In today’s post of how to live long and stay healthy we are going to talk about a very modern problem which is responsible for many of our health issues: work and rest balance. Just before I start I feel I still owe you something: in my first few posts I was discussing food. I talked about the problems with modern studies of nutrition and I also discussed the way Chinese medicine sees healthy eating. I promised in my last blog that I would write about diets for specific health problems; however, I have changed my mind and I am going to sleep on this one. The reason is that it is probably impossible to fit this subject effectively in one post. In Chinese medicine a person will get instructions regarding his diet only after the Practitioner has reached a diagnosis for this person from a Chinese medicine point of view. That is not a simple thing to do for a person who is not himself a TCM Practitioner. I am, however, going to recommend to you a fantastic book about the subject. It is called “Helping Ourselves-A Guide to Traditional Chinese Food Energies”. It’s by Daverick Legget and is available on Meridian Press Website and on Amazon. Enjoy!
And now back to this post’s subject.
There is an old Chinese saying: a farmer needs to have his field near his home. The meaning of this one is simple-conserve your energy. If the farmer has to walk an hour in the morning to reach his field, then work for ten hours and then walk back for another hour, he uses 20% more energy than if he had his field right near his home. The ancient Chinese understood that our energy is not limitless and if we over-consume it our health will eventually suffer. According to Chinese medicine our energy, generally speaking, is coming from two sources. One is the energy we have within us from birth that we call the essence-it is stored in our kidney and is used gradually throughout our life until we run out in old age and ultimately die ( that is death from old age if nothing else has killed us before that). The other source of energy is the one we are getting from the outside-through breathing and, mainly, through eating. As I mentioned in the last post we need a well-functioning and strong digestive system (referred to as the spleen in TCM) in order to produce energy efficiently from food.
Unfortunately, overworking will have a damaging effect on both energy mechanisms. Actually it can affect our energy in three ways:
Firstly, it can affect the spleen, reducing its ability to digest our food and turn it into energy properly. A weak spleen can give us symptoms like fatigue, weak immune system, weak achy muscles and digestive symptoms like bloating and loose bowels.
Secondly, it can weaken our kidneys and manifest itself in symptoms like fatigue, sexual dysfunction, bladder weakness (urgency or waking up at night to go to the toilet) and temperature irregularities (feeling too hot or too cold, night sweats etc).
Thirdly, as I mentioned earlier, our energies are not unlimited. If we consistently consume more energy than how much our body can produce to replenish it then we will gradually create a problem. We may gradually feel more and more fatigued but, in some cases, the adrenaline will carry us on for some time. People will feel ok as long as they are on the move but very tired when they stop at the end of the day. This situation tends to be more dangerous. Adrenalin can only carry us so far. When the genuine energy reaches a certain low there will be a severe crash of energy. Severe fatigue will be the result. These cases are also harder to treat because at this stage internal organs are depleted and usually malfunctioning and there are very little reserves of energy left to work with.
It is important to stress that when I am talking about work I am referring not just to work at the workplace but to any type of physical or mental exertion. This includes trivial activities like work in the garden, exercise, housework or doing the accounts. Mental exertion can, on some occasions, be more draining than physical. Of course, Chinese medicine in not against exercising or garden work-it is all good stuff. What it does say is that everything has to be done in a balanced way. If you overdo it you are heading for trouble. So, how much is too much? I will clarify this important issue a bit later but first I would like to explain why modern life workplace is particularly harmful to our health. Stress! Working whilst under stress is, from the body energy point of view, like driving a car with the brakes on or with an out of tune engine. In this state we need to use more energy in order to keep going. Stress is responsible for a few of our health problems (I am going to talk about it in detail in my next post) but just from the point of view of our energy consumption it is a big problem. When one is stressed the smooth flow of Qi in the body is disturbed. The work of the Qi becomes less effective and the body needs to use more of it to keep us functioning. For good measure this situation tends to produce heat, toxins and other unwanted elements that go in to our systems and can cause problems. From this I hope you can understand why the combination of overwork and stress is a killer.
So, how much is too much? How much should one rest, how much is it safe to work without causing damage to our health? The answers to those questions, like almost anything else in Chinese medicine, is not a general one but will be different for different individuals How much you can push your energies is very much dependent on your constitution (see more details in my post about constitution). People with strong constitutions can get away with abusing their system more than people with weak ones. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that if you feel strong and full of energy you can always get away with anything. I have treated a few people over the years who originally had strong constitutions but through the combination of stress and overwork they managed to get themselves very ill.
People will usually say it is very difficult to get any rest these days; there are always things to do. Work is so demanding, then there is home and family and on top of all that we are all told that we need to exercise. Where exactly is the time for rest? For this I’ll say:
a) One has to take responsibility for one’s own health and b) work/rest balance in the modern world shouldn’t be as hard to achieve as it may sound.
May I suggest a few simple methods towards achieving some sort of better rest/work balance than your current situation-these can make a big difference to your health!
1) Genuinely recognise that this is an important issue and that you and only you can do something about it.
2) Don’t Rush! Rushing through work is a very bad habit. Rushing is a mental state. You can do work very efficiently and methodically without the mental rush. It’s something you’ll need to work on but it will dramatically reduce the damage you cause yourself through work.
3) Take a break. I know it is very difficult to the British Psyche to have a break at work but try it-it will make a big difference.
4) Teach yourself to relax. It’s a skill that’s not commonly found on these Isles.
To start with you may have to force yourself to just sit down and have a cup of tea or something. You’ll have to fight that guilt and resist the urge to keep on doing things, but when you get used to it, it will all be worth it.
You will be surprised to find out that learning to relax and even taking breaks sometimes does not necessarily reduce the effectiveness of your work but can, in fact, increase it.
5) Prioritize! We all have too many things to do (or at least that’s what we think). Make a list, prioritise and forget about the rest-your health is more important. Your quality time is more important too.

Good luck and good health!