Day 35
This weekend, we are back in the country with my brother in-law, my best friend Christina and their children. Since our last encounter with nature two weeks ago, the colorful fall has slowly drifted away and given way to the gusty winds, dark skies and naked trees of late October. This time of year seems to carry on its shoulders the burden of all the world’s suffering.
According to the Taoist philosophy, the yin season has begun. The lack of sunlight and the cold weather tend to strip us of all of our vitality. Many people suffer from seasonal depression because of this lack of light and warmth.
To maintain our bodily and spiritual balance, it is essential to find ways to replenish this loss of energy. Choosing warming foods, or in Taoist terms yang-strengthening foods, such as soups, slow-simmered stews, beans, roasted root vegetables and adding yang spices such as garlic, ginger, black pepper, cloves, and basil can all help increase our energy level and recreate balance. Salads and all cooling foods should be avoided.
It is also the time to surround ourselves with plants, lively colors, candles, light and uplifting music. Exercising is also an efficient way to get reenergized. With the holiday season around the corner, it is essential to remember that, because of the cold and the lack of sunlight, we need to find ways to get and preserve energy. Going to bed late for an extended period of time could end up depleting us of our much-needed vigor and result in an energetic imbalance.
Winter is coming and it is only by accepting this shifting of nature’s energy and by adapting ourselves to it that we can maintain our spiritual and physical balance.
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