Autumn - Body, Mind, Spirit clear-out

One starts sensing the arrival of Autumn after 20th September. The first signs are the insects, which feeling the cold nights, march inside the house. Before the leaves start dropping down, as trees withdraw their photosynthetic activity, you yourself may notice the difference in temperature between day and night and may even catch a cold.

This year I have also noticed the arrival of Autumn has brought a great need to clear out my body, my house and my life of what is no longer needed. For Autumn is the season of great preparations for the downtime in Winter. We can utilise this energy for our health and wellbeing if we align with the season's energy.

Body Focus: clearing out your gutters

This month I start from the physical aspects of the seasonal energy. Autumn is associated with Large Intestine (Colon) and Lungs, both being the Metal element in the Five Elements of the Chinese Medicine. The two organs are the mechanics of "out with the impure and in with the clean". Most of what goes through the Colon gets eliminated and most of what is inspired into the Lungs is absorbed into our bodies. When the Lungs struggle to absorb (or accept) we cough it out. When the Colon struggles to eliminate we feel clogged with impurities, which often show on the skin, our third lung.

If you have problems emptying your intestine, you should try waking up at 6am, which is the peak time for Colon activity; get moving around or better do some exercise, drink a glass of warm water and you will ensure emptying of the bowels. If it does not help, you may have an energy block stopping your Intestines from working efficiently. In such case book yourself for an acupuncture session right this month of October, when the Colon's activity is at its best. Click on the contact below to book.

To everyone of you, even who is emptying regularly every day, I suggest to take advantage of the seasonal energy and detox your body. The season of the Metal element resonates best with a heavy metal cleanse and/or a parasite cleanse. It is a good practice to do both at least once a year and I strongly suggest you do it in Autumn. Some examples of effective heavy metal cleanse supplements are alghe, zeolite or tourmaline water. For more information on how to use any of these supplements, please contact me by clicking below.

Sulfur is known to eliminate heavy metals, especially aluminum, and it is found, among other in cruciferous vegetables, allium vegetables (onion, leek and garlic, which are all related to the Metal element), green leafy vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds and eggs.

All these vegetables add fibre to your diet which additionally improves intestinal movement. One more essential addition to the healthy intestinal clearing are microorganisms. You can take home made probiotics such as fermented vegetables or fermented diary products or for adding more variety of probiotic strains to your intestines, you may consider supplementing with probiotics.

The Classical Chinese Medicine does not promote colonics for generally healthy persons as these deprive the Colon of good as well as the bad bacteria. It is preferable to save colonics for when one really needs them, analogically to antibiotics, they should be used sparingly.

Mind focus: declutter your thoughts

How often in the recent couple of weeks (since the start of Autumn) have you managed to have your mind clear of thoughts and see the life through a clean lens?

Do you encounter difficulty in falling asleep as your head runs through the chores? Do you wake up at 3am or 5am in the morning and find yourself with the same thoughts you had when were falling asleep? Do you find it hard to focus during the day as your mind repeatedly side tracks from what you are focusing on?

These are some of the signs that you need a mental decluttering.

One of the best way to declutter your mind is through meditation. If you wish to get started join me in a weekly on-line, live-streamed meditations, each Tuesdays at 7.00am CET at the FB page https://www.facebook.com/DoroTao.ClassicalChineseMedicine.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Spirit focus: devoid your personal space of futile distractions

Clearing your personal space I mean leaving the space for yourself to be in. In another words, pay attention to distractions. A lot is always going on around you and in life in general. Deciding to let lots of it in, by giving it always attention, is your responsibility. The Metal element in this season, is helping you cut out most unnecessary distractions to create space, emptiness, vacuum, void. A vacuum by definition is already devoid of impurities. In such a state it is easier to reflect on what is truly inside of you, and that is the divinity.

So, it is a profound month for self-exploration and connection to the Divine, provided you take time to clear your body, declutter you mind and your personal space beforehand.

Contact me for questions and appointments

---

Autumn Forest, Metal Element

"Honourable Harvest" - Earth Element's higher octave of consciousness

What does the book “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer and the Five Elements, especially the Earth Element, have got in common? Having read the book this summer I have found out that actually the two speak of each other.

This marvellous book is written in prose but reading it is like poetry. To me it was totally music to my ears and probably not only to me, as Elizabeth Gilbert describes the book as “a hymn of love to the world”.

There would be so much to share about this book, so I only would like to concentrate on the main three reflections and insights I have had, that infuse Robin's tradition with what I know and practice in Chinese Medicine. All quotations below come from Robin's book.

The first reflection made me realise that all ancient and indigenous people, whether they are from the East or the West, had one thing in common: their relationship with the Nature. They observed the Nature attentively, its processes, cycles, in order to understand self and to understand the place which a man occupies in relationship with what is around him/her. In those times, human beings felt an integral part of an eco-system they lived in. Everything that surrounded them had a meaning and they took note of the cyclical nature of all process of the Earth. So, be it indigenous Americans, or Australians or ancient Chinese, they all lived with the same reverence in the relationship to the Nature. That means that some of the bases of the Classical Chinese Medicine (especially Taoism) are common to all other ancient and indigenous cultures.

