China's traditional health preserving theory has a long history. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Huangdi Neijing, a classic work of traditional Chinese medicine, comprehensively summarized the experience of health preservation in the pre-Qin period, and clearly pointed out that "the sage failed to cure his illness and his disorder ... the husband's illness became medicine, and the disorder became treatment. It's not too late to fight for a cone after crossing the well! " The concept of health preservation laid a foundation for the development of traditional preventive medicine and health preservation in China. For thousands of years, traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and health care experts have accumulated and summarized the health care experience spread among the people, and written a large number of health care monographs, which promoted the development of traditional health care in China. There are many schools of traditional health care in China, each with its own strengths. Generally speaking, it is mainly divided into six schools: spirit, dynamic form, solid essence, regulating qi, food tonic and drug bait. Each school's health-preserving theory is self-contained, with its own strengths and eclecticism, forming a unique health-preserving method in China.
Mental health regimen
Mental health preservation method refers to purifying people's spiritual world, automatically eliminating greed, changing bad personality, correcting wrong cognitive process, adjusting emotions, making their mentality peaceful, optimistic, cheerful and open-minded, so as to achieve the goal of health and longevity. Mental health preservation method is equivalent to the mental health care method of modern medicine. Traditional health preserving theory emphasizes the theory of "unity of form and spirit". The so-called "form" is the form, which refers to the human body, while "spirit" has broad and narrow meanings. God in a broad sense refers to the external manifestations of the whole human life activities, including all the exposed signs of physiology or pathology. God in a narrow sense refers to people's spiritual consciousness and thinking activities.
The unity of form and spirit means the unity of form and spirit. Form is the material basis of God, and God is the life expression of form. Only the unity of form and spirit can achieve the goal of health and longevity. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that God is the master of life activities and can direct the functional activities of human organs and tissues, and puts forward the theory of "the relationship between form and spirit", which holds that human physiological functions are closely related to mental activities, and mental factors can directly affect the functional activities of viscera, yin, yang, qi and blood. If a person is cheerful, cheerful, optimistic about life, peaceful yin and yang, smooth blood and harmonious internal organs, his body will naturally be in a healthy state. On the other hand, bad mental state can directly affect the function of human viscera, resulting in dysfunction of viscera, obstruction of qi and blood circulation, decline of disease resistance, weakness of vital qi and easily lead to various diseases.
Modern medical research has also confirmed that psychological factors have a great influence on physical health. People with open mind and optimistic personality have the best neuroendocrine regulation system and normal immune function. People with unhealthy psychology have disordered neuroendocrine function and decreased immune function, and the incidence of diseases is obviously higher. For example, the incidence of hypertension and coronary heart disease in people with impatient behavior A is 2 ~ 3 times higher than that in people with calm behavior B, and the mortality rate is 7 times higher; Emotional depression can also cause a significant decline in human immune function, prone to infectious diseases and tumors. Therefore, mental health preservation is of great significance in the prevention and treatment of psychosomatic diseases.
Mental health care includes mental health care and emotional health care;
1. Consciously maintain health
"Consciousness" in traditional medicine mainly refers to human spirit, consciousness and thinking activities. Mental health preservation method refers to the method of eliminating greed, maintaining peace of mind and making it healthy and longevity through self-regulation in the inner world. Include the following points:
(1) Selfishness without desire refers to self-restraint, eliminating one's selfishness and greed.
Laozi and Zhuangzi were famous thinkers in China during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and they were the founders of mental health preservation. They put forward the idea of "simplicity, selfishness, no desire and no demand", that is, people should be simple, not selfish, and have no desire and no demand. It's hard to be selfless and without desires in life, but selfish desires should not be too high. What is "greed" refers to those things that can be desired but not sought, and greed is often the root of pain. Explaining the reasons for three kinds of pain, a writer said, "I wanted it but I couldn't get it-pain, but I got it through hard work, only to find that it was nothing more than that-pain, and what I got was thrown away inadvertently, only to know later that it was very important-pain." Only through self-discipline, can we control our desires, eliminate those insatiable "greed" and reduce our mental stress and pain. The most important thing in life is to maintain physical and mental health, learn to self-regulate, self-discipline, and self-clear the selfish desires in your inner world. Only those who have less selfish desires and no "greed" can be indifferent to fame and fortune, open-minded and cheerful, and help to maintain peace of mind and maintain a good mental state. Usually quiet and empty, there is no struggle with the world. Natural spirit will be internal, yin and yang will be peaceful, qi and blood will be full, and evil will not be tolerated.
(2) Contentment means being completely satisfied with your living and working environment.
