Are You in Your Season of Strength—or Your Season of Weakness?
Learn how to spot your favored and disfavored seasons and adjust your qi gong practice for resilience, balance, and long-term vitality.
Every year has a rhythm. You don’t need a calendar to know it—you feel it in your bones. There are times when you’re humming with energy: your sleep is deeper, your mood lighter, your body stronger. Then there are seasons when you struggle: fatigue lingers, small stresses wear you down, and old aches show up at the worst time.
Qi gong masters long ago noticed this pattern. They taught that each of us has a favored season, when our energy is naturally lifted and protected, and a disfavored season, when our system is vulnerable and easily disrupted. This isn’t fate or fortune—it’s biology, rhythm, and environment rolled together.
The good news? Once you recognize your pattern, qi gong gives you prescriptions for how to ride the high tide and how to guard against the ebb.
How to Tell If You’re in a Season of Favor
When your season favors you, the signs are often obvious:
You wake up refreshed, even without much sleep.
Tasks that usually feel draining become effortless.
Digestion feels light and smooth—you crave clean foods.
Stress rolls off your back instead of piling on your shoulders.
Movement feels natural; your breath is deep without trying.
In practical terms, this is the time to lean in. Expand your qi gong practice. Add a few more minutes to your standing meditation. Try a new sequence of movements. Take walks outside and notice how your body feels supported by the world around you. Even your ordinary life—family, work, relationships—feels easier.
But don’t forget: a strong season isn’t a license to burn yourself out. Ancient teachers emphasized the need to “anchor the gain.” End your practices with stillness—like a tree sinking roots—to hold on to the strength you’ve gathered.
How to Tell If You’re in a Season of Disfavor
The contrast can be jarring. In your disfavored season, you may notice:
Fatigue that doesn’t fully lift, even with rest.
A heaviness in the body, or stiffness in the joints.
Digestive complaints—bloating, irregular appetite, sluggishness.
Emotional patterns: irritability, worry, sadness, or scattered focus.
Difficulty sleeping deeply, even when you feel exhausted.
This is when qi gong becomes a prescription for protection. Instead of pushing harder, the practice shifts to repair and conservation.
Favor gentle movements like simple walking qi gong.
Spend extra time on abdominal breathing, which massages the organs and calms the nervous system.
Include more restorative postures—lying down, visualizing breath moving through the body, letting the qi replenish.
Pair practice with lifestyle support: eat lighter, rest earlier, and seek natural sunlight.
The principle here is simple: don’t fight the season. Protect your qi until it shifts again.
Why Do We Have a Favored and Disfavored Season?
Classical Taoist medicine explained this through the resonance of human qi and seasonal qi. Just as the year has rising and falling cycles—growth in spring, expansion in summer, harvest in autumn, storage in winter—our bodies echo these movements.
Each person’s system aligns more strongly with one part of the cycle. That’s your favored season. The opposite part of the cycle is your weak point, your disfavored season. It’s when your internal system is most easily stressed or suppressed.
The Huangdi Neijing (The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, 2nd century BCE; translated by Veith 1966) puts it plainly:
“Heaven has the four seasons and five movements. Man has five organs that resonate with them.”
Later scholars, such as Unschuld (Medicine in China: A History of Ideas, 1985), interpreted this as an epistemological model—a way of mapping relationships between body and world. But for practitioners, what mattered wasn’t the model. It was the lived truth: there are seasons when you feel strong, and seasons when you feel weak.
Qi Gong as Prescription, Not Just Practice
The brilliance of qi gong is that it’s not just a generic workout. It’s adaptable medicine. When you know your seasonal rhythm, you can tune your practice like adjusting an instrument.
In your season of strength: expand, challenge, and build. Add repetitions. Explore new breathing techniques. Practice outdoors and let the environment charge you.
In your season of weakness: protect, restore, and repair. Shorten your sessions. Focus on stillness, softness, and smooth breathing. Let go of striving and aim for balance.
This rhythm prevents burnout and supports health over the long haul. It’s also why qi gong is so sustainable across decades of life—unlike exercise fads that demand constant intensity.
Finding Your Own Pattern
Here’s the most practical step: track yourself.
For one year, keep a short journal. Note when you feel light and strong, when you feel heavy and weak. Record sleep, digestion, mood, and energy.
