On Saturday (29/3) I went to a yoga teachers workshop run by my Zen teacher, Daizan Skinner, on the topic of the seasons – exploring the needs of the human system through the changing year, and how we can adapt our yoga practice to work best with each season.
Living in harmony with nature includes bringing body and mind into harmony with the changing seasons. I'm sure this was obvious to people in the past whose lives were much more connected to the outside environment, but these days, with our new fangled electric lights and central heating, we can live like there's no difference between winter and summer!
In the Indian yoga tradition, less emphasis is put on the seasons since India mostly has a sub-tropical climate. In the Ayurvedic system there are only three seasons: autumn/winter, spring and summer, whereas in the Chinese/Japanese system there are five (as we'll see below).
As I've written before, in the Chinese energy meridian system, each organ and organ meridian (see this page for simple meridian diagrams) is associated with a different quality, and the seasons are no exception. Each season is associated with two paired organs, and the properties of each organ and the effects of opening their meridian line dictates the flavour of your yoga practice for that season.
Here is a summary of what we learnt for each season.
Spring
Associated organs: liver and gall bladder
The liver is located on the right side of your body just under your rib cage, and the gall bladder is tucked in right next to it. The liver's function is to remove toxins from the blood, and the meridian line runs from the big toe up the inside of the leg up to the side of the belly.
The gall bladder stores and secretes bile to aid in digesting fats and acids, and its meridian line runs from the little toe right up the side of the body up to the head.
Any imbalance in the liver-gall bladder system tends to show up in the eyes, and/or as ligament/soft tissue tension or stiffness. When it's impaired the associated emotion is anger (we English have the term "a liverish person", or to be "livid"), and when functioning well we feel creative and kind.
So in the spring, our yoga practice should concentrate on working with stiffness in body (waking up from the winter) and stiffness in our attitudes, to help us detox, release anger, working with the eyes, and encouraging creativity and kindness. Postures should concentrate on stretching/opening the sides of the body and the insides of the legs.
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| Myself and Yulia teaching our Spring yoga sequence |
Summer
Associated organs: heart and small intestine
As we all know, the heart pumps blood around the body. It is seen as the home of the spirit, and governs joy. Interestingly, the tongue has a special relationship with the heart, being thought to be an a kind of "offshoot", and our facial complexion often reflects the state of our heart. The heart meridian line runs down the inside of our arm into the little finger.
The small intestine is five metre long narrow tube in your belly that does about 90% of the work of digestion, absorbing nutrients from the food as it passes through. It's meridian line runs from your little finger back up the outside of your arm, zig-zagging across your shoulder, and finishing on the side of your face.
When the heart-small intestine system is impaired we feel arrogance and hastiness, whereas when it's functioning well we feel love and connection.
Yoga for the summer should concentrate on opening the chest/heart area, and make use of flowing postures with an emphasis on that quality of timelessness in order to counter any hastiness. This would be the time to explore a more athletic practice to get the heart rate going, and at the same time foster an appreciation and love of the body and mind. Bear in mind though, that in the summer the mind is at it's most outward looking and distracted, so balancing this with some time for quiet introspection and calmness would work well.
Late summer (harvest)
Associated organs: spleen and stomach
In our western medical understanding, the spleen is part of your lymphatic system, and acts as a blood filter, destroys old red blood cells and helps fight infections. In the traditional Chinese medical system though, it's understood to have a very different function! It's seen as governing the transportation and absorption of food and water, turning digested food into usable nutrients, and ki (chi) energy for the body. It's also understood to control muscle strength, thinking and pondering, and is connected to the lips and mouth (like the heart is to the tongue). The spleen meridian runs from the big toe up the front inside of the leg, over the front of the hip up to the arm pit.
The stomach is located next to the spleen, on the left just under the rib cage. It's function is to receive food from the oesophagus, and secrete acid and enzymes to digest the food. The stomach muscles contract periodically, churning everything around to help everything digest fully. It then passes this partly-digested food onwards to the small intestine for further digestion and absorption. The stomach line runs from the 2nd toe up the front of the leg, front of the hip, the front side of the belly and chest, finishing up on the cheek next to the nose.
