BHH-18: Sleeping on a High Pillow

Many people prefer to sleep on a higher pillow as they are ageing. This is a bad habit because it is detrimental to your neck health. while those without a neck problem can develop one as a result, those who do have a neck problem will get it from bad to worse.

YE&T-18: Crawling like a Gecko or Chimpanzee

23 May 2018

It is a good physical exercise to crawl on your fours either like a gecko or a chimpanzee. Keep doing this exercise every day, and it is believed to help to cure your back pain or alleviate your spine-related health problems.

GYH-18: Playing a Music Instrument

21 May 2018

When you play a music instrument not to perform to others, but just to amuse yourself, you will find that you are totally lost in the joy. This habit is as good as deep meditation, and will do a lot of good to your health especially if you can do so on a daily basis.

WTY-18: Religious Faith and Longevity

19 May 2018

As described in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yisrael_Kristal), Yisrael Kristal, was born Izrael Icek Kryształ (Hebrew: ישראל קרישטל‎) in Poland, then part of the Russian Empire on September 15, 1903, and died on August 11, 2017. Officially recognized as the oldest living Holocaust survivor, and the oldest living man in the world as well as one of the ten oldest men ever, he said something to this effect when talking about the secret about his longevity: I don't know any secret about it, but I do believe that God has made the best arrangements for me.

That is to say, his firm faith in God played a crucial role in his longevity. In fact, 'Kristal remained religiously observant all his life.'

YR&T-17: Black Sesame

17 May 2018

Eating a spoonful of fried black sesame before breakfast every morning will help to maintain your hair-health and kidney system. It can also play a supposedly important role in improving your blood system and slowing down your ageing process , among other things.

BHH-17: Intaking Too Much Sugar

15 May 2018

Probably all of us like to eat sweet stuffs since childhood, such as candies, cakes, pies, desserts, chocolates and etc. However, according to recent scientific studies, over intake of sugar is one of the major reasons why modern humans have become so vulnerable to various, especially relatively new, diseases. That's to say, preferring or eating sweet foods is a very very bad eating habit, which does no good but harm to our health.

WTY-17: Yangsheng and Individuality

11 May 2018

As everyone is different to varying degrees in terms of physical (or physiological) and psychological constitutions, the best way to yangsheng naturally varies with different individuals. Such being the case, it is your own, rather than anyone else's job to find your best way, if any at all, to develop and maintain your best possible wellness. In practice, you have to, in other words, try to find for yourself whatever methods (or combination of methods, exercises, recipes and therapies) that most suits your unique situation.

Certain methods, exercises, recipes or therapies may work well with others,  but not you or the other way around. To find the 'best' way for yourself is often not only a matter of trial and error, but also a matter of luck.

YE&T-17: Massaging Little Fingers

9 May 2018

While watching TV or sitting idly, you might want to massage your little fingers respectively for 2-3 minutes each time. If you keep doing this exercise twice a day, you will find it helpful to maintain your health. According to some yangsheng experts, this exercise can be as good as taking 28 different kinds of traditional chinese herbal medicines.

GYH-17: Spending Time with Trees

7 May 2018

If you spend some time, say 15 to 30 minutes,  with trees every (other) day or on a regular basis, you will find this to be a very beneficial health habit. Try to walk around a big tree (or in a forest), chat or communicate with it, feel it, or simply look at it, you will get physical and psychological results similar to meditation. Actually, this practice can be called 'dynamic medication'.

WTY-17: Cancer Preventing

5 May 2018

Every one has about 20% chance of getting a cancer in his/her lifetime. According to recent studies, the cause of most cancers is about 30% related to smoking, 30% to food intake, and the rest to the environment.

In practice, different groups of people use different methods to prevent from getting a cancer. Specifically, the most helpful thing to do on a daily basis for Chinese is drinking green tea ; for Britons, 1.6 km of walking; for Australians, an orange; for French people, one hour of fast walking; for Americans, having 7 hours of good sleep; for South Koreans, 3 servings of nuts (every week); for Germans, eating plenty of tomatoes; for Swedish people, avoiding liquors; for Japanese, avoiding sugar.

