Deciphering Taoist Health-preserving Exercises
Taoist ancient health-preserving methods are part of traditional Chinese culture. They contain profound philosophical thoughts and practical methods, and are the life wisdom that follows "Tao follows nature". It emphasizes the importance of clearing the mind and nurturing the nature, and conforming to nature. It not only focuses on regulating the body, but also on nourishing the spirit, regulating breathing, and sitting quietly, and ultimately achieves the state of yin and yang balance, and the state of both form and spirit, and achieves harmony and health of body and mind.
Includes the following core points:
Conform to nature: Taoism emphasizes harmonious coexistence with nature, and believes that people should conform to nature, live regularly, and achieve harmony of body and mind through guidance, form and spirit cultivation, etc.
Quietness and nothingness: Taoism advocates achieving inner peace by reducing desires and interference. As stated in "Zhuangzi": "Nourish the spirit, guard the form, and have no desires." Taoist practice emphasizes simple life and reducing desires to achieve inner peace and longevity.
Guiding: guiding the body movements with the mind, coordinating with breathing, and moving the Qi from top to bottom or bottom to top, by unblocking the meridians and activating the Qi and blood, it can achieve the ultimate effect of training the body and mind, cultivating both the inside and the outside, balancing the Yin and Yang, preventing and treating diseases, and prolonging life. Practice has proved that it is of great significance for the prevention and treatment of many chronic diseases and geriatric diseases, such as insomnia, hypertension, diabetes, rehabilitation after stroke, and improving the quality of life of cancer patients.
Breathing exercise: Taoist health preservation attaches importance to the role of Qi on the human body, believing that "Qi gathers to live, and Qi dies to die", which means to expel turbid Qi and take in the fresh Qi needed by the human body to help cultivate the internal Qi of the human body and achieve the purpose of health preservation and longevity. Taoist practice is to return to the original state of the baby. Tuna makes breathing return to the root, preserves the innate Qi, and when the Qi is sufficient, all diseases can be cured.
Health preservation in four seasons: Taoists also emphasize adjusting health preservation methods according to the changes in the four seasons and daily habits, such as "hissing" in spring, "haha" in summer, "shushing" in autumn, and "blowing" in winter. This method adjusts breathing and internal energy to follow the seasonal laws of nature to achieve the purpose of health preservation.
These methods and concepts together constitute the Taoist health preservation system, which helps people strengthen their bodies and prolong their lives, and pursue immortality. After thousands of years, Taoist health preservation still has its own unique charm.