Seasonal Energetics: 4 Patterns of Health or Disease

The thing that has honestly impressed me the most, studying Chinese medicine and really dedicating my life to it, is that we have these fundamental texts, these ancient medical texts, that have a very distinct medical philosophy on why people get sick or why they live to be 100 or live out their allotted quote-unquote lifespan. And these ancient texts, written by ancient doctors, break down what is so essential to know on a fundamental level in terms of how human illness mirrors the laws of nature and how illness in our body, symptoms in our body, are almost like the weather patterns of nature. And if you can understand those laws, you can understand why people get sick and how not to get sick. Now in this video, I thought I would share one of our most essential texts and the second chapter of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon. Hey guys, Dr. Alex Hine, doctor of Chinese medicine, author of the health book Master of the Day on Amazon and Audible. Now before we jump into this video today, two very important links right below this video. The first is for a free download, which is four daily rituals that can potentially help you add years to your life with traditional or classical Chinese medicine. The second is if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally or online via telemedicine, the link below this video has the link to my private practice and the contact info to get in contact with us. Now I want to introduce you to the second chapter of one of our famous medical texts going back 2,000 years roughly. Now the second chapter has this amazing and interesting name. It's called Seqi which roughly means the discourse or treatise on regulating the spirit in accordance with the four seasons. Now this text and this chapter is so essential because it describes how a human being should live in alignment with that season, with the patterns of nature and what they mean about the patterns within the human being that can predispose oneself to illness or to wellness. Now you may know that in each season, an organ is typically related with the season and an organ has a certain tendency based on its nature and its physiological function. So these ancient doctors clearly observed that humans mirror nature and nature, you know, you know the whole thing in the Tao Te Ching and it mirrors itself and there's a much bigger pattern going on there. But our physiological laws that govern illness are the patterns that exist in nature that govern harmony in nature. So this second chapter is all about regulating yourself in accordance with these seasons and I wanted to share some direct sources and some direct quotes from this chapter. Let's first talk about springtime. Now here's what the Neijing says in this chapter about the quality and the nature of spring's energy or the way of spring. It says the three months of spring they denote effusion and spreading. Heaven and earth together generate life. The myriad beings flourish. Go to rest late at night and rise early. Move through the courtyard with long strides. Dishevel the hair or let down the hair and relax the physical appearance, thereby causing the mind to orient itself on life. This is correspondence with the qi of spring and it is the way to nourish life, i.e. to ensure longevity and to ensure good health. Going counter to this principle harms the liver. So this translation from Paul Unschuld talks about how in the springtime what is the nature or quality of spring? It's plants bursting through the ground. It's bunnies, you know, having a litter of 20 little babies and they're all running around going crazy. It's reproduction. It's growth. It's freshness. And so human beings should mirror. There should be this resonance with that quality of nature, right? This visual of going out in the courtyard, let your hair down, just like leisurely sprawl and walk around. It has that kind of spring. Finally, let's get out. I want to get out of the doors. Get out of the house after winter and that kind of outward growth and expansion. So let's talk about summer, the energy or the way of nature in the summer. The three months of summer, they denote opulence and blossoming. The qi of heaven and earth interact and the myriad beings bloom and bear fruit. Go to rest late at night and rise early. Never get enough of the sun and let the mind have no anger. It causes the qi to float away as if that what you loved were located outside of you. This is correspondence with the qi of summer, and it is the way to nourish growth. Opposing it harms the heart. Now, what about the fall? The three months of autumn, they denote taking in and balance. The qi of heaven becomes tense. The qi of the earth becomes bright. Go to rest early and rise early. Get up together with the chicken. Let the mind be peaceful and tranquil so as to temper the punishment carried out in the autumn. Collect the spirit qi and cause the autumn qi to be balanced. Do not direct your mind to the outside and cause the lung qi to be clear. This is correspondence with the qi of autumn, and it is the way to nourish gathering. Opposing it harms the lung. So we see springtime and summer are yang times of the year, where humans should be living life in a yang way. It's hard for modern people to understand what that means because if you sit on a computer all day, you don't really even notice the seasons potentially. But if you're a farmer, there it's really obvious, right? Where the days get longer, the birds are singing, the animals are reproducing, you