The heart of Chinese medicine is understood to be the continual, dynamic negotiations between the two forms of energy we know to be our Yin and our Yang. Qi is the word Chinese medicine uses to frame the vital life energy that exists between us. It is essentially everything that keeps us alive and in motion. But, it also exists as an energy outside of us. It is part of every function in the human body, and in the universe, connecting us to the wider rhythms of the world.
Yin Qi and Yang Qi are traditionally known to be opposite, yet complementary natures of energy. Their meaning in Chinese medicine, however, is more nuanced than this. These energies are dependent on each other’s existence for their own existence. Yin is cooling, inward and restorative energy, whereas Yang holds the warming outward and active energy. They cannot exist without each other, each one being a seed of its opposite. If Yin is form, Yang is function. This falls along the same lines as the summer demanding a winter for it to be properly felt.
This is why, as the seasons are changing, we need to be moving out of our Yin Qi and into our Yang Qi. If Swedish winter is about slowing down, staying in, and conserving energy, then summer is its extroverted counterpart. Yang Qi rises with the temperature, pulls us into motion, and we begin to channel a new season. Our bodies decide how to interact with the energies around us, and thus, being outside, in the sun, alongside movement, is the most important thing you can do to help your body climatise and transform to welcome the new Yang Qi.
Finding a nice place to sit after a day of studying is a tedious task. Between figuring out where the sun will be, and where the wind will not be, along with where you will actually be able to find a place and not spend half your CSN on a coffee… By the time all these factors are considered, it can feel easier to simply give up and go home instead. Recognising this very real, very serious frustration for those who suffer from Sun Guilt (myself included), I used the powerful tools of the internet (shadow map of Lund) to map out the best, most sun-available places after 17.00. These places are tried and tested against shade, and they have an indicator from 1-5 reflecting whether the sun remains high and strong, or falters behind the trees.
In this way, my map is a small invitation to live alongside the rhythms that Chinese medicine describes. Experiencing your Yin to properly experience your Yang is important in these changing seasons. What might seem like a simple choice, where to sit after studying, becomes a larger practice of attuning the body to its environment and following the natural movements of Qi itself. Thus, we allow the movements and transitions between the seasons to be less abrupt, and feel a natural movement and flow into our new Yang energy.
Sun map
Ratings
- Arimans: 4/5 sun
- Bar Beckasin: 3/5 sun
- Botulfsplatsen chairs: 5/5 sun
- Mårtentorget: 5/5 sun
- Ericssons: 4/5 sun
- Domkyrkan: 5/5 sun
- Botaniska Trädgården: 4/5 sun
- Taperian: 3/5 sun
- Malmö Nation: 4/5 sun
- Inferno: 3/5 sun
- Lundabryggeriets: 4/5 sun
- Tunaparken: 5/5 sun
- Love Coffee: 5/5 sun
