Questions about the ancient Chinese medicine theory of seasonal living

In my work to create an excellent resource on seasonal living, I’ve run across a few interesting questions. Because the past couple of days have been full of intense and enjoyable time with my family (thus the lack of meaty posts) I thought I would put these questions out for discussion. If you have any insights about these questions, I would really love to hear them in the comments - just look above this post and click on the comments link. No registration is required.

The theory of living in step with the seasons as I have learned it was developed in ancient China - a particular place - during a particular time. I believe that despite this, the principles are universal - regardless of where one lives and the quality of the seasons there living in harmony with them is a good thing to do. However, I am still interested in how different environments and different conditions (for instance, global warming) should impact our recommendations to folks looking to follow the ancient Chinese advice to live seasonally. I wonder…

If a person lives in a place with less than four obvious seasons, should they live according to that rhythm or is there something inherent in the four/five season model that is important to follow regardless of localization?
Regardless of the answer to #1 - If a person’s ancestors (particularly recent) are from a place without a 4/5 season year, should they follow where they are or where their blood is from? In other words - is there a “genetic” aspect to the healthfulness of following seasonal energy?
Regardless of the answers to either of the above questions - if someone lives in a particular location and moves to a place with different seasonal movements than their home (say for college) and they plan on returning, should they live in harmony with the seasons of their home or the new place?
How does global warming impact our need to live in accordance with seasonal energy? Should we keep to the old seasonal movements, or mimic the changing energy of our new environment?
Somewhat less drastically - if there are odd seasonal patterns afoot (cold when it shouldn’t be) will our matching what the energy is supposed to be help us to resist external pathogenic influences?
How important is it to eat local foods? For instance, is there some imbalancing effect of a person born and raised in Oregon eating sub-tropical bananas? If so, what is the effect?

Thanks for reading.

Eric

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August 25, 2007 · Filed Under Seasons, Theory

Comments

3 Responses to “Questions about the ancient Chinese medicine theory of seasonal living”

Bonnie on August 26th, 2007 9:42 am

I’m not sure if this is in response, but the first question struck me. If one lives in say, Southern California where there aren’t really a lot of seasons–it’s always summer–if you lived by that rhythm, it would be no rhythm at all. How would your body be balanced?

My other thought is that plants change through the seasons no matter where they are. Bulbs, for instance, may come up at slightly different times but they still go through a cycle. Do we watch the weather or the plants?

Just a thought for those places with no obvious seasonal change.
Eric on August 26th, 2007 11:29 am

Bonnie,

Thanks for your response! That’s exactly what I’m wondering - if there IS no rhythm, and you’re “following that rhythm” then… what? Your response implies that one must follow some rhythm to stay in balance - right? That’s what I’m trying to figure out… is that true? Or is it possible that you simply must mimic the surroundings - regardless of their cycle (or lack of one).

Interesting point about plants changing regardless of where they are… my thought is that we follow not so much the weather, but the things that live most naturally under its influence. For humans, it may be less important to follow plants and more important to follow animals… if only because we are closer in nature to them.

For instance - I’m pretty sure that hibernating animals won’t hibernate in the absence of environmental cues to do so… what does this do to their physiology? Interesting…

Thanks again,

Eric
wai lana yoga on September 8th, 2008 8:58 pm

seasonal living…uhm..this pretty much sounds like just go with the flow…well basically, what i think, it is actually pretty reasonable, in terms with what food we will eat,to rely on what is at hand during a particular time of the year and particular location and weather…we wouldn’t actually have much choice unless of course we go to a different location which offers a different environment…however, harmony is actually what keeps the balance…if we try to live in harmony with nature, then of course we’ll be situated better than if we try go against it…this actually involves a lot of things and deals with a bigger picture because afterall, our environment and everything about it is all intricately connected with each other…this brings me back to the old days in school in science class where we are taught that in an ecosystem, everything is in balance…and that balance is disrupted once some outside force or anything not in order or something going against the flow of nature comes into the picture. the Chinese have a whole intrinsic view on nature and they try to incorporate everything every little detail to their daily living…which isn’t really surprising and hard to believe basing it on their culture which proves to us that their techniques do actually work..they’ve studied and applied and just go with the flow…well, we just have to go back to the basics,…if we actually try analyze and understand nature, we could see that it works in perfect balance and that everything that happens has a reason, cause and effect and somewhere in that line, we humans are involved and most of the time, the one’s responsible. however, we have to understand that we may have some control over certain things but not really completely…in the end, we are still under the dominance of higher forces around us and that we are forced to go with the flow…history has shown us that no matter how great a person seems to be, he/she will still be under the influence of the environment he is in…this may seem a little off track already but actually no..it’s all relevant…looking at the bigger picture can help us understand certain specific things because as i mentioned earlier, everythings interconnected…well i hope this somehow helps…or atleast provide a different platform from where to look at this topic from…thanks