Learning to Slow Down at Forty: Aiming to Live Past a Hundred

Until the age of forty, my life had always sought rapid growth and rapid development. Now I feel that rapid growth and rapid development go against the laws of nature; in all things it is better for a person to go a bit slower. Human beings are children of nature; if we are not so grasping and impatient for gain and instead follow the laws of nature, perhaps we can live a bit longer.

I used to be in poor health, and my expected lifespan was forty. Later I gradually thought that perhaps I too could live past eighty. Now that I have passed forty and my health is quite good, and I know a bit of regimen (yangsheng), my energy at forty seems a bit stronger than at thirty, and my physical condition better too. So I venture to think that, if I make an effort, there is hope of living past a hundred.

Of course, whether I can live past a hundred is not important to me; I am not that greedy for life. But I cannot find a reason to loathe life either. On the whole, I love life. So if there is hope of living past a hundred, I should strive to live past a hundred.

If my expected lifespan used to be eighty and is now a hundred, then I may still have sixty years left before death. So though I am forty now, I am effectively only twenty. Thinking of myself as still a twenty-year-old lad, with perhaps sixty years of time left to use, my heart feels wonderful.

If there are still sixty years, then there is no need to rush about anything. In the past I did many things like pulling up seedlings to help them grow, squandering my original qi; thinking back now, it seems foolish.

As a child my father always urged me to do everything faster; if I walked slowly or ate slowly he would say I was trying to be lazy, so now I walk and eat much faster than most people. Most people who walk with me end up panting.

In school, teachers thought my intelligence was merely so-so and always hoped I would advance a bit faster than average. The goals I set for myself also exceeded the ordinary. My youth was not wasted, but it seems I also overworked.

And what is worse, once such habits are formed, a lifetime can hardly change them. One cannot say these habits are entirely useless: now I act quickly and study and work efficiently, which is a good thing. By rights I should have more free time and live more leisurely. In fact the opposite is true: my study tasks and workload keep growing, and the work intensity is high. Over time, this is no good for the body.

A few years ago I started growing flowers, and as I went along I fell in love with it. As far as I know, there is a therapy called horticultural therapy, and I even went out of my way to study it in depth. Horticultural therapy is very effective at relieving mental stress. After growing flowers for a few years, I realized from gardening that this thing truly can reduce mental pressure. Besides that, it has also, little by little, corrected my habit of rushing everything.

Nowadays, when I am not working or studying, taking a pair of scissors to prune my flowers and plants, or fertilizing and watering them, my heart gradually settles and relaxes. Watching these plants grow naturally once they have sunlight and rain, I gain some deeper reflections on my own life.

Human beings are no different from plants; we are all children of nature. But human growth and development have more subjectivity, and because of this subjectivity many people grow and develop in violation of natural laws. In pursuing all sorts of life goals, we are too impatient for quick gain. This impatience inevitably creates an overly heavy physical and mental burden. Once that burden is heavy, it is only natural that lifespan is affected.

Especially in modern society, the sheer number of rules is dizzying. Information explodes, and many people, waving pens and wagging tongues, stir up all sorts of our bad emotions. Life is also too rich and varied, so that people's sensory organs are overtaxed.

When I am alone and quiet, I often think: of the goals I pursue and my own way of life, how much actually follows the laws of nature? Whatever does not follow natural law should be corrected. No matter how reasonable it looks by social standards, if by natural standards it violates nature, then it is not worth caring about.

Analyzing myself this way, many things have been stripped off me. I am first a natural person, and only then a social one. If I have to abandon my inborn nature as a child of nature in order to play the role of a social person well, then sorry, I need not play that role. Many social roles are absurd and laughable.

From thirty to forty, I spent ten years on this kind of reflection and training, gradually stripping off many encumbrances. That is why I feel my energy at forty is fuller than at thirty. As age increases, my organs inevitably age, yet my energy is more abundant than before. What is the reason? The only possibility is that I squander less and less of my energy, having learned the way of regimen and the importance of conserving my vital essence.

The Medicine King, Sun Simiao, was in very poor health as a child and sought doctors everywhere, nearly ruining his family with his illness. Yet this very sickly child ultimately lived past a hundred. I have also seen many people in poor health live far longer than doctors expected. Though all kinds of factors extend their lives, I feel the most crucial is that, when they lost their health, they came to cherish it, knowing their remaining years were limited and could not be squandered.

Energy is like money in the bank: if you spend recklessly, it runs out quickly; if you spend it steadily and thriftily, it lasts longer. Most so-called worldly pleasures are built on squandering one's own energy. When a person's pleasure no longer depends on sensory stimulation and can be obtained lightly, there is no need to squander energy and damage one's original qi.

If life has several extra decades, what a wonderful thing that would be! I am willing to adjust my life and work pace for this goal. When it is time to slow down, just slow down.