Laozi said that "happiness is greater than worry, wealth is greater than contentment". "Worry-free" and "contentment" are the self-experience and feelings in my inner world and the result of self-adjustment in my emotional world. In the journey of life, everyone has his own position, so he should be completely satisfied with his position. "Contented people are happy" is to make this sense of satisfaction reach the highest value through the adjustment of the inner world of the self. Fish need not envy birds flying in the air, and birds need not envy fish swimming in the water. They should cherish their position and what they have.
If you think about it carefully, you will find that some things you have, others can't get, and some things others have, you can't get. If you always think about what others can't get, you will feel satisfied, happy and happy, and naturally it will be quiet; If you always think about what others have but you can't get, you will feel disappointed, depressed and unhappy, and your heart will feel uneasy. If you are completely satisfied with your living environment (such as family life, living environment and working environment), you will naturally feel happy. If a person can be carefree and satisfied, he will have a good mood and feel that the road of life is full of sunshine and joy. Such people will naturally live a long and healthy life.
"Satisfy the status quo and be proactive" is also one of the creeds that mental health care methods should follow, that is, while satisfying their current living and working conditions, they should also be proactive in order to achieve greater results.
(3) Open-minded, which means cheerful, open-minded and open-minded.
A survey of people over 90 years old in China shows that the main reason for longevity is not material, but spirit. The reason why the elderly who live long lives is that they are open-minded, cheerful, contented, well-fed, uncontroversial with the world, and related to the happy mental state of the world.
One of the ways to make the mind open-minded is to "go out of the small world and blend in with nature". In other words, don't always shut yourself in the roaring world at home, but go out and enjoy the gifts that nature has given us-green mountains and green waters, scenic spots and feelings of nature. Butterflies flying on flowers, insects in the grass, birds singing on branches, fish swimming in the water, and small animals in Shan Ye can all make people feel the joy of life, refined elegance, and help them to be open-minded and cheerful. Imagine a person "looking up at the sea of clouds in Huangshan Mountain and overlooking the blue sea and waves", with pine and cypress as companions and wild cranes in the clouds as friends. Is it possible to worry about the gains and losses of three melons and two dates in daily life?
We should be more open-minded when dealing with family problems and trivial matters in life. Husband and wife should pay attention to feelings, downplay truth, emphasize advantages, ignore shortcomings, forget the past, pay attention to the present, and be "not easy to get confused" when dealing with some trivial matters in life. We should adhere to the principle of only providing advice and help to children. We must believe in their abilities and that they can handle their own affairs well.
Friends should look at people from a distance and at themselves from a close distance, so as to be strict with themselves and be lenient with others, and to ensure long-term friendship between friends. In short, open-mindedness is the cornerstone of harmonious family atmosphere and close friendship, which is very beneficial to both people and themselves.
(4) "Doing more good deeds" means doing more good deeds to help others, from which we can experience happiness and satisfaction.
The so-called doing more good deeds, the so-called "accumulating virtue and doing good deeds" in the ancients and the "helping others" now all mean that people contribute their love to help those in need according to their own abilities. Good deeds can be big or small. The big ones can donate millions of yuan for disaster relief or education, and the small ones can show the way to the lost people. No matter how big or small, love is the same. People who do good deeds will feel the happiness of their own value from helping others do good deeds, which is beneficial to their physical and mental health.
2. Emotional therapy
"Emotion" in traditional medicine refers to people's emotional response to external objective things, which is summarized as seven emotions in traditional Chinese medicine, namely, emotion, anxiety, sadness and fear. Emotional regimen is mainly a method to change one's wrong way of thinking through self-adjustment to external objective environment or things, and to adjust one's emotions to the best state, so as to make them healthy and live longer. Please note the following points:
1. Beware of arrogance and recklessness means avoiding your pride and impatience and keeping your mind at peace.
Proud people often overestimate their abilities, feel good about themselves, don't listen to other people's opinions, and do things that they can't do. Impatient people tend to be eager for success regardless of objective reality and are prone to impetuousness. Because there is a big gap between the ideal world and the real life of arrogant people, conflicts between ideal and reality often occur in daily life, thus causing inner pain. Modern medicine also believes that people with type A behavior have the characteristics of being ambitious, stubborn, argumentative, impatient, neurotic, talking loudly, impatient, impulsive, hostile and aggressive, so the prevalence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases is significantly higher than that of people with type B behavior with calm personality. If we can fully understand ourselves, know our strengths and weaknesses, be a realist who can correctly understand and evaluate our abilities, overcome arrogance, adapt to the natural environment and keep a calm mind, it will be beneficial to health and longevity.
2. Being good at adjusting emotions means being good at resolving bad emotions and making your emotions reach the best level.
