Yang qi is a simple yet important facet of Ancient Chinese Medicine. Think of yang qi as our vital warmth, or our inner fire that is life supporting.
In Chinese Medicine, Fire is the central element. We can compare this to the centrality of the sun. The heart, the central organ of the body, belongs to the Fire element. Four organ networks are related to the Fire element (Heart, Small Intestine, Pericardium, San Jiao), while each other element only has two.
Besides the fact that the sun is the source of warmth for all living things and a symbol of Fire, humans have a deep history with fire itself. Early on, we learned how to build fires to keep warm and cook our food. We learned that in many cases if we didn’t bring fire to water and boil it, there was a real chance of getting a parasite and dying.
Warmth is life supporting; it is vitality, expansion, circulation and movement. Everything that is living possesses warmth. Cold, although it has its place and is not innately bad, is constricting and contracting, it diminishes the circulation and movement of life.
As a larger concept, cold is anything that hampers the unfolding of yang, anything that hampers us living out our free, honest expression of being in life. This can be literal cold that gets into our system from weather or our diet and causes sickness, it can be a parasite feeding on our internal resources, it can also be trauma, fear or something that causes us to contract.
On a very basic day to day level, here are some simple practices that generate internal warmth and support your yang qi:
After waking in the morning:
1. Start the day with a warm cup of water, ginger tea, or your favorite warm beverage, especially before eating anything cold such as refrigerated fruit
2. It is recommended to eat something warm for breakfast as opposed to something cold like a smoothie which is more suitable in the afternoon.
When our digestive metabolism is just waking up, it likes to be supported with warmth, not slowed and hampered down by cold.
Throughout the day:
1. Choose room temperature or warm drinks over cold drinks when possible
2. Eat less cold raw foods, especially in the colder months
3. Eat fruits at room temperature and cook vegetables the majority of the time
Ideally if our qi is strong, it can handle much of anything. However for most of us, an abundance of cold slows down and hampers our digestion.
During your menstrual cycle:
1. Emphasize warm foods and drinks
2. Soak your feet in warm water, especially if you are prone to cramping. Add ginger slices, mugwort our epsom salts to enhance circulation.
3. Bring heat to the area where you are cramping.
Cramping means that cold is in the uterus. Our uterus likes to be warm, especially during menstruation.
When you are sick or have a cold:
1. Eat warm soups and broths
2. Hydrate with warm or room temperature water
Trust your ancestors with this one. Chicken noodle soup, broths, pho, congee, etc. are all great options to support your immune system as it repairs from sickness.
When you are nauseous:
1. Drink ginger tea
Nausea is counterflow stomach qi often caused by digestive cold and dampness.
Ginger is both warming and pungent, meaning it can break through this cold dampness.
In the winter time:
1. Keep your feet warm with extra socks
2. Protect your neck from wind and cold and avoid going outside with wet hair
3. Soak your feet in warm water to support full body warmth and circulation. Ginger, mugwort and epsom salts are nice additions to enhance circulation.
There is a reason we call it “catching a cold.” The back of the neck is most vulnerable to wind and cold.