When people in the modern world think of a healthy mental attitude, it appears to be equated with a positive mental attitude.  In traditional macrobiotic teachings from the ancient eastern and western tradition, a healthy mental attitude was seen as something quite different.

In oriental medicine, especially from ancient China, one definition of a healthy mental attitude is when the seven emotions - joy, anger, grief, fear, fright and melancholy are appropriate to the stimuli. Another way of saying this is, are the emotional reactions you have appropriate to the situation. Every natural emotion has a circumstance that is natural.

For example, anger is protective against real danger to oneself or another.  Joy is expressed when something in our lives creates happiness. Grief is a natural response to loss and fear is a response to danger. From a holistic view, body imbalances especially in disrupted brain chemicals can create emotional reactions that are either inappropriate or over reactions to circumstances.

The first step in understanding and creating a healthy mental attitude is to find out if your diet or lifestyle is disrupting your brain chemicals and the energetic balance in the body and mind. I address the issue of correcting energetic and brain chemical imbalances in classes, my training programs, audios, videos, lectures and in consultations I give to people.

It is important to address these imbalances because excessive thinking and emotions cause a great loss of life energy and inner strength, the essence of the body. An importance principle to understand which runs counter to modern habits is that it is unhealthy to excessively express one’s emotions. This is why in ancient Chinese Taoist thought the emotions are called the 7 thieves.

On the other hand, experiencing emotions in a balanced way is a natural part of life according to the right circumstances. All the emotions when experienced normally can be seen as part of the purpose of life, to learn and grow our consciousness.

The stoics from ancient Greece and Rome were keepers of macrobiotic longevity philosophical teachings in the west in famous writings from Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. The Stoics emphasize balance in one’s approach to life which is epitomized by the phrases, the ego is the enemy and the obstacle is the way.  Taoist longevity teachings and the Stoics both emphasize a certain kind of philosophical approach to life so as to continue on harmoniously in one’s life through difficulties.

Another part of macrobiotic teachings concerning a healthy mental attitude that were taught in eastern philosophies and by the ancient Stoics was that our perspective on our life circumstances makes a difference in how these events affect us mentally and physically.

In the east, it was explained that all events are perceived through the mind and are not ultimately real. Part of a healthy mental attitude is to realize that circumstances and events are fleeting. Both the Stoics and the eastern philosophers taught and believed that only the present exists, the rest exists in the mind.

The Stoics seem to take a mental approach of remembering that this is reality. Eastern approaches took both a mental approach of reminding one that this is true and a physical approach of various meditation and body practices in Yoga and Chi Gong (Qi Gong) to help oneself be grounded in the present.

Meditation and body practices help people to let go of the past and stop thinking of the future. The Stoics did this through study and journaling. Many people are critical of this idea because they interpret it as forgetting about the mistakes of the past It does not mean that we shouldn’t reflect on the past to learn about our mistakes or to think of the future for planning. It relates more to thinking and emotional attachments that cause us to lose vast qualities of energy.

Both the Stoics and eastern macrobiotic teachers of Taoism and Buddhism believed that the spirit or soul in the western view, is untouchable by self-generated internal  thinking and emotional reactions or external circumstances or events. Meditational practices from Yoga and Chi Gong are designed to connect us to something greater than ourselves so that we can experience this untouchability. Western practices that are meditational usually involve prayer.

Keepers of the philosophical longevity traditions have a certain acceptance of natural life circumstances as part of a healthy attitude. Aging, pain, pleasure, obstacles, difficulties and death are all inevitable parts of living. If we take these things as a personal affront, and run after pleasure at all costs, we paradoxically burn out our internal energy and create disease.
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From the longevity view of east and west, a healthy mental attitude is balanced. Emotional reactions to circumstances, being able to change, alter or let go of negative perspectives, grounding ourselves in the present, and accepting the challenges and obstacles of life, we can be in touch with that part of us, the spirit or soul that is never harmed by internal or external experiences. 

​The energetic understanding of oriental medicines has been a guiding viewpoint in all of my health studies over the last 40 years. Chinese Taoist medicines explain how everything is a manifestation of qi (pronounced chi). Qi is often translated as energy. It is something more, a quality, something felt, sensed but not measured. It can be seen as the force behind all movement of life. It is imagery that can serve us well in order to more deeply fathom our health.
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Every thought, word and action is the manifestation of the life force being used by the body. Every thought, word and action consume the life force and a deeper quality of stored force or essence from the body.

All of the actions of the body and mind are manifestations of the life force transforming the substance of the body. The substance of the body is a combination of our genetic strength and the nourishment we get from food.  As long as we create more life force then we consume, we grow and flourish.

According to the thousands of year’s experience of oriental medicines, by our mid 30’s, our digestive system starts to weaken and we do not create as much abundant life force as we did before from our food and the air we breathe.

