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Integral Wisdom
Staying Healthy in All Seasons
在各种季节中保持健康
by Mark Melchiorre, L.Ac.
Act in accordance with seasonal, geographic, and personal factors.
This is a statement of fact in traditional Chinese medicine.
Our system of traditional medicine is intimately connected
to the ebb and flow of the energy in our universe.
Far from being some mystical concept, one can
see and feel this energy on a daily basis in the rising and
setting of the sun and moon and in their changing trajectory
across the sky throughout the year.
Ancient Chinese scholars and philosophers observed
the annual changes of the seasons along with their corresponding
environmental changes. They noted the onset
of growth in the spring, the flourishing of growing
things in the summer that then become the harvest of
autumn. The harvest is stored for use during winter's
cold months which in time, with the climbing of the sun
in the sky, once again becomes spring.
Figure 2 Daily Taiji
Figure 1. Seasons
They noted the circadian rhythm of sunrise and sunset.
Humankind too has it's waxing and waning of energy.
One is born into a personal springtime, flourishes in
adulthood, and, in time, retreats into the winter of life's
journey.
Over time, these observations were codified into a system
of correspondences known as the Wu Xing or Five
Phases (五行). The Five Phases is just one system of
diagnosis used in traditional medicine.
Act in accordance with seasonal, geographic, and personal
factors
(yin shi yin di yin ren zhi yi) 因时因地因人制宜
December, 2011 Yang-Sheng (Nurturing Life) 11