Yang Shang: Nourish Life

I just wanted to share a few words from an ancient medical sage Sun Simiao about taking care of oneself, yang sheng (nourishing life), and these principles being necessary to become immortal (i.e. healthy enough to carry on your family line for generations)...

"...avoid overeating and over-drinking.  Avoid anxiety and worrying, great anger, sorrow and grief, great fear, jumping about, too many words, and excessive laughter.  Avoid eagerly jumping at your desires and do not hold onto hatred.  All of these are harmful to your health and fertility.  Therefore a person who is good at preserving health constantly reduces thoughts, ideas, desires, business affairs, speaking, worrying, anger, likes and dislikes.  If you can follow these simple principles, this is the essence of nurturing life.  Excessive thought imperils the spirit, excessive thought scatters the will, excessive desires muddles the will, excessive business affairs exhaust the physical body, excessive speech wears out the qi, excessive worry intimidates the heart, excessive anger makes the hundred vessels unsettled, excessive likes make you lose you concentration, and excessive dislikes make you haggard and dismal.  These are the root to losing ones health.  Only the person who has neither too much nor too little of these is able to approximate the Tao (the way of wellness and virtue)."