“This porridge is too hot! This porridge is TOO cold. But this porridge is just right.” Goldilocks tried them all to find the right one. We hear so much advice about diet, about exercise about everything. Sometimes it is hard to know what we should do.
Chinese Medicine holds a concept of how overloading ourselves in various ways can diminish our life essence. They call these overloads the “Five Taxations.” The idea is that we are allotted a certain amount of life-force energy that is unique to each of us. Some have a lot and some seem to have less. We see social media stories of 90-year-olds who can do yoga headstands, drink bourbon every day, and enjoy a daily cigarette. Then, there are the rest of us who are trying to eat our vegetables, teetotaling, and going to bed early and still dying young.
So, what are we to do?
According to Chinese medical theory, the best we can do is preserve what has been given to us through healthy and moderate living. Those 90-year-olds might have been able to live to 100 if they had a few less smokes! Too much or too little mental and physical taxation are considered to deplete essential life resources. Life is a balance, not an absolute dictate!
Classically, the Five Taxations include the following:
- Excessive use of the eyes
- Excessive lying down or hunching over
- Excessive sitting
- Excessive standing
- Excessive exercise or overwork
Do any of these sound like you?
How Can We Preserve our Life Force Energy?
Whatever you do a LOT, you need to be aware of and counteract. Here is a more detailed explanation of the Five Taxations and what you can do to create balance:
- Excessive use of the eyes injures the Liver and subsequently the Heart
Do you spend some time looking at computer screens, digital devices, your smartphone or Netflix? Our eyes were designed for scanning the horizon and finding berries, not for identifying small black squiggles on either a printed page or digital display!
In another metaphorical sense—-how much time do you spend “looking” with desire at things you want, people you want, relationships you want?
Both kinds of looking impact the Blood according to Chinese medicine which also houses our spirit or Shen. Western research validates the problem with looking at digital displays and how that negatively impacts our sleep.
The Remedy: throughout the day take a visual breaks. Close your eyes for a count of 5 breaths for a brief contemplative meditation. Open your eyes and softly gaze at the horizon outside. Try this now, just close your eyes a moment as you are reading this. Amazing right?
- Excessive lying down or hunching over injures Qi (the Lungs)
Lack of exercise is as damaging as too much and we likely suffer this when we sit at our desks all day, or by playing video games into the wee hours, or by watching NetFlix, or sleeping all day. In this case, the issue is that our lungs do not get strengthened.
The Remedy: The prescription for lack of exercise or hunching over is Qi Gong or getting outside for a walk, a swim, a run—- get in some deep breaths and bring in oxygen to power and feed your body.
- Excessive sitting injures the muscles (the Spleen)
We can also become weakened in several ways by not moving enough. In Chinese physiology, the Spleen is also associated with worry and if weakened, our minds can go in circles. Sitting all day weakens our muscles and then we can’t move as much and get into a vicious cycle. Sitting –> fatigue –> difficulty digesting –> gaining weight –> chronic disease including diabetes.
The Remedy: get up every hour at work and do a walking circuit, walk down a flight of stairs to use the restroom, or gather some colleagues for 7 minutes of Qi Gong. Walk outside for a moment and breathe in some fresh air (20 minutes of nature can reduce stress and hormones). Get up and go say hi to someone.
- Excessive standing injures the bones (the Kidneys)
Are you on your feet a lot during the day? Some of us are in occupations requiring a lot of standing. Nurses, doctors, flight attendants, car mechanics, baristas, acupuncturists. 🙂 Such long activity is fatiguing and in Chinese Medicine is considered to impact our Kidney function.
The Remedy: sit whenever possible and put your feet up, even if only for 10 seconds, as often as you can during your shift. If you can lie down for 2 minutes even better. This will preserve your energy, reduce the adrenals firing like crazy and bring breath into your body. But another thing is this—-if you have been on your feet all day, it is injurious from a Chinese medical perspective to come home after work and launch into a foot-bearing activity. Instead, on these days, consider doing a non-weight bearing form of aerobic activity such as bicycling or swimming. I don’t know about you, but after being on my feet all day, the last thing I want to do is a walk or run or even standing Qi Gong. Did you know you can do all the Qi Gong exercises sitting too?
- Excessive exercise (or overwork) injures the sinews (the Liver and Kidney)
Some folks in our very Yang and young culture are at risk of over exercise which taxes both the liver and kidney from a Chinese perspective. We also tend to overwork, over-play, generally over do! The “right” amount of exercise is tricky and depends on your age and prior training. But excess can diminish that overall foundation of life force energy available to us. So doing a Marathon a couple of times a year might be okay but every month might be too much. However, a half hour run may exercise your heart and feel invigorating. The question is this: are you invigorated or depleted and how long does it take you to replenish? A young, healthy and vibrant individual has much more to work with….and yet too much even at this age might be depleting.
The Remedy: Do less or do differently. HOW? Pay attention to your body, mind and spirit. Are you energized or draggy? You can tell if you are overdoing exercise by whether your sinews are juicy and resilient and you feel great. If you are dragged out for 3 days, you’ll want to ensure you aren’t working on fumes with little resource to fund your level of exercise. If you have to pee 3-4 times a night you may be over-doing it. Are you getting injured a lot or recovering slowly? Are you tired a lot? Your acupuncturist, can help you assess and work with you to understand some of the indications from a Chinese medical view by listening to your pulses and seeing how your organ systems are playing together. For more guidance on this taxation, see “The Daze of Doing.”
Ultimately, there is nothing set in stone….it is a matter of finding the balance for YOU. I did two years of 200, 300 and 400K bike rides and ended up with osteoporosis. I was 50 years old when I started and post-menopausal and this may not have been the best activity at this time. It all depends on what you’ve got in the tank to start with and how you manage it. A 5 mile bike ride or an afternoon walk or hike is a better fit for me now 😉
