Feeling Hopeless and Depressed After an Illness? Regulating Your Emotions Is the Foundation of Regulating Your Body

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Dear friends, good morning, everyone. Today we continue our discussion of how to protect and maintain your health after the pandemic. And what are we talking about today? We’re talking about emotions — state of mind. You might think this is too vague — can emotions really matter that much? Let me tell you: nobody should brag about this. If you can genuinely regulate your emotions and keep your body in a very stable state, then — and only then — can you actually regulate your body and your qi and blood. If your emotions are poor and constantly swinging, it will seriously interfere with your efforts to regulate your body — the two feed each other in a vicious cycle.

Part One: The psychological trajectory after diagnosis — the more you search, the more frightened you become

Doctor Luo has noticed that many people who develop a somewhat serious illness follow a common psychological trajectory.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: At the very beginning, you are extremely tense. When a condition is discovered, nowadays nobody is naive — everyone goes online to search the name of the disease — and once you search, the more you search, the more frightened you become. Western medicine says this disease is irreversible, it will eventually deteriorate to such-and-such a degree, the final mortality rate is so-and-so… Many friends end up exactly like this — the more they research, the more terrified they get.

What is this called? In medical school it’s called “first-year student syndrome” — lower-year students who have just entered medical school don’t have much clinical exposure; they read textbooks and attend lectures, and whatever disease is being taught, they feel they have it themselves. The teacher lectures on heart disease, and the student thinks they have it too; the more they learn, the more it fits. Every normal doctor goes through this when they first study medicine — when Doctor Luo himself first began studying, he also felt “I seem to have this disease, I seem to have that one too — oh my god, I’m not going to survive.”

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: So when Western medicine diagnoses you with some illness, and then you go online and look it up — you truly feel you might as well die: first, you feel hopeless, that you can’t go on living; second, you suddenly feel disappointment and loss, that life is meaningless, filled with shame — I’ve let down my parents, I’ve let down my children, I’ve let down my family. Many patients carry this “I’ve wronged everyone” feeling. For some it lasts a very long time; some have told me directly: I’m depressed, I’m broken, I don’t want to go to work, my spirit has collapsed.

And then what happens next? You go here and there for treatment; some cases aren’t cured, some relapse again and again. Then disappointment turns into despair — the person sinks, wilts, loses all hope of living. At that point some become stubborn, determined to seek doctors everywhere; others feel nothing works, pessimistic and hopeless.

Part Two: This kind of emotion does absolutely no good for regulating your body

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Let me ask you a question: is this state helpful for regulating your body? Of course, when you’re inside it, nobody can escape it — the test results are right there in front of you, and anyone in that position would despair. But anyone standing outside can see clearly: this emotion does not help your recovery in the slightest. So you need to step out of it — the pity is that many people can’t.

And what about ordinary healthy people? Doctor Luo says, most ordinary people are careless — they’re busy earning money, their mood rising and falling with the stock market; they pay no attention to their health. But the moment a small problem appears, they panic too, and slowly walk into that same process. So regulating your state of mind is truly not a joke.

Part Three: Western medicine says “irreversible,” Chinese medicine says “reversible”

The most typical example is kidney disease.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What does the Western medicine textbook say? Chronic nephritis, chronic glomerulonephritis — it progresses gradually, irreversibly, into kidney failure; kidney function slowly deteriorates, and finally uremia — whether it takes a long or short time, it inevitably reaches uremia: either a kidney transplant or death. So you see, a person diagnosed with nephritis immediately despairs. But in reality, Chinese medicine has cured nephritis a great many times — truly cured it. From the Chinese medicine point of view, it’s not only reversible, it can actually be cured.

What is the state of the person who cannot step out of it? Their spirit collapses; they feel there is no hope; even when you offer them a good treatment plan they resist it — “I’ve taken so many medicines, I can’t be fixed” — they walk straight into a dead end. You say it can be done; they say it can’t. You say it can be regulated; they think it’s over.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: That’s why I’m always talking about state of mind. Regulate your state of mind first — and then what? Then we slowly regulate the body — unraveling the problems one by one, thread by thread; whatever you’re lacking, we supplement it, and slowly we adjust. But if your attitude is “it’s over, treat a dying horse as if it were alive, let me try a few doses, I’m done for anyway” — then it truly cannot be cured. Regulating the mind is extremely important.

Part Four: Why is now a good time to regulate your emotions?

Doctor Luo says that right now is a very easy time to adjust your state of mind — because this year is special.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Have you noticed that since the beginning of this year, many people’s hearts have suddenly quieted down? After the New Year, people have gradually started letting things go — this comes from changes in the external environment and in nature. Some things don’t seem so important anymore: setting down worldly affairs, slowing the pace, putting the body first. Our world has entered this kind of state, and people pay more attention to listening to the voice within. When an economy has developed at high speed to a certain point, we also need to slow down a little. The world at large may be very chaotic, but here we are very peaceful — and through the pandemic, everyone has indeed discovered: having a healthy body is what really matters.