hear the robins and their mating calls that you didn't hear in winter, the robins are migrating, and they're going back and forth. Summer and spring are yang times of year, so humans should be exhibiting yang qualities. More doing, more out and about, more, it said, stay up and get as much sun as possible. These qualities of opening, moving outward, yang, and doing, and activity. Now as we go into fall and winter, these are the yin parts of the year. Now the yin parts of the year, when it says gathering, that's a very In the yin parts of the year, the goal is to decrease energy expenditures, to not work so hard, not exhaust oneself, to rest, to contemplate, to sleep longer, and to gather one's reserves in the same way that a deciduous tree in New England sheds its leaves in the fall so that it can conserve energy in the trunk and the roots going into winter, because otherwise it can die. That's the reason why evolutionarily these deciduous trees have done that, to conserve resources as it goes into winter so that it can protect itself regarding the cold elements. So human beings, what this ancient text is saying, human beings need to mirror that quality as well, to go inward, conserve the resources, and then as spring comes, get out in the courtyard and let your hair down. Now the wintertime energetics or the wintertime way of nature. The three months of winter, they denote securing and storing. The water is frozen and the earth breaks open. Do not disturb the yang qi. Go to rest early and rise late. You must wait for the sun to shine. Let the mind enter a state as if hidden, as if shut in, as if you had secret intentions, as if you had already made gains. Avoid cold and seek warmth and do not allow sweat to flow away through the skin. This would cause the qi to be carried away quickly. This is the correspondence with the qi of winter and it is the way of nourishing storage. Opposing it harms the kidneys. So winter being the peak of yin, the coldest time where animals hibernate, that is the most extreme version of energy conservation, right? Animals know this because they live literally in the middle of nature. They are literally forced to do that or else there are repercussions. But humans and our temperature controlled microclimates and our food that's beautiful and green and yellow and orange every time of year, our fruit from Costa Rica in the dead of winter, it kind of betrays that to a certain degree. And so it seems less relevant. But winter is about storage, maximal rest, maximal recovery, maximal energy conservation. So what happens if you go against this, right? What happens if it's wintertime but it's 79 degrees in LA, so you're hitting the beach and you're hitting the salsa club? What does it do? All right, here's what this text says. When you ignore the flow of the dao, the way of that season, illnesses result. And here's a direct quote. Hence, yin qi and yang qi and the four seasons, they constitute the ending and the beginning of the myriad beings. They are the basis of death and life. Opposing them results in catastrophe and harms life. If one follows them, severe diseases will not emerge. This is called to achieve the way, or the term used here is de dao, as if to attain the dao in a certain sense. It means to grasp what the way is that we are supposed to be living. So this text implies that following these seasons is not something theoretical. It's not something cutesy. It's not a optional thing. It's not an optional thing. It's a must-have to attain good health and longevity. Now also in this chapter, there's one final quote in the middle that I love about how the sage lives and why that is essential. And it says, Now, this term dao is very common in Daoism. But in these ancient medical classics, they use this term as well. And it is not so easy to translate. It's often translated as the way, the path, the dao, the flow, whatever you want to call it. I'm not a sinologist. But the implication that there is a certain way one is supposed to live in the seasons. Animals are attuned to this because they live directly in nature, but humans are not. And to go counter to this is something that produces disease and illness. Now, this chapter is very fundamental and just implies that in each of the four seasons, humans should have this resonance in the way one lives, in the way one's mind works, in the way one's spirit is working. Do we chase and go after those desires in the spring and the summer, the yang seasons, get things done? And then in the winter, we relax, we restore, read a book by the fire, drink some hot cocoa, take it easy, and we hit the hay early? Or are we pushing hard all year round? These are essential lessons that are very, very Chinese medicine, right? It's so customized. It's very different at each time of year. And even then, for each person, that will be different in each time of year. So I hope this chapter two is something that will help you, something that you'll think in this season, I should be living more like this for the maximal health, for feeling well, and for maximal longevity. Now, before you guys go, again, don't forget those two very important links below this video. The first is for a free download, four daily rituals that can potentially help you add years to your life with Chinese medicine. And if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally, or online via telemedicine, the link below this video is for my private practice, my phone number, and my clinic contact info to get a hold of me. Otherwise, I'll see you in these two related videos right here.