By doing all the above listed things, you can certainly reduce your chance of getting a cancer to the very minimum.

YR&T-16: Onion with Vinegar

3 May 2018

- ingredients

1. one red onion

2. vinegar

-method

1. cut the onion into small pieces

2. soak the onion with vinegar in a sealed bottle for at least a week

3. eat a few pieces every morning

The vinegar-soaked onion is believed to be particularly good for the health of one's blood system.

BHH-16: Looking at a Small Screen for Too Long

1 May 2018

As the cellphone and computer become part of our life, almost every one of us spends too much time looking at the screen every day. If we often forget to look away from it, if we habitually keep staring at a computer or cellphone for more than one hour each time, much damage will be done to our neck as well as our eyes. Once we have a neck problem, there will be a lot of other health problems resulting from it, including dizziness, headache and even clogged arteries.

WTY-16: Yangsheng and Self-Satisfaction

27 April 2018

Although almost everyone desires, and may keep striving hard, to become rich and/or famous, neither the rich nor the famous are all really happy. While many people may never achieve their life goals no matter how hard they try and how smart they are, those who do manage to get what they want are often less happy than they believed they would be. Such being the deplorable human reality, yangsheng or happiness is not necessarily related to whether people are really successful in life or not.

Many people who are actually even more intelligent and more hardworking turn out far less successful than those popularly recognised as such. The reason is very simple: luck, timing, placing or socialising may play a significantly bigger role than people would think. Just as Chinese folk wisdom clearly suggests, a hero is a product of his own times.

To yangsheng well or attain true happiness, you may therefore never have to get exactly what you have desired, but you must learn to become ready to accept and even satisfied with who you are and what you have been.

YE&T-16: Knee Standing

25 April 2018

Standing straight on your knees and even walking around for 15 minutes or so whenever you can is a much healthier way than sitting or slouching on a chair. As an alternative to sitting, this posture or exercise will help slow down the ageing process of your knees and force you to use some of your muscles you would otherwise not use in a similar manner.

GYH-16: Climbing High to Gaze Afar

23 April 2018

Climbing high to gaze afar from time to time is an ancient tradition in Chinese culture. Although much fewer people do this nowadays, this is actually a very good habit because it derails us from routine boredom and makes us relax both physically and psychologically.

Elixir of Longevity

21 April 2018

Both ancient wisdom and modern science in both the East and the West have strongly indicated that there ISs an elixir of longevity after all, which is actually readily accessible to both billionaires and paupers:

that is laugh. Just as a popular yangsheng proverb goes in chinese: every happy laughter makes one ten years younger (笑一笑，十年少）.

So, watch, read or do whatever that can make you laugh aloud!

YR&T-15: Date-Fungus Soup

19 April 2018

- ingredients:
1. 10-15 g of black fungus;
2. 50 g of fresh ginger;
3. 5 red dates.

- steps:
1. soak the fungus in water for about one hour;
2. cut the ginger into small pieces;
3. put the three ingredients together into 6 bowels of water;
4. boil the mixture until 2 bowels of soup is left

note: eat this anti-thrombus soup with the content once a day, and it will help to maintain your blood health.

BHH-15: Holding in Poop

17 April 2018

It is a bad habit to hold in poop. For one reason or another, many people cannot help doing so; however, if you do this too often or too long each time, there will be many different effects on your health. For example, the bacteria, toxic or unwanted elements contained in the poop will be 'invading' your organs, eventually causing diseases, including cancers.

WTY-15: Success and Yangsheng

13 April 2018

For the vast majority of people, 'success' is measured in terms of money or fame or both. Whoever achieves his/her 'career goal' or 'American Dream' by becoming exceptionally wealthy or famous is popularly considered to be highly successful in life. For others, the measurement can be power/position, knowledge/wisdom, interest, health, love/family or the like. Once people manage to attain their life goals to a certain extent, they will usually be able to enjoy a truly happy life. Otherwise, they would feel unsatisfied with their own lives and keep striving continuously for their goals. In this sense, success and yangsheng are closely interrelated.

In practice, some people may live for money (or fame) all their lives; some may pursue different goals during different stages of their lives; others may try to fulfil several things at the same time (or for a lifetime).

