Nourishment

Yi 頤

It matters what you feed on — what words, relationships, and thoughts you let inside.

Lower trigramThunder (Zhen 震)

Upper trigramMountain (Gen 艮)

Themewhat you feed on

A question to reflect onWhat do you take in each day without having chosen it?

AdviceNotice one source you feed on needlessly, and cut it down.

The sayings of the six lines

Do not envy others what they feed on — first watch over what you nourish yourself with.
When you take nourishment from somewhere other than your natural source, watch whether it truly feeds you, or only occupies you.
Feeding on what is at hand and tastes good at once does not hold for long — what feeds you against your measure exhausts you in time.
To seek nourishment beyond your reach is fine when you know whom you ask and why — then it does you no harm.
If you cannot yet nourish yourself, lean on a firm source and stay with it — now is not the time to set off on your own for the distance.
When others feed on you, you carry great responsibility — just there lies your strength now, not in your own consumption.

The reading in practice

When to read Nourishment

When this image comes up

Hexagram 27, Nourishment, is best read at a moment when something like this is in play: it matters what you feed on — what words, relationships, and thoughts you let inside. The main motif is not a label for the situation, but the direction in which your attention is meant to move.

What the situation asks for

The lower trigram Thunder (Zhen 震) shows the inner movement, while the upper trigram Mountain (Gen 艮) shows the shape that turns outward. Notice one source you feed on needlessly, and cut it down.

Work

At work, Nourishment does not ask only about performance. It leads you to let the theme "what you feed on" show in your next step, your pace or your responsibility.

Relationships

In relationships this image is not a verdict on the other person. It rather opens the question of what should be said, borne or left to ripen: What do you take in each day without having chosen it?

Shadow / risk

The risk is to overdo the image's main motif: what you feed on. The top line recalls the extreme form of the situation: When others feed on you, you carry great responsibility — just there lies your strength now, not in your own consumption.

A question for your journal

What do you take in each day without having chosen it? Write down one small step and come back to it in a few days.