why avoidance isn't the answer, but 삼계탕 can be.
- Rachel Jeong
- Sep 10, 2023
- 2 min read
PSYCHOLOGY, Self-Care
The hot breeze rustles through the reeds, swimming delicate strokes through the faded orange and foggy afternoon sunlight next to the stoplight. You can even physically see that grey fog wafting and wavering intricately between the city buildings, through the roads of Daejeon, around the cobblestone shops and atop the freeway bridges. Yet while you are waiting for the pedestrian sign to light up, you don't feel as those peaceful reeds beside you do. In fact, the world to you right now is a 100 degree metal box of a sauna that you're stuck in and cannot escape no matter how hard to try to kick open the door or push up the ceiling, and the air is so goddamn hot for you to even breathe, so you are hating on yourself for deciding to wear grandma's knitted sweater today out of all days and you didn't bring your healthy girl shit water bottle and your feet are becoming slimy in your heels. You anxiously and annoyingly twitch your legs and repeatedly press the stoplight button.
Anyways, in such a heat, what's more perfect than a cold dish, or maybe an icy dessert, to temporarily cool you off?
Wrong.
On summer days like these, South Koreans believe that you should eat samgye-tang (삼계탕, "sahm-geh-tahng"), a steaming-hot broth of garlic, ginseng, jujube, rice, and with a whole mini-chicken in it. Why?
In one article, a 삼계탕 storeowner says, "In Korea, they say 'fight fire with fire!'"
She then continues, "[Samgyetang] has benefits [in the summer] because when it's too hot, we eat cold things. Our stomach gets colder but the rest of us stays hot. So we have to make it the same temperature." In the midst of sweltering, entrapping anxiety, depressions, and more, these so-called "cold things" are like the dopamine we turn to. The things that soothe, that distract, that turn us away from the heat, the clammy hands, the hair sticking to forehead. The things that only last so long.
Sure, turning to those cool things is not bad: it's good, in moderation. Yet keep on turning to this short-term relief, receive the long-term disadvantages.
The storeowner continues, "Patrons walk in hot and exhausted, but 'when we eat samgyetang, we can get our stamina back.'" Thinking about stamina is a long-term game, long-run mindset, and humans psychologically don't think that way automatically.
NPR article explains the ease with which we can become addicted to the short-term reliefs and pleasures, and how to break that addiction to find balance. If anything, it can be healthy for you if you choose to face it with an appropriate mindset: As a Vice article states,"Therefore, eating hot foods on hot days helps to balance your body temperature, restore energy and keep you healthy during the hot, sweltering summers."
Like the South Koreans in their sweltering summers, let's strive to strengthen and balance out our bodies and minds by facing the heat, and entering that 삼계탕 shop at the corner. The heat won't last forever; you'll escape it soon enough.
To read more visit...
https://www.verywellmind.com/avoidance-coping-and-stress-4137836#:~:text=The%20Link%20Between%20Avoidance%20Coping%20and%20Anxiety&text=When%20people%20use%20this%20strategy,difficult%20to%20do%20at%20first.
Photo Credit: serious eats
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