“Summer Solstice” is another well known season. Being the opposite of the Winter Solstice, Summer Solstice arrives when the celestial longitude reaches 90 degree, and the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun to its maximum extent. This is when the Northern Tropic, AKA Tropic of Cancer, which refers to the circle of latitude on the Earth that marks the most northerly position at which the Sun may appear directly overhead at its zenith, comes to place. In this day we will have the longest day time and the shortest night in the year.
Although being the “Noon” of the year, this is not the hottest time yet. As the heat is still accumulating near the earth surface and it will reach its real peak around mid July to Mid August. According to the Yin-Yang theory, when one side reaches the most, it will start to reduce and the opposite side will start to increase. In Chinese, Summer Solstice “夏至” literally means “Summer Most” or “Yang Most”. This is when the Yang energy has reaches its most and start to die down and the Yin energy start to grow. Just like Winter Solstice, Summer Solstice is also one of the most important seasons of year. During this season we need to not only take advantage of the strong Yang energy, but also protect and nourish the new born Yin energy.
The key word of summer is “长”, means “grow”, “express” or “boost”. “Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon” stated that during summer time “Keep the mind anger-free; Let flowers be in full bloom; Free the energy; Express the emotions; This is the 'grow' energy of the summer”. Meaning during the summer we should keep the mind happy, open, content, and balanced. Like the plants need the sunlight to grow, we should communicate with the external energy, stay passionate, optimistic and extroversive to help smoothening the energy flow. There is another famous saying “心静自然凉”, meaning in the hot season, one can still acquire natural coolness through a peaceful and calm heart (mind). This is classic rule of summer mental cultivation.
Living wise, we should stay with the summer rule of “Sleep late, wake up early”. “Heat harm the Qi easy”, is because we sweat more and the body can lose too much fluid easy thus cause all kinds of problems. When doing outdoor activities, we should avoid the hottest time of the day, instead try to take regular nap during this time. The best times of the day to do outdoor activities are early morning and dawn. Go to places with water or trees where the air is fresh and cool. Stay with mild exercises such as walking, jogging and Tai Chi, because we don’t want to over sweat, which can harm both Yin and Yang energy. After exercises, drink a cup of salty water or salty green bean soup, but don’t drink too much ice cold water. Also never take a cold water shower, which can cause problems like arthritis or rheumatoid arthritis in a long run. Regular warm water shower is recommended. During summer time, our body is “open”, physically meaning the skin and pores are open, this also makes the harmful energy “enters” the body easy. Therefore make sure to adjust the room temperature well. Although it’s hot, while asleep try not to have the fan or AC blowing directly at your bed.
Eating wise, according to the 5-element theory, summer is the heart time, and if the heart (fire) is too strong it will harm the lungs (metal). We also lose lot body fluid from sweating, as sweat is the fluid of the heart, if the heart loses too much fluid and don’t have enough mineral (salt), it may not function right. Therefore the TCM believes this is the time to eat more sour (to solidify the surface), and more salty (to make up for what the heart has lost). Also according to the Yin-Yang theory, during summer time our Yin energy is hiding inside, meaning the inside of our body (organs) is actually colder than outside (skin), therefore we should actually avoid eating or drinking too much cold in the summer. Please notice the key word being “too much”, back to our balancing theory that nothing is absolute good or bad, it only becomes harmful when there is too much. Eating things like watermelon, green bean soup or sour plum will help to reduce the excessive body heat, but taking too much will make the already cold organs even colder, especially the stomach and spleen, then cause stomach flu, diarrhea and vomiting.
To make it simply, here are three key words for summer eating: Balance, Base(alkali) and Water. Balance refers to nutrition balance and intake-spend balance. During summer time our body metabolism is stronger thus produce more acid than usually. Base foods, such as most vegetable and fruits, are to counterbalance those acids. Also avoid too much acid foods such as red meat, soda drinks, dairy product and sugar. Finally, drink enough water to stay hydrated.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
June 6th, 2011. "Grain in Ear", the 3rd small Summer season arrives
Grain in Ear is when the celestial longitude reaches 75 degree. Being the 3rd small summer season and the 2nd hot season, the weather is in general stabilized.
During this season one main health symptom is laziness, or tiredness. Mainly it is because of the high temperature and humidity. This makes us harder to sweat so our body is high in humidity internally as well. When internal wetness meets external humidity and heat, it will make our body “sticky” and heavy.
Again, our basic principle of staying healthy is to improve our body function and energy level. And the basic principle to achieve that is to stay “smooth” both physically and emotionally. These are the words I repeat almost for very small season we talk about, because they are that important.
We mentioned before that for summer we need to go to bed late and get up early. This is to help us taking full advantage of the sun light, AKA Yang energy for us. Drink enough water so at least our body is hydrated and able to sweat. Also we have entered the season when we can actually take more shower, this will help the body to release the extract body heat. But one thing to remember is try NOT to take shower right after sweating. Wait for a little bit so the water or extra wetness will not be able to harm the body through the open pores. Just as the “Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon” says, “wetness right after sweating will cause acne (skin problems)”.
Food wise we need to stay with the “summer rule” which is lite and mild. Eat more grain and greens but less meat. Summer is also the season of “bitter”. Bitter is the taste of heart and it will help us to lower the “heart fire”. Meanwhile since we sweat more, make sure to also eat enough salt, not over eating, to make up for the lost. Salty is also the opposite of bitter, so maintain a good bitter-salty level will also help our heart-kidney relationship staying balanced, which is very important for summer.
During this season one main health symptom is laziness, or tiredness. Mainly it is because of the high temperature and humidity. This makes us harder to sweat so our body is high in humidity internally as well. When internal wetness meets external humidity and heat, it will make our body “sticky” and heavy.
Again, our basic principle of staying healthy is to improve our body function and energy level. And the basic principle to achieve that is to stay “smooth” both physically and emotionally. These are the words I repeat almost for very small season we talk about, because they are that important.
We mentioned before that for summer we need to go to bed late and get up early. This is to help us taking full advantage of the sun light, AKA Yang energy for us. Drink enough water so at least our body is hydrated and able to sweat. Also we have entered the season when we can actually take more shower, this will help the body to release the extract body heat. But one thing to remember is try NOT to take shower right after sweating. Wait for a little bit so the water or extra wetness will not be able to harm the body through the open pores. Just as the “Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon” says, “wetness right after sweating will cause acne (skin problems)”.
Food wise we need to stay with the “summer rule” which is lite and mild. Eat more grain and greens but less meat. Summer is also the season of “bitter”. Bitter is the taste of heart and it will help us to lower the “heart fire”. Meanwhile since we sweat more, make sure to also eat enough salt, not over eating, to make up for the lost. Salty is also the opposite of bitter, so maintain a good bitter-salty level will also help our heart-kidney relationship staying balanced, which is very important for summer.
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