Read classics to learn about health preservation - The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine: Key points for health care in four seasons: Spring

The third month of spring is called the beginning of the new season. Heaven and earth are both alive, and all things flourish. Sleep late and get up early, walk around the yard, let your hair down and relax your body, so that your spirit can flourish. Give and do not kill, give and do not take, reward and do not punish. This is the response to the spring air and the way to keep healthy.

——Suwen·The Great Treatise on the Four Qi and the Regulating Spirit

The three months of spring are the season when everything revives and is in a state of rebirth. Nature is full of vitality and the vegetation is flourishing. In such a natural environment, we should follow the characteristics of the spring when the yang energy is growing and everything is beginning to grow, pay attention to protecting the yang energy in the body, and focus on the word "birth". People's health care should also follow the characteristics of spring "birth". Health care methods are mostly based on more physical activities, openness, and less restraint. The characteristics of regulating the mind are mostly growth, activity, and extroversion.

◎ Daily life and health care

"Sleep late and get up early"

People often say "early to bed and early to rise makes a healthy body", and from the health-preserving method in traditional Chinese medicine classics - "sleep late and rise early". It can be seen that in spring, our work and rest schedule is best to go to bed late and get up early appropriately, which is a living method that conforms to the characteristics of spring. The "sleep late and rise early" in "Huangdi Neijing" refers to the work and rest time of the ancients who worked at sunrise and rested at sunset. The late sleep that the ancients referred to as "sleeping at night" is a period of time after the sun sets, not long after dark. It is essentially different from the modern "late sleep" of staying up late at night, or even one or two o'clock in the morning.

◎Sports and health

"Walk broadly in the courtyard, with hair loose and body relaxed, to let your spirit flourish"

The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine proposes specific methods for spring sports and health preservation: after getting up early, people can walk in the courtyard, let their hair down, wear loose clothes, open their hearts, do not restrain or suppress themselves, relax their bodies, and relax their moods so that their minds can be relaxed with the vitality of life. You may as well go outdoors to feel the beautiful scenery of nature in spring, enjoy the blooming flowers, listen to the singing of birds, and enjoy your mood and nature to respond to the spring Yang Qi. Recommended exercises: walking, health-preserving exercises such as Tai Chi or Ba Duan Jin. This type of exercise is relatively mild, can move the muscles and bones, circulate the Qi and blood, generate Yang Qi, and can also help consume excess fat and calories in the body.

Professor Deng Tietao, a master of Chinese medicine and a centenarian, highly praised Ba Duan Jin and has been actively advocating the popularization and promotion of Ba Duan Jin. He pointed out that Ba Duan Jin has gentle and stretching movements, and it is simple, safe and effective. In his later years, Mr. Deng improved the traditional Ba Duan Jin into the simple and easy-to-learn "Deng Tietao Ba Duan Jin", and insisted on practicing it every day. It is especially suitable for the elderly and the weak. The video of "Deng Tietao Ba Duan Jin" demonstrated by Mr. Deng himself has been widely circulated.

◎Emotional health

"Let life be, do not kill; give, do not take away; reward, do not punish"

Spring is a season of sunshine, with everything growing and full of vitality. To nourish the spirit in spring, we must grasp the characteristics of the spring spirit, so that our inner world is consistent with the thriving vitality of all things in the outside world, so that our emotions can be "lived". March is the season of growth, when the heaven and earth are full of vitality and all things are flourishing. We must keep our emotions inward and not get angry. We must have the mental state of "giving life without killing, giving without taking away, rewarding without punishing", and our thoughts and bodies must be comfortable, natural, relaxed, lively, and full of vitality.

◎Diet and health

The principle of spring diet is to raise yang and protect the liver . Meat dishes include lean meat, eggs, beef, etc. Vegetables and fruits include leeks, shepherd's purse, horsetail, lettuce, spring bamboo shoots, yam, banana, water chestnut, apple, jujube, etc. Others such as mushrooms are also acceptable .

In short, in spring, we should follow the growth of Yang Qi, regulate our spirit and emotions, eat a healthy diet, and do proper physical exercise . We should pay attention to the protection of Yang Qi in the human body. Only when Yang Qi is sufficient can we resist the invasion of external evils, maintain human health, and prolong life.

Written by: Yan Xuemei

Reviewer: Li Yinlong