Regulating Daily Life
In the summer, everything grows and everywhere you see a picture of richness and thriving life. This is the easiest time for the yang qi of the body to release outwards. TCM holds that people should go to sleep later with the sun and rise early with the sun. Your body is absorbing the essential yang energy of the sun.
Additionally, you should try to embrace the long daytime or heat. You should exercise outside, facing the rising sun in the morning every day. Doing so promotes allows you to complete the following timely and essential health tasks for the summer:
- Excreting waste and toxins from the body
- Inhaling fresh air
- Boosting your metabolism
In China, regardless of where people live, they are advised to go to the high mountains and oceans for convalescence during the summer. These natural environments replenish qi for the colder seasons ahead.
Bathing in warm water twice a day. Not only will bathing keep the skin cool, but it will also wash off dirt and sweat which contain toxins released by the body. It will also help prevent sunstroke and diseases. Furthermore, the pressure of the warm water during the bath can:
- Lower excitability of the sympathetic nervous system
- Dilate the superficial blood vessels
- Accelerate blood circulation
- Help nourish the skin and tissues
- Reduce muscular tension
- Eliminate fatigue
- Improve sleep
- Enhance immunity
Daytime is longer than nighttime in the summer, therefore you will sleep for less time in the summer. For some people, their sleep quality might also be disturbed. As a result, you should take a nap after lunch to eliminate fatigue and maintain vigorous and energetic.
In terms of clothing, you should select light, soft, light-colored, well ventilated materials. Because of the heat and sweating, you should have more tailored clothing to absorb the sweat more easily from your body. Linen fabrics which are light, thin, and well ventilated and are also suitable for tailoring are ideal.
Regulating your emotions
Early summer controls fire. The heart is the organ of fire, and it also governs all of your emotions. The term for heart in Chinese in fact means heart-mind. Thus, according to the Chinese medical definition, the heart regulates not only circulation but also controls consciousness, spirit, sleep, memory, and houses the mind. In this way, the heart, together with the liver, is related to the nervous system and the brain.
Those with healthy hearts are genuinely friendly. They are also humble, not out of convention but because they actually feel in awe of the wonders they perceive with their open hearts and aware minds. Clarity is a central attribute of those with a harmonious heart-mind. They seem to see effortlessly through problems and to arrive at brilliant solutions.
Thus, the summer-heat easily act upon the heart and causes heart fire to rise upward. What this means mentally and emotionally is that you might suffer from restlessness of the mind, irascibility, anxiety, uneasiness, and even insomnia. The older you are, the more you might struggle with anxiety. This tendency negatively affects your health and can even cause illness and disease.
Accordingly, you should have a tranquil mind.
You should also treat people and deal with things calmly. Avoid anger to cultivate a mellow temperament and quiet state of being. Some of the classic medical texts repeatedly mention that you should, “cultivate the temperament peacefully and void being restless in the mind.”
They also state that “Cultivation of temperament is more important than health preservation” (physical actions you take to stay healthy). Only in this way can you live in alignment with the principles summer health preservation.
Calming and focusing the mind is hard in this “information age.” Many people have a tendency toward mental hyperactivity. Energy from excessive thought and worry races through the head while the heart energy is impoverished and weakened. In severe cases, yang heart energy rises up to the head. This excess can cause fever, headache, irritability, insomnia, and mental disturbances. The treatment is to reduce heart fire and increase heart yin. Keeping yang energy nourished and balanced in the summer helps make room for yin energy.
Citations
Pitchford, P. (2002). Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition, 3rd Ed.
Yanfu, Z. (2002). Life Cultivation & Rehabilitation of Traditional Chinese Medicine