Living in Harmony with the Seasons: Part III - Thriving in Autumn
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Tags: autumn, Classical Texts (general), dietary-therapy, fall, seasonal-living, SeasonsRelated posts
Living in Harmony with the Seasons: Part II - The essence of Autumn
This is the second part of a ten part series on living in harmony with the seasons. Read Part 1: Introduction to living in harmony with the seasons.
In the sheet of announcements and farm stories included in my family’s weekly vegetable share from our local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share from Wintergreen Farm the author struggles to understand when she knows that Fall has arrived in the Willamette Valley. In the end, she was talking about the energy of the season. Which got me to thinking about writing the article you’re reading right now. When I conceived of this series on living with the seasons according to Chinese medicine, I knew I really wanted to provide something of value. It would be too easy to throw up a set of traditional correspondences, make some vapid suggestions about eating squash instead of tomatoes and just leave it at that. But, this living with the seasons thing is too important to me for that. Although it is commonly neglected by patients and practitioners alike, seasonal living is a clear command of the ancients. It is a primary pillar in the prevention of disease, and certainly plays a part in the rectification of illness already underway.
I am going to list and explain below what I believe to be the most important pieces of symbolic information commonly associated with Autumn in Chinese medicine. These relatively concrete items represent nodes in a web of representation - they do not complete the picture, they begin it. In the next article, I will expand on these slightly but mostly I will share how these symbols can be used to align yourself with the energy of the season so that you might live more healthfully and appreciate this ever changing world of ours.
Tags: autumn, Classical Texts (general), fall, neijing, Organ systems, seasonal-living, symbolism, theory-to-practice
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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
Tags: seasonal-living, SeasonsRelated posts
Living in harmony with the seasons: Introduction - Part I
This is the first part in a ten part series about living in harmony with the seasons. I do not have a solid timetable for the release of the other nine parts, only promising that the two parts on Fall/Autumn will be released shortly. I recognize that for some folks, the release of the Fall series will be out of step with their environmental reality (hello Australia!) and I apologize for that. Further, some of you may living in places where seasons are simply not the same as they are in China, where the Chinese theory of seasonal living was conceived. I am unclear as to what folks living in these areas should do - perhaps that is a discussion for another post.
From a Chinese medicine perspective, is essential that we learn to live in harmony with the seasons. There is, of course, no monolithic “Chinese medicine perspective” but regardless of your ideological preference, the reality of seasonal energy and the importance of flowing in step with it is practically irrefutable. There are many mentions of seasonal energy in the Neijing
The recent movement around local and seasonal foods is a nod to the importance of this timeless principle. People are recognizing that living in accordance with their immediate spatial and temporal environment is not just for hippies (although, for them too). Food tastes better, is more healthful, is less expensive and somehow just FEELS better when it is eaten at the right time for the place that one is in. The macrobiotic movement also took note of this and suggested that one eat food that is grown in one’s region.
But the Chinese philosophy on living in balance with seasonal energy goes farther than food choices. In fact, most of what I have found in Classical texts has nothing to do with food but instead focuses on various aspects of a person’s lifestyle. Read more
Tags: Classical Texts (general), dietary-therapy, fall, food, habits, lifestyle-counseling, nature, neijing, seasonal-living, Seasons, spring, summer, winterRelated posts
Book review: Healing with Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford
I’ve been hoping to do book reviews for a while, but the idea of delving into an entire new content type has been daunting. I’m going to do my best! I’ll be using elements of book reviews that I have found to be helpful and hopefully the result will be helpful. Please let me know if there is any information you found to be useless, or if there was something you would have liked to see included that isn’t here. Thanks!
We had this book assigned to us during our first year of Classical Chinese medicine training at NCNM. The first year of our program is designed to get you “thinking ancient Chinese” and can be a bit overwhelming for many of us. One thing I found myself yearning for, however, was solid information about the theory and practice of Chinese medicine! It sounds paradoxical, I know, but learning the nuts and bolts of the clinical medicine simply isn’t the aim of that first year. The saving grace during this time, for me, was Paul Pitchford’s Healing With Whole Foods
Chinese Medicine Theory in Healing With Whole Foods
The first part of the book is devoted to elaboration of the basic principles of Chinese medicine: Yin-Yang, Heat-Cold, Interior-Exterior, Excess-Deficiency, Qi and the Six Qi/Six Conformations. While I feel that Pitchford could have made more references to classical texts and sometimes oversimplifies certain concepts (ala TCM) the explanations are straight forward and useful to people new to this system of healing. Later in the book, he provides some excellent summaries of the five elements, relating each element to the flavors in specific foods. He also uses these five element sections to discuss specific health concerns - for example, discussing water fluoridation in the Water section. Near the end of the book he provides Chinese medicine explanations for some common Western diseases and provides specific dietary information for each of them.
This was one of the best parts of the book for me in my first year. It’s hard to find a simple, yet rich, explanation of the five elements or any of the other basic theoretical elements of Chinese medicine. While there are other books that attempt this, I think Pitchford does the best job in the least amount of space. This along with the other great benefits of the book make it one of the best values for basic information on the medicine available.
Western Nutritional Information, especially for vegans and vegetarians
As you read the book, you will find that Pitchford has a strong bias to vegetarian and vegan diets. Some people find this off-putting, but I don’t find that he is overly preachy in his endorsement of the lifestyle. He does recommend some animal products, discussing their relative benefits and drawbacks. This combined with the ample information on grains, vegetables and fruits that is helpful for everyone regardless of their animal product consumption status makes his dietary advice relevant to all people. That being said, Pitchford provides some excellent advice for vegans concerning protein and B-12 with ample references to reputable Western scientific sources. Read more
Tags: books, chinese-medicine, dietary-therapy, five phases, food, lifestyle-counseling, nutrition, seasonal-living, veganism
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