Given the close relationship between personal success and true happiness, I believe only those who measure 'success' in their own (individualised) terms rather than in others' can live with a strong and sustained sense of happiness.

So, to yangsheng or find happiness, it is highly recommendable to follow our own hearts and define success in a personal way.

YE&T-15: Garlic for Itchy Throat

11 April 2018

For an itchy or irratating throat and to prevent coughing as a result, it is worth trying to bite a piece of fresh garlic and keep it in your mouth for about an hour. This natural therapy may prove more helpful than some medicine you might want to take.

GYH-15:Singing Songs Every Day

9 April 2018

Singing songs for 15 minutes at least every day is perhaps one of the best habits one should develop. This activity is good not only to your physical health (especially in terms of qi or energy balance and circulation), but also to your psychological well being (as it can help you relax or make you feel happy and lighthearted). Given its double health effects, you might want to get ready to sing anytime anywhere you can.

WTY-15: Curiosity and Longevity

7 April 2018

Even though more than a century year old now, Tsuneko Sasamoto, the first female photojounalist in Japan, is still as curios as a young girl. In fact, the Japanese woman has been living a long and happy life mainly because she stays curious about everything all her life. To her, a happy, healthy and long life can certainly be achieved by always keeping a curious heart, occupying herself with something and laughing a lot. For a more detailed introduction to her, visit the site http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2015/10/07/tsuneko-sasamoto-female-photojournalist/

YR&T-14: Ginger-Vinegar for Constipation

5 April 2018

-ingredients:
1. white vinegar
2. shredded fresh ginger
3. chinese white liquor
4. bandage

-method:
1. use the liquor with a cotton swab to clean the inside of your belly button
2. put the shredded ginger inside your button
3. use a swab to moist the inside of your button with the while vinegar
4. use the bandage to seal your button between 7 and 9 pm and sleep with it over night
5. change the content daily until your constipation is gone

This natural therapy is worth trying because it's believed to be highly effective to many people.

BHH-14:Using Too Much Strength While Defecating

3 April 2018

Many people, especially seniors with constipation, often use too much strength for whatever reason while making a bowel movement. This is a bad habit because it not only may have a damaging effect on your intestine system in the long run but, more important, can cause fatal heart failure/infarct.

WTY-14: Yangsheng and Self-Expectations

30 Mar 2018

In most cases, our self-attitude is closely related to, and often results directly from whether we meet our self-expectations, or how we define 'success' for ourselves. If we feel 'successful' and live up to our own expectations in life, we will be able to maintain a happy or self-satisfactory mood and, by natural extension, a 'reasonably' good physical health. However, if we feel far from self-content or satisfactory, we will definitely live a depressed and unhealthy life.

So, for many, if not most, of us, whether we can live a happy and healthy life depends heavily upon how to meet our own expectations, or how to define 'success' for ourselves.  

YE&T-14: Squatting

28 March 2018

The '2' in Zhu Zongxiang's '3-1-2 Meridian Exercise' (3-1-2 qigong) refers to the squating part. This is how: reach out your arms forward horizontally while keeping your thighs and lower legs at an angle of about 90 degrees; repeat this squating posture 36 times each time. This part of the exercise can be performed together with the other two parts, or simply alone at any time of your choice.  

For a live demonstration, please take a look here at youtube::
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYxsox69BaI

GYH-14: Drinking Warm Water

26 Mar 2018

It might be a typical Chinese thing to do, but drinking boiled water regularly every day while it is still warm is a really good health habit. According to yangsheng experts, boiled water, traditionally called 'white soup,' is a natural therapy, which is helpful in more than a dozen ways. For example, this habit can help prevent cancers, improve blood circulation, digest foods, make bowl movements, lose weight, keep hair fit, slow down the ageing process, decrease dandruff, prevent acne, stop stuffy nose and reduce dysmenorrhoea.

WTY-14: Life Objectives and Longevity

24 Mar 2018

Most, if not all, ageing people live a retired life. During retirement, if you have clear or specific life objectives and still keep pursuing them, you are sure to live a happier, healthier and longer life than those who spend their last years idly just to kill time. Fan Xuji, former president of Shanghai Jiaotong University, offers a good example. Despite his old age, he was still busy teaching and supervising his Phd candidates right before his death at age 102 in 2015. For him, it was more important to continue his scientific research at his lab than to enjoy leisure at home.

