At Kakikofu, we care about more than treatment with kampo and acupuncture. We also care deeply about yōjō (養生).
Yōjō may sound old-fashioned. Today we might call it “self-care.” But we mean something a little broader: nourishing life itself, and quietly building the strength to live well through everyday habits.
It does not have to be complicated. Eat what suits the season and your condition, in moderation, and enjoy it. Create an environment where you can sleep deeply. Wear clothes that feel good. Move your body moderately, and rest moderately. Keep your food, clothing and home comfortable for you. That is the heart of it.
Above all, do not force it, and do not overdo it. But do give honest thought to your body and to yourself. If you are straining to practice yōjō, it is no longer yōjō.
目次
Five pillars of yōjō
At Kakikofu, we think of yōjō in five pillars: food, kampo, moxibustion, body and mind.
My wife Kaori looks after food, using her knowledge of medicinal cuisine, and kampo medicine. I look after moxibustion, and the care of body and mind.
These five are not separate. Eating affects the mind as well as the body. Moving the body changes how we feel. When the mind grows quiet, the body can let go. In East Asian medicine, body and mind are never entirely separated.
So we approach the care of body and mind from two directions: active yōjō and quiet yōjō.
Start with three minutes of movement
We recommend a simple place to begin: move your body for three minutes. Stretch. Bend. Twist. Sway. No difficult exercise or complicated routine is needed. If “three minutes is too long!”, then one minute is fine, or even a single stretch. If you can do more, continue for five or ten minutes.
What matters is not creating a new obligation. “It’s pointless unless I do thirty minutes” and “I must do it every day” are not the spirit of yōjō.
Modern research points in a similar direction. Japan’s Physical Activity and Exercise Guide for Health 2023, from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, is built on the idea of moving a little more than you do now. Researchers are also studying very short bouts of activity spread through the day, sometimes called “exercise snacks,” and their effects on fitness, blood pressure and blood sugar.
This does not mean that three minutes will make you healthy. But it is also wrong to say that three minutes is too short to matter. Three minutes is not a magic number. It is a doorway into a life that includes movement.
Walking, stretching, or Japanese radio calisthenics all count. This is not athletic training. Move comfortably, without competing with anyone, in a way that suits your body and your condition today.
From “I can’t move” to “Not today”
Not everyone should be moving more. Some people are recovering, in hospital, in strong pain, or without energy. For them, illness or treatment makes movement itself a burden. My wife Kaori is one of them.
Telling such a person to “exercise and try harder!” can add to their stress. Many also feel uneasy about resting. Am I useless if I do nothing? I must get well quickly. I must get back to work. It is often because we want so much to recover that we try too hard.
But sometimes it is better not to try hard.
So let us shift our view. Not “I can’t move,” but “Today, I will not move.” Considering the state of your body, you choose to rest. From a passive “can’t” to an active “not today.” This is the second form of yōjō at Kakikofu: quiet yōjō. In qigong, quiet methods for settling body and mind are called jing gong (静功), and moving methods are called dong gong (動功).
“Trying hard had become a habit”
Recently, someone recovering from a heart condition came to us for advice. Eager to get well, they felt they should do something good for their body whenever they felt a little better, and they had been trying to breathe deeply on purpose.
We told them, “Right now, it is also important not to do too much.”
First, find the position in which breathing feels easiest. If it is medically fine and you can move a little, gently move your fingers and toes. Rest both hands lightly on your belly and close your eyes. Do not try to control your breathing or deepen it. Simply feel your natural breath. If you notice tension in your shoulders, chest or face, let it go a little, if it lets go easily. Just notice: “my breathing is fast right now,” “shallow right now,” “my heart is pounding.” Do not try to change anything. Leave it to the body.
A few minutes is enough. One minute, or even a few seconds, is fine. Falling asleep is fine. What matters is that it feels easy, and that you do not try hard.
Later, this person told us that natural breathing felt easier than the deep breathing they had been forcing, and that they had not realized how much tension they were carrying. And then they said: “I think ‘trying hard’ had become a habit for me.” Those words stayed with us.
You do not have to try hard to heal
When Kaori was hospitalized with dilated cardiomyopathy, we also tried hard. What can we do? Is there anything good for her body? That desire sometimes became a burden on her body.
So we changed our approach. We stopped pushing at breathing exercises. We stopped trying to meditate well. We stopped studying up on it. She simply lay quietly and turned a little attention to her body and her natural breath. During her hospital stay, Kaori made time like this on purpose.
Afterwards, her condition, which had been slow to stabilize, gradually began to settle.
We cannot say that it settled because she was quiet. Hospital treatment, medication, diet management, rehabilitation, and the support of doctors, nurses and other medical staff all played a part. We do not know what contributed, or how much.
But it is a fact of our experience that, while she was receiving medical care, her condition settled during the time she was actively making room for doing nothing.
Modern researchers also study relaxation, mindfulness and other ways of turning quiet attention to the body. One systematic review, for example, looked at relaxation, meditation and guided imagery in people with heart failure, and at breathlessness, sleep, fatigue and quality of life (abstract). The results are mixed, these methods are not treatments for the disease, and they are not the same as our quiet yōjō. Still, how doing nothing, and observing without trying to change anything, affects body and mind is a subject of scientific study.
Three quiet minutes
Quiet yōjō needs no special technique. Settle into a comfortable position and breathe naturally. Do not try to inhale deeply or exhale slowly, and do not try to meditate well. Just wonder a little: “How am I breathing right now?” “Where is there tension in my body?” If you notice something, do not hurry to fix it.
Begin with three minutes. If that feels long, one minute is fine, or less. It is fine to fall asleep.
If you are recovering or living with an illness, please follow the guidance you have received from your doctor and medical staff about activity and rest.
Moving and being quiet
Which is better for the body: moving, or being quiet? I believe both are needed.
Zen training has both stillness and movement. Monks sit quietly in zazen, walk slowly in kinhin, do physical work such as cleaning and cooking in samu, and then sit again. Quiet, movement, quiet again.
What matters is where you are today. That decides your doorway. If you are well but barely move, begin with three minutes of movement. If illness or treatment makes movement a heavy burden, begin by resting actively: make quiet time and wait for your body to recover. When your medical team agrees, gradually add movement. Once you are strong enough, move, be quiet, then move again.
Body and mind cannot be neatly separated. So watch your body and mind from moment to moment, and choose what is needed.
Today I feel well, so I will move a little.
Today I am tired, so I will be quiet.
Today I am recovering, so I will rest on purpose.
That, too, is yōjō.
Caring for our bodies is not only about doing something. Moving, resting quietly, eating, sleeping, and turning a little attention to body and mind all help to nourish the strength to live. That is what we at Kakikofu mean by yōjō.
What comes next
In upcoming Kakikofu columns, we will look more closely at each of the five pillars: food, kampo, moxibustion, body and mind. We plan to share clinical cases, practical methods for everyday life, and related research.
No single approach suits everyone. As you read, ask yourself, “What do I need today?” and turn a little attention to your body and mind.
Do not force it. Do not overdo it. Start with what you can, little by little. That is where yōjō begins.
Related reading
・Five Minutes to Help the Body Remember How to Move −A simple way to begin moving, and the idea behind our “active yōjō”.
・Common Sense Changes – Lactic acid, H. pylori and the changing definition of pain, and what they tell us about how medicine advances.
Kakikofu
Hiroshi