Part Five: Relaxation practices — guqin music, calligraphy, classical poetry, incense and tea

At times like this, Doctor Luo suggests that everyone regularly do a few “homework” practices to help the mind relax.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: I recommend listening to guqin (seven-stringed zither) music — lately I’ve been playing guqin in my car all the time, and I feel that even my driving has become less impatient; nature flows slowly past the window like a painting, and it’s truly beautiful. Drive to a scenic spot, pull over, and sit for a while; put a small chair in the car, bring some tea — even better. Learn to take “pauses” — find an empty moment amid your busyness, close your eyes and rest your spirit for a while; even just dozing for a moment makes a difference. Also look at calligraphy (there are so many calligraphy videos around), master paintings, read a passage of classical poetry and feel the ancients’ state of mind; listen to music, light a stick of incense, brew a cup of tea.

Doctor Luo sighs: many people have none of these elements in their lives — they’ve never smelled incense, never heard the guqin, never looked at master paintings, and don’t enjoy classical poetry. Now is the time to get to know them.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When you quiet down, it’s easier to understand the essence of life: do external things actually matter? Are they worth pursuing with every ounce of your energy? I quiet myself, my body is well, I appreciate how beautiful nature is, and at this moment my heart is joyful — isn’t that good? So begin to let go of some things, begin to turn inward, transform into a positive state, and gradually shift. This is absolutely critical for regulating the body. Many people can never get their body right simply because of liver qi stagnation (gan qi yu jie) — they see everything as wrong, they get angry and fight against everything — “I’ll achieve this goal even if it kills me.” This kind of personality does no good for the body at all. Then there are the jealous, the resentful, the despairing — when liver qi is stagnant, qi and blood circulation is certainly abnormal, and not a shred of upright qi or yang qi can rise.

Part Six: The master framework of the “seven or eight states” to regulate

Once you gradually empty, slow down, and listen to your inner voice — how do you regulate the body? Doctor Luo gives the master framework.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Change a little at a time: today you practice zhan zhuang (standing meditation) — isn’t it a bit different from yesterday? Upright qi is a little fuller. Moxibustion, gua sha (scraping) — see if there’s any improvement. Our body is extremely precise; accumulate a little each time, and it will absolutely gradually become different — but the state of mind has to be adjusted along with it: rejoice at every small improvement, and qi and blood will circulate better, making the body easier to regulate. Then also take some patent medicines and nourishing things: if blood is deficient, nourish the blood; if qi is insufficient, tonify the qi (huang qi / Astragalus and ginseng both work); if yin is deficient, nourish yin (take a little Liu Wei Di Huang Wan / Six-Ingredient Rehmannia Pill); if yang is deficient, warm the yang — adjust qi, blood, yin and yang as needed, distinguishing what is primary and what is secondary; if there is phlegm-dampness, resolve the phlegm-dampness; if there is blood stasis, transform the blood stasis; if the liver qi is not flowing smoothly, regulate the emotions. Strictly speaking, it’s just these seven or eight states, and if you keep toggling among them, you will surely get back on track.

And what is the foundation? The foundation is a good emotional state.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Liver qi stagnation must be untied, otherwise your liver qi remains stuck — on this side you’re angry, on that side you’re anxious, over there you’re despairing — do you still want to regulate anything else? Very difficult, because whatever you supplement just gets blocked inside. It’s like a pipe: if you keep it kinked and twisted, the pipe stays twisted — can the phlegm-dampness inside be flushed out? Not easily. When the pipe is no longer blocked, one flush of water and the phlegm-dampness inside is washed away — so regulating your emotions is the foundation of regulating your body.

Part Seven: The highest level — “tranquil and empty, and true qi follows”

Going even higher, Doctor Luo speaks of “level” or “realm.”

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What is the highest level? It’s an outlook on life. “But do good deeds, and ask not about fortune or misfortune” — when you don’t agonize over things, your psychological state is good. If your level isn’t that high, then use various methods to adjust yourself so that your heart feels comfortable — not despairing, not red-faced and frantic, not twisted and tangled, but at ease. Put the body first — right now we’re quite fortunate to be alive: look at the blue sky and white clouds, “ah, how lucky am I”; see that the people around me are still here — “this is true happiness.” With this kind of attitude, things are already much better. When your psychological state is good, qi and blood flow smoothly, liver qi stagnation is no longer blocked, and then whatever qi, blood, yin or yang you supplement can actually get in.

The Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine) said it all long ago: “Tranquil and empty, and true qi (zhen qi) follows.” When you enter a state of joy, non-attachment, and relaxation — not frantically rushing to do something, without the stubborn obsession of “I absolutely must achieve this” — liver qi stagnation disappears, and then regulating the body becomes easy.

Part Eight: Living with clarity — talk about joy, not about earning money

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Why am I telling you all this? Because so many friends come to me — actually they haven’t thought it through — some people think it through after a serious illness, but some never do while they’re sick. I see all kinds of emotional tangles and think: this body is really hard to regulate. In this day and age, when classmates get together, nobody talks about who earns how much or whose achievements are bigger — they talk about who is happy. If you haven’t figured it out by thirty, by forty or fifty you will (women retire at fifty-five, men at sixty — by then you can basically see the whole trajectory of life). When people meet, what they talk about is how to find pleasure, how to make themselves a little happier. This is the feeling of those who have been through it.

In closing, Doctor Luo says: I hope everyone can be happy, joyful, and cheerful. Next time we’ll continue with more post-pandemic health preservation methods.

Based on Doctor Luo Dalun’s health lecture series (post-pandemic wellness series: emotions).