Looking for lifestyle tips to support your wellness?
More than just acupuncture, Chinese medicine is a system of healing that starts with prevention and wellness. Because of this, Chinese Medicine has many great tools for wellness and prevention and for managing stress.
To continue your wellness, we’d like to share some simple tips and tools that you can easily do to make small improvements your health.
Chinese Medicine Principles of Health
Chinese medicine follows some basic ideas for living a long and healthy life: moderation, consistency, variety, and mindfulness. For optimal health, we should apply these principles to everything we do, including diet, exercise, thinking, emotions, sleep, work and play.
Moderation.
Moderation is one of the central ideas in Chinese medicine. When it comes to health, too much of anything, whether good or bad, can upset the balance of health.
In a society that values more is better and “go hard or go home”, this is a hard concept for us to embrace! But moderation is a principle that we should apply to exercise, food, sleep, emotions, work, and play. An imbalanced lifestyle means an imbalanced body.
Consistency.
The body likes consistent, predictable routines. This means going to bed and getting up at a consistent time every day, eating meals at a regular time. Our body is like a machine, and relies on regular inputs from us to keep it running smoothly.
Variety.
Variety is a similar principle to moderation. When we don’t have enough variation, especially in our diet and our activities, we can become unwell. Too much of one sport or activity can lead to repetitive stress injuries, too much of one type of food can lead to food sensitivities or digestive conditions.
Mindfulness.
Chinese medicine teaches you to tune in and pay attention to your body and the environment. Give yourself permission to take rest days when you are overtired, sick, or injured, and focus on nourishing foods and activities when you are healing. Be mindful of the seasons and adjust your lifestyle, clothing, and habits to your environment. Take time for meals and focus on your body’s cues for fullness.
Health Habits: Small. Simple. Daily.
Wellness should be easy and achievable. It may seem too simple to have a huge impact, but small daily habits are what make up the majority of your health. Ever wonder why problems like diabetes, heart conditions, and digestive problems develop in middle age? It’s your lifestyle habits catching up on you.
There are 8 branches of healing in Chinese medicine… and 5 of them are free! These branches include small changes you can easily make to improve your health.
- Mindset: managing stress and minimizing disease
- Diet: the foundations of eating for health
- Exercise: how much and what kind for longevity?
- Environment: work, home, family and relationships are a part of health
- Living with the seasons: adapting our habits to the weather, climate, and seasons
Conditions like insomnia, migraines, chronic pain, and mood disorders can all be improved with small daily habits. Check out our articles for easy secrets for you to try.
Try it out!
We’d love to hear how it goes! Share your questions, successes (or failures) over on our Facebook page. We’re here to support you on your path to wellness!
