Fall is the season of the lungs and the metal element. The color is white or silver, and the stage of life is adulthood. The taste is spicy, and the sounds are "zzz" or "sss"
In Chinese medicine, the lungs act as bellows, cooling your heart fire in the summer and flaming your body's heat in autumn and winter. Your lungs help keep you warm and healthy during the cold winter months.
To prepare yourself for the coming winter, it's essential to cultivate and strengthen Qi inside your lungs. During the next few weeks, you'll learn practices to reap the harvest of summer and create a storehouse of Qi for your body to use throughout winter.
Traditionally, autumn is the time of the harvest. It's the time to store the medicinal roots, food, grains, and firewood for winter, and the same is true for our life force energy. Now is the perfect time to make the necessary preparations so you can go inwards and continue to draw from the storehouse of energy you've cultivated from summer.
I like to describe Qigong movements as "mindfulness in motion."
When you increase your awareness of your body, meaning the more aware you become of what your body needs, the quicker you'll be able to respond and provide yourself with what you need to avoid getting sick from colds and getting and staying depressed.
As holistic practitioners and lovers of natural healing, herbs and herbal remedies are vital components to keeping us healthy and energized during the colder seasons. Check out some of these herbal products from our apothecary. They are specifically blended to support your lungs and strengthen your immune system.
Strengthening the lungs is vital for our physical health and our emotional health as well. The lungs in Traditional Chinese Medicine are a yin organ and hold many emotions. From a Qigong perspective, there are no positive or negative emotions; instead, there are stable and healthy emotions, which can become excessive, out of balance, and damaging.
Light Qualities: Courage, righteousness, bravery
Shadow Qualities: Grief, sadness, depression, loneliness, sorrow, detachment
In autumn, the trees release and let go of their leaves, fruit, nuts, and branches. Again, nature is our greatest teacher and shows us that it is time to release and let go of what is no longer needed. Not because we don't love it and appreciate it, but instead because it is time.
When we are in the process of releasing and surrendering, we come into intimate contact with very potent emotions that we don't always know what to do with. This is when our Qigong for autumn practice becomes a method and a set of skills that we rely on to support our body, mind, and spirit to process and move through these emotions.
This is alchemy and the path with harmony.
Grief is not something you just get over; it is something that you learn to live with by acknowledging the loss and cultivating a lifelong joy and gratitude qigong practice. So we can fully experience these emotions and not spiritually bypass what we are going through.
Simply put, this is one of the many reasons that we Qigong practitioners keep practicing even when we feel these shadow qualities. We want to learn how to be an alchemist, harmonize these emotions, and live a joy-filled and balanced life.
In our Qigong for autumn sessions, we will:
Learn specific gentle yet powerful exercises to energize the lungs and build your immune system.
Learn breathing exercises to strengthen your lung energy by opening and closing the upper back, neck, and shoulders, improving circulation, and bringing more energy to the lungs so you can take full, deep breaths.
Bolster your Immune system in preparation for the cough, cold, and flu season.
Practice the graceful "Bird Form" from the Five Animal Sports Qigong to develop our higher perspective and clarity of vision as we let go of who we were and move inward.
Practice the art of internal alchemy, transforming grief into courage.
Practice with a small group of committed and loving qigong practitioners who are awakening to their true nature just like you.
Join us for a Free Qigong for Better Breathing Workshop on
October 14th, 2023, 12 p.m. CST
Or get started right away to embrace the blessings of the Metal Element this Fall with Qigong for Autumn - a transformative Breath Series designed for women. Click the banner to discover more about this empowering practice and access a pre-recorded workshop!
Would you also like to start your day clear, energized, and with a light, joyful heart? Click here to get 13 Minute Morning Qigong Practice for FREE⬇️⬇️⬇️
Reach out if you have any questions at all.
Hugs and deep bows of gratitude to you and your practice!
Maria
🙏🏽