang and yin constitutions of our human body: yang means that the body is hot, and the body is hot; yin means that the body is cold, and the body is cold.

If you have a yang constitution, your internal fire will be relatively strong. There are many manifestations of strong internal fire. One of them is that the hands and feet are warmer than ordinary people, and the basal body temperature is slightly higher than ordinary people; they like to drink water and drink a lot of water; their voices are higher and faster. , more assertive, outgoing, and often hyperactive. The biggest characteristic of a yin constitution is that it is cold. If it is cold, it is yin. A yin constitution means that there is too much yin. If there is too much yin, there will be less yang. If there is too little yang, it means there will be a deficiency of yang. One of the biggest characteristics is that they are afraid of cold, and their basal body temperature is relatively low. They are often prone to chilblains in winter. They don't like to drink water and like to drink hot water. They have a quiet personality and tend to be introverted.

There is a difference between partial yin and partial yang

I have talked about the four key moments of health preservation: Zi, Wu, Mao and You. It is also mentioned that Zi and Wu are based on meditation. Mainly, Mao and You are mainly active. However, according to the principles of Tai Chi diagram, when doing the Mao and You movements, you should also adjust according to the yin or yang side of your body constitution.

For example, is it good to exercise at 9 o'clock in the morning (5 a.m. to 7 a.m.)? If you have a yin constitution, don't exercise without the sun. You should wait for the yang energy to rise before starting to exercise. In fact, it has been recorded in the "Huangdi Neijing" that "you must wait for the sun", which makes sense from the perspective of modern science. After the sunshine in the morning, the dirty air sank, the pollutants decreased, and there was no reflux phenomenon.

Another example is Youshi (17:00~19:00). Is it good to exercise? In the winter in the northern part of our country, people with yin constitution cannot mechanically wait until it is dark before going out for exercise. Scientific measurements have proven that the air quality is best at 3 p.m., which may be more appropriate for office workers to do "exercise at the same time."

What is the best exercise? There is still a difference between yin and yang. The general principle is that if you have a yang body constitution, choose more quiet exercises, and if you have a yin body constitution, choose more active exercises. Regardless of whether you are yin or yang, you can generally choose to do aerobic metabolic exercise, that is, doing exercises, boxing, jogging, etc. For middle-aged and elderly people, the best exercise is slow walking. Walking at normal speed for 30 minutes can burn 186 kilocalories and exercise cardiopulmonary function.

Exercise must achieve an effective amount of exercise.

The “357” exercise method is recommended. "Three" means that each exercise lasts for more than 30 minutes, and the exercise time is less than 20 minutes. It only consumes a small amount of blood sugar, does not consume fat, and cannot achieve the effect of strengthening cardiopulmonary function. "Five" means exercising no less than 5 times a week. "Seven" means that the heart rate after exercise must reach 170 minus the person's age. Generally speaking, "three, five, seven" reminds the standard of movement. After normal exercise, you will sweat a little, your heartbeat and breathing will speed up, and you can recover after resting for 5 to 6 minutes.

The balance between yin and yang is rooted in tranquility

If there is exercise in keeping in good health, there is correspondingly quiet keeping in good health. Quiet keeping is mainly at the two moments of Zi and Noon. Moreover, Chinese culture particularly advocates tranquility and health preservation. One of the very important reasons is that the so-called tranquility for health is generally just the tranquility of the body and shape, but internally, the mind is still undergoing a lot of training. Even just calming down the mind is a skill in itself. It is impossible to do this in cultivation. It often happens that the body cannot sit still, but the mind is not sure where to fly. Therefore, retreat is essentially about training and cultivating the mind.

The core of health care in traditional Chinese medicine is to nourish and regulate the heart. As far as health care is concerned, the "heart" is the most important. The three schools of Chinese traditional culture, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, all start from the heart, which is called cultivating the heart. Therefore, cultivating your mind can achieve happiness, health, and longevity. And the easiest way to calm down, even the mind can be calmed down, is undoubtedly sleep. Therefore, sleep is indispensable to health care, so we must pay attention to it and pay attention to sleep hygiene. Li Yu in the Qing Dynasty once said: "The secret to maintaining health is to put sleep first." Shakespeare called sleep a "tonic" at the "banquet of life". "Sleep is the source of all energy and a panacea for patients."

So, how to ensure a good sleep?

Be prepared. Do not eat 3 hours before going to bed. You can take a hot bath or soak your feet in hot water before going to bed. Go to bed at a fixed time every day. Avoid excessive excitement before going to bed. For example, do not watch exciting TV programs and sports games. Drink water before going to bed, but it is not advisable to drink strong coffee and other drinks.

Suitable environment When sleeping, the bedroom should be dark, tranquility is very important. Sounds exceeding 35 decibels can make it difficult to fall asleep. The room temperature is 19~20℃, neither cold nor hot, which is convenient for people to fall asleep.

The mattress should be moderately soft and hard, and the pillow should be in the shape of a dumbbell. The height of the pillow should be 5 to 10 centimeters for supine sleep to help maintain the correct sleeping posture during sleep and prevent the neck from Muscle injuries.

The appropriate sleeping position is to lie on the right side with the feet bent like an arch. It is best to sleep with the head to the south and the feet to the north.