YR&T-13: Chives Fried with Eggs

22 March 2018

- ingredients
1. 100-150 g of chinese chives;
2. 3-4 eggs;
3. salt, edible oil and sesames seeds

-methods:
1. wash the chives and cut them into short pieces;
2. break the eggs and scramble them together with the chives well;
3. put oil and salt into the pan;
4. spread the mixture evenly onto the pan and bake it for a minute or two until it solidifies;
5. turn over the mixture and bake it for a minute or two until it solidifies;
6. cut the mixture into pieces into the size and shape of your choice and put it into the container

note: this dish is highly delicious, and particularly good to your liver system in springtime.

BHH-13: Drinking Too Much Milk

20 March 2018

In developed or western countries, almost everyone drinks a great deal of milk. As a natural or organic dairy product, milk may be helpful to young people and those 'yang-bodied'. However, for others, milk actually does more harm than good. From yangsheng point of view, milk belongs to yin food; drinking too much milk will definitely destroy the balance between yin and yang (ph  or the balance between acid and alkaline in a narrow but more scientific sense) within the body, and thus may cause many different kinds of diseases.  At least, drinking milk can cause the loss of calcium and thus bone problems. Such being the case, we, especially ageing and yin-bodied people, should drink milk with high discretion.

WTY-13: Yangsheng and Self-Attitude

5 Mar 2018

For all yangsheng practitioners, it is not only helpful but simply necessary to develop and maintain a sound attitude towards themselves. Indeed, whether we can live a healthy and happy life often depends heavily on the way we look at who and what we ourselves have been. If we treat ourselves well and fairly with all the love and respect we deserve, we will surely become accomplished yangsheng practitioners.

YE&T-13: Abdominal Breathing

14 Feb 2018

Abdominal breathing is what the renowned yangsheng expert Zhu Zongxiang calls '1' in his '3-1-2 Meridian Exercise'. For him as well as for all of us, it is a helpful health exercise to practice abdominal breathing 10 mintues at least each time, twice every day. During the past decades, Zhu has been doing this breathing exercise persistenly while lying down on bed, once before getting up in the morning, and once after goint to be at night. This exercise can be done singlarly, separately or together with the other two - point massaging and squatting. For Zhu, it has been particularly helpful to remain young physically.

GYH-13: Regularly Keeping Windows Open

12 Mar 2018

It's a good habit to open windows regularly every day to let in fresh air. The best time to do so is believed to fall between 9 and 11 am, or 2 and 4 pm. Usually, an hour or so would be long enough to change the air indoors for the whole day. Some people keep the bedroom window slightly open even at night, and this is certainly not a bad habit, since most bedrooms are more of a tight enclosure during sleeping time.

WTY-12: The Key to Longevity

10 Mar 2018

As clearly revealed in the scientific research work done by Elizabeth Blackburn, the well known Australian-American Nobel laureate, the key to slowing ageing or increasing one's life expectancy lies 25 % in what one eats, 25 % in other factors combined, but as high as 50 % in what may be called one's psychological equilibrium. That is to say, to develop and maintain a 'good' mentality is to live a healthy and long life, whereas eating and doing exercise are secondary.

Examples in real life are abundant. According to many statistic studies carried out in and outside China in recent years, those who have been living up to more than a century, a much longer life than the vast majority of us are almost unexceptionally 'good-natured': no matter what reason, they seem to have been born to be cheerful, optimistic, and relatively easy to feel satisfied.

So long as you and I manage to have a balanced psychology, we can live longer than at least we ourselves are 'meant' to.

