Embracing Fall, Preparing for Winter
Reiki Practitioner,Rest & Relaxation Coaching
As I write this, we at Minnesota Integrative Health Studio find ourselves well into the deep and darkening of fall, descending into winter.
What a fall it has been. Here in Minnesota (Mnisota Makoce), increasingly undeniable climate changes heralded record-setting high temperatures in September and October. The calendar said autumn while our bodies and the world around us were caught in dizzying fall-spring-summer-fall mini-cycles, reflected in the impossibility of finding the right layers to wear and lilacs blooming in October. Finally now, well into November, the rapid cooling and darkening we recognize as fall at last is here.
How can Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) support us through the change of seasons?
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is rooted in nature itself. As human beings, we are not separate from nature. Indeed, we are nature, interconnected with all of life on our planet. TCM is based on this understanding. I asked some of our practitioners to share what wisdom TCM can offer during this time.
“TCM…sees the human body and its relationship to the earth and cosmos in a very holistic and interconnected way. Because of this, many TCM terms are borrowed from nature - such as cold, damp, heat and wind. The body is seen as being a part of, influenced by and responding to the world around us, and changing as the world around us and seasons change.”
Larissa Vados PhD LAc, MIHS co-owner
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, fall is associated with the element metal, which governs the lungs and large intestine, and processes of grief and letting go. Therefore, supporting ourselves through fall and in preparation for winter means tending to metal themes in physical realms as well as the emotional and ethereal.
Taking Cues From Nature
“In TCM, fall is a time for humans to go inward, mirroring the natural world of which we are part. We have seasons in the same way that the environment does. We live in a society that values work over rest, but it's important during the fall and winter months to slow down and rest more and ‘nourish your roots’ so to speak. Nature is telling us to rest more by providing us with shorter daylight and cooler temperatures. Eating seasonally is always helpful... notice what foods are in season like squash, apples, carrots, brussels sprouts, etc.”
In fall, we can take cues from the natural world from which we are inseparable: eating the foods that the season offers, resting, letting go, drawing inward. This is what the time is asking of us. Ashley Steffensen LAc says that fall and spring are hard for people “because they are transition seasons…in TCM, summer is yang, and winter is yin, but fall and spring are both. ”
In fall, “we are changing from yang energy to yin. It seems like in the United States we are bad at winter, we hate winter,” Ashley says. “This might be because our society is so bad at yin,” or in other words, our culture does not support rest, retreat, introspection, slowing down, going within.
Lungs and Physical Health
Larissa Vados PhD LAc says that when weather gets colder, increases in achy joints and susceptibility to colds and flus are seen in TCM as “a perfectly natural and often expected response to our environment.” She cites a recent study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology stating that cold weather does in fact impact our ability to fight off pathogens, making us more susceptible to colds, flus, or other respiratory illnesses in the colder months. Larissa says this finding “came as absolutely no surprise to TCM practitioners!” This is because in TCM, “dryness and cold are the natural factors that can most often affect the body during this time, and specifically these organ systems.”
This is where TCM as a preventive medicine comes in. Acupuncture, cupping, tuina, herbs, and other TCM modalities “can and should be used to guide our body through the changing seasons, to bolster our immune response in the fall [and] protect against cold in the winter,” says Larissa.
Grief, Letting Go, and Emotional Health
Because lungs and large intestine, the autumnal organs, are associated with the emotions of grief or sadness, Larissa notes that “as we shift from the long, warm daylight hours of summer into dark, cold winter it is well known there are higher rates of depression and sadness known as Seasonal Affective Disorder.” This is exactly why, says Larissa,
“autumn is a great time to start a course of acupuncture treatments, to increase your frequency of treatments, and to employ some lifestyle changes to prepare the body for the seasonal shift.”
Tuning into the wisdom of our lungs and large intestine is favored this time of year. Ashley Steffensen LAc notes that the lungs “help us to draw in new life so we can release and let go. They help us to grieve.” The large intestine, she says “is more earthy, more mangy, deep inside us, and it’s what allows us to literally poop, and metaphysically release and let go.”
Just as the trees drop their leaves, fall is a time for humans to let go. Fall may be a time for clearing clutter in a material sense, and also more generally examining what in our lives may no longer be healthy or useful for us. Derrick Lundberg, CMT notes that “oftentimes fall is given reference of letting go of connections that no longer serve us.” We may find that as the light and warmth of the sun diminish in autumn, difficult emotions that were submerged during warmer months are now rising to the surface. Allowing for emotional release and letting go–honoring feelings of sadness and grief rather than fighting them–can be a way to support ourselves in this season.
Ashley’s advice for the emotional aspects of fall:
“You have to relax to let go, to release. You can’t make yourself poop without hurting yourself, right? It’s all about relaxing and letting it happen. Same with the lungs, we have to breathe deeply and slowly, if we force ourselves to breathe too fast, we hyperventilate. I wonder if we struggle with yin and winter as a culture because we don’t really know how to grieve. We want to hold on to what was instead of letting it move and trusting that new life will come again in spring.”
Supporting ourselves in fall means embracing the cycles of life, within us and without. By grieving the ecstatic, bombastic yang of summer, and touching into our own tender mortality, we let ourselves be part of the dying process of fall. As we expand, so must we contract.
Collective Fall, Collective Grief
Sitting with these themes of fall in TCM during the last weeks of the United States election and its aftermath, I could not help but feel the connections to what seems to be a collective season of fall–not only on the calendar of the year, but in terms of geopolitics, climate, empire.
While our Studio community here is in the United States (and more specifically Minneapolis, Minnesota on Dakota and Anishinaabe land), the repercussions of this election outcome will continue to reverberate globally. Many of us are grieving not only the outcome of the election and the future possibilities it portends, but also the histories that created the choices ultimately presented to the electorate. Systems of domination, disregard regard for life, genocide, disconnection from the abundant wisdom of our planet and our own hearts. There is so much to grieve.
Campaign slogans could be seen as seductive, if disturbing, strategies for bypassing the grief of the precarity of this moment, of the inevitable unfurling and evolving of history. A bellicose promise to make “great again” steeped in a perilous nostalgia that ignores, well, pretty much everything. An exuberant commitment to “not going back” that insufficiently addressed the pain and suffering of the present. Myriad suggestions that some refuge could be found in a third way, or in discounting the available choices entirely. As if anything other than grief, and more grief, were on the ballot. As if this season in time is anything other than one of profound letting go.
The wisdom of fall is available to us as we head toward this season of winter. What do we need to grieve in order to allow ourselves to receive the yin season that is approaching? What are we letting go of? How can we relax into letting go, rather than hurt ourselves–and one another–trying? Where have we rejected yin in ourselves, in each other, in our systems? How can deepening into yin guide us to our next step, and the next? And how can our interconnected root systems, deep within the earth, show us the way?
Breathing in the air of composting leaves, feeling the melancholy of the season, we prepare ourselves to settle into winter. In allowing grief to run its natural course in our systems, we activate a deeper trust that spring will return. And when it does, it will be all the more wondrous because we allowed ourselves to fully receive the deep, powerful wisdom of winter.
How can we support our bodies, minds, and spirits this fall and winter?
Eat Seasonally
“Nourish your body with more warming foods that are seasonally appropriate. Typically in the hot summer months we are drawn more to raw fruits and vegetables, cold drinks, smoothies, etc. In the fall and winter we should transition to more cooked and warming foods- think soups and stews with seasonal root vegetables. Apples, pears and persimmons are in season late summer through autumn and are utilized in TCM for nourishing dryness. Pungent foods like onion, garlic and ginger are warming and can aid the immune system. Ginger scallion tea is very commonly used in TCM at the beginning stages of a respiratory illness. You can easily make your own by boiling sliced fresh ginger and chopped scallions for 20 minutes, then strain and drink. Honey can be added as well.” Larissa Vados PhD LAc
Stay Warm
“Keep your body covered and warm. Bundle up in the wind and cold with jacket, hat and scarf.” Larissa Vados PhD LAc
“Avoid cold foods and drinks and opt for warm, cooked foods like teas and soups.” Sophia Catanoso LAc
Rest and Go Within
“Draw that energy down into your roots, because we may have a very long winter period of darkness coming where we will be offered the opportunity to really ferment in those situations we are settling in for now.” Derrick Lundberg, CMT
“Allow your body and mind to rest. As the daylight grows shorter and the temperatures grow colder, nature is sending a signal to many species, plant and animal, this is a time to withdraw, conserve, and hibernate. Do your best to not over-extend your commitments, and make sleep and a decent bed time a priority!” Larissa Vados PhD LAc
Let Go and Honor Grief
“You have to relax to let go, to release.” Ashley Steffensen, LAc
“…fall is given reference of letting go of connections that no longer serve us.” Derrick Lundberg, CMT
Community and Connection
“Nourish the relationships and nourish you….As we return the goodness to our core, our root system, the network that connects us together, we see that it is not only those parts of us that need to be let go at this time, but also those connections to those around us that allow us to feel supported, seen, loved, and nurturing connections so that we can find the goodness into our roots to prepare for the long winter ahead….revel in this season of connections, making strong those that manifest, and trimming away those that are beginning to fray. Together we bring the connection of a whole network of support; rather than this idea that we are held suspended by one string, like we see in nature, the connection binds us all.” Derrick Lundberg, CMT
How can we at MIHS support you this fall and winter?
Acupuncture and Other TCM treatments
Fall is a great time to begin regular acupuncture treatments. Consider our acupuncture memberships for relatively affordable ways to access community acupuncture, and community cupping + acupuncture treatments. These memberships also include discounted private treatments. If membership is not for you, consider taking advantage of our community and private acupuncture, cupping, and other TCM treatments (like gua sha, lymphatic drainage, herbal consultations, etc.) to support your wellbeing this fall and winter.
Massage Therapy and Bodywork
Bodywork is an excellent way to support the body in relaxation and letting go of what we are holding physically, emotionally, and energetically. Our team is highly skilled and represent expertise in a variety of modes of bodywork, including Craniosacral Therapy, Therapeutic Bodywork, Myofascial Release, Prenatal Massage, Visceral & Neural Manipulation, Reflex Integration for Stress Resilience, and Geriatric Massage. Check out our website or contact us with any questions about what type of bodywork and which practitioners might be best suited to your needs and preferences.
Reiki
Believed to work on the subtle level of the biofield, Reiki is a gentle form of energy work that cultivates deep states of relaxation and mind-body-spirit balance. Many people find that the Reiki offers a deep experience of comfort in moving through grief, and also helps with releasing energy that is no longer supportive to the mind-body-spirit. To find out more about Reiki offerings with with Reiki Practitioner Betsy Ranum MA, RN, NBC-HWC at Minnesota Integrative Health Studio, check out our website. Book Reiki and Reiki/Coaching Mash-up sessions here.
Yoga
Yin Yoga is a perfect practice for cultivating yin energy as dictated by the needs of our body in colder seasons. The meditative nature of Yin Yoga encourages mindfulness and introspection. By holding poses for longer durations, practitioners are invited to explore their inner landscapes, fostering a deeper connection between the mind and body. Instructor Nadia Alsadi, E-RYT offers in-person and virtual Yin Yoga classes (including Thursday November 21 7pm), as well as Vinyasa Yoga and the unparalleled Yin Yoga + Acupuncture special events. Yoga is offered on a sliding scale. Book online or contact us, and stay tuned for new events.
Infrared Sauna
Heat and sweat practices are age-old ways to support the body in cold climates across culture and history. Infrared sauna is warming and deeply relaxing, and is believed to support the body with physiological release and letting go. We’re offering infrared sauna memberships this winter, and our acupuncture memberships also include sauna sessions. If you aren’t ready to commit to a package membership, feel free to book online, call, or stop in anytime for a sauna session. Whether you bring a friend or two to join you, or enjoy a time of quiet solitude, the warm and dry heat of the infrared sauna offers a peaceful respite from the season’s bitter cold and dampness.
To find out more about Minnesota Integrative Health Studio services, check out our website. You can book online here. Questions? Feel free to contact us, call (612.345.5648), at or stop by “the studio” on our corner of northeast Minneapolis.
