Leaves are flying - the Metal Element in Chinese Medicine

HOW GLORIOUS IT IS ! How it fills our perceptions with awe and wonderment. Such delight in the colors, the leaves, the light. It always amazes me how with the passing of late September into early October and now late October there is a somewhat melancholic shift in the emotional field of people.
More sadness - fear of separation - expressions of grief,pain of separation welling up, "seemingly out of nowhere" even while we still have days of the so called Indian summer - and unbelievable beauty all around us.
Just after the peak of harvest - this wonderful abundance apples, pears and the beginning of prevalence of yellow and orange root vegetables. All the "ornaments of life" - as it might be referred to in Tibetan Buddhism - flowers and leaves are at their peak of color and richness just about to make way for the "knowing" of how this abundance will too soon get blown away by the cooler winds and rains of autumn! At that point - as we know - we shall be left with the structive essence of life !
- In one word the cold, harsher reality of winter - or translated to our psyche - we are left with who we truly feel we are without any ornaments. One could say "naked". Sometimes that can be a very lonely fearful place.
Chinese literature is full of descriptions of this process - and we know it in our hearts.
The organ systems that are particularly associated with the fall are the Lung organ system and the Large Intestine.
The emotions that pertain to the these systems are sadness and grief - sense of loss and, depending of the balance in the person: the ability to let go - and the understanding of boundaries.

So, there we have a clear explanation of why such feelings appear to be prevalent during this season as human being reflect their micro cosmos within the macro cosmos of the Universe. In my many years of practicing acupuncture I have encountered this rhythm and breath of life over and over again. People might be closer to tears - can't let go and forget of something they feel they did not want or deserve and any variation of this theme.

Maybe it stands to reason then why root vegetables help us ground in this vulnerability and greater emotional frailty.
Mother nature must have known because there are plenty of sweet potatoes, butternut squash, pumpkins and seeds as well as carrots and parsnips to help us ground and "be rooted" and comforted.

Physical issues often pertain to the Lungs and the Large Intestine: so we have increase in allergies (beginning with golden rod), asthma and breathing difficulties. Sometimes people will experience breathing difficulties right at the time on the Chinese Clock that pertains to the Lungs (from 3 to 5AM or possibly difficulties around Bowel Movements between 5 and 7AM.

So, In the fall - more than ever, it becomes us to do breathing exercises - increase our Yoga practice for opening our ribcages and B R E A T H E. Try it this season and rejoice at the fruits of your efforts. Also Acupressure is useful - you can rub and "pummel" the point LI4 halfway in the web between the thumb and index finger; or at LU9 around the radial artery at the wrist crease. Lastly there is the point LU10, midway on the fleshy part of the pad of the thumb. (the latter point is helpful with sore throat - loss of voice, also fever, etc.)

Sense of humor is, of course, is very important in this time when everything seems to have to let go - even if we don't "want to"!
Smiling and laughing about our selves helps! - I have learned that and whenever I rediscover smiles and laughter - I feel happier and relieved! Life is so much easier and truly abundant with possibilities and even choices of how we want to feel.
Even in the fall when everything appears to be vanishing, only to make room for the next great installment of our learning.
I always advice my friends and patients to remember their seasonal tune-up. As we journey from one season to the other - our energy can easily get out of sinc - and there often occurs greater vulnerability to colds and and the flu. It is amazing what one small acupuncture treatment can do to balance our energies again to better deal with the changes in temperature and the cold winds.

HALLOWEEN - A LITTLE DIFFERENT THIS YEAR.
TREATS THAT TREAT

Every year - "just a minute" before the actual night I used to fret: how can I buy junk to give to all the children coming to my door on Halloween. The lack of congruency with my believes in good nutrition - and my knowing what an overload of sugar would do to kids immune systems and moods would turn me into a terrible procrastinator.
One night I got - I won't do it anymore.
Already, my youngest daughter had to endure my good conscience -
She, little then, would go out to "hunt and gather" only to come back to the bargining table with me her mamma. We were going to trade - I'd buy her a toy or a doll - she'd hand over the candy;
then both of us off to the trash can to dump them. When I was lucky I could trade for something from a tag sale. Not always though!
Given my internal struggle I had to come up with new solutions:
Why did it have to be sugar, anyhow?
I went to the local stationary shop: there I found: Fancy Pencils, erasers in and of all colors, balloons, finger puppets, worry dolls, little pouches, stickers, stickers, stickers, all kinds...
little sets of playing cards, toy tiny spinning tops, 3D paper glasses, magnets, marbles.
I filled my bowl of offerings with apples and little packets of nuts, if I still believed that little packets of raising were not bad for your teeth - I would have added them. Fruit leather maybe a little better, and then I piled in all of the goodies.

So, my bowl looks like fun! Kids marvel at the things they find there - we get to talk a little rather than them just grabbing a handful of "emotional aggravation"....and I don't feel so bad.
All is well on Halloween........now we can focus on the veil between the worlds - without temper tantrums and snotty noses from too much sugar...