Friday, November 19, 2010

November 22nd, 2010, "Light Snow", the 2nd small winter season arrives

    If the last season "Winter commences"  did not make you think that winter is here, the "light snow" will prove it by giving you some snow, but just light, like its name.
   
    When the light snow drops, it will save us from the past dry seasons, our mouth, nose may feel somehow relieved from the dryness. Snow is the product of cold, it is the signal of the nature telling us to put on more layers and be prepare for what's coming. 
    
    Around this season, we are more likely to get more cloudy and dark days, again, this will affect people's mood, especially those who are or easy to get depressed need to find some good ways to adjust their mood in a sunny day. This is the main topic we are dealing with in this season and here I'd like to talk more about it with everyone.  


    TCM has a saying, "There are no more than three causes for thousands kinds of sickness". The "three causes" are "internal" (7 extreme emotions), "external" (wind,cold,heat,wet,dry,burns), and "non-internal nor-external" (cut, hit, poison...). Depression is often cause by "internal" factor. The 7 emotions include happy, angry, worry, concern, sad, scary and shock. We have these emotions in daily life as they are our normal reaction to the world around us. They will only cause problem if we live under one or more certain kinds of emotion for long time and cannot get out of it. Human emotion conditions show the psychological emotional activities, and the psychological activities are keys to any psychological and emotional sicknesses. Therefore, TCM thinks that extreme emotions is the cause of depression. Ancient Chinese "health preservation specialists" believed  in order to be healthy, one must unify with the changes of the universe, and keep a "empty" and peaceful mind. A clear mind keeps the energy inside and make a perfect "spirit-physical-unified" body.


    We all know that these days modern researches have shown that depression is also caused by certain neuron or chemical elements in the body, but modern medicine never deny that depression is also a result of abnormal emotional activities. There are some researches show that there is a weird thing in our brain called "5-hydroxy tryptamine" (I guess scientists love to name things in a super hard way so they can keep them to themselves and when they mention these words to everyone else nobody will understand what they are anyway thus won't bother ask about ...). The "5-HT" thing reacts to season changes strongly. It functions stronger in spring and summer, but very weak in fall and winter. 


   In conclusion, in this season, the "internal" factors can be more powerful than the "external" factors. We must be happy, enjoy the holidays, listen to happy music, do more outdoor activities especially in good days. Also eat the right thing - banana. Scientists say banana can produce that "5-HT" thing, so let's benefit from their research, without side effects. 


P.S.  I mentioned earlier that this winter season is under influence of 2 "wood wind" factors. "snow" may ends up with "rain" and "wind". Cold rain is very harmful, especially for those who have joints related problems. Be very very careful, cover up your joints and try to keep them warm all the time!

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