The corresponding emotional response of people to external objective things is one of the signs of emotional health. In other words, you should be happy when you meet something that makes you happy, and sad when you meet something that makes you depressed. This is a normal emotional reaction, and it is also one of the signs that represent this person's emotional health. But in daily life, people should pay attention to self-cultivation and relax their emotions in order to maintain emotional stability. People's way of thinking has an important influence on their emotional response. By changing their bad way of thinking, correcting their wrong cognitive process, understanding objective things with correct way of thinking and solving practical problems with positive attitude, it is possible to eliminate many unnecessary troubles and maintain a relaxed and happy mood.
ABCDE formula can explain the importance of cognitive process to physical and mental health. The formula is: a+b = c → d → e. A= event, b = cognitive style, C= conclusion, D= emotion, E= influence on physical and mental health. The same event can be understood in different cognitive ways, and different conclusions will lead to different emotional reactions and have different effects on physical and mental health. For example, an old lady has two sons. The eldest son sells salt and the youngest son sells umbrellas. The old lady is always worried, because she is worried about her eldest son on cloudy days and her youngest son on sunny days, so she often gets sick. A psychiatrist said to the old lady, "You are really a blessed man. Your eldest son makes money on sunny days, and your youngest son makes money on rainy days. " As soon as the old lady feels reasonable, she becomes happy and healthy. This example illustrates two different results caused by ABCDE formula.
Avoiding three evils means avoiding laziness, resentment and sulking in daily life.
The first is to avoid idleness. What is "doing nothing"? People are angry because of trivial things in daily life. For example, there is no need to be idle when shopping, or there are small right and wrong problems in family life. The second is to avoid resentment, which means don't always complain about someone or something or get angry because of resentment. If a person always compares himself with someone who is better than himself in some way, there will inevitably be resentment. The third is to avoid sulking, which means that if you feel something makes you unhappy, you should say it in time so as to solve or resolve it, and don't keep it in your heart. Sulking in three kinds of qi has the greatest influence on physical and mental health, especially sulking for a long time, which often leads to diseases, especially heart disease and tumors. If a person pays attention to the cultivation of consciousness and emotion at ordinary times, he will be open-minded and cheerful, and can avoid three qi.
The key to mental health is to learn to pursue happiness. Everyone wants to be happy, but what is happiness is different for everyone. Some people say that "happiness is a feeling, an experience and a subjective impression of personal feelings". Happiness has no unified standard, no unified model, and it is not determined by objective conditions, but depends on one's own subjective feelings to feel and experience. A woman writer went to a remote area in Tibet to experience life and lived in the home of a local Tibetan compatriot. When she learned that the hostess of this family had never left the land where she lived, she was happy that she was able to travel all over the country and was well informed, and she was sad that the hostess didn't know the outside world. But when she told the hostess that she often traveled around the world and had little time to reunite with her relatives at home, the hostess repeatedly said pity and pity. In fact, the hostess is also happy to have a warm and stable home and sad for the wandering life of the female writer. This is because the hostess and the writer have different standards and understandings of happiness.
Therefore, we should use our own standards to understand happiness and pursue our own happiness, instead of applying others' standards to interfere with our own view of happiness. Carnegie said: "Thought and the application of thought itself can turn hell into heaven and heaven into hell." Therefore, we should learn to create happiness with our own thoughts and create a clear sky of our own.
Like quitting smoking, mental regimen is the easiest and most difficult regimen. The reason why it is the easiest is that mental health preservation can be completely dominated by people's subjective consciousness without special external auxiliary conditions; The most difficult thing is that it is difficult for a person to grasp himself and correct his inherent wrong way of thinking, and it is even more difficult to rule out the negative interference of objective things on his subjective consciousness. Ancient sages often put self-cultivation in the first place. For example, the ancients said that meditation is the first, reading is the second, seeing mountains and rivers and flowers is the third, talking with friends is the fourth, and teaching children is the fifth. It is believed that the top ten pleasures in life are teaching lectures, learning French calligraphy, sitting quietly, talking with friends, drinking and getting half drunk, watering flowers and planting bamboo, listening to the piano and playing cranes, burning incense and making tea, and going to the city to see the mountains, that is, playing chess. The ancient method of nourishing the heart is still worth learning. Of course, in today's current life, people's work or study are tense and busy, and it is difficult to have the leisure of the ancients to visit famous mountains and rivers, and there are few opportunities to watch fish and listen to birds in the forest. However, it is very beneficial for health and longevity to use the method of psychological health preservation in daily life, strive to be quiet in troubles, steal time from busy work, be indifferent to fame and fortune, get rid of secular troubles and be abstinent.