The following text is excerpted from <<Huang Di Nei Jing>>-"Su Wen", Chapter 2 : "Si Qi Tiao Shen Da Lun". Although it is short, it covers the core spirits of how to live healthily in the autumn season.
"...秋三月，此謂容平，天氣以急，地氣以明，早臥早起，與雞俱興，使志安寧，以緩秋刑，收斂神氣，使秋氣平，無外其志，使肺氣清，此秋氣之應養收之道也，逆之則傷肺，冬為飱泄，奉藏者少。..."
Directly translated as:
"...The three months of autumn, they are mean to be peaceful and calm, the sky is high and the wind is rushing, the earth is cool and dry,go to bed early and get up early, follow the rooster's life schedule, in order to keep the conscious stable and safe, and soften the autumn harsh energy, withdraw the emotion and mind to fit into the calmness of the autumn energy, do not express the ideas and thoughts too much, to keep the lungs energy clear and cool, this is way of withdrawing and collecting in the autumn, if disobey it will harm the lungs energy and not able to provide energy foundation for the winter, there will be digestion related health issues, little energy can be stored..."
The key words for autumn are "withdraw and collect". Like farming, with good planting in the spring and growing in the summer, there will be good harvesting in the autumn. But an autumn without harvest is sad, and that is a ill emotion. Just like one person's life, if one didn't study hard as a student, didn't work hard as an adult, when one becomes older nothing will be achieved, and that will be a sad senior life, not "peaceful and calm".
But the good news here is, even if you have missed couple harvesting autumn seasons, if you start now to respect and follow the rules of nature, you can still prepare yourself for the coming years and reestablish a healthy life style.
After a hot summer filled with activities, Yin energy becomes stronger and Yang energy starts to withdraw. We say "preserve the Yang energy in spring and summer, and preserve the Yin energy in autumn and winter". But how to preserve the Yin and Yang? In general, to preserve and nourish the Yang energy, we shall allow our Yang energy to move outward and express in spring and summer by doing more physical activities, resting less and sweating more, because sweating is one of the signs of strong Yang energy. But when autumn and winter come, we shall do the opposite by resting more, doing less physical and mental activities and sweating less. As sweat is transformed from Yin fluid, it is part of our body essence. Sweating less will preserve the Yang energy, meanwhile nourishing the Yin essence.
"...go to bed early and get up early, follow the rooster's life schedule...": Roosters follow the Yin-Yang energy transition accurately. This line teaches us to change our daily schedule by go to bed and get up early, in order to preserve the Yin energy. Here we recommend to go to bed no later by 10pm local time if possible, and get up when the sun rises.
”...soften the autumn harsh energy, withdraw the emotion and mind to fit into the calmness of the autumn energy...": Autumn is a very emotional season as the nature will be moving toward a less alive and more "depressing" condition. If we do not keep our mind calm and smooth, we would be easily affected by the nature. So the point of this advice is to teach us how to protect our mental and psychological condition in the autumn.
“...if disobey it will harm the lungs energy ...": since lungs is the seasonal organ of the autumn, and lungs has the nature of metal, it likes to be "cool and clear". We must follow the rules of "withdrawing the Yang and preserving the Yin" to nourish to lungs. If disobey this rule, the harsh autumn energy may harm the lungs and then cause more health issues that are related to the lungs, especially respiratory illnesses.
"...not able to provide energy foundation for the winter, there will be digestion related health issues, little energy can be stored...": if we do not follow the rules of autumn to withdraw and move the Yang energy inward, then we will not have enough Yang energy to protect us from the cold, process the food we eat or generate energy for our system.
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