March 6th, 2011. "Insects awaken", the 3rd small Spring season arrives PART 1

    Ancient people believed that thunder and lightning would sink into the earth in autumn. When the farming season arrives, the hoe hits the ground, thunder and lightning would wake up and rush up to the sky. All animals and insects in hibernation would wake up with the sound. Therefore, this season is named as "insects awaken".


   The thunder and lightning may not be in the earth, but they do will show up soon in the sky. But what really wakes up the animals and insects is not the sound of the thunder, but the rise of the earth temperature instead. Farmers believe that if the thunder shows up on or after the "insects awaken" day, it will be a good year. Instead, if thunder appears early, it indicates that the coming year will be too rainy. 
   
    You may not have to worry about farming too much, but as usual, we do need to care about how to preserve our health and fit into the universal energy movement. First of all, this will be the last wind season and wind will give its "best" before it leaves. When wind flows it also carries lot of  virus around. Therefore this is also a high season for flu and other epidemics. Again, don't be fooled by the possible high temperature, make sure still stay warm and covered.


    There are general rules and individual rules for different situations. Galen of Pergamon came up with the body fluid theory to categorize human beings into four types:  blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Ivan Pavlov developed his theory about human being as phlegmatic, choleric, sanguine, and melancholic. The ancient Chinese divided human beings into the five elements as metal, tree(wood), water fire and earth, and each element also has 5 different levels, so the total number becomes 25, AKA the "Yin-Yang 25-type". Here we can see both West and East had noticed the difference and similarity of human beings. However, western medicine has not yet had any clear theory or directions about how to preserve health or heal certain sicknesses for each individual type of human. On the other hands, luckily the ancient Chinese did come up with several documents about what the western world was missing. 


    Here I'm pasting the original text about the theory in Chinese, if you happen to study Chinese culture and can understand, great. If not, don't worry. Although the texts are long and different, the points are the same. All they are describing are how different location, environment,climate,and food can affect human beings,how to preserve health, how to identify sickness according to these elements and how to treat them. Also they had an agreement that human body type and quality are the main reasons for different sicknesses and disease. Therefore how to improve or even change body quality becomes the main point:

• 《素问·异法方宜论》指出：“东西南北中五方由于地域环境气候不同，居民生活习惯不同，所形成不同的体质，易患不同的病症，因此治法随之而异。”
• 《格致余论》：“凡人之形，长不及短，大不及小，肥不及瘦，人之色，白不及黑，嫩不及苍，薄不及厚。而况肥人多湿，瘦人多火；白者肺气虚，黑者肾不足。形色既殊，脏腑亦异，外证虽同，治法迥别也”。
• 《医理辑要·锦囊觉后篇》：“要知易风为病者，表气素虚；易寒为病者，阳气素弱；易热为病者，阴气素衰；易伤食者，脾胃必亏；易老伤者，中气必损”。

    The good news is that it has been proven that human body quality and type can be changed. Even under fixed external conditions, as long as we put the right effort with positive attitudes, everyone is able to preserve and improve their health.
    
    Here we will be talking about the key points for this season (or in general) base on 4 main imbalanced body types: Low in Yin, Low in Yang, Blood Stasis, and Phlegmatic Dampness. You may not belong to any of these types, that's good, keep up with the good life. If you find you may fit into one or more type below, try to follow the tips and we wish you the best to improve your health condition!


                                                                                                                            (to be continued)