Organizing and Prioritizing Based on Your Values

the five element cycle of Chinese medicine

As I write this I hear the marching band practicing at the nearby high school. Nothing signals fall quite like that. Long before studying acupuncture and feng shui, before I knew anything about the five elements, I would notice a shift in fall: the impulse to reel things in, to get organized, along with a kind of nostalgia that would sneak in. Sounds and smells triggering memories, the ethereal becoming more palpable. More contemplative, more focus on the quiet, inward expression.

What I now know is that it was not the schedules imposed by humans that gave rise to those shifts, but in fact there was a larger, natural force at work, explained perfectly through the five element system of Chinese medicine.

Fall is governed by the metal element. The corresponding organs are the lung and large intestine. The lung (yin) aspect is related to grief and loss and the large intestine (yang) is about letting go. Both of those movements bring refinement. If we lived in an agricultural society this is the time that we would assess our harvest and strategize about how to get through the winter. In some cases, this meant facing death. In our modern society where things aren’t so stark, we still feel the reverberations of that primal impulse to prepare oneself, to let go of anything unnecessary that may not allow us to move into the next phase with efficiency.

Metal is sharp and the energy is available to streamline, to discern what isn’t necessary, so that we are left with what is most precious and refined. With the lung, the breath, we tune into inspiration and aspiration and let that guide our process of refinement.

Some questions to work with in this season:

What inspires you and what are you currently aspiring to?

Is there something getting in the way of what you’re aspiring to that you can let go of?

What do you value and is there a way that you can become more organized to prioritize what you value?

Some of the things that might be coming up if your metal element is in need of strengthening:

Upper respiratory issues: colds and flus, or a deficiency of the immune system, as it is governed by the lung

Digestive issues, especially constipation, if the large intestine is not letting go.

Delayed menstrual cycles if the lung is not able to complete its descending function.

Depression or a lot of sadness and lack of motivation because the lung’s ability to become inspired is blocked.

Acupuncture helps these things.