The Heart of Summer
by Thea Harlans

The supernatural forces of Summer create heat in the Heavens and fire on Earth; they create the heart and the pulse within the body . . . the red color, the tongue, and the ability to express laughter . . . they create the bitter flavor and the emotions of happiness and joy.

      The Yellow Emperor's "Inner Classic"

Summer is the season of the fire element--the most "yang" element, the most active, outward and "masculine" energy. Fire is the Sun--energy, warmth, and vitality, and the sunlight is yang. The fire element relates to the energy of creativity, intuition and motion; it is the energy that carries out the "ideas" of the wood element. Fire people thrive on activity, on new ideas and on change.

Summer is nature's season of growth and maturation, and we too are growing, maturing. Summer is the highpoint of outdoor exercise, increased travel, working, playing and creative projects that run the gamut from gardening to children and relationships.

The "Inner Classic" advises rising early but retiring somewhat later at this time of year. One should refrain from anger and stay physically active, to prevent the pores from closing and the qi from stagnating. One should not overindulge in sex, although indulging perhaps a bit more than in other seasons. Emotionally, it is important to be happy and easygoing and not to hold grudges, so that the energy can flow freely between external and internal. In this way illness may be averted in the fall. The season of fire and heart also includes late summer, which corresponds to the earth element. Problems in summer will cause injury to the heart and will manifest in autumn.

The fire element that characterizes summer refers to not only the heart, but the small intestine, pericardium and triple heater meridians as well. The heart is called the "Sovereign Ruler." In addition to the organ itself, the heart encompasses the ability to rule oneself, to see clearly, to understand, and to serve compassionately. It is responsible for intelligence, wisdom, and spiritual transformation.

The small intestine receives, digests, and assimilates nourishment, and is also called the second stomach. It sorts out and extracts the good from what we ingest, separating the "pure from the impure."

The pericardium and triple heater can be seen as physiological aspects of the fire energy. The pericardium is the sac that surrounds our heart--which is why it is also referred to as the heart protector--and sometimes as the "Prime Minister," he determines who gets to see the king, or what information is given to the king. In this respect, he may serve to protect our sanity, when information arrives that challenges our sense of reality. In the Inner Classic, the pericardium is also referred to as the "Court Jester," the one who makes the king laugh, bringing forth joy. Whatever the symbolic function, the practical ones are to protect the heart and regulate the blood, heat and nourishment throughout the body.

The triple heater meridians are also known as the "three burners"--an area in the middle of the chest that is home to the solar plexus and the umbilicus, and is responsible for producing heat and energy for the body through respiration, digestion, and elimination, and also serves as an irrigation system to distribute bodily fluids. These two fire functions--circulation and heating--are important to the overall harmony of the body.

Guidelines to creating and maintaining a healthy heart in all of its dynamics involve a proper balance of fire and water:

   · If you are overworked and overstressed in the seasons prior to summer, your yang will overheat and deplete the yin fluids and jing or essence. If this pattern continues into summer, the body fluids will become dehydrated, causing blurred vision, deafness and ear congestion.

   · If you sweat too much in the heat, the qi may escape and you will feel irritable. If your yang qi is exhausted, your extremities may become swollen, impairing movement.

   · If you are not able to sweat, the heat may affect your mind and spirit, causing delirium, muttering and fever--and sometimes stroke. Your pores must be open to release the heat.

   · If dampness--"humidity" or "summer heat"--invades your body, your head will feel heavy, as if tightly bandaged, the large muscles and tendons will contract, and the small muscles and tendons may become flaccid, causing loss of mobility, spasms, and atrophy.

   · If heat weakens the spleen so that it cannot nourish the lung with fluids, a dry raspy cough may appear in fall. When the heart is in disharmony, it is usually because another organ system is acting upon it with excess or deficiency.

The attributes the Chinese assign to the heart and pericardium refer to the concept of the heart as a mental/emotional center, alluding to a relationship to the nervous system and the brain. The heart meridian in acupuncture affects both the physical heart and the mind. We know that emotions affect the actual functioning of the heart, as reflected in the speed and strength of the pulses. The physical aspects of heart disease are well defined, but the mental aspects are more obscure. The Chinese use the concept of "shen" to describe the spirit that resides in the heart and is responsible for the quality of one's consciousness.

Paul Pitchford's Healing With Whole Foods describes people with healthy hearts as genuinely friendly, and also humble in the face of the wonders they perceive with their open hearts and aware minds. Clarity is a central attribute of those with a harmonious heart-mind--they seem to see effortlessly through problems and arrive at brilliant solutions.

Pitchford also gives us general symptoms of a heart-mind imbalance: scattered and confused mind; excess or no laughter; a ruddy or a very pale face; speech problems (stuttering, excess verbiage, confused speech); depression; mental illness; los of memory' poor circulation' weak spirit; aversion to heat.

How do we define the causes of the disruption of the spirit? The spirit is a yang principle, so the spirit needs yin - fluids and blood for stability; otherwise it "escapes" from the heart, causing incessant wandering of the mind. Extreme cases of unstable spirit are insomnia, memory loss, irregular or racing heartbeat, excessive dreaming, irrational behavior or insanity. Hypertension and hyperthyroidism are often thought to be caused in part by insufficient yin. The cooling value of yin protects the heart from inflammation. To enrich yin, it is important to reduce any liver excess and avoid warming substances that deplete yin--coffee, alcohol and tobacco.

