Embracing the Arrival of Fall Energy

I don’t know about you but with fall energy upon us I’ve been noticing myself experiencing more grief and sadness these days.

In Chinese medicine, the fall season is associated with the emotion of grief, so it is a likely time for unprocessed grief to arise. Fall also relates to the lungs and large intestine, the metal element, the energy of descent, of composting, of letting go, inspiration, respect and acknowledgement, among other seasonal associations.

In my morning meditation I noticed my reaction to this heavy hearted energy and found myself wanting to connect with something more uplifting. Initially I wanted to shift into a space of hope and a vision of better possibilities for myself and the world, but hope, it seemed, in that moment, was a bridge too far.  

I follow an inspiring Law of Attraction/manifestation coach on Instagram who talks about how when we want to move toward anything we want more of, we must believe it. It doesn’t work to envision or try to feel something we don’t believe is real or possible. In fact, doing so only reinforces our internal sense of it not being possible or accessible. We know this from Havening too. The amygdala knows when we’re lying and won’t trust any affirmations we don’t believe.

We can't level jump, but that doesn't mean we can't move toward something closer to where we want to be. It just needs to be true for us. 

So as I sat with my grief, I thought to myself, if hope feels out of reach from this place, what is something that would feel good and true from here that aligns with this fall energy and respects where I’m at?  

What flooded in with that reflection was an abundance of gratitude.

Gratitude is another emotion associated with the fall season. It is the feeling that arises with the harvesting of all that is good and gainful, even as we mourn, release, and grieve our losses. (Like the large intestine absorbs the last of what’s beneficial for us before it releases our waste). 

Wherever you are emotionally this season, whether in grief, hope, gratitude, anxiety, frustration, or something else, I hope this inspires you to respect the space you’re in. And in any intention to move toward something else, rather than attempting to stretch too far past yourself, (otherwise known as spiritual bypassing), let’s connect instead with something that feels genuinely accessible and authentically uplifting. 

Something that can help, in the spirit of this season’s lung energy, is connecting with and deepening our breath. I invite you to take this as a reminder to give yourself a slow deep breath (or 3 or 10). Full inhale. Slow, long exhale. Maybe even closing your eyes while you do so.

How did that feel? Did something shift?