Birthday cake with candles for 100 year old

Live Longer by Using Baoding Balls

Live longer? How can a simple exercise of rotating a couple balls make you live longer? The answer is knowing how to manage the culprit called “stress”.

Stress is the Root of Aging Faster

We all know too much stress is harmful to us. When your body is stressed out, we behave differently and the body changes.

Sylvester cat stressed out drinking coffee and smoking
  • Coping with stress leads to eating more which in turns makes us overweight
  • Stress causes arteries to harden leading to atherosclerosis
  • Stress causes wrinkles and gray hair which make you look older
  • Chronic stress affects sleeping, anxiety, anger, irritability, and a host of other behaviors which are not good for the health
  • Stress lowers the immune system and can even cause the immune system to attack itself
  • Stress creates free radicals in our bodies that damage our cells

Not a complete list, but enough to see any of these can lead to a shorter life. People spend billions of dollars on things to control the symptoms of stress like weight, blood pressure, and sleep. However, those issues will always exist without managing the cause.

Exercising with Baoding Balls can Reduce Stress

Ask any doctor and they will all say to exercise to help control stress. But our busy lives doesn’t always have the time. Or you may be a person which strenuous activity is just not possible. The ease of use is one positive feature of using baoding balls. You can use baoding balls almost anywhere and it doesn’t have to be exhausting. Exercise while you watch TV, read, sit at a desk, or wait in traffic. If you enjoy walks for exercise, they can compliment your routine. They are quite easygoing can can add a bit of stress relief to your day.

Baoding Balls Work Well with Relaxation Techniques

We can’t avoid all stressors in our life, but we can combat it. Harvard Medical School wrote that one way to combat stress responses with with relaxation responses. These techniques recommended by Harvard can work well while using baoding balls.

  • Deep breathing. This technique where you take long, deep, and slow breaths from the belly is simple and effective to relax your self from distracting thoughts. Easy to pair with baoding ball meditation.
  • Body scanning. While you focus on your breathing, focus on a part of your body and mentally relax any tension. Baoding balls can help you focus on tension in your upper body and also be used to massage other areas.
  • Guided imagery and mindfulness meditation. Focus your mind on relaxing images and places. Bring your attention to the present with mindful meditation not focusing on past and future concerns. Using baoding balls with chimes can help meditation by giving you something to focus on.
  • Yoga, Tai Chi and Qigong. Going beyond rhythmic breathing, these relaxation forms involve body movement. Baoding balls are especially popular with tai chi and qigong.
  • Repetitive prayer. Repeating a short prayer or phrase while you focus on your breathing. Or you can focus on the rhythm of the baoding balls which might be easier.
Leonardo meditating with deep breaths

Reduce Stress and Add Years to Your Life

Life is short and we don’t need stress making it shorter, so why not give baoding balls a try? Clear your thoughts, and free your head of the the stress triggers. That’s why we call them Chinese Stress Balls.

What is Cloisonne? A Royal Treasure in the Palm of Your Hand

When you look at a baoding ball with elegant designs, you might wonder what kind of artwork this is. It is a technique called cloisonne (pronounced like cloy-son-aye). It is an art method dating as far back as the 14th century in China.

Cloisonne is the technique of creating designs on metal with enclosures of copper wires. These enclosures, called cloisons, are twisted and bent into various shapes which are then softly hammered, glued, and soldered onto the metal. Then the cloisons are filled with an enamel paint, fired, and polished revealing beautiful color.

Pair of red cloisonne peony baoding balls

Cloisonne is a National Treasure of China

It was first imported into China over 700 years ago from ancient Greece and Egypt. The technique was learned and developed during the Ming dynasty. It was a very time consuming and labor intensive processes with many steps so cloisonne items were only owned by the royal family. This raised the value and desirability of cloisonne greatly.

Cloisonne Designs Are All Hand Shaped

Once the metal piece has been prepared, artisans must bend and pinch copper wires into the specified designs. It is a skill that requires years of practice and patience as finishing one piece such as a vase or plate can take two months just for making and applying the copper wires. In modern day China, less people are doing this craft as a profession. Older generation masters are now teaching apprentices only one of the steps such as wire shaping or enamel painting instead of all the steps. Hoping to preserve and pass down the techniques in modern times, this way younger artisans become skilled faster and work more efficiently with others.

Next the copper shapes are dipped in a special glue and then arranged on the metal piece before going to the firing process.

After all the wire shapes are glued onto the piece, it is taken to be heated in a very hot kiln to 800 degrees Celsius. It is a small step, but each step is as important as the others because all other steps depend on the other work being done properly.

Cloisonne is Hand Painted and Polished

Painting each copper wire enclosure is the next step of the cloisonne process. A metal oxide powder is mixed with water to create the enamel paint. With over 3000 colors today, the options are much greater than ancient times and the craftsman has be be skilled at matching colors together. Instead of paint brushes, small tools and droppers and used to dab and fill in the areas with the enamel paint.

The pieces are fired in the kiln again melting the glaze adhering it to the copper wires and metal body. The process is repeated several times as colors and paint can burn or shrink during the firing. After painting is completed, the pieces are taken to be polished. This uses sanding and polishing compounds to smooth out any imperfections in the cloisonne.

After the several rounds of painting and sanding, a cloisonne piece is gold plated on the exposed copper areas. The end piece is a representation of an ancient art and treasure with beauty to last for years.

Cloisonne in the Palm of Your Hand

This technique was adapted in Baoding China for making cloisonne on metal balls. As cloisonne is a national treasure, cloisonne health balls are Baoding’s treasure. After hundreds of years, cloisonne is still be developed. Many cloisonne pieces now use resins and epoxy which imitate the look of cloisonne paint. It’s faster, lower cost, and more durable. As such, most painted baoding balls today use imitation cloisonne. Now you know when you hold a pair of baoding balls in your hand, you are holding something made by hand with hundreds of years of crafting history.

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