YR-12: Steamed Pear for Cough

8 March 2018
This is one of the many heabal/natural recipes for cough, especially caused by a cold:

- ingredients:
1. one pear;
2. 15-20 peppercorns (or 15 - 20 g of tendrilleaf fritillary bulb micro-powder);
3. 2 lumps of crystal sugar  ( or a spoonful of honey)

-methods:
1. wash the pear well and cut the top;
2. dig out the seeds and put in the peppercorns or the powder);
3. put back the top;
4. steam the pear for about 30 minutes;
5. eat the pear and drink the soup twice daily

BHH-12: Often Getting Drunk

6 March 2018

When drinking liquors, wine or even bear, some people habitually get drunk to varying degrees. This is undoubtedly a bad habit, because each time you drink even slightly more than your body can manage, you will do as much damage to your liver system as a hepatitis does. If you begin to feel dizzy, you have already drunk too much. However, as a popular saying goes, sipping may do you some good, but over-drinking is definitely detrimental to your health.

WTY-11:Emotion Control and Positive Mentality

1 Mar 2018
Anyone who hopes to develop a positive mentality or seek happiness self-consciously has to learn how to manage his or her emotions. People might punch walls hard in anger, yell aloud in depression or get drunk in sadness. Such ways to deflate one's pent-up emotions may prove temporarily effective, and certainly less destructive than become physically violent, but there are always more constructive ways to release our intensive negative feelings. For example, we can seek professional help from psychotherapists or detract our attention by engaging ourselves in various expressive or creative activities (like singing, writing, painting, working, meditating, exercising, etc.).

No matter what, only those who have developed a strong enough innerself can control their emotions in the healthiest and most natural way. Put another way, to develop a positive mentality, one must learn to transcend one's immediate experience through spiritual cultivation.

Growing strong inside is the 'best' way to build a positive mentality. Having a truly powerful innerself is as helpful as having a strong and sincerely religious faith for yangsheng.

YE&T-12: 3-Point Massaging

28 Feb 2018

As part of the renowned yangsheng expert Zhu Zongxiang's '3-1-2 Meridian Exercise', 3-point massaging can be performed alone or separately. More specifically, you can finger-press or massage these three meridian points - higu, neiguan and zhushanli (as shown in the following pictures), each for about five minutes, twice every day. This exercise is particularly helpful becausey by masaging these three key points, you can maintain a robust meridian system as a whole or your general physical well being.


hegu point


neiguan point


zushanli point

GYH-12: Eating a Rich Breakfast

26 Feb 2018

For one reason or another, many young and working people either eat an overly simple breakfast or do not eat anything at all. However, because our body needs much energy to function well in the morning, we should habitually eat a rich breakfast - rich in nutrients. While anything oily, fatty, sweet and salty ought to be avoided, such breakfast should include an egg, some lean meat, whole wheat bread and (soy) milk or rice pudding. For elder people who have enough time, it is more helpful to eat 'yangsheng porridge', an boiled egg and vegetables.  As a chinese saying goes, a breakfast good enough for an emperor helps make one happy and healthy for the whole day.

WTY-11: Zhu Zongxiang and His Yangsheng Secret

24 Feb 2018

Zhu Zongxiang, born in 1923, is one of the best known and most achieved yangsheng expert in China today. Despite his old age, he not only looks like but 'is' a young man as well: almost every test result of his physical condition is as perfectly normal as that of a healthy 30-year-old.

His secret is the so-called '3-1-2 meridian exercise,' which he himself invented decades ago, and has been practising twice daily ever since then. (For more detail, we will introduce it briefly in our wednesday postings in due time.)

More important,  to find or even 'invent' an exercise most suitable to you and do it persistently is one of the keys to your long-term physical well being.

YR&T-11: Rice Pudding

22 Feb 2018

- ingredients:
1. peanuts;
2. red beans;
3. black rice;
4. semen coicis;
5: taro;
6. dates;
7. mung beans;
8. glutinous rice;
9. millet

- methods:
1. wash well a half-handful of each ingredient (except dates and taro);
2. soak 10 or so dates for about 10 minutes;
3. peel off about 100 g of taro and cut it into small pieces;
4. put peanuts, red beans, semen coicis and black rice in about 1000 ml of water and cook them together for about 30 minutes;
5. add the taro, dates, glutinous rice, mung beans and millet to the pot and
6. continue to cook everything together for another one hour or so.

This pudding is particularly conducive to health for ageing people, and thus should be part of daily diet.