Remedies that tonify kidney yin also improve heart yin; fresh wheat germ, wheat berries in food or as tea) and mung beans. Shitaki and Portobello mushrooms, zucchini, beets, and dark cherries build deficient blood. There are Chinese herbal formulas to address these deficiencies as well.

Deficient qi and yang of the heart can both bring about a disturbed spirit with signs of heart imbalance such a palpitations, irregular and weak pulses, pale tongue, and lethargy. Qi and yang deficiency may cause hardening of the heart arteries, severe chest pains, nervous disorders, general body weakness, and depression. Phlegm from improperly digested foods or an excess of mucus-forming foods (milk and dairy, ice cream, eggs, meats, sugar, peanuts and refined foods) can obstruct the heart.

Several nutritional studies also indicate that heart and nervous system problems are related to calcium metabolism. Coffee, alcohol, tobacco, refined salt, sugar, refined flour, aluminum, pesticides, marijuana and other intoxicants all interfere with calcium absorption. Equally damaging is excess protein, elevating levels of heart disease and osteoporosis.

Dietary recommendations for summer include the full complement of the season's brightly colored fruits and vegetables. Cook lightly and add a little spicy or even fiery flavor. Sauté over high heat for a short time, or steam and simmer foods as quickly as possible. Use little salt and more water. Take advantage of the abundant variety of fruits and vegetables to replace the minerals and oils you are sweating out of your body, which will weaken the body if not replaced by a varied diet. Drinking hot liquids and taking warm showers will induce sudden sweating and cool the body. Too much cold food and drink weakens the digestive organs. Cold causes contraction; it holds in heat and interferes with digestion. Iced drinks and ice cream contract the stomach and are best avoided. If you have been using echinacea throughout the winter and spring to ward off colds, you may find the same cold symptoms in your digestive tract; a feeling the food won't go down. Echinacea is a cold descending root, and over time weakens digestive fire. Lightly cooked foods and warming spices in small amounts will relieve this over time.

On the hottest days, use cooling fresh foods such as sprouts (mung, soy and alfalfa) fruit, cucumber, tofu and flower and leaf teas--mint, sage, chamomile and chrysanthemum. Apples, watermelon, lemons and limes cool summer heat, mung bean soup or tea is another remedy for heat. Bitter tasting teas will drain heat from the heart, but an excess of bitter weakens the heart - the salty flavor is the antidote. Dispersing hot-flavored spices are appropriate in the warmest weather, although they initially increase the heat, they bring body heat out to the surface to be dispersed. Red and green hot peppers, cayenne red pepper, fresh ginger, horseradish and black pepper are all suitable for this purpose. Don't overdo this or you will deplete the yang, which will affect your ability to stay warm in the cooler seasons.

A simple diet with occasional light fasting calms and focuses the mind. Avoid heavy (meats, eggs, dairy products and an excess of nuts, seeds and grains) that cause sluggishness, interfere with the body's ability to expel heat and block the internal-external energy exchange Also avoid very spicy and rich foods, late-night eating and large evening meals. To reduce nervousness and improve mental focus you can consider taking "oyster-shell calcium," which anchors the shen; whole wheat, brown rice, and oats, which calm the mind; mushrooms in every form; silicon foods such as oatstraw tea, barley gruel, oat groat tea, cucumber, celery, lettuce, which improve calcium metabolism and strengthen nerve and heart tissue; mulberries and lemons, dill and basil, schisandra berries, all of which calm the mind or spirit; and chamomile, catnip, skullcap, or valerian, which calm the nerves of the insomniac.

In addition to balancing the heart through diet and vascular cleansing methods, there are specific spirit-clarifying methods. One method is to use mindfulness speech, which is said to issue from the heart. The condition of the heart is reflected in the awareness of one's words. Conversely, by improving our awareness of speech as a heart-affirming exercise we strengthen the heart; the scattered mind and its spirit can be collected and organized through mindful speech patterns. Prayer, meditation, devotional singing, mantras, affirmations and silent contemplation on uplifting images are traditional spirit-focusing practices. To be beneficial, these practices need to be done attentively rather than mechanically. Establishing a strong, calm and clear mind promotes more efficient healing of all organ systems.

In this information age we tend to be overstimulated. Energy from excessive thought and worry races through the head while the heart is impoverished. In severe cases the yang aspects of the heart flood upward into the head. An excess of this can cause fever, headache, irritability, insomnia and mental disturbances. In general the dietary cure for this condition involves improving the yin of the heart, so that spirit is held in the heart by a protective barrier of yin essence; similarly, heat and qi are also restrained. When spirit becomes sufficiently concentrated in the heart, superficial thinking stops and integrated thought begins. One becomes fully present, and thought becomes reality. Using basic awareness practices and dietary discipline can extend mental wellness beyond the minimal function, rational mental health.

In healing the heart, it is crucial to begin first with the spirit. Heart problems and mental depression are two of the major ailments of modern society. There is much we can do with spiritual practice and diet to alleviate these medical-spiritual conditions.