The second insight I have had relates to Robin's call for going beyond gratitude and infusing more reciprocity in all our relationships. Reciprocity in Chinese Medicine is related to the Earth Element energetic quality. Robin explains reciprocity so well. It isn't only about "if I give you, then you will give me back" but rather "when I give you I create a relationship with you". The lack of attention to reciprocity in our-day-world has created anonymity and indifference in which reciprocal relationships are often considered more a burden than richness. So, "we are called to go beyond cultures of gratitude to once again become cultures of reciprocity". In the Chinese Classics that is the Earth Element energetics within us. Losing that sense of reciprocity we lose touch with our Earth Element, which we need for grounding and bonding with the place we live in.

My third insight into timeless and ancient wisdom is about "honourable harvest". Harvest is again related to the energy of Earth Element in Chinese medicine and philosophy. "Honourable Harvest" is an "exchange of life for life"... yes, their sensitivity whether to animals or plants, was the same. People living in true communion with the Nature knew that all harvest is taking away some form of life. Therefore, they were propenced to actions that gave that life back or to "take only what you are given and not what you need".

I know that ancient Chinese practitioners collected their herbs in the same "honourable" way as Robin describes indigenous Americans did, in order for the herbs to have that pure energy and be granted the Nature's healing potency. We practice honourable harvest every day by making choices in our daily consumptions. Whenever we buy something new, think about the life that's been taken away. In return, try to give that life back somehow.

The ancients' way of living was treading so lightly as if "longing to hear the land give thanks for the people in return". Wow! Do we ever ask ourselves that question? Is the Earth actually happy with me living on Her surface? Do we realise that for each gift we were born with, we also hold our responsibilities to utlise it well? It is the Earth that makes the "paste" of our bodies, the Earth creates our gifts and we have the responsibility to use them to create hers. The plants "can't meet their responsibilities unless we meet ours". Once we realise that we live in such interdependence with the Nature, we start wondering why we moved so far away from Her.

It is that consciousness that we need to truly understand our power. As if describing the Yin and Yang of Chinese Medicine, Robin quotes: "all powers have two sides, the power to create and the power to destroy. We must recognise them both, but invest our gifts on the side of creation".

These and other insights I have had thanks to Robin Wall Kimmerer's book, confirm to me that much of the bases of the Classical Chinese Medicine do not pertain to Chinese or Oriental cultures only, they have been lived and followed by most, if not all, of the indigenous populations worldwide. The Nature's language is truly global!

---

Braiding Sweetgrass - "Honourable Harvest"

Late Summer - Energy of completion

There are a few times in a year when we can start anew: the beginning of the calendar year, the beginning of Spring (end of February), for some it is also at the Spring Equinox, for others it is the Summer Solstice. Yet another time to start anew is also right now! We have got over the maximum heat and active energy of Yang during the Summer months, and now we start going back to self, back to our center.

Summer is getting out and about, meeting people, traveling, getting involved in activities that are out of ordinary, sleeping less and playing more. From the mid August, however, there is an energy of gathering back all that external energy. This gathering of the energy from the surrounding activities, situations, relationships and making best use of it for completing self, is the new year for constructing your new You.

Spirit Focus: making myself whole again

It is the time to look at the past Spring and Summer months and ask yourself:

how do I assimilate best the experiences and people I've met, into my reality? Summer months was the time to be open to, to choose and make a range of new experiences. Now, the Late Summer is here to transform them into concrete, solid and clear ideas, statements, projects, plans or relationships.

For example, from all the new persons we have met over the Summer, who do we really want to keep in touch with going ahead?

Or, thinking of this summer seaside vacation, what new has it brought to me as a person? What feelings, experiences, activities I would like to continue to repeat regularly as a result? Perhaps you have marvelled yourself at how great you felt about replacing a car with a bicycle and you wished you could use it more throughout the year. So, right now would be the perfect time to do it, to start using your bike more in place of your car. In consequence you follow your inner integrity, in body, mind and soul, and the Element of Later Summer helps you to solidify that internally into who you are becoming.

Mind Focus: ability to have a broad perspective

The Late Summer's Element, the Earth, is energetically stable, it is concrete, it supports the completion of a cycle, of an idea. It opens us up to more perspectives from which we can see how to implement pieces and make it into a whole. So, it is the time well spent on a review and reflection of recent, external events. It is also about some reality checks. Often times Fire Element of Summer feeds our enthusiasm out of proportion. Perhaps you saw a villa on your holidays and desired to acquire it. Now, it would be the time to review that idea as the Element of Earth makes us more practical about some dreamy ideas we might have had over the holidays. It is not to say we should not have dreamy ideas. Or better still, we should avoid rejecting our summer dreams as too lofty, but we should allow time and this change in season to review if it is still something that in all our integrity we want and need. Perhaps it has been an inspiration to unravel a part of you that with time you can plan to realise.

Body Focus: "I nourish myself"

The energy of Late Summer permits us to have a broad view of our body as well. We may feel it more physically, be more present in our muscles especially, which means we may notice certain muscular tensions we have not spotted until now. The Earth Element relates to Stomach, digestion and absorption of nutrients. It is NOT the time to do detox as we are now at peak of transforming food into nutrients and doing detox could give our bodies a message of lacking the substances. More than other times, we should have a varied and rich diet (in wide specturm of nutrients). The Nature provides for us too as it is the harvest season. On the other hand, we can and should reduce the excesses we could have got away with in Summer months but we won't now: that ice-cream a day, a couple of beers a day, pizza every other evening, etc. may now not go down that well and give us health issues.

Remember any symptoms arising during the change of season is linked to that change in the energy and it can be easily adjusted by having an acupuncture treatment. To book yourself for an appointment, click below:

Book an appointment

---

Harvest time - Earth Element