In the Seasonal Living series, I’ll be giving you some tips for living harmoniously with seasonal change to boost your health and vitality.
We love to ask able-bodied, healthy seniors “How did you it? What’s the secret to staying healthy as you age?” It’s a question we know has been around a long time, because more than two thousand years ago in China, books were written to answer those questions. The Huangdi Neijing or Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine is one of the foundational texts of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory, It begins with several chapters on seasons, how they affect health and disease, and most importantly, how to live harmoniously with seasonal change in order to stay healthy. Even 2,000 years ago, ancient people knew that lifestyle had a big impact on health.
Living in times when the seat of your car can be heated or cooled, you may wonder why it’s important to live in harmony with the seasons. If it’s cold, you can turn up the heat, and when it’s hot, flip the switch to air conditioning. In fact, we are still deeply connected to the natural environment and it plays a huge role in our health. Muscles and tendons are stiffer in winter, and more flexible in Spring and Summer. Our energy levels and desire for sleep change according to the amount of available light and according to temperature. And as we become more removed from the natural environment, we find that this distance is causing its own set of health problems: insomnia, anxiety, depression, fatigue, poor digestion, muscles and joint aches and pains.
So what is seasonal living? Fundamentally, it means organizing your life to be in tune with what is happening in the natural environment around you. An example of this is to eat foods that are in season in the region where you are from, rather than foods imported from an extremely different climate or season. I am going to be giving you some guidelines to help you make choices that are more seasonally appropriate. It doesn’t mean you should never eat a strawberry in January, but maybe you can choose not to eat them every day.
Living in alignment with the seasons is basically like putting grease on axles, it smooths the friction between you and your environment, and allows you to borrow the energy of the season rather than exhausting your own. Your body has been programmed for tens of thousands of years to respond to the climate and season you’re living in. When you ignore the seasonal mandate you are confusing your body and making it do extra work, decreasing your own vitality.
If you are interested in living more in tune with the seasons to increase your own health and longevity, follow my series of blog posts. I’ll be starting with Spring.
