Menu
A drop of prevention is worth a bucket load of cure.
— Chinese Proverb
The first week of the year started for me with a flu infection. When you are sick, you become very aware of how important good health is.
If we are healthy, we can also take better care of our pets. Taking good care of yourself is important. And that’s why I want to talk about Yang Sheng this week.
Yang Sheng is a concept within Chinese Medicine that literally nourishes life means. It assumes that prevention is better than cure. By tackling minor ailments immediately, you prevent more serious conditions. In Chinese medicine, everything works together: body, emotions and mind. If you have enough life energy or Qi and it flows well through your body you are healthy. A deficiency of Qi or the non-flow of the Qi leads to disturbances that can lead to disease. By supporting and maintaining your Qi on a daily basis, you prevent problems.
Being out of balance often starts with small things: you can sleep less well, you do not wake up rested after a night’s sleep, you have less energy during the day than usual, you have less desire to do fun things, your body is stiff or hurts. The more phenomena you have, the more out of balance you are.
Yang Sheng can help you get back into balance. They are simple things that you can do yourself. Of course I cannot discuss the whole principle of the Yang Sheng in a blog post, but I do want to give a few examples.
One of Yang Sheng’s concepts is proper breathing. We take Qi out of the air with our breathing. Breathing also affects how we feel. Just think about what happens to your breathing when you’re angry or stressed. Then you will breathe faster and more shallowly. By consciously breathing calmer and deeper, you can calm yourself down again.
From the TCM’s point of view, a calm, even, deep abdominal breathing is desired. From a Western point of view, deep calm breathing stimulates the Vagus nerve that activates the parasympathetic nervous system or the part of the nervous system that provides rest.
Many people breathe mainly with and from their chest. Stand, lie or sit quietly and put your hands on your stomach. Exhale all the air you have inside you. If all goes well, you will feel your abdominal muscles tense up and if you let them go, your body will automatically fill up with fresh air. You then feel your belly rise. Continue to breathe concentrated a few times with your hands on your stomach and feel your belly rise and collapse again with each breath.
A good diet and healthy intestines are important to stay healthy, we all know that. In addition to what you eat, Chinese Medicine also looks at how you eat. Eating at the table in a quiet environment without looking at a screen promotes digestion. Take time for your food and be grateful for the food that you are allowed to eat and that nourishes your body.
We all know that we feel less well when we don’t sleep well. Poor or too little sleep is associated with all kinds of disorders. For a good night’s sleep, a good balance of Yin and Yang is important. During the day it is the Yang energy that keeps you awake and gives you energy. At night, the Yin energy dominates that ensures that your body relaxes and nourishes and recovers. A number of tips from the TCM for a better night’s sleep:
• A fixed bedtime improves the quality of sleep
• Don’t eat too short before bedtime. If your body is still busy processing food, which is a Yang activity, you sleep less well.
• Do not look at screens from about an hour before bedtime. The eyes are connected to the liver and if your eyes are still busy, so is your liver. A busy liver keeps you awake.
• Try to sleep at half past eleven. Between eleven and three is the recovery time of the gallbladder and liver and that is important to wake up well rested in the morning.
With tapping or tapping on your meridians you help optimize the flow of Qi. In addition, you stimulate blood circulation and get energy from it. Do this regularly to give your body a boost. You can beat your body with a loose fist. Pat down the inside of your arms and back up the outside. Then beat down the outside of your legs and back up along the inside. Pats in a circle across your stomach, your lower back and your head.
Other aspects that the Yang Sheng looks at are, for example, movement, processing emotions and the mind.
