 So there's an interesting story that I've been circulating around the internet of a supposed 256-year-old Chinese man named Li Qingyun who had been going through all the provinces of China and worked as an herbalist for a while and as a drugist and sold these herbs he was harvesting in the mountains and through certain practices achieved an unusually long life. Now whether or not you believe that to be true his pieces of advice for a long life I think are really worth studying and I want to share those in today's video here. Hey it's Alex Hein, author of the health book Master the Day. Now I've included a free download right there below the video and it's for a free pdf five daily rituals that can potentially help you add 10 years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine so you can check it out right there the first link in the description. So this guy Li Qingyun was interviewed by a Taiwanese general named Yang Sen and there's actually a 1933 time.com time magazine interview with him he was that renowned all over the world and he gave these four pieces of advice that we're going to be talking about here. Now the first piece of advice he gave for a long life is keep a quiet heart. You know the other day I was sitting in traffic and I was actually not really in a rush for the first time in a while and there was a lot of traffic going on the highway and I was listening to great music it was in no rush having a good time and all of these people around me were cutting in and cutting out and people were honking their horns because it was rush hour and everyone was trying to get somewhere and people were like flinging their hands out the window because they were pissed at people and I think this is obviously the opposite of a quiet heart. This analogy is used a lot in Buddhism and Taoism for kind of having a non-reactive spirit so to speak. Just kind of being like happy go lucky kind of content wherever you go and not getting stirred up too much. The second piece of advice he gave was to sit still like a tortoise. Now if you've ever seen a tortoise sometimes they can just sit there completely still for absolute hours like they're a rock. Now one of the stories about Li Qingyun was that he would wake up in the morning and if he had time he would sit for a few hours where he woke up completely still meditating. Now obviously this is a very cliche archetype for like the sage who lives to be 256 years old but nonetheless modern world the modern society is so marked by a profound lack of stillness. It's marked by a profound amount of restlessness and I know it better than anyone else as someone who's always going here going there trying to find that kind of stillness and not getting just his nervous system so on all the time. But sitting still like a tortoise is one of those things where you look at the modern person if you've ever waited in line in a market or in the doctor's office how many people can just sit there and just look around even for a five minute wait just sit in the chair look around without their phone without a book without a magazine really challenging for a lot of people and yet that by itself is what the modern person needs more than anything this lack of stimulation. The third piece of advice he gave for longevity was to walk sprightly like a pigeon. Now having been born in Brooklyn New York trust me I know what pigeons walk like and they've got this a very quick kind of peppy walk. Now my grandma in her 80s has one of the most sprightly walks of anyone that I've seen. Anywhere she's going it's kind of like a quick power walk and she's just has a lot of energy for an 80 year old. Now even though she doesn't have perfect health and even though she isn't looking like a fitness model or something she is very vital and I think that's the thing that's the difference because you meet 50 year olds 60 70 80 year old certainly that are not that vital they move slow they bend down slow they react slow but this idea of walking sprightly like a pigeon is just you know it's like a quick energetic walk something that kind of builds energy and gets the circulation going and it's almost like an indicator of vitality where you look at a child being the most vital the beginning of their life all their energy is there they're running around they have all this energy they can scream all day and they don't they know as the Tao Djing says they they never grow a horse their voice and then the opposite side of the spectrum is the elderly person on their deathbed reacting like this speaking so slowly the eyes take a minute to make eye contact and so you can see how that flexibility that sprightliness is a measure of health and vitality. Now the last piece of advice he gave was to sleep like a dog. Now I asked one of my friends what he thought he meant by that because it kind of confused me and here's what he said and I thought it was very very wise does sleep like a dog means that you can sleep anywhere anytime your mind is calm clear and there aren't any thoughts in your mind messing up your sleep a dog will casually plop down pretty much anywhere let loose a sigh of relief and quickly effortlessly fall asleep and I would add to that that dogs can wake up easily too so if they have to be vigilant and do something they can get up their nervous system is not overstimulated because they can go lay down and five minutes be back asleep. Now these four pieces of advice are great advice no matter who you are and what you're trying to do but I hope they help you in some small way cultivate some of those daily rituals that can help you feel better live better and attain a long and healthy life however long you want it to be. Alright guys so I hope that helps I hope Li Qingyun's legendary four pieces of advice help you and of course the first link below is for a free pdf which is five daily rituals that can potentially help you add 10 years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine you can check it out down there below and then check out my last related video right there and right there