Beth — The Nutrition of Summer

“Heart is the ruler over summer. The heart is the root of life and generates all changes in spirit.”

The summer is ruled by the heart. Not only should we take in what will nourish the heart we have the chance to nourish our hearts spiritually. Our hearts are home to consciousness, spirit (also called Shen), sleep, memory, and it also houses the mind.

Of course the heart is related to the nervous system and the brain. You know how your emotions effect your pulse rate and blood pressure.

Besides the proper nutrition we need to focus on giving the heart it’s “spiritual nutrition”. Some Taoist/Kabbalistic exercises for he heart are: practice feeling small in comparison to the wonders of the world. Take walks among the trees, look at the expanse of the ocean, meditate on the sunset. If you are in a big city walk among the tall buildings and think about those that brought those wonders into being, admire the strength of the weed growing through a crack in the sidewalk or an ant carrying a load 100x it’s size.

Since speech is brought forth from the heart we can take time to improve our awareness of our speech. When we do this we strengthen our heart. Heart “shen” focusing practices are prayer, affirmations, mantras, and devotional sayings.

While you are doing this DON’T use ice cream or iced drinks to cool you down. Coldness causes contraction in the body. It will then hold in heat and interferes with digestion. Instead use salads, sprouts, fruit, cucumbers, tofu, flower and leaf teas. Apples, watermellon, lemons, and lime are also good. If real heat exhaustion sets in make a mung bean soup or tea.

Also we have the warming/dispersing herbs to help us in hot weather. It may seem silly to use flavorings to increase warmth. In the long run, however, they bring the heat in your body to the surface to be dispersed. In this way you will be less effected by the heat. Things like red and green peppers, chyanne, fresh ginger, horse radish, and black pepper. Tumeric and cumin are also excellent. Use these in limited amounts. This will increase your ability to deal with cold weather when winter comes. They keep “heat” conditions from lodging within the heart.

Enjoy your summer and treat your heart with care!!!

Love and Light,

Beth