🍂 Autumn: an invitation to return to yourself
Dieser Beitrag ist auf Englisch.
Inhalt
Autumn. A time of transitions. As a new season opens, the doors open to the element of wind, to the spirit of the tiger. Welcome. They invite us to let go, to observe what once served us but no longer nourishes us.
An invitation to look at the sacred from the heart: what nourishes, what sustains.
We are entering the season of change and movement. The air element brings unstable temperatures: cold, warmth, the sun that hides and returns. The wind dries… and we see it in the leaves of the trees, drying and dying in order to fall.
Do you feel it in your skin?
Do you see it in your hair?
Do you notice it on your lips?
In Ayurveda, autumn is the season of Vata dosha, when the elements of air and ether predominate: movement, dryness, instability, cold, lightness.
Vata shows up in the body when…
- Your digestion becomes irregular
- Insomnia or mental fatigue appear
- Your skin becomes dry
- Your mind jumps from idea to idea
- You feel anxiety or restlessness for no apparent reason
- Your joints ache
It doesn't mean you are out of balance. It means you are living in contact with the season. And that invites you to care for yourself in a different way.
The White Tiger and the season of Metal
In the Tao, autumn is the season of Metal. Its hour is dusk, its moon is the waning moon, its movement is transformation.
This is where the White Tiger lives, guardian of the west, where the sun says goodbye. Its strength is not in conquering, but in knowing what is essential and protecting it.
Metal teaches us to recognize what is unique and valuable in ourselves, in our relationships, in what we live. Like the mineral that remains when everything else has dissolved.
In the body, Metal lives in the lungs and the colon: one receives what is pure, the other releases what no longer serves. Inhale and let go. Take what nourishes and release the rest.
And letting go is not losing. Every ending is fertile ground for a new beginning.
🌬️ Lungs and colon: returning to the body
In autumn, the air and the spirit of the tiger move through two organs: the lungs and the colon. Both receive and are nourished, but they also release and let go.
Before letting go with the mind, we let go with the body.
Breathing to let go
Lie on your back, knees bent, hands resting on your ribs.
- Inhale through your nose for 4 counts, feeling your ribs widen to the sides beneath your hands.
- Exhale slowly through your mouth for 6 or 8 counts, with a soft sound: sssss. In the Taoist tradition, this is the sound of the lungs, the sound of Metal.
- Repeat 7 times. At the end, stay for a few moments doing nothing. Just observe.
A long exhale reminds the body that it can let go.
Abdominal massage with oil
Warm a little sesame oil between your hands. Stay lying down, knees bent, belly soft. Do this away from meals.
- Circles of warmth. With an open palm, draw slow circles around your navel, clockwise. 1 minute. Simply warm and greet your center.
- The path of the colon. With your fingertips, press gently and move up the right side of your belly, from the hip to the ribs. Cross beneath the ribs to the left. Move down the left side to the hip. Always in this direction, the direction of the colon. 5 to 7 times.
- Holding. Rest both hands still on your belly. Breathe into them. Feel the warmth. Thank your body for everything it digests, processes and releases for you.
If you are pregnant or feel pain in your abdomen, skip the massage and stay with step 3 only.
🌾 Looking at the harvest
Before letting go, we look at what has been lived. Take a notebook, a warm tea, and give yourself a moment to answer:
The harvest
- What have been the fruits of these past months?
- What did you do, what did you dare, what did you achieve?
- What did you discover about yourself that you didn't know?
What gave you life
- What did you enjoy? What gave you energy?
- With whom, where, doing what did you feel most like yourself?
What drained you
- Where did you feel you were losing energy?
- Which situations, habits or relationships left you empty?
What you release
- What do you no longer want to carry with you into winter?
- What do you no longer want to give your energy to?
✉️ Ritual: a letter to let go
Find a quiet moment. Light a candle. Breathe deeply, releasing the air slowly through your mouth.
Write a letter to everything you choose to let go of. Not from anger or reproach, but from gratitude.
Name it. Thank it. And close with something like:
Thank you for teaching me what you came to show me. Now I leave you here, and I enter a moment with myself.
Then burn the letter, bury it, or tear it up and give it back to the earth. Like the tree releasing its leaves.
This is not a time to demand more of yourself. It is a time to hold yourself with love, the way the earth does as it prepares for winter.
