09/10/2025
It has been two wild, beautiful, and transformative months since my last practice blast.
After Yosemite's rich, full moon joys, the Summer leapt into another level with episodes of beauty and sadness as change and transitions unfolded. We're still at it as well, as we're driving Mirabelle UCSB next week for her freshman year.
Feel free to ask me about my Summer next time we see one another, because I know I want to hear about life's twisting and turning changes happening on your end.
In the meantime, please enjoy this discussion of Autumn Wellness and Chinese Healing Wisdom.
in health and spirit,
Jef Szilagyi L.Ac.
Autumn Wellness & Chinese Healing Wisdom
Now that Summer is in the rearview mirror, instinctively we turn toward another set of priorities. At the profane level this manifests as stacks of Halloween candies on stores shelves, but in the deeper ways of body, mind and spirit, ancient feelings and rhythms connected to Autumn bubble out of us individually and collectively. If you can't tell, I prefer the second version.
At the heart of Chinese Healing Wisdom is an invitaion to attune to the Five Seasons.
In other words, it's not the Whole Foods supplement aisle or our Amazon cart that is the backbone of feeling good; it is our connection to the Earth—her shifting moods and our ability to find harmony within her parade of change where health and healing truly reside.
I think it is helpful to see that nature has (at least) two, highly-related parts. The first part of nature is the earth's natural climates and evolving seasons. Right now, we are in the Late Summer phase, making our way into the Autumn phase. (By the way, Late Summer is the 5th season in the Chinese healing cosmology).
The second side of nature is human nature. Without understanding and harmony with our own nature, health challenges can arise from imbalances here. In today's health parlance, we call this stress, burn-out, and depression.
Of course, it turns out that human nature and seasonal nature are interconnected at levels that words, science, and human perception can not fully grasp. (In case you didn't catch it, the last sentence is a meditation practice...sitting quietly and contemplating the ungraspable weave of our nature and great nature.)
Syncing with Autumn's Climates:
To increase our harmony with Autumn's Climate, here are 7 Insights Chinese Medicine suggests for Fall wellness:
Offset the Dry climate (what we call Fire Season) of Autumn with foods that moisten the Lungs, the Colon, the Nose, and the Skin. Among these are Apples, Pears, and Asian Pears. Soups and stews also bring yin fluids into the body. Also, down shift out of diets that are drying or overly baked.
It is inadvisable to let our neck, head, and other large surfaces of the body be overexposed to strong, cold, or biting winds— especially if you are worn down. Scarves and hats are the typical remedy. So too is completely drying off after showers, baths, and swims. This advise seems in contrast to the cold exposure therapies and practices. The key difference I would offer here, is if you're yang energy is strong (warm, fired up, and strong energy) you can tolerate the cold exposure in the right doses. Still, watch for cold winds.
Eat foods that have spicey, lifting qualities. Mints, black and white pepper, mustard, chilies, onions, chives, garlic, horseradish, radish, daikon, and wasabi fit into this category. What they do is stimulate the defensive qi (immune like function) to the surface and protect against "pathogenic wind."
Strengthen your Lung Immune system with Lung and Qi tonics. An astragulas based formula is ideal. Jade Screen and Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang are classics. Let me know if you'd like to work with one of these formulas.
Positively Stress Your Lungs: It is important that we positively stress our lung organs. This can me done with HIIT Workouts, cardio intense activities and sports, as well as breathing practices in the Wim Hof family. My favorite resource for Wim Hof style breathwork is Breathe Central on YouTube.
Reduce Phlegm, Damp, and Cloying Foods. Essentially, we are talking about refined carbohydrates and processed sugars. When there's too much damp in the system from super sweet and out