The ten Shaolin tips for staying young boil down to moderation: think and talk less, take regular breaks from work, keep strong emotions in check, stop eating before you are full, don’t rush, and balance hard exercise with gentle practices such as qigong. They come from a short extract of a classical Shaolin text, translated into English by Shifu Yan Lei, a Shaolin kung fu teacher who presents himself as a 34th-generation disciple of the tradition and teaches internationally.
Some of the advice lines up well with modern health research. Some of the explanations, such as happiness harming the lungs or anger damaging the liver, belong to traditional Chinese medicine rather than to tested physiology. Below you will find each tip in plain words, the idea behind it, and what current evidence says, so you can take what is useful and leave the rest.
Where the tips come from
The Shaolin Monastery stands at the foot of Mount Song in Dengfeng, in China’s Henan province. It was founded in 495 under the Northern Wei dynasty and is regarded as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism, better known in the West by its Japanese name, Zen. It is also the cradle of Shaolin kung fu, and since 2010 its historic buildings have been part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. Disciples traditionally receive a generation name taken from a 70-character poem introduced in the Yuan dynasty, which is why teachers describe themselves by generation number.
The popular story that the Indian monk Bodhidharma created Shaolin martial arts is a later legend; historians trace it to a 17th-century qigong manual and to an early 20th-century novel. What is certain is that the monks combined meditation, physical training and practical health advice, and that this mix is what the ten tips reflect. According to Shifu Yan Lei, the extract was written by a monk who was both a martial artist and a scholar, addressing ordinary people rather than monks.
The ten tips in plain words
- Don’t overthink. Constant worrying and mental churning drain energy and, in the text’s view, show on your face.
- Talk less, act more. The advice favours doing things over describing them.
- Take regular breaks. Work for about forty minutes, then rest for ten. Staring at one thing for hours is said to tire the eyes and disturb inner calm.
- Keep joy within limits. Even happiness, if it becomes over-excitement, is described as harming the body’s “lung energy”.
- Avoid excessive worry and anger. These are linked, in traditional terms, to harm to the liver and the gut.
- Stop before you are full. Eat small amounts, leave the table slightly hungry, and eat a little again when hunger returns.
- Don’t hurry. Do things at a steady pace; the text quotes the old idea of hastening slowly.
- Don’t rely only on hard training. Strenuous exercise with no qigong is said to leave you unbalanced and impatient, short on Yin.
- Don’t rely only on stillness. Meditation and soft practice with no vigorous exercise are said to leave you short on Yang.
- Seek balance, not hours. The aim of Shaolin practice is to balance Yin and Yang; how long you train matters less than knowing what your body needs.
What modern evidence says
Breaks from screens and desks
The forty-and-ten rhythm is close to what eye and workplace specialists suggest. The American Academy of Ophthalmology says computer work does not permanently harm the eyes, but long, focused sessions reduce blinking, which dries the eyes and causes strain and fatigue. Its advice is to look at something more than about 3 metres (10 feet) away for at least 20 seconds roughly every 20 minutes. The text’s claim that staring damages internal organs is not supported, but the habit of stepping away regularly is a good one.
Breaks also help with sitting. The World Health Organization notes that more sedentary time is linked to higher rates of heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes, and recommends limiting it at every age.
Eating until not quite full
Tip six echoes a Japanese saying, hara hachi bu, “eat until you are 80 per cent full”, which is associated with traditional eating habits in Okinawa, a region known for a high proportion of centenarians. Okinawan elders have historically eaten fewer calories and had lower body mass than older adults in the United States. Researchers who study Okinawa suggest that this mild restraint may work as a gentle form of calorie restriction, which extends lifespan in laboratory animals. Evidence in humans is less direct, but avoiding habitual overeating is uncontroversial advice. The link to the spleen is a traditional concept, not a medical finding.
Balancing hard and gentle exercise
Tips eight and nine describe a balance that modern guidelines would recognise. The WHO recommends that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week, and points out that any amount is better than none. Those who are not active enough face a 20 to 30 per cent higher risk of death than those who are.
Gentle practices have their own value. According to the US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, qigong combines slow breathing, gentle movement and focused attention, appears to be a safe form of activity, and has good evidence for improving balance and reducing falls. Evidence for many other conditions is still preliminary because most studies are small. So the Shaolin instinct to combine vigorous training with quieter work is sound, even if Yin and Yang are a philosophical way of describing it.
Worry, anger and over-excitement
Modern psychology does not say that joy damages the lungs or that anger damages the liver. It does recognise that chronic stress and persistent anger affect sleep, blood pressure and wellbeing, and that practices such as meditation, slow breathing and regular exercise can help people manage them. The Shaolin advice works best read as a call for emotional steadiness, not as anatomy.
Hastening slowly: an idea shared across cultures
Tip seven’s phrase has a close cousin in the West. The Latin motto festina lente, “make haste slowly”, translates a Greek saying that, according to the Roman historian Suetonius, the emperor Augustus liked to repeat, because he disliked rashness in his commanders. Centuries later the Venetian printer Aldus Manutius used a dolphin wrapped around an anchor as his emblem, pairing speed with steadiness.
The idea is the same in a Shaolin training hall: move with purpose, but without the panic that causes mistakes and injuries.
Myths to set aside
“Thinking makes you look old.” There is no evidence that thinking itself ages you. Mental activity is, if anything, associated with healthier ageing. What the tip seems to target is rumination: going over the same worries again and again.
“These tips will keep you young forever.” No routine stops ageing. Moderation, movement, rest and steady emotions can support healthier ageing, but they cannot replace medical care. If you have a health condition, are pregnant or are new to exercise, talk to a doctor before starting a demanding training programme, and don’t use qigong or any other practice as a reason to delay seeing one.
“More training is always better.” The tenth tip is the wisest: hours matter less than knowing what your body needs. Overtraining and constant fatigue are as unbalanced as never moving at all.
How to put the tips into practice
- Set a timer to stand up, stretch and look out of the window every 30 to 40 minutes.
- Serve slightly smaller portions and pause before taking seconds.
- Mix brisk walking, cycling or strength work with a few minutes of slow breathing, stretching, tai chi or qigong.
- Notice when you are rushing, and slow down on purpose for routine tasks.
- When worry loops, write the problem down and choose one small action, then let the rest wait.
About the translator
Shifu Yan Lei teaches Shaolin kung fu and qigong and shares training programmes, retreats and a newsletter through his website. He also offers training DVDs and meditation aids for people who want to practise at home.
Sources: Shifu Yan Lei: Ten tips from a Shaolin monk (original translation); Wikipedia: Shaolin Monastery; American Academy of Ophthalmology: Does computer work damage eyes?; NCCIH: Qigong, what you need to know; WHO: Physical activity fact sheet; Wikipedia: Hara hachi bu; Wikipedia: Festina lente. Photo via pxleyes.com.
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