BHH-11: Bathing Too Often

27 Feb 2018

In terms of personal hygiene, it is undoubtedly a good habit to take a bath or shower every day or even twice a day. However, from a yangsheng perspective, it is a bad habit because taking a bath/shower too frequently would do more harm than good to one's skin and energy system (or qi and blood circulation). For seniors, who has ageing skin and whose qi and blood system has become increasingly weaker, it is particularly unsuitable to take a bath/shower daily. To maintain personal hygiene,  it would be better for elders to do so only when it is necessary or just once (or twice at most) per week.

WTY-11: Dialectic Perspective for Yangsheng Practitioners

16 February 2018

If you were not 'born' with a cheerful personality or do not have a strong and sincere religious faith either to help equip youself with a positive mentality, you can certainly try to develop a dialectic outlook to do so. Indeed, the wisest and most mature way of looking at what is happening to and around us right now is to see it in terms of constant change: bad things can turn good, and vice versa.

No one likes suffering or hardship, be it physical, emotional, intellectual or spiritual, and it takes a saint to enjoy it in the moment. However, once you are ready to see and believe that everything we are experience is changing, you already have a basically positive mentality which is essential to yangsheng.

Since good things can turn bad, you should remain on alert and take preventative steps. If you are going through something really bad, remember it is coming closer to an end every minute, while you can always turn it for the better by learning something from it at least.

A dialectic world outlook is the best and strongest philosophical foundation for a positive mentality. For those yangsheng practitioners with a 'negative' temperament or without a religious faith, such outlook is particularly helpful. To adopt this outlook is to convert one to true wisdom.

YE&T-11: Massaging Yongquan Point

14 Feb 2018

Of all the 365 meridian points in the human body, the yongquan point on the feet is one of the most important. Massaging this point with a thumb tip or any other hard pointed object is a good way to maintain good health. In particular, those with high blood pressure, deficiency of the kidney (or weakened sexuality), bone problems and too many toxic elements in the body should practice such self-massaging on a daily basis.

Rubbing, pressing or massaging the yongquan point for 3 to 5 minutes, once in the morning, once before bedtime, you will find this exercise very helpful after you do it persistently long enough.

GYH-11: Defecating Every Morning

12 February 2018

As our large intestines begin to work actively between 5 and 7 in the morning, the best or most natural time for defecating falls within this period. That is to say, it is a good habit to make a bowel movement after getting up or before breakfast every morning. If you can do so once a day without any difficulty, you are in reasonably good health. 

WTY-10: Simple Ways to Examine One's Own Health Condition

10 Feb 2018

According to yangsheng experts, one does not have to go to a doctor for a physical check-up every year. Actually there are five criteria to tell if you are a 'normal' or basically healthy person::

1. Eat well - you have a good appetite and no few food taboos;
2. Sleep well - you can fall asleep relatively in an easy manner and have few nightmares;
3. Discharge well - you have no trouble pissing, shitting, sweating;
4. Move well - you can walk, jump, run as you would like;
5. Sense well - you can see, hear, smell, taste, feel like everybody else does.

YR-10: Fungus-Doufu Soup

8 Feb2018

- Ingredients
1. doufu (200-300g; cut into small peces);
2. black fungus  (20-30g; soak in water for a couple of hours before washing it well);
3. green onion (cut into small pieces);
4. garlic oil (garlic cut into small pieces and fried well in oil)

- Steps
1. boil water in a pot;
2. add doufu and black fungus into the boiling water and boil them together for 5-8 minutes;
3. right after adding green onion, garlic oil and other spices of one's preferences, turn off the fire

BHH-10: Eating Too Fast

6 Feb 2018

Probably because they have a good appetite, many people eat very fast. Without chewing it really well, they swallow their food as if they cannot wait for the next mouthful of it. However, this is a very bad habit. Eating too fast for too long definitely does much harm to your digestive system. As almost every yangsheng expert has pointed out, chewing each mouthful of food at least 20-30 times before swallowing it is not only necessary but also helpful to maintain good health.

