Balance Between Work and Rest in Qi Gong Practice

TCM maintains that anything in excess can be harmful to your mind and body. Experiencing extremes of any of the seven emotions is no exception. It is believed that subjecting yourself to extreme emotions will harm the mind and body and reduce longevity. The book, Ling Shu, addresses this theory:

Apprehensions and anxieties may injure the mind, thus making people weak and emaciated with dried hair and pallid countenance. Continuous worry and anxiety may injure intention, which leads to debility of the limbs. Sorrow injures the soul, thus causing the decline of yin and convulsions. Excessive joy may injure the spirit, leading to the withering of the hair. Excessive anger may injure the will, making it difficult for the spinal column to bend and stretch. Being in terror may injure the primordial energy, leading to debility of the bones. Click to learn how Chinese medicine treats Gilbert's Syndrome.

This portion of the text clearly indicates that an excess of any of the seven emotions may not only injure the mind but the body as well. TCM proposes methods to keep the mind healthy which include methods of spirit recuperation, including optimism, lower levels of anxiety and lust, refraining from excess joy and anger, abstention from too much thinking and worrying, and avoidance of terror. All of these methods are useful for preventing the mind from being injured.