The sky goes gray, the rain settles in, and so, somehow, do you. Everything takes a bit more effort. Getting up, getting going, getting through the afternoon. Give you a bright morning and you're fine; give you three wet days in a row and it all feels heavier. People say "it's just the weather," as if that settles it. It is the weather, and it's still real. A lot of people feel it.
You don't have to fix it today. One small change, a few numbers in a notebook each evening, and after a few gray days you'll be looking at your own notes instead of guessing. This page shows you how.
Chinese medicine sorts people into nine body types, based on what their body is like day to day. Most types have a line about the weather they cope with badly, but for two of the nine, China's national standard writes rain and damp straight into the description.
For qi stagnation, it says this type doesn't do well in gray, rainy weather, and doesn't take upsets well either. For phlegm-dampness, it says this type copes poorly with the rainy season and with damp places.
Damp comes up for a few of the other types too, just not this directly. And one feature on its own doesn't tell you your type. That's why the assessment asks 26 questions and not one.
The standard doesn't say which. It says qi stagnation doesn't do well in rainy weather, and stops there: not whether that's in your mood or in your body. Some people notice it mostly as a lower mood, some as a heavier body, and plenty notice both. Either way, everyone's a little different.
If what gets worse for you is aching joints or headaches, that's a different question from the one this page answers. It's worth mentioning to your doctor.
The names are old traditional labels, so don't let them put you off. Many people see a bit of themselves in both, and that's normal.
You're often in low spirits, your feelings bruise easily, and you can feel weighed down and joyless. You tend to be sensitive and to worry. You're more often on the slim side. Gray, rainy stretches are hard on you, and so are upsets: stressful news, an argument, a scare. Where to start: on a gray day, don't stay in alone. More about qi stagnation
Your body feels heavy, and your belly tends to be soft and full. Your face gets oily, you sweat a lot and the sweat feels sticky, your chest can feel tight, you often bring up phlegm, and your mouth feels sticky or tastes sweet. You're drawn to rich, sweet, sticky food. You're usually the patient, steady one. Long rainy spells and damp places are the hardest on you. Where to start: keep your home dry. More about phlegm-dampness If heavy is the main word for you, have a look at Why does my body feel heavy and tired? as well.
Pick one of these. Just one. If you change five things at once and the gray days get easier, you won't know which one did it, and if nothing changes you won't know what to drop.
How to choose: if one of the two types above sounds like you, start with the suggestion under it. If you're not sure, take the one that feels easiest. Something you'll actually do beats something better that you'll skip.
Rain doesn't come on a schedule, so this works a little differently from a fixed two weeks. You'll compare gray days with gray days.
Keep a notebook and pen by the bed. It takes about half a minute each evening. Every evening, write three things:
Change nothing at first, until you've written down at least three gray days. Those are what you'll compare against. Then start your one thing, and each evening add one more line: Did I do my one thing today? Yes or no. If your one thing only makes sense on a gray day, like not staying in alone, just write that line on gray days.
Keep going until you've had at least three more gray days. That might be a week; in a dry spell it might be a month. Then put your gray days side by side, before and after.
A few things make this fairer. Try to compare within the same season, since spring and winter feel different anyway. Look at all your gray days together rather than one bad day. And keep the rest of your routine as steady as you can while you're doing it.
Your gray days look better than before. Keep it. Then add a second thing. If you started with not staying in alone, a hard group workout is a good next one.
No difference at all. That's an answer too, not a failure. That one just isn't yours. Swap it for another one from the list and give it a few more gray days.
You kept skipping it. Make it smaller. One message to a friend instead of a whole plan. One damp corner dried instead of the whole house.
Gray days are still harder than sunny ones, just less so. Count that. The aim isn't to love the rain. It's for the rain to cost you less.
If you live with a long-term condition such as high blood pressure, diabetes or kidney disease, or you're in the middle of any illness, check with your own doctor before changing your routine.
Things are getting worse, or something new has turned up. Stop experimenting on your own and see a doctor (more on that below).
That's what the assessment is for. It asks 26 questions, including the ones about low spirits and a heavy body, takes about three minutes, scores all nine types, and tells you which one stands out, or that none does.
Take the 26-question assessment
Home experiments are for the everyday ups and downs. If a low mood hangs on or gets in the way of work, sleep or the people close to you, talk to a doctor or a mental health professional. If you find yourself low every year in the same season, usually winter, say so. There's a pattern doctors call seasonal affective disorder, and they can tell you whether that's what's going on and help with it.
If you ever have thoughts of hurting yourself, reach out now, not later. In the US, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), any time of day or night. If you're in immediate danger, call 911.
The nine body types come from Wang Qi, a professor at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. He and his colleagues first sorted people into seven types in the late 1970s, kept refining the idea for more than twenty years, and published the nine-type system in 2005.
It didn't stay an idea on paper. China brought body-type checks into its basic public health service, which offers residents aged 65 and over a check once a year, along with everyday advice for their type. In community clinics the check has been used more than 570 million times, and it's offered in the preventive care departments of over 1,700 Chinese medicine hospitals.
As it spread, clinics weren't all doing it the same way, and the quality varied. So China made it a national standard, giving every clinic one agreed method to follow. It was drawn up by a team of 37 from 20 hospitals, universities and other institutions, with Wang Qi first among them, and came into force in April 2026. The assessment on this site uses that standard's questions and scoring lines, translated into English. The everyday advice for each type comes from a care guideline for adults built on the same nine types.
It's a way of understanding your body's everyday tendencies, not a medical test, and it sits alongside your doctor, not instead of one.
May we record how you use this site? We log which pages you open, how far you get in the questionnaire and which buttons you press, along with your country and city. Never your answers. Saying no changes nothing else on the site.
You can switch this off at any time with the link at the bottom of every page. What we record