Yang Can’t Accept Its Decline
Since Solstice, Yang Qi has been on a gradual, annual decline. One month ago, there was no greater potency on the planet than the active and energetic force of Yang qi, and that purposeful and directed energy manifested itself in the human experience. It was warm, hot even, but not scorching. We were ready to get outside to work in the yard; go camping, fishing, rafting; to build that new deck and spend some time enjoying it. We used the intensity of Yang to manifest all the reflection, organization, and planning of the previous two seasons, and its been great. The thing is, Yang doesn’t want to admit that Summer is already slipping away, that fall is quickly approaching, and it does not want to cede its position as Big Dog.
No matter what, the annual cycle moves forward and Yin is about to return, nascent and small, but return nonetheless. Yang has begun to age out and instead of recognizing that his work is done and that he has accomplished so much, he doubles down on his heat and intensity and takes on a quality that the classic texts refer to as “pernicious” (有害 Yǒuhài).
Practically this means that the quality of the environmental heat during this qi node can be particularly harmful. It bakes the earth, forcing the last of Spring rain’s dampness up toward the surface. This thrust of deep moisture helps the summer crops to reach their final stage of maturity, but it also exposes us to a surge of warm dampness that can take hold in humans and cause illness later in the year. The combination of heat and damp is particularly complex to manage because it is a mixed disease pattern manifesting symptoms across various body systems and because this combo makes resolution of symptoms slow and complex. Wildfire and drought become pronounced during this Greater Heat node and even in places where it is wet, storms are more powerful with intense thunder and lightning. Yang refuses to go quietly into the coming darkness.
Conduct during this time of the year
Like so much of Eastern philosophy broadly, Chinese Medicine and the Daoist/Confucian cosmology upon which it is built urges us toward a kind of reciprocity, a give and take disposition that encourages us to conduct ourselves in such a way as to not allow any part of our experience to pathologically dominate any other. During this Qi Node, that means introducing some yin coolness into our bodies through food and drink to counterbalance the intensity of the heat around us. It means limiting vigorous activity after 12 or 1pm. And it means giving ourselves grace and space to soften our moods and resist embracing a flared temper or internalizing a rebuke.
When Yang Is Pernicious, It Can Be Damaging
While Yin and Yang stem from the same source and they are mutually dependent and mutually transforming, they are not the same thing. Yang is active, moving, hot, and bright. Yang does not want to rest, to sit still, or to stop. It is endless expansion, growth, creation, and consumption. Yin, by contrast, is heavy, substantive, cool, and wet. It wants to contain and to nourish, to fill and to restrain. Yang is resistant to the natural cycle of ebb and flow while Yin relaxes its grip on dominance with relative ease. It is for this precise reason that the time of Yang dominance demands even more caution from us that Yin dominance.
Because our modern Western culture has forgotten that not all days and nights throughout the year are the same, people are resistant to the notion that their conduct during a certain time of the year can have consequences for health and well-being at other times of the year. We want to keep going to the sauna during the summer and jogging in the snow in the winter. Of course, your body will try and do what you ask it to do, but remember that you should be more responsible about your demands. Treating every part of the year like every other part will put your conduct at odds with the season and thus require more resources from your system to accomplish whatever task you are demanding, leading to deficiencies and failures in your body in later years. Working with the season serves the ends of comfortable longevity and a life with reduced pain and discomfort.
What to do
Relax in the shade
Don’t forget to eat, especially breakfast.
If you want to skip a meal because it’s too hot, skip dinner
Drink lots of water with cooling ingredients added like cucumber or mint.
Simple grains like cooked white rice are extra helpful because of the moisture they contain
Have some fresh cooling fruits like melons between meals or at least several hours after eating.
Exercise earlier in the day and avoid direct sunlight in the afternoon
Take a cooler shower and wash your hair thoroughly