WTY-10: The Ambivalence between reason and feeling

2 February 2018

Life is full of contradictions, dilemmas, pitfalls, setbacks and ambivalences. The biggest ambivalence is that we fully understand and even decide to do something good for the sake of our physical or psychological wellbeing, namely, yangsheng, but find ourselves simply unable to do so in practice. More specifically, everyone of us may desire to have a positive mentality, but just cannot help feeling lousy, depressed, worried or afraid when experiencing something bad in reality. 

This ambivalence between reason and feeling is the biggest one for the yangsheng practitioner.  

Indeed, who would really feel thankful and celebratory when s/he is going through an ugly divorce, losing a legal battle, falling into a victim of accident, getting a pink slip, or becoming hopeless of recovery? Who would and could feel good about suffering?

To overcome such ambivalence, there are three major approaches:
1/ To convert ourselves to God - That's why those with a religious faith usually live a healthier, happier and longer life;
2/ To convert ourselves to wisdom - By really subscribing to, and habitually practising (folk or philosophical) wisdom;
3/ To convert ourselves to 'pragmatism'- By exploring various practical methods and techniques.

Those having an optimistic personality are really lucky in terms of yangsheng, but people who may have been 'born' as pessimistic, cynical and introvert as me can also gain a positive mentality through active learning and conscious practice.

YE&T-10: Toe Standing

31 Janurary 2018

A well known Chinese yangsheng saying goes: people start getting old down from the feet. To slow down the ageing process, it is very helpful to do toe standing exercise. This is the basic way how to do it:
1. put your two feet in a parallel position and stand up straight on your toes as tall as possible;
2. hold your toe-standing posture for 2 seconds before letting your heels down;
3. repeat the process 108 times on a daily basis.

GYH-10: Drinking Yangsheng Tea Daily

29 January 2018

Besides (boiled) water, the second best or healthiest drink is all kinds of 'yangsheng tea,' which can be divided into two major categories: single-ingredient tea (such as green tea, ooloong tea, or coffee) and multi-ingredient tea (such as ginger-date tea and wolfberry-astragalus tea). While such health drinks are all herbal and organic, they will produce good health results if you consume them on a regular basis and selectively according to your specific health conditions.  In other words, you should choose to drink what is most suitable to you at the best time. If you are not sure, green tea and coffee might be the most viable choice.

Drinking yangsheng tea daily is certainly one of the best living habits any practitioner may have.

WTY-9: Ways to Prevent Cancer

27 January 2018


1/ Open windows at least half an hour daily (especially to prevent lung cancer);

2/ Wipe your back with a dry towel for 10 minutes or until you feel warm on a regular basis;

3/ Eat raw garlic (cut and exposed to air for more than 10 min) and green onion as often as possible (esp. to prevent stomach cancer)

4/ Drink soy milk (esp. to prevent breast cancer, endometrial cancer, cervical cancer and prostate cancer), but such cancer patients and those suffering from peptic ulcer, gastritis and gout should avoid it;

5/ Walk for at least half an hour daily (esp. to prevent colorectal cancer and  pancreatic cancer);

6/ Drink 6 cups of water (roughly 240g each) daily (esp. to reduce the risk of bladder cancer for men, and colon cancer for women by 45%);

7/ Sunbathing for 15 min daily (esp. to prevent breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer and gastric cancer), but too long would increase the risk of skin cancer;

8/. Drink 4 cups of green tea daily (to reduce the risk of cancer by 40%);

9/ Chew your food at least 30 times before swallow (esp. to prevent gastrointestinal cancer);

10/ Sleep 7 hours every night (esp. to prevent breast cancer);

11/ Reduce sugar intake (esp. to prevent pancreatic cancer); and

12/ Eat red meat with a cup of red wine (esp. to prevent colon cancer)

YR-9: Yangsheng Tea for Winter

25 January 2018

-ingredients:
1/ 1 or 2 spoonful of brown sugar if preferred
2/ 8-10 dates
3/ 1 piece of fresh ginger
4/ 800-1000 ml of water

-steps:
1/ cut the dates and ginger into small pieces after washing them well;
2/ boil the dates and ginger for 20 minutes;
3/ add the sugar if preferred;
4/ filter the water

Drink the 'tea', and eat the dates better before or at lunchtime.

