Autumn: time to resolve grief and sadness

Autumn is the time of harvest and gathering, returning to our homes after enjoying the outdoors all summer and stocking our cupboards for the long months of winter.

by Maria Troia — 

The body has memory, but the root cause of disease always begins in the spirit. How aware are you of your health as it relates to your spirit? Is this the first step you take on your journey toward healing?

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), autumn is the season of the Lung qi (energy). The associated emotions of the Lung are grief, sadness and disappointment. Thus, according to the rhythms of ancient Chinese medicine, autumn is a good time to set the intention to resolve your feelings of sadness by healing and releasing disappointments.

Autumn is the time of harvest and gathering, returning to our homes after enjoying the outdoors all summer and stocking our cupboards for the long months of winter. In TCM we say, “As without, so within.” Following nature’s cue, as our external world draws us in to prepare for winter, we also should draw in and sit with our spirits to seek and heal unresolved emotions of sadness.

Some excellent ways to do this include meditation, yoga, t’ai chi or qi gong practice. The person with balanced Lung qi is said to be able to feel sadness, then easily release it and move forward. Those with weak Lung qi, however, are said to feel past hurts over and over —living more in the past than the present.

Once the causative factor of disease is identified, we usually must do more than treat the spirit to resolve the condition with which the individual presents (often physical). It is important to remember that while we are spirit, we come to this earth with a vehicle, otherwise known as the body. And so we must seek to treat both spirit and body.

An advanced form of Five Element bodywork and a system of healing was brought to the United States from Korea by the late Tina Sohn and is known as AMMA Therapy®. It is a highly effective way to balance both the physical and spiritual manifestations of dis-ease. The therapist assesses the pulses, which indicate the quality of each organ’s energy, and looks at the tongue, known also as the hologram of the body that reveals areas of deficiency or excess.

Lastly, an AMMA Therapy session that focuses on balancing the Lung energy will address what the ancient Chinese called the Upper Burner, the pectoral area, which is associated with the lung, as well as the arms, and is the tendino-muscle channel for the Lung. Those with a tendency toward colds, coughs, asthma and other lung conditions would be best served by receiving a session to tonify and balance the Lung energy, especially during the autumn season.

Maria Troia, MSEd, LMT, NCTMB, CH. is the owner of East-West Holistic Healing Arts in Old Town Scottsdale. She has advanced training in the John Barnes Approach to Myofascial Release and is certified in Pediatric Myofascial Release. She also holds a Master’s in Education from Hofstra University. 480-313-6260 or www.EastWestHolistic.net.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 28, Number  5, Oct/Nov 2009.