The Taoist Monks are some of the healthiest and longest living people on the face of the earth today and they have obtained this status for over 2300 years. Today I would like to share 8 of my personal favorite tips they use for achieving and maintaining this amazing overall wellness, in hopes that we can all adapt some of their principles for ourselves.
1. Respect Yourself. If you truly embody self respect, you will refuse to pollute yourself with drugs, junk food, excessive alcohol, and even negatively focused media or people. You will treat your body like a superior being and your mind like a sage.
2. Develop Your Will Power. As an essential characteristic necessary for succeeding in life, lacking will power will even cause your happiness to diminish. Success follows will power. In order to build it, focus on what you are doing and what you need to accomplish. You must also look past temptation.
3. Develop Your Adaptability. If you can adapt, you will thrive. In our society, our bodies are too quick to go into fight or flight (sympathetic) mode. This is the stress response, and causes rapid aging. We must train our bodies to relax, breathe, and stay in a balanced state. Adaptogenic herbs are helpful with this, as are taking hot/cold showers/baths and taking 'adaptability walks' during moderately adverse conditions.
4. Learn the Art of Moderation. This is an essential tool in order to truly become healthy and happy. This tool will allow you to avoid excessive stress on the mind and body. Burning the candle at both ends will cause illness, injury, or other harm to you. Also, leave the table with your stomach just a little bit empty.
5. Sleep Enough and Sleep Well. This is your cellular rejuvenation time. Without it, you are rapidly aging, not able to eliminate old cells, and toxic. It is not as much about time, but more about quality. It is important to clear your monkey mind before going to sleep. Do some deep breathing, meditation, and/or grateful prayer. Imagine only the good things in life before drifting off to sleep. Remember, whatever your mind is thinking about before you drift off is exactly what your mind will marinate in all night. Scary movies or news before bed are not a good plan for quality sleep.
6. Develop Patience. We are in the 'instant gratification' era. The world is instantly at our fingertips with the internet, and drugs are designed to give instant relief, etc. Natural changes though are generally slower. But because of this they are also DEEPER and more complete. True health will follow patience. Changing your diet will cause a few things to change right away, but the better, longer lasting, deeper health qualities happen over time. Don't get discouraged. Know that the work you are doing is paying off in the long run!
7. Appreciate Everything. Life is a blessing. Take specific notice each day to be grateful. Gratitude keeps us humble and humility helps us to become closer to our own true nature and to God. Appreciate your struggles and failures. Learn from them and GROW. Staying upset does not allow any forward movement in life. Search out the positive and appreciate the beauty in life.
8. Learn the Art of Letting Go and Incorporate Love. Holding onto the negatives will certainly allow aging and illness in your body. The Taoist's say that letting go leads to wisdom. Blockages in the body and mind are stagnant targets for disease. Just letting it go, will allow room for LOVE. Love is the supreme state of mind. These Monks also say that if you can love everything and love it enough, they believe the thymus gland (a gland that always shrinks as we age and has much to do with immunity) won't shrink! I'm all for that! True love is unconditional and without prejudice. Loving is it's own reward.