BHH-9: Slouching

23 January 2018

Most of us slouch most of the time. This is a bad habit because the lazy posture would cause spine-related problems, including neck, chest and back pain. More importantly, such problems could in turn cause internal organs to malfunction. The reason lies in the way prolonged poor postures inevitably change our bone structure in the long run. Once our bone structure changes, our internal organs would be 'squeezed' and suffer as a result.

WTY-9: Yangsheng and the Confrontation with Reality

19 January 2018

The most important impact that life may have upon us is what is happening to us in the moment. More often than not, whether we feel happy or not has the most to do, in other words, with the way we see and face the concurrent situation we find ourselves in. For the sake of yangsheng, to live a happy life, it is therefore imperative to develop and sustain the right attitude towards what we are experiencing right now.

All the happenings or non-happenings we are facing can be divided into three large categories: good/desirable, bad/undesirable, and whatever else in between.

If something good is happening to you, you well know how to face it, but keep in mind that good things can be bad in disguise, or may turn to bad in time while you enjoy or celebrate it.

If nothing particular is happening, you should learn to wait for something good to come. (If you keep thinking or worrying about bad things, they most probably will come.)

If something bad, really bad is happening to you, you'd better keep reminding yourself of the following:
1/ Something bad can be a good thing in disguise, or may turn to good in time;
2/ Bad things could have been much worse, and therefore may actually be worth celebrating;
3/ Each negative experience is meant to prepare you for a better future.

Once you integrate into your mindset Lao Zi's teaching 'Luck and misfortune always come in turns' (福兮祸所伏, 祸兮福所倚 ), you will certainly be able to develop a basically positive mentality.

YE&T-9: Tongue Exercise for the Brain

17 Janurary 2018

For the well being of your brain, or to prevent Alzheimer's disease, it's helpful to do this group of tongues exercies:
1/ Reach out your tongue as far out as possible before withdraw it back;
2/ Wave your tongues outside your mouth from left to right or the other way around;
3/ Bite your tongue everywhere as hard as you do not feel hurt.
Do each set of the exercises 36 rounds once a day.

GYH-9: Brushing Teeth after Food Intake

15 January 2018

As there are always a large number of bad bacteria left in our mouth after food intake, it is a good habit to brush our teeth after each meal (or 15 minutes or so after eating certain foods, such as apples and yogurt).  Even if circumstances do not allows us to do so, we should at least rinse our mouths well with clean water to maintain oral hygiene. This habit is particularly helpful to our tooth, heart, blood system, among other things.

WTY-8: Soong Mei-ling's Yangsheng Secrets

13 January 2018

Soong Mei-ling or Soong May-ling, former first lady of the Republic China, lived up to 106 years of age despite the breast cancer she had developed by age 40. During an interview about how she managed to live such a healthy, happy and long life, she made several most important points:

1. Keep up a good mood - she seldom got angry, worried, sad, or too emotional about anything;
2. Avoid salty and greasy foods - she ate mostly vegetables, spinach and celery in particular;
3. Pursue a good hobby - she began to learn traditional Chinese painting around age 70 and eventually became a highly attained artist.


             photo taken at age 106

YR-8: Mushroom Braised with Turnip

11 January 2018

- main ingredients
1. White turnip
2. Dried Mushroom

-steps
1. soak dried mushrooms in water for 2 hours or so;
2. wash the turnip and cut it into chosen shapes;
3. put a spoonful of edible oil into the wok;
4. add slices of green onion when the oil is warm;
5. fry the turnip with the oil and green onion for a few minutes;
6. add the mushrooms, water, salt and soy sauce;
7. boil everything together;
8. add sliced chilly (or other spices of one's choice) when the water/soup becomes almost totally absorbed;
9. stir everything well before putting it into a container

BHH-8: Eating Too Much

9 January 2018

With plenty of food for most people nowadays, we tend to eat too much on a regular basis. During the suppertime when we should actually eat much less than during other times, we often eat too much, especially 'good' foods, such as meat, fish and highly refined grain. According to many yangsheng experts, many of us modern people suffer from poorer health and more diseases than our ancestors simply because we eat more than needed by our body. Over food intake makes our digestive system over-work, while too much nutrition definitely does more harm than good to our body.