How to Rebuild Your Health After the Pandemic? Doctor Luo Dalun: Don’t Let Your Guard Down — Calm Your Mind and Live a Simple Life for a While

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Dear friends, good morning, everyone. Today I want to talk about something off the usual topic — we’ll set aside Doctor Zhang Xichun’s case records for now and talk about how we should take care of our bodies after the epidemic is under control. I often give stage-by-stage reminders, so that we are all aware of what phase we are in and how we should adjust.

Opening: That Weibo Post on January 5th

Doctor Luo Dalun says he is in the habit of giving everyone an early warning at key moments — just as on January 5th, when most people weren’t paying much attention to the epidemic yet, he wrote on Weibo: this is already a plague. And he listed several points telling everyone how to protect themselves.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: That post is still up there. At the time, many followers read it and began to realize the situation was getting serious. Some bought masks in advance; some who had planned business trips to Wuhan simply didn’t go — and in this way they protected themselves.

An Unprecedented Nationwide Fight, and Zero Local Transmission

He then looked back on the battle — the backbone doctors and nurses of major hospitals across the country all went to support Wuhan and Hubei; more than a billion people wore masks together; everyone stayed home to prevent the disease from spreading through travel and movement. This effort, he said, was “unprecedented”:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Can you imagine it? More than a billion people all wearing masks — that is a whole nation united as one. It is truly remarkable. In the end the epidemic was brought under control, and now there is already zero local transmission inside China.

But looking abroad, the situation was far from optimistic — six countries already had more than 20,000 cases each, and they were still in the midst of the outbreak.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What deserves special attention here is that some tropical countries, places where the weather is hot — Brazil, for example — are also seeing more patients. Malaysia is increasing too. Countries near the equator are increasing as well. What does this tell us?

This is an important hint — many people had predicted that this virus would lose its vitality in summer as temperatures rose, and that, like SARS back then, it would gradually be brought under control in the warm season. But what we are seeing now tells us: this year’s coronavirus is very likely completely different from SARS. A rise in temperature may not be the factor that controls it.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: So my reminder to everyone is: do not let your guard down. Lately many friends have started arranging gatherings and dinners again. I think everyone still needs to protect themselves properly.

Don’t Throw Away the Good Habits: Washing Hands, Masks — and Even Plain Glasses

What should we do specifically? The good habits formed during the whole epidemic must be kept — for example, washing hands frequently. Wash your hands often, at any moment, whether there’s a reason or not. This is very important.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: As for masks — some people say, “It’s all over now, can I stop wearing one?” My suggestion is: in areas where the pressure of imported cases is relatively high, I still recommend wearing a mask, only you can adjust it flexibly. When you go to a crowded place — get on a bus, walk into a mall — put the mask on. If you’re walking along a path with nobody around in the park, pull the mask down and let your nose out; that’s perfectly fine, or even not wearing it at all is fine.

He also offered a small suggestion that few people had thought of:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: I would even suggest that friends who are not nearsighted get themselves a pair of glasses — glasses with no prescription — and wear them in crowded places. It gives you a little bit of protective effect, a little bit of benefit. This is a habit everyone needs to develop during this special phase.

The First Thing: Calm Your Mind and Steady Your Spirit

From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, the first thing Doctor Luo Dalun mentions for adjusting the body after the epidemic is — calming the mind and steadying the spirit (ning shen jing qi).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: I don’t know whether you’ve felt it, but from the end of last year to the beginning of this year, the atmosphere around us felt a little different from before. It may partly be psychological — because of the epidemic, this New Year was different from previous years, and everyone’s social life was completely different from usual. Many people stared at epidemic news all day, watched far less entertainment, and their emotions changed; quite a few fell into anxiety. Some sensitive friends feel that the qi-field around them is a little different; some people who practice qigong have noticed it. I feel it myself — something is a little different.

He then shared a very real personal experience — treating illness this year really was different from treating illness in past years:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Take coughs, for example. I used to think external-contraction coughs were easy to treat: one dose showed obvious effect in my hands, and three doses should completely solve the problem. But this winter and spring, the coughs I encountered were all difficult to regulate. Sometimes I even felt I was slipping — I adjusted and adjusted and nothing worked. In the end I used Doctor Zhang Xichun’s method — Huai shan yao (Chinese yam) with Niu Bang Zi (burdock seed): 30 to 50 grams of Huai shan yao, plus 3 to 6 grams of Niu Bang Zi, simmered together in water and drunk slowly. Unlike the usual one or two doses, this took a whole week before the effect became obvious, and only by persisting did I recover. That’s how I felt — this season’s illnesses were just a bit different.

Later he wrote a Weibo post asking whether others felt the same, and countless people replied, “In past years coughs were simple; this year they just linger and refuse to heal.” Many TCM practitioners said they felt it too. Some said it was related to the Five Movements and Six Qi (wu yun liu qi) — Doctor Luo believes that connection exists, but there may be an even larger cause:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: For instance, the movements between galaxies. We live on Earth, and Earth is one member of the whole universe. If anything shifts in the movement of the galaxy, our living environment is actually very fragile and easily affected by it. Even the activity cycle of sunspots affects people — many natural disasters and famines in human society are often related to this. That is another research topic, so we won’t go into it here.

So in this kind of environment, how do we adjust ourselves?

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Don’t panic, and don’t rush blindly into doing things. Calming the mind and steadying the spirit is absolutely key. Once the mind is settled, think calmly about what we should do instead of frantically doing things — this benefits both our lives and our bodies. If conditions allow, sit quietly for a while every day, slow the pace of life a little, don’t be in such a hurry; and if you have the energy, recite the ancient classics — friends with an important faith can chant scriptures. A flustered mind does us no good.

The Second Thing: Exercise — Invest in Your Health

The second thing: Doctor Luo Dalun suggests everyone find a form of exercise. In the struggle against the epidemic, people discovered that the body’s own upright qi (zheng qi) — that is, resistance — is absolutely crucial. In the end it all comes down to upright qi fighting the external pathogens.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Our fight against plague and epidemic is not something that ends when this is over — it won’t. It will be a long struggle, so everyone must conserve their strength. Find a way to exercise: for example, stand in zhan zhuang (standing meditation), or take a daily walk. Don’t say, “Now that restrictions are lifted, let me rush out and make money” — if your whole mind is on making money, rushing about anxiously to make money, you may not even make it. Instead, settle your mind, train your body, and then go to work calmly and unhurriedly. You’ll do better and better that way.

After this epidemic, everyone has realized what matters most — health matters most.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Investing in health is exactly what we should do. Everyone must be willing to spend time on exercise — it will benefit your future enormously. As you know, this is a protracted war, and you must strengthen your upright qi.

The Third Thing: Study Chinese Medicine and Understand Your Own Constitution

For friends whose bodies are out of balance, Doctor Luo Dalun suggests using this time to study Chinese medicine properly. After the epidemic, everyone suddenly realized how important internet education is. Many teachers are giving online classes; if you listen for ten or twenty minutes every day and learn some TCM knowledge, it will do you good.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: And what do you do with what you learn? Analyze your own constitution, and adjust according to your own situation. Many people have been imbalanced for a long time — either yin deficiency, yang deficiency, qi deficiency, blood deficiency, phlegm-dampness, or blood stasis. This applies to a great many people. Try to find a completely normal person with harmonized qi and blood — among modern white-collar workers, I think it would be extremely hard to find one. Why? Because everyone stays up late every night, overeats every day, and over-thinks constantly. Genuinely healthy people are actually not that many. Now that the epidemic has made you realize this, you should use this opportunity to adjust in time. This is very important.

Reading the Tongue: Why Are Some People More Likely to “Catch It”?

