HEALTH Effortless wellness
Ever heard of 'wellness fatigue'? It’s an exhausting condition, but an ancient Daoist text has the remedies.
by Peter Loupelis O
ver the last couple of years I’ve begun to notice a trend amongst many people who
are conscious about their health and well-being. Whereas at one time I would see people turn up to my clinic who have not been looking after themselves at all, I began to see clients who were doing all the right things that healthcare professionals have been promoting for years yet they were still tired, rundown, having trouble sleeping, and getting sick. I’ve started calling this syndrome
‘wellness fatigue’. This may seem familiar to you... Jo wakes up tired, runs to morning
yoga practice, downs her brekkie smoothie and then rushes off to work where she must be 'on' all day. While there, she smashes a salad for lunch and leaves work feeling drained. But instead of resting she fills her evenings with exercise, workshops, ecstatic dance, or hops between appointments with her naturopath / acupuncturist / chiropractor / kinesiologist. By the time she arrives home, it’s late
and she should cook a healthy dinner, but she’s so tired that she just orders UberEATS and kicks back on the couch with Netflix because she’s just too exhausted. It's become somewhat of a self-
perpetuating cycle of DO-DO-DO, GO-GO-GO!
WHERE’S THE YIN? In Daoist medicine, the continual dance between yin and yang lies at the root of all approaches to health and well-being. In the above example, Jo is in a
constant yang state of doing. Other than sleep, there really is no down time. Even sleep is disturbed and thus not as restful as it could be.
There is no yin state during her day. There is no opportunity for the integration of what she has done or what she has eaten. It is like a constant seeking of perfection. We do the yang very well. Our society
functions on our capacity to get stuff done, and to be applauded for and in awe of what we can create. However according to Daoist wisdom, we also need to integrate the yin aspects of life amongst our activities. This integration leads to balance. Eventually all this yang activity leads
to burnout. When this happens, there is no more yang, and you are left with no choice but to rest. Anyone who has experienced chronic fatigue syndrome or adrenal fatigue will tell you how difficult it is to get things done when you are completely depleted. It also takes time to rebuild enough reserves to be able to function. Inevitably, this is what drives people to
pursue health/well-being practices – we want to stay healthy, vibrant, to thrive in our lives and perform well in our work. We need to be able to strike a balance.
And that means simplifying what we do to stay on top of our game. So how do we simplify our well-being routines without sacrificing what we need?
LIFESTYLE MEDICINE The early Daoists of the 3rd to 2nd Centuries BCE were very clear on what was necessary for good health and well- being, and it didn’t involve medicine! They believed that ill health was the
failure of the blood and qi to circulate properly throughout the body, and needed to be rectified to promote a long and healthy life. In one ancient text (author unknown)
called The Ten Questions (translation by Cleary, 2003), there are six key points
mentioned, all of which are simple things we can integrate very easily into our lives, and for which we don’t need medicines, supplements, or treatments. Nor do we need to attend expensive workshops or gain university degrees to master them. In fact, these are activities we (hopefully) perform daily in our normal routine. If we don’t, then these are the things we should be focussing on instead of spending all our time, energy, and money on classes, courses, and treatments.
SLEEP IS FIRST AND FOREMOST The author of this ancient text states clearly that sleep is not just a human activity – all life forms on Earth engage in it. He states clearly that sleep enables food to be digested, and helps to disperse medicines through the body. He also says that if you do not sleep for one night, you will not recover for 100 days. Modern research confirms the
importance of sleep not just on the digestive system, but also on the nervous system and cognitive functioning. It is involved in the repair of heart and blood vessels, and sleep disorders are linked to increased risks of heart and kidney diseases, hypertension, diabetes, strokes, and obesity (NHLBI 2012). Sleep also plays a role in the
regulation of your appetite. Ghrelin is the hormone released that tells you you’re hungry, and increases on lack of sleep. On the other hand, when you’re well rested, leptin is released to tell you that you are full. There can be any number of reasons
for sleep to be affected, but the main one is the capacity to wind down in the evening, which leads us to the next point.
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