05/05/2025
🌳 L I ☆ X I A - Beginning of Summer
Li Xia is the seventh of 24 two-week solar terms that make up the ancient Chinese agricultural calendar. It begins between May 5th and May 7th each year.
Li Xia marks the beginning of summer as the sun climbs higher in the sky and the temperature continues to rise. Spring's blossoms now flutter from the trees, revealing young fruits ready to ripen in the heat.
Summer is the most yang season and represents a time of warmth, light, and activity in nature. Humans tend to become more active too, spending more time outdoors and enjoying the longer daylight hours.
However, during Li Xia, we are still in a transitional period and the difference between the daytime and nighttime temperatures can be surprisingly large.
Therefore, we should not be too quick to shed our layers or change our habits.
🌳 A Little Bitter Love
Summer is the season of the Heart, an organ responsible for both physical and emotional health. We often associate the Heart with love, and in Chinese medicine, it is known as the seat of the shen, or the mind-spirit.
In summer, we often feel more sociable and drawn to connect with loved ones. However, we must be careful not to overstimulate the Heart.
This means ensuring we take time out to rest and reflect, get enough good quality sleep, and prevent our bodies from overheating and generating pathogenic fire.
One simple way to reduce heat is by consuming more bitter foods. In Chinese medicine, the bitter flavour is said to "drain downwards" to clear heat and detoxify.
In western culture, we tend to avoid bitterness, but research has shown that the naturally-occurring bitter compounds in some foods have many benefits, including reducing inflammation, blood pressure, blood lipids, blood sugar, and more.
Moreover, bitter taste receptors exist beyond the mouth and have been discovered in a range of tissues, including the heart. Their function here is not yet clear, but scientists have hypothesised that they play a crucial role in cardiac function.
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