This section on the tongue signs of epidemic patients is well worth reading closely. When Doctor Luo Dalun analyzed patients’ tongues, he found that quite a large number of patients had — a pale tongue body with an especially thick, greasy coating:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: A pale tongue body with a thick greasy coating — why? Their yang qi is insufficient in ordinary times, and when the whole climate turns cold and damp, they catch illness easily. So the entire tongue is snow-white, piled thick with coating — that’s one group. Then there’s the yin-deficient type — a very red tongue with no coating at all on top. There are patients like that too.

And there is one type of tongue sign that was extremely, extremely common among this round of COVID-19 patients — the constrained-liver-qi tongue:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The tongue with a particularly pointed tip — we call it the constrained liver qi (gan qi bu shu) tongue. This is a term I proposed. This tongue sign was extremely common among COVID-19 patients this time. Why? Because the qi movement is stuck — it’s stuck in ordinary times, so qi and blood don’t circulate smoothly. When circulation is blocked, the function of the defense system declines, and you catch illness easily. This is a very typical, very prominent feature of this epidemic.

So this epidemic actually reminds everyone: adjust your constitution in ordinary times.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: If your constitution is biased, then when an exceptional situation comes along, you’re more likely to be hit. So adjust yourself in peacetime, and try to keep your body in a basically normal state. This is very important.

Live a Simple Life for a While

There is another important matter — Doctor Luo Dalun suggests that during this period everyone should do the simplest things: get the core work done, go home and live a simple life. The simpler life is, the better.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Don’t keep thinking, “Finally I’m free! I haven’t been to Xiamen in a long time — I want to go to Hangzhou, I want to go see the flowers.” Flower-viewing can be done every single year; opportunities are plentiful. Whatever you do, don’t rush out for revenge travel the moment you’ve been cooped up too long. During the outbreak, the moment Beijing loosened up, the cars to Fragrant Hills filled the road — everyone went to look. That was very bad. Why? Because China’s population is huge: if everyone has the same idea and thinks of the same place, and even one-tenth or one-hundredth of the people act on it, the crowding in some places will exceed your imagination. That is genuinely unhelpful for epidemic control.

Spend Less

Doctor Luo Dalun also said something very frank — everyone should economize. Be thrifty with money.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Why? Because the entire global economy is going to be bad in the future. Although we’ve controlled the epidemic in China, the economies abroad have collapsed, and the epidemic is developing very seriously over there — that will affect our foreign trade orders as well. So the whole economic situation worldwide is bad, and everyone should save some money. That’s the honest truth. As ordinary people, we still have to look after the stability and peace of our future lives.

Be Happy, and Follow the Ascending Energy of Spring

The last suggestion — try to stay happy.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Sing with your family at home — sing positive, sunny songs — or watch some crosstalk comedy, or a comedy movie. You must be happy. And go out and get more sunlight — it’s spring, the scenery outside is beautiful. Spend more time in the courtyard in the sun, walk toward the sunshine more, and let your mood brighten.

Why emphasize this? Because spring’s qi movement is one of ascending and emerging, and everyone has been suppressed for a while:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Everyone’s mood has been bad lately — looking at those numbers every day did no one any good. So we must let our qi rise and emerge — let the qi movement ascend. Recently I’ve encountered some cases where the qi simply wouldn’t ascend; it kept moving downward. At times like this you must let it rise, so as to follow the rising and sinking, the ebb and flow, of nature’s qi movement. So let’s get close to the sunlight as much as we can, and be as happy as we can.

See You Tomorrow

Finally, Doctor Luo Dalun said that today he just wanted to talk with everyone about how to adjust yourself after the epidemic and enter a new state. He hopes it will remind everyone and be of use:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: I wish everyone a happy mood every day, a thoroughly sunny state of mind, and joyful work and life each day. Thank you all, and I wish you happiness and good fortune. And finally, as always — dear friends, see you tomorrow!

Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s health lecture (special topic: restoring health after the pandemic).