How to promote health and balance this summer from an Acupuncturist’s perspective

How to weave Traditional Chinese Medicine into your daily health and wellness

My father has always been a major influence in my life. He didn’t talk very much but when he did I knew it was important. I could tell that there was so much he wanted to say but maybe didn’t want to burden me with his experiences. I learned that during the cultural revolution in China, my father was imprisoned for being educated and outspoken.

As a child, my father would often have some concoction marinating in jars that lined the shelves in our home. He made tinctures, liniments, ointments and poultices, yet would never talk about these traditional practices. 

What I did hear often from my parents growing up were statements such as “spicy food is good for feeling alive, but too much will give you ‘yeet hay’,” which translates to “hot air.” Yeet Hay is a condition that manifests in sweating, fever, acne, canker sores, sore throat, low energy, sluggish digestion or puffiness. They would tell me not to stand in front of the air-conditioner or fan too long, saying “you will catch ‘wind’,” which causes a blockage in the meridians resulting in issues such as neck pain, stiff shoulders or even a cold. 

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is woven into culture. It’s a philosophy in which balance is paramount to health. TCM teaches us how to coexist harmoniously with our external environment. There is no one size-fits-all solution, but rather an individualized approach based on each person’s constitution (physical body, health, strength, etc.) and environmental surroundings. As I began to explore TCM, and later became a trained practitioner, I realized the depth of knowledge and value of the teachings my parents shared with me as a child.  

How to nourish your heart in the summer

A healthy body lives in harmony with its environment. It is important to understand that, if we want to cultivate health and wellbeing for ourselves, our needs will be different depending on the season, and our emotional and physical states.

Summer is represented by the heart and small intestine meridians in TCM. That means that summer is the best time to nourish and strengthen the heart. 

Summer has the most yang energy out of all the seasons, and therefore belongs to the fire element. Fire symbolizes the greatest amount of energy and activity. This is why we seem to have much more energy and require less sleep when the sun is out. 

In TCM, our mind and spirit, also known as Shen, reside in the heart and are nourished by the blood. All are ruled by fire. During the summer, it is important to nourish the heart, as well as our yang energy.

Tips for Staying in Balance in the Summer

• Focus on the emotion of joy: it represents our heart’s emotion. If you aren’t feeling joyful, try this simple writing exercise—write down 3 things that you are grateful for each day. Focusing on joy allows our heart to expand and strengthen. It allows the blood to flow freely to nourish our whole body.
• Sleep: go to bed later and rise a little earlier. Humans are wired to sleep after the sun sets and awake when the sun rises.
• Naps: a midday siesta when possible. Aim to nap between 1 and 3pm in the afternoon. This happens to be the small intestine’s meridian time (the partner meridian to the heart). A quick nap at this time can help with digestion and elevating energy levels (since we are getting less sleep at night).
• Use pungent flavours or bitter herbs, such as ginger, black pepper, cinnamon and garlic. They have a drying and dispersing nature that helps to balance damp heat issues arising from summer heat and humidity. They also help guide energy towards the heart.
• Eat meals that are light and avoid heavier dishes with oil or dairy. Eat more cooling, yin-nourishing foods, such as vegetable greens, melons and fruits, to balance out the external heated yang energy. In general, anything in the green spectrum will be cooling for your body. If you do eat animal protein, fish tends to be cooler in nature, while other animal meat is warmer in nature and should be avoided during this time.
• Eat small meals: Heavy meals can be hard to digest. This can lead to stagnation and bloating, especially in the summer months.
• Exercise: Take advantage of outdoor activities such as running, hiking, swimming and high-intensity interval training, aka, HIIT, exercises in an outdoor setting. Sweating helps to improve the body’s energy flow.
• Meditation: While we want to take advantage of increased socialization and yang-like activities during the summer, moderation is key. Mindfulness practices, such as meditation and breathwork, help to keep distractions at bay and calm our bodies in order to restore our energy levels for the next day. Some easy exercises you can try:

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