May | Embrace

May all the uneasiness be blown away by the summer breeze while the joy and happiness bloom like the summer flowers blossoming in the bright and vigorous season.

The Beginning of Summer

No idea whether you share the same feeling with me. When you opened the door someday this May, the scorching sun and the green mountain in the distance surged into your eyes, overwhelming. Is it because of the pandemic? The summer came all of a sudden as if the spring had arrived for only a few days.

The summer ripens day by day after the Beginning of Summer (The 7th solar term). In the Chinese tradition, it marks the start of the second season in a year, since which the temperature starts to rise, the thunderstorm starts to visit, and the hottest season approaches.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the “summer heat consumes qi,” and “easily enters and attacks human heart.” People may easily get angry from excessive internal heat in summer, during which an irregular schedule may damage your health and mood. That is the reason why people often say, “the summer invites depression.” As the temperature rises, the appetite can be lost. More sour, less sweet, light diet and digestible foods are appropriate for the season, while oily and spicy foods should be avoided.

Nourishing Ying and Yang

The rise and fall of yin and yang in nature echo with the activities of human organs. The heart echoes the summer, so the yang of the heart thrives in summer. Under the high temperature, people may feel uneasy and irritable. The hotness intensifies the mental nervousness due to the internal heart-fire (heat). Being vulnerable to emotional fluctuation, our immune function becomes weak, leading to easy illness caused by inappropriate living and eating habits. The principle of preserving health is “nourishing yang in spring and summer,” while the key of nourishing yang is to “nourish the heart.”

How does the power of summer influence our body and mind? How does summer shape us?

Human emotion is influenced by temperature, humidity, sunshine and wind power. The extreme hotness sharpens people’s emotions. The rising temperature quite often escalates contradictions. Rather, bad things often come with extreme weather. In the ever-changing summer, people become capricious, quiet, refreshed, and furious at the same time.

The human brain, the consumer of 20% oxygen intake, is extremely sensitive to the low oxygen caused by the low air pressure. As a consequence, we may feel upset, distracted, uneasy and restless in summer. In addition, the biological metabolism becomes active in the season. All the creatures in the surrounding environment release a kind of infrasonic wave, which may cause hormonal disorders in the endocrine system and further deteriorate the emotional disorders. The constantly changing weather, especially the big temperature difference between the daytime and nighttime in early summer, may alter the internal environment of the human body. The subsequent weakening of immunity could make us susceptible to diseases, emotional fluctuation and mental illness.

Driving the depression away

1. Avoid solitude. When the symptoms of depression show up, we need to defeat the laziness and go out. Don’t stay at home all the time. The shorter the time staying alone, the easier the elimination of depression.

2. More outdoor activities. Take a walk or do some exercises on sunny days. Under the sunshine, you could feel the beauty and vigor of nature through walking, cycling and mountain climbing. Bathing in the warm and bright sunlight, you may feel life and the whole world are lit up. Together with the beads of sweat after exercise, the bad feeling and low mood are drained off.

3. Talking to people. When the depression persists, you may find someone to talk with, and certainly, better to find a psychological consultant to pour out all your troubles, worries and unhappiness. When the tears gush out, your worries and troubles are driven away by the sunshine. A more economically viable alternative is to find a friend and vent out all the grievances.

4. Making use of colors smartly. In the eyes of the depressed, the world is dim and gloomy. So, the warm and bright colors are appropriate for their clothing, makeup and living environment to artificially elevate their moods. Colors like black, grey, blue, green and even white should be avoided since those could make the low spirit lower, whereas colors like pink, orange, pinkish-yellow and gold help to motivate active and optimistic feelings.

5. Dietary therapy. Some foods help people to relax from stress and nervousness, especially those rich in amino acid, some beans, nuts and fungi such as black fungus, peanut, sunflower seed, pumpkin seed, almond, hazel, dried bamboo, day lily, lily root, Chinese yam, etc. Amino acid relieves depression and sets our mind at rest.

CHINA MOONSHOT RESOURCES

- To view more May China Moonshot Content, you can visit the following links: Beginning of Summer and Grain Buds.
- Customize The Wellness Moonshot: Contact Kendra Kobler ([email protected]) for specific ways to tailor The Wellness Moonshot branding assets and educational materials to meet the needs and aspirations of your company, community or country.