The Fall Season
Staying Healthy
The world around us deeply influences how we feel—our energy, mood, and overall well-being. Seasonal changes are powerful moments to pause, reflect, and tune into your body’s needs.
In Chinese Medicine, Fall is the season of the Metal element and the Lungs. As daylight shortens and the air becomes cooler, our bodies naturally work harder to adapt.
This can create internal stress if we’re not prepared. But with the right support, Fall is also the perfect time to build resilience, strengthen your organ systems, and set yourself up for vibrant health through the colder months ahead.
Honor the Season: Rest More, Do Less
As the days grow colder and darker, the body naturally needs more rest. Follow nature’s rhythm by going to bed earlier and allowing yourself to sleep in a little later.
This is also the season of letting go—pruning anything that drains your energy or no longer serves you. When we overextend ourselves in too many directions, we weaken our internal reserves. Now is the time to turn inward, grow strong roots, and nourish the body by slowing down, allowing recovery from a busy summer.
Eat Warming, Nourishing Foods
Support digestion and immunity with soups, stews, bone broths, and slow-cooked meals.
Incorporate warming, circulation-boosting spices like ginger, garlic, cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric, cumin, and black pepper. These ingredients help warm the core, move stagnant fluids, strengthen the gut, and build the foundation of a resilient immune system.
Move Your Body—Gently but Consistently
Regular movement keeps fluids moving and improves circulation, which is essential for immune strength. Choose indoor, winter-friendly movement such as:
Qi Gong or Tai Chi
Short 4-minute exercise bursts (perfect for busy days)
Treadmill walking or incline walking
Joining a gym or attending group classes
The goal is consistency—not intensity—to keep your lymph, blood, and qi flowing smoothly.
Support Immunity with Herbal & Traditional Tools
Two powerful ways to supercharge your system:
• Our “Force Field” Herbal Tincture
A blend of time-honored herbs that strengthen the body’s outer defenses, boost resilience, and help you stay well through seasonal transitions. Ideal for daily use or increased dosing when exposed to illness or feeling run down.
• Moxa on Stomach 36 (Zu San Li)
A classic Chinese medicine technique used for centuries to fortify immunity, strengthen digestion, boost energy, and enhance overall vitality.
A few minutes of gentle heat on this point can dramatically reinforce your body’s protective qi.
METAL ELEMENT
On an emotional level, the Metal element is involved with grief, loss and letting go.
In balance, we respond to loss with rituals of appreciation, acknowledgment, and respect. We allow ourselves to let go, and hold on to that which is left that has value.
Out of balance, we can only see the loss and fail to let go. Because we focus so intently on what has been lost, we may not be easily able to acknowledge the good side of what still is, such as the good things that are still part of our lives, or lessons learned that will always be with us. Creating rituals for letting go can be helpful at these times.
Grief can also manifest in a more general way as 'grieving the way life is'. The practice of replacing negative thoughts with thoughts of gratitude or appreciation for the good that exists in your life can be helpful at these times. One simple practice that can be useful is gratitude journaling. This involves choosing one time every day to write down three things that you're grateful for in your life. Cultivating appreciation and gratitude in daily life through specific practices is a wonderful way to foster a healthy Metal element.
FINDING BALANCE
From a healthy Metal element comes the ability to see the value in all situations or people.
Even if the situation is a ‘bad’ one, a healthy Metal element within us gives us the ability to see the good; to find the "diamond in the rough"; such as in lessons learned or beauty experienced.
Out of balance, this aspect of Metal can show up as harsh judgment of both self and others, where we see with a critical eye only the bad and not the good. In this instance, we fail to see what is of value. This imbalance may show up as a diminished sense of self worth or self esteem, or as having very high self esteem while looking critically at others.
A healthy Metal element allows us to see clearly both the good and the bad in all things, appreciating the good and acknowledging the not-so-good.
Metal is involved with inspiration and the sense of being part of something bigger than ourselves.
A sense of purpose can stem from this aspect of the Metal element, or the sense that we are guided by divine will or that our actions have larger consequences beyond ourselves. Without this aspect of healthy Metal in place, one may feel a lack of worth in life itself. This tends to yield the out of balance Metal symptom of withdrawing from life or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, living dangerously without thought of consequence.
When we honor the rhythm of the season, we reconnect with what is essential — our breath, our purpose, our values, and the quiet inner voice that reminds us we belong to something larger.
Autumn invites us to release what is no longer serving us and to gather up what is precious, meaningful, and life-giving. When we cultivate healthy Metal within, we feel clear, inspired, and grounded in our worth. We remember that we matter — and that our presence contributes to the world in ways both subtle and profound.
“Shine Your Light, Strengthen Your Roots.”
Three simple ways to nourish your Metal element this season:
• Breathe deeply — give yourself a few slow breaths each morning to invite clarity and presence.
• Let something go — release a habit, clutter, or thought that weighs you down.
• Claim what inspires you — write down one thing that makes your life meaningful, and take one small action toward it.
Here’s to a season of clarity, purpose, and inspiration — may your inner light shine bright as the days grow darker.
