The physical is governed by the mind and emotions. While mind may be tempered and disciplined, emotions are the ocean, washing in and out, as temporary as one wave, and as much as we would not spend our time counting the grains of sand carried away or returned every time the tide rushes in and departs again, so too, we cannot spend our lives fixated by one or another emotion, desperately holding on to something former or future while neglecting the present reality. Regardless of how we feel right now, this feeling is temporary, will subside and give way to another feeling, equally pleasant, more or less pleasant, even anithetical in effect. The feelings come and go and exist only as part of one larger prism or range of human experience.
Especially in response to change or newness, the first instinct emotionally is often to seek out a past comfort or to oppose change and indulge in hatred of this other, adopt a discompassion for what is new or alien and rather than inviting or adapting, we refuse, deny or in worst case scenario, develop hatred born of fear. Rather than maintaining a balanced spirit, a magnanimous heart, a kind even disposition, we seek a target when we're uncomfortable or faced with newness or challenge. We hate to avoid our own complexities or problems. This is the lifestyle modeled by so many housewives on reality TV and even a President to be.
Shifting the responsibility for our emotional balance presents a false sustainability. Medicine that does not account for the mind and emotions, separating these from body is spiritless medicine and doomed for unanticipated side effects and relapse. To cure is not temporary, and in seeking relief, we must account for the whole essence of being. The mind is not separate from the emotions. The emotions are not separate from the body. Each increases or weighs upon the other. What we can control is our perception, how we interpret information and stimuli, how we feel and how we choose to react.
Let morality steer us. For rage and anger will harm the liver; excessive stimulation (increased reliance on joy seeking) will harm the heart; grief and brooding will harm the spleen; sorrow and melancholy will harm the lungs while fear and terror (expressed by some as loathing or discrimination) will harm the kidneys. The spleen and liver are damaged by anger, melancholy and anxiety. Cancer itself is exacerbated by both the inhibited and the extreme of unregulated emotion.
In seeking fame and wealth, we seek to live outside of ourselves, as external representations. Who needs to find one's image in a pond after a long walk if a selfie is deemed sufficient, and Facebook pages bounce yourself back at you. (Do you know who you are? Would you recognize yourself in a new setting?) Life's lofty goals are not modern or ancient. To contribute, to serve, to represent, to unite and to love is the truth and the way. Who then works for their increasing net worth, for fame and profit at the expense of stagnant qi and blood, indulging in excessive egoism to develop disharmony among his own organs? Tranquility is removed by egotistical demands on our time and spirit (note particularly the shallowness of social media attention).
To abandon ourselves to sex or the pursuit of rich or rare food is as unrealistic as fantasizing about what we would do if we had this amount of money or this degree of success or this expensive new toy. Jealousy inhibits circulation as an extreme dependence on any escapist activity or mindset retains us in an empty shell. Fulfillment is a balance between the internal and external selves.
Freedom of will is what we have as humans to regulate our own experiences, mold our own destinies. We can consciously control our moods and emotions through rational conscious thought, through a mind well reasoned and nourished by healthy pleasures, healthy eating and regular exercise. In this balanced world, there is no change or upset so upsetting that the mind, spirit and body cannot turn into positive or natural if just in perceiving it as such.
