We are currently in metal season! Metal serves the purpose of organizing and protecting us, a strong lung being the first line of defense in our immune system. The skin is the domain of metal as the most immediate protector of our body, giving us shape and order.
As the age of information reveals to us chaos and entropy in the world, our need for organization has us grasping for control wherever we can get it. This often means tightening up our jaw, fists and pelvic floors and shallowing our breath, trying to muscle and manage our way through experience. The lung and large intestine channels (running through the tops of the fists and arms, biceps, chest and into the neck, jaw and teeth) take on the brunt of this effort, pulling everything forward toward the sternum in an attempt to self protect (think hunched posture).
In digestion, the large intestine is primarily a receptacle for waste, what is no longer needed after nutrient absorption in the small intestine. This is the autumn of our digestive cycle. The longer waste sits in this holding space the more concrete and poisonous it becomes to our system. We’ve all heard the term “anal retentive” being used to describe someone controlling and rigid. The necessary action is to release, exhale, sob and grieve waste out of our body, using the yin lung to soften the yang large intestine.
What we are actually grieving is the ephemeral nature of existence. Our life instinct compels us to hold on to the familiar. If I can predict then I can control and therefore I can solidly quantify myself and others as static reality. Yet when we let go of the need for the corporeal (interestingly the spirit of the metal element is referred to as the “Po”), we allow the expansion of our relationship to the past into something free from structure and bindings. Letting go of a loved person/time doesn’t have to mean loss, it can permit its evolution into the spiritual and blissfully undefined.
Breathe deeply, exhale fully and consciously stretch open the chest. Watch the leaves fall and grieve them with all you’ve got 🍂