Because it is hard to replenish the life force, as we age, we must pay attention to sufficient rest and relaxation to renew the body for us to stay healthy. Here are some simple ideas to address this issue in our daily life.

Physical Rest

Working, walking, and talking are all important parts of a fulfilling life. It is important to stop activities before we become fatigued. Often, we ignore this principle and push forward. This creates poor health and the inability to interact in a harmonious way with others.

Prolonged execution and over exertion, doing something too long or too much for our current tolerance or condition exhausts the body. Over time overworking the body leads to sickness, premature aging and suffering.  Examples of activities that exhaust us are walking too long, lifting things beyond your strength and working too long hours that go beyond your capacity. Working at night particularly taxes the body.  

Economy of Speech

In oriental medicines from China and nearby cultures, speech is seen as being generated by the life energy derived from food and inhaled air. Great amounts of vitality is expended during talking. Talking and communicating are a natural part of life yet it is important to conserve our life force by managing how we use the resource of speech.

Sleep

The greatest rest and rejuvenation is derived from sleep. During sleep bodily functions slow down and whatever surplus of life force manufactured and nourishment absorbed is transformed and stored in the body. The body rebuilds itself during our sleep. Because of these important functions, going to sleep when it is dark and before 11 or 12 has the most beneficial effect on rejuvenating the body.

The body has to settle down to get a deep and good sleep. Three things are important to consider as part of good sleeping habits in order to settle the body and mind.

1. Keep a calm mind before you sleep. Avoid watching over stimulating movies.  Stop working or doing intense mental activities at least a few hours before you go to sleep.
2. Eat lightly before bed. Ideally, stop eating 3 hours before sleep. Avoid alcohol many hours before sleep or skip it.
3. Do very gentle exercise such as An Mo Gong, self-massage of acupressure points, walking a little or stretching.

​Mental Tranquility

Each sensation that we experience and each thought that we think uses up the life force. Thought uses up enormous amounts of the life force. It is important to take time to quiet the mind. Two ways to do this is by meditation or relaxation tapes. Meditation is a practice by which we quiet the mind. There are many techniques ranging from simple to advanced practices. On a basic level, techniques involve quieting the mind so that a person trains themselves to observe their thoughts. Over time with practice, a person can take their thoughts and many times accompanying emotional states less seriously. It is easier to let go of them due to this training. On another level, correct meditation techniques create a calmer mind during the day, less upset with the obstacles that life throws at us and can store the life force in the body for rejuvenation. 

John Henryism is based on the legend of the African-American John Henry who possessed amazing strength and decided to compete against a mechanical steam drill in a race to drive railroad spikes (his job at the time). John Henry beat the machine but died immediately afterwards from mental and physical exhaustion.

“…the term John Henryism now symbolizes the coping strategy characterized by aggressive tenacity, determination, and hard work while unconsciously sacrificing health issues in reaching the goal of meeting an environmental demand.”

John Henry not only represents the archetypal powerhouse/time bomb response to stress, but he also provides an example of failing to identify external limits. John Henry worked with only his internal sense of limits, meaning that he was convinced everything was within his power to change.

The lesson of John Henry can apply to both diet, what we do for health, work and life. Many people interested in improving their health through natural diet follow very austere diets which cut out elements of nutrition that are really proven to be healthy. The list is long including all sugars, meats and animal foods, carbohydrates, fats, foods that taste delicious, and calories.

After more than 40 years teaching, counseling and observing people in natural health approaches; I’ve seen that people take these restrictions too far, keep pushing themselves beyond what their body is saying is healthy and coming up with concepts as to why they should keep going in a direction that doesn’t make them feel well.

It can be confusing because during healing more often than not people feel worse at first. There is an idea that healing is all roses and rainbows. The reality that I’ve gained from counseling thousands of people is that there can be a lot of uncomfortable symptoms during healing. These do abate after a period of time.

My definition of knowing that you are following John Henryism in your diet is if your current natural diet is overly restrictive cutting out and demonizing calories and the major food groups: protein, fats, and carbohydrates.

If your diet has no animal proteins and you are not compensating for this with protein powders and supplements, and you are feeling poorly, the diet needs to change. If you are taking protein powders and supplements and feeling poorly on a vegan diet, you need to consider if this is right for you.

If your low carb diet is making you feel lousy, it is not a healing phase. The body needs carbohydrates.

With your diet, it is important not to be a John Henry. This is also a good rule of thumb for life and work. According to traditional eastern medicine’s teachings and the teachings of stress pioneer, Hans Selye, we only have a certain amount of adaptive energy to deal with stress. It is important in your diet and lifestyle to be aware of this and understand one’s limits in order to create a healthy longevity.
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John Henryism: CL Edwards, G Bennett, Encyclopedia of Multicultural Psychology, [ed.] Y Jackson, 2006
https://www.macrobiotic.com/how-to-be-safe-on-a-vegan-diet-not-vagen.html