Moving towards balance in Summer

"Make your heart like a lake with a calm, still surface and great depths of kindness" - Lao Tzu

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, there is much emphasis on staying healthy through expressing nature. There are 5 phases or seasons to the year. Summer is the fire stage and influences now are of the Heart and the Spirit. It is a time of heat and outward movement as all the plants are past "budding stage" and into "bearded stage". It inspires passion and expression within us. This is the best time of year to deal with any lingering pathogens in the body as they are closer to the surface. Often people get fits of "summer-heat illness" like common colds with sore throats, fevers, digestive weakness, and insomnia. Usually the illnesses don't last long and are easy to treat. The blood and Qi (or en