Summer’s around the corner: Open your Heart

I grew up in the Midwest, so I associate summer with hot sticky afternoons, melting ice cream cones and hearing the buzz of the cicadas at night. Now that I live in San Francisco, summer means I need to pull out my winter jacket to warm myself against the chilly fog that rolls in off the ocean.

But it’s all still summertime, the daylight hours are longer, and regardless of how hot or cool your summer experience is, it can be helpful to know that in Traditional Chinese Medicine, summertime is associated with the heart. So summer is a great time to think about things associated with the heart:

• passions: dedicate yourself to your favorite hobby or sign up for that Spanish class you’ve been wanting to take for a long time
• intuition: “follow your heart”
• relationships: nurture your friendships and laugh with your friends and beloveds

Summer is also associated with the fire element, and the time to bask in the sun (with a good sunscreen lotion) and exercise and sweat. In other words, time to play and have fun.

Don’t forget to drink water to stay hydrated, and eat light, by enjoying the abundant summer fruits and veggies.

eating with the seasons

Last night I cooked up a deep orange and dark green dish–sweet potatoes and chard from the farmer’s market. Simple and fulfilling, the colors remind me of autumn. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the seasons are as much about us and our bodies and hearts, as it is about the natural world. And so we can learn from Mother Nature, eating the bounty she gives us.

Apples, persimmons, potatoes, squash… brussel sprouts on the stalk… all from the Alemany Farmer’s Market in San Francisco. We’re lucky to have year-round access to local produce here in the Bay Area; it’s where I go to learn how to eat healthy with the seasons.

Here’s a separate post on a book recommendation about Staying Healthy with the Seasons.

wellness tip: take a walk!

I forgot to add to the list of wellness ideas.

• Take a walk around the neighborhood.

Connection to your local environment helps with your sense of grounding. And whether you’re in your own neighborhood, the neighborhood where you grew up, or some altogether new neighborhood, what better way to walk off some of that Thanksgiving turkey and pumpkin pie, get a chance to have some talk-time with your sister or uncle or friend, and perhaps even play tourist in your own town?

Anticipating tomorrow’s eating frenzy, this morning my boyfriend and I took a pre-turkey walk near our home in San Francisco. Sometimes it’s fun to be a tourist in my own town.

Seals hanging out and barking away on Pier 39.

And you never know what you might come across. We found this scale in front of the Fior d’Italia hotel in North Beach. We tried it out and it does give an “honest weight” as it claims. Motivater for more walks!