The Power of Synchronising with the Seasons
This is an excerpt from The Inspired Health Handbook
The Yellow Emperor inquired, “I’ve heard of people in ancient times, spoken of as the Immortals, who knew the secrets of the Universe and held Yin & Yang, the world, in the palms of their hands… They remained undisturbed and thus attained extraordinary levels of accomplishment. Can you tell me about them?”
Qi Bo responded, “The Immortals kept their mental energies focused and refined, and harmonized their bodies with the environment. Thus they did not show the conventional signs of aging and were able to live beyond biological limitations… They were able to travel freely to different times and places since they were not governed by conventional views of time and space. They were able to preserve their life spans and live in full health… following the rhythms of the planet and Universe… They appeared busy but never depleted… abided in calmness… because they did not scatter and disperse their energies….”
~The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic of Medicine
Found in the first pages of the 2,500-year-old essential text of Chinese medicine (the oldest surviving medical textbook on Earth), this discussion between the legendary Yellow Emperor and his Physician Advisor sets the stage for thousands of years of medical advances rooted in synchronizing our lives with the cycles of nature to achieve maximum health and longevity.
This can be clearly seen in its fundamental philosophical basis in the Five Phases theory which examines the transformations of Qi (the nature of things) as night turns to day, and Winter to Summer and back again. After untold centuries of observation, a great depth of intuitive wisdom has been systematized to help us stay balanced and centred through all of life’s seasons — like a bamboo adapting and bending in the wind, rather than breaking. Because of its traditional importance, it is included in this handbook to not only help you prevent imbalances from occurring — but possibly also as the eventual single-pointed goal of being the only health intention to live by as your internal climate imbalances begin to return to harmony through success in your health goals. What a powerful aspiration — what the ancient Daoists strove for as the most powerful tool of maximal longevity.
Before exploring each season, let’s introduce this philosophy by examining the primary Yin & Yang seasons. In the Winter, we concentrate our energy and turn our focus inwards to both ourselves and our household. We mirror this in our diet by integrating more ‘warming’, rich, dense, and hearty meals, much like we would traditionally keep the fires of our home stoked. This is the season where Qi consolidates deep within — just as the root vegetables we consume more this season concentrate the nutrition of the plant to survive cold harsh winters. Conversely, in the Summer we explore out in the world as the Qi of our world expands outwards. We reflect this in our diets through primarily ‘cooling’ meals, accented with dispersing hot spicy foods — which explains why those who traditionally live in hot climates tend to use a lot of spices in their cooking. The energetic temperatures of foods are all outlined in Part 3 of this handbook.
It is important to note however, that while we primarily move with the Qi of each season, we must always pay attention to nourishing the seed of its opposite — it is important to not become too Yin and sedentary in the winter, we must ensure a healthy amount of exercise and adequate sunlight (Yang) whenever possible. In the Summer, while we enjoy the great outdoors and likely participate in more celebrations and even debauchery, we must as well maintain a cool and calm Yin centre — else we may spiral out into chaos and regret. This will be explained in more detail in the respective season discussions that follow.
Despite our modern comforts of air conditioning and central heating, it is important to minimize the use of these whenever possible. In the summer, it is traditionally encouraged to promote sweating — air conditioning is cold and tightens our pores and “Defensive Qi” (immune system) layer. In the Winter by contrast, it is important to be acclimatized to a certain level of coldness — if this outer layer of Qi of is toned and constricted it succeeds in preventing pathogens from entering our body. Excessive central heating reverses this. Thus, as comfortable as these luxuries are it is important to not abuse them as they have only been with us for mere decades in our millions of years of human experience.
Eating seasonally is medicine in itself as it has been what we have eaten throughout our human evolution (at least for those of us north of the tropics — for those within these zones, Ayurvedic medicine may have more to offer) but further, it is medicine for our Earth as well. When we eat what is local and in season, our food requires less fuel & transport, keeping our Earth less polluted. For more on this, I invite you to look into the “100km Diet”.
The truly amazing thing by integrating these principals is that as we start to tune into our body’s natural rhythms, we see the reasons & theories why we are drawn to what we are drawn to, and why what we crave in one season can seemingly quickly shift into the next. This becomes increasingly more apparent as we begin to avoid what Michael Pollan calls processed “edible food-like subtances” which disrupt this harmony of your body’s innate intelligence.
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