How to stay well in winter: advice from a foundational Chinese medical text
黃帝內經 素問《四氣調神大論第二》The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, Plain Questions《Chapter 2, the Great Treatise on Harmonizing the Spirit with the Four Qi》(circa 475 - 100 BC) includes advice on how to stay healthy by changing one’s conduct in accord with the macrocosmic environmental energy of each season.
冬三月，此謂閉藏，…早臥晚起，必待日 光，…，無泄皮膚使氣 亟奪，此冬氣之應，養藏之道也。逆之則傷腎，春為痿厥，奉生者少
The three months of Winter, are referred to as “the shut in and store [season]”... Go to bed early and rise late. [One] must entertain in the sun’s light. …. Get rid of cold by immediately getting warm. Do not allow leakage from the skin, it severely depletes your qi (energy]. This is how one copes with the qi of winter and the way of nourishing and storing [qi]. Acting contrarily [to this advice will] injure the kidney and result in springtime weakness and reversal. You will cause yourself to have less life force and capacity to generate.
In the winter months, the yang qi charges deep in our most core battery, to later re-emerge in springtime as the life force of sprouting and blossoming. Yin energy should be strong in the winter. And as always, yin and yang when balanced are able to inter-create, exchange and become the other. This continual morphing and change is essential to understanding yin and yang energy. They are not static and only exist together and in contrast to each other. According to Chinese medicine, it is of the utmost importance that during these winter months we stay as warm as we can, go to bed as early as we can, rise as close to the sun as we can, beware of overindulging in excessive sexual intercourse and store our energy. This is how it shares we can live in harmony with the seasons (4 qi) and cultivate our life force in accord with the macrocosmic forces that we, whether we like it or not, are inextricably interconnected with.
Furthermore, understanding that yin and the energy of water can be equated with winter, it benefits us to incorporate the lessons of these energies in winter. The virtue and strength of water is its surrendering nature. It surrenders to any shape it is put in, surrenders to the pull of the moon, the winds of a storm, surrenders to cold and becomes ice, surrenders to heat and becomes steam and continually flows to the lowest place it can. Water epitomizes adaptability and humility. When we live with humility, in a surrendered state, we can live in constant awe of this incredible ocean of life that we are all gorgeous and unique droplets of. Water has no selfish ego. Interestingly, the characters 知 (to know / be aware) and 智 (wisdom) have the same sound as 志 (will power). Pulling it all together, might wisdom be the knowledge we gain by living in a surrendered and humble state? Might it be reached with the help of healthy kidney qi and the will power to continually wrestle the self-aggrandizing ego, so that we may surrender in humility and therefore our qi flows with ease?
The kidney system can be thought of as a savings bank account that you better not make more withdrawals from than deposits. When it is depleted, life is over according to Chinese medicine. Although the kidney is affiliated with cold water, within this cold water there is the warmth of kidney yang qi. It is the balance between this deepest fire and its surrounding cold water that Chinese medicine believes is essential to maintaining health. In modern vernacular we are functioning in a healthy way when we are warm but not feverish, hydrated but do not retain water, energetic but not insomniacs and are able to maintain normal adrenal metabolic function etc.
In Chinese medicine, the kidney’s associated color is black, its affiliated element is water, emotion is fear, is said to ‘flower’ in the ears, govern the bones, produce marrow (brain) and its season is winter. One’s will power (志 = Zhi) is housed in the kidney and one’s ingenuity (巧) is derived from there. The kidney energy draws the breath in and when weak does not hold up the water in the body and our fertility declines. When we are aged and our kidney essence is declining, it is common to have brittle bones and loss of hearing. We are unable to procreate, the mind (marrow is synonymous with brain in Chinese medicine) is not as sharp as it once was and our ability to hold urine wanes. The kidney is where the root that connects us to our ancestors resides and our core life essence is stored. It is the source of yin and yang qi (energy) for all of the other organ systems and it is most vital to protect it.
