Macrobiotic 7 Conditions for Health
The macrobiotic 7 conditions for health was developed by George Ohsawa from 1940 over a 20 year period. They form a useful check list in macrobiotic health coaching and help us ensure we have a holistic approach to our health.
- Energy – Have vitality and the ability to engage in exercise, movement and activities.
- Appetite – Enjoy simple, whole, natural, healthy plant based foods.
- Sleep – Benefit from a full nights, deep sleep and feel refreshed when waking.
- Memory – Ability to remember names, thoughts, ideas, events and be able to discuss these without requiring notes or a mobile phone.
- Good humour – Live with deep appreciation and free from anger or stress.
- Thinking – Apply common sense, be alert, able to respond quickly with deep thinking and create order around us.
- Appreciation – Ohsawa described this as living with the visible and invisible worlds, combining spirituality with materialism. He gave examples; Living in harmony with nature, with a sense of freedom, in pursuit of personal dreams, with the highest values in life, honestly and never meeting someone he or she does not like.
I ask clients to rate themselves, from 1 to 5, for each condition. This helps highlight aspects of life that need the most attention. Next we can use this to create an action plan.
Macrobiotic Action Plan
We can express the macrobiotic 7 conditions for health as an action plan. For example;
- Engage in daily exercise and movement. This can include stretching, aerobic / cardio, resistance / weights, and in some case anaerobic / intense exercise. Try yoga, tai chi, dancing, sports, walking and going to the gym.
- Make practical steps to eating a more healthy diet. This might include more vegetables, whole grains, fruits, beans, nuts, seeds, teas, water and naturally fermented foods. At the same time reducing processed foods and drinks.
- Ensuring we benefit from 7 to 8 hours high quality sleep with 2 complete sleep cycles. To achieve this we may want to reduce caffein later in the day, meditate during the evening, exercise and be physically active during the day, eat earlier in the evening, create a relaxing bedroom, keep phones and radio alarms away from our beds, reduce exposure to blue screens and bright lights in the evening.
- Practice memory exercises, learn to remember people’s names, engage in conversations and discussions that rely on our memory, engage in ongoing study.
- Be aware of our emotions and experiment with meditation, mindfulness, acceptance, changing perspectives, exercise, deep breathing, being social, sharing issues, helping others and positive thinking to enjoy emotional wellbeing.
- Like all parts of our body our mind needs exercising to keep it healthy. This can be achieved through ongoing study, thinking for ourselves, research, positive thinking practices, discussion groups, being constructive and solution orientated.
- Developing practices that help us embrace the biggest view of life and through that enjoy bigger perspectives of life. This is the macro in macrobiotics. Although how we achieve this is highly personal, suggestions include meditation, creativity, philosophy, prayer, star gazing, connecting with nature, embracing different cultures, meeting people from a variety of backgrounds and exploring various forms of spirituality.
The aim is to use to the macrobiotic 7 conditions for health to help focus on the areas in the action plan that would most improve our lives.
Next read about the macrobiotic 7 stages of consciousness
Possible Origins
Ohsawa may have adapted The Six Non Naturals of Galen of Pergamon 130 – 210AD.
-
Air and breathing
-
Movement and rest
-
Sleep and waking
-
Things taken in, such as food and drink
-
Things excreted
-
Passions and emotions.
Basic remedies were clean air, sunshine, pure water and healthy food.