Compare across seasons. Most people will see a clear pattern emerge: “I always feel strongest in the late summer” or “winter drags me down every time.”
Once you see the pattern, you know your favored and disfavored seasons.
This knowledge is more valuable than memorizing the theory of the Five Phases. You’re building your own personal seasonal map. And with it, you have a guide to how and when to adjust your qi gong.
Why This Matters in Everyday Life
This isn’t just for martial artists or people chasing peak performance. It matters for ordinary living:
Knowing your weak season helps you schedule. If winter exhausts you, don’t stack your plate with extra commitments.
If autumn is your strong time, use it to tackle projects or start new habits.
If summer is your challenge, double down on hydration, cooling practices, and emotional moderation.
If spring lifts you, ride that wave of energy into growth—just don’t let it tip into overexertion.
Qi gong isn’t separate from life. It’s the same energy that lets you laugh with friends, cook a meal, or recover from a hard week. The seasonal map is simply a tool for navigating it better.
Classical Roots, Modern Relevance
What’s striking is how modern science echoes this idea. Studies on circadian and circannual rhythms show that hormones, immune function, and even cognitive ability fluctuate seasonally (Wehr, Circadian Rhythms in Human Physiology, 1991). Rates of depression, blood pressure, and even physical strength show measurable changes across the year.
So when the Huangdi Neijing describes the resonance between body and seasons, it isn’t only poetic. It’s an early recognition of a truth science is still mapping out: we are seasonal beings.
The Takeaway
Everyone has a season of favor and a season of disfavor. Favor means resilience and strength. Disfavor means vulnerability and repair. Neither is “good” or “bad.” Both are part of the rhythm of life.
Qi gong gives you the tools to work with this cycle instead of against it:
Expand and build when the season supports you.
Protect and restore when the season challenges you.
That’s how you keep your qi strong across the years. And it’s why the old teachers said:
“Do not fight the season—train with it.”
References
Veith, Ilza. The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine. University of California Press, 1966.
Unschuld, Paul. Medicine in China: A History of Ideas. University of California Press, 1985.
Kaptchuk, Ted. The Web That Has No Weaver. McGraw-Hill, 2000.
Wehr, T.A. “Circadian Rhythms in Human Physiology.” Journal of Biological Rhythms, 1991.
Qi Gong Seasonal Strength & Weakness — FAQ
1) What does “favored” vs “disfavored” season mean?
A favored season is when your body’s energy trends strong—sleep, digestion, mood, and recovery all feel easier. A disfavored season is when those same areas feel vulnerable or easily stressed.
2) How do I figure out my favored and disfavored seasons?
Track a few simple markers for one year: morning energy, sleep depth, digestion, mood, and soreness. Most people see a clear pattern: one part of the year consistently feels strong; the opposite feels draggy or injury-prone.
3) What are common signs I’m in a favored season?
Faster recovery, steady mood, clear focus, healthy appetite and digestion, deeper sleep, and a natural desire to move.
4) What are common signs I’m in a disfavored season?
Lingering fatigue, shallow or uneven sleep, tightness or recurrent aches, digestive sluggishness/bloating, irritability or low motivation.
5) What’s the qi gong “prescription” for each?
Favored: modestly increase load—slightly longer sessions, add breath depth, finish with stillness to “anchor the gain.”
Disfavored: dial intensity down—gentle sets (e.g., Ba Duan Jin), abdominal breathing, walking qi gong, earlier bedtime, lighter meals.
6) Does this require Five Phases or astrology?
No. You can use it purely as a practical cycle. Noticing your personal seasonal pattern is more important than memorizing models.
7) How long should I change my practice during a weak season?
Usually 3–6 weeks is enough to feel the shift. Reassess weekly. When sleep, mood, and recovery improve, gradually return to baseline intensity.
8) Can I still exercise normally?
Yes—just scale effort. Keep enjoyable movement, but avoid maxing out. Think “circulation and consistency,” not “records and strain.”
9) Any safety notes?
If you have chest pain, shortness of breath, fainting, unexplained weight loss, fever, or severe/persistent pain, stop and seek medical care. Qi gong supports health but doesn’t replace medical evaluation.
10) Quick self-check I can do today?
After a 10-minute gentle set, rate (0–10) your breath ease, mood steadiness, and body lightness. Repeat across a week. Rising scores suggest a favored period; falling scores suggest disfavor—adjust practice accordingly.