When the stomach-spleen system isn't working too well then we feel worried and insecure; or if it's functioning well then we feel empathetic, and nourished.
Yoga for the late summer should emphasise our connection to the earth, perhaps with poses close to the floor. Smooth continuous movements help to extend and challenge the muscles, particularly along the front side of the body where both these meridians run. Obviously back bends work well for this, but beware that going into a backbend too strongly can stimulate worry and insecurity in some people, not release it. Exercises using the voice and explanations that encourage a very detailed attention to bodily sensations helps to assuage any pondering and worry.
Autumn
Associated organs: lungs and large intestine
The lungs obviously get us breathing – they control respiration. However, in the Chinese system, they are also associated with governing ki (chi energy), disseminating and regulating water in the body, and controlling skin and body hair. They are also connected to the nose. The lung meridian runs from the thumb along the inside of the arm to the shoulder.
The large intestine's job is to remove water and any remaining absorbable nutrients from the food as it passes through, before sending the indigestible matter to the rectum. As a matter of interest, the full digestion of our food takes about 16 hours from start to finish! The large intestine also absorbs vitamins that are created by the colonic bacteria, such as vitamin K, vitamin B12, thiamine and riboflavin. It's meridian line runs from the index finger along the top of the arm up, over the top of the shoulder, up the side of the face to the nostril.
When these organs and their energy systems are functioning well we have an ability to let go and move forward; when they're not there's a sense of grief or depression. There's a clear connection here between these emotional qualities and the organ functions!
Yoga for the autumn should therefore focus on releasing and letting go on all levels. Shaking movements very helpful for this. Since the lungs are involved, a focus on breath-work would also be good.
Winter
Associated organs: kidney and bladder
Physiologically, the kidneys act like a filters to remove wastes and fluids from the blood – each day they process around 200 litres, removing about 1-2 litres as urine. The kidneys make three important hormones: erythropoietin to stimulate the production of red blood cells, renin which is involved in the control of blood pressure, and vitamin D which controls calcium uptake and helps make strong bones. They are connected with the ears, and energetically, thought to govern the reception of qi (chi) from the air. They kidneys suffer a lot when they get cold, so in Japan, they often wear a 'haramaki' – a garment worn around the abdomen (hara) to keep the stomach and kidneys warm. In the days of the samurai, it was a long piece of cloth (often augmented with chain mail or other metals) wrapped around and around the belly, but these days you can get something far more comfortable and convenient. The kidney meridian runs from the ball of your foot, up the inside of your leg, and up the front of your belly and chest, finishing at your collar bone.
The bladder the waste fluids filtered out by the kidneys, meaning that we don't have to constantly leak waste fluids – we can go to the loo and release a batch at a time... It's normal capacity is 400-600 ml. The bladder is lined by layers of muscle tissue. During urination, the bladder muscles contract, and two valves open to allow urine to flow out to the urethra (which passes through the centre of the penis in men). The bladder meridian runs from the little toe, up the back of the leg, splits and runs in two parallel lines just to the side of your spine, over the back of the head and finishes in the corner of your eye.
When this paired system is functioning well we feel a sense of courage, or a can-do attitude; when it isn't we might feel emotions relating to despair. When the kidneys are feeling down, the whole system can feel down, so that's why it's so important to protect and take care of your kidneys.
Yoga for the winter should therefore focus on warming the body (particularly the lower back and kidney area; perhaps through tapping or rubbing), and opening through the kidney and bladder meridians. The feet can also suffer a lot at this time of year, getting cold and never seeing the light of day, so giving them some attention can be nice. Mobilising the joints can help to release trapped cold, and a slower, more restorative practice connects in with our winter hibernating tendencies.
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| Kidney tapping/rubbing |
In the workshop, we then split into pairs, each taking a season and coming up with a 30min yoga sequence relevant to that season. Teaching these sequences back-to-back, we experienced a whole year of yoga in just 2 and 1/2 hrs!
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