Summer— The Season of Fire
In traditional Chinese medicine, summer is considered peak yang. Energy is high, it’s sunny and warm out, and it stays bright longer. Obviously, these are all great things but as we know, too much of a good thing isn’t always a good thing. If your constitution is already excess in yang then you’ll potentially experience much more agitation, insomnia, excess thirst, profuse sweating, constipation, and restlessness. In this post I’ll go over a variety of things you can do to help keep your body in balance with the change of external environment.
Not only is summer considered the season of fire, this is also the season of the heart. During this time, it is very important you put focus on nourishing the heart to keep things harmonious. To nourish the heart there is a variety of things you can incorporate into your diet along with lifestyle changes you can make. Some of these include:
Regulating your sleep cycle
Calming the mind
Red foods: goji berries, cherries, beets, watermelon, hawthorn berries, etc.
Bitter foods: arugula, dandelion greens, etc.
Calming teas
Embrace the summer sunlight! Stay up later and wake up slightly earlier, this way you’re syncing your circadian rhythm to nature’s. Try to have an afternoon nap between 1-3pm in the afternoon to make up for the less sleep you’re getting in the night.
Integrate things into your week to help keep stress at bay. Try going for meditative walks in the sun, journalling, or even reading a book while your phone is on do not disturb. Bonus points if you’re out in the fresh air while doing it!
Another great thing to focus on during the season of fire is keeping your body cool from the inside. To do this you’ll need to ensure you eat cooling foods such as cucumber, mung beans, watermelon, chrysanthemum tea, etc.
This sounds counterintuitive to my last point but still consuming warm foods such as teas, soups, and pungent meals can help cool the body naturally by promoting sweating. This is also beneficial for the digestive system and very important when you’re incorporating a lot of cooling foods as too much cooling foods can also negatively affect the digestive system.
Another big thing not often mentioned is how important it is to avoid sitting directly in air conditioning whilst also trying not to go between very hot temperature and very cold. Doing this makes your body more susceptible to wind and damp invasions which will then potentially lead to catching a cold.
In Calgary we don’t get a lot of summer so it’s hard to not overdo it in the heat. Finding balance between soaking up every moment of good weather and sunlight while also not burning through your body’s reserves is crucial. Hopefully this article gave you some great tips on how you can do that. It really is all about finding balance!