Welcome to Fall....
The Fall season is a beautiful but often difficult time, with the returning of old ailments and increased anxiety.
In Chinese medicine, Autumn is the season of the element Metal. Grief is the emotion of the Metal element. We all experience loss, separation, and “letting go,” and we appropriately feel grief at those times. Grief cleanses us of what is no longer needed in our lives. When the energy of Metal is blocked or imbalanced within us, our expression of grief likewise becomes imbalanced. It may be excessive and ongoing. Or, in the other extreme, it may be absent, as in those who cannot express their grief.
The Work of Autumn is this: clearing and learning about ourselves.
Having provided the harvest, Nature now makes everything bare. In this season Nature lets go of its abundant creation of the past year in a grand final display. Autumn marks the end of the growing season - a turning inward, a falling away of outer-directed energy. Leaves turn color and drop. The old leaves go back to the earth, enriching it to promote the coming of new leaves, and a new harvest.
The Lungs and Inspiration
There is more to this season than “letting go” - it is also a time to take in freshness. The air in autumn takes on a new crispness. Think of waking up on a brisk fall day and filling your lungs with that clean, cool autumn air. The Lung, the other organ contained within the Metal element, enables us to take in the pure, the new. It grants us the inspiration of a breath of fresh air. In classical Chinese medicine, the Lung is described as “the receiver of the pure Chi from the Heavens.”
