Slight Cold

Little/Slight Cold 1/20/17 - 2/2/17

The qi now has reached a state of being cold. This goes beyond just our notion of feeling cold, but the actual thermodynamic principal of being "cold." Which means that movement literally slows down, there is less kinetic energy at your disposal. Because of this great efforts are very, very taxing.

This is the 12th moon and the most yin of all the moons. Yin culminates; it peaks and begins to imagine its decline. Yang is at its smallest, but is close to turning. Which means that yin is going into decline.

Yin receding has its own warnings with its withdrawal - one is becoming easily exhausted and circulation can become poor. Health isn't about always being busy, it's the ability to be appropriate, to respond appropriately to your environment.

This is a good time of year to recalibrate your sleep. Getting deep sleep during the night, the second stage of sleep is what you need to make sure you get (generally 1 - 3 am). This deep level of sleep can recalibrate your body and dissolve away imbalances. The qi of this time of year is most available during the night. The day time is not as efficient and usually easy to forget.

Since the environment is very, very yin, we want to give it support. We still need enough yang to make sure that the yin moves because it won't move on its own. So while it is important to honor yin and nourish it, it is also important to keep some movement going with light activity (like walking) in order to distribute the yin to nourish yourself.

These two weeks are ideal for finishing stored foods, making stews and casseroles that provide leftovers for the remainder of the time. Cleaning out the house to prepare for the spring and new growth that will come in the spring. Not much visiting happens this time of year - this 12th moon is about you working on yourself. Pay attention to your dreams and you can resolve unfinished issues from the previous year and beyond. This was known as Ghost Resolution.

How you can gain your freedom from ghosts - do you have things you feel you need to do? Things you have no intention of stopping that don't serve you... things you wish you could stop ... these are ghosts from your ancestors that they could not resolve. By exorcising these ghosts you gain your freedom. You have to find a way to nourish yourself that's exactly the way that your bad habit nourishes you. Test yourself, see how much of something you need in order to feel content. Are you in control? Or is the activity? Play with the situation -

If you relax this time of year, you can gain clarity on what serves you and what doesn't. You have ancestors that haunt you with unsettled patterns as well as many others that support you and are concerned with that unsettled nature. In order to gain clarity in this type of situation, you have to nourish yourself. This means eating foods that settle you and feed you at a deep level like roots, bone marrow... not so much fresh food.

Ghosts need us to do things they can't, because they don't have a body. When you make a new year's resolution, this is really about clearly communicating with your ancestors and knowing what will be right conduct to resolve the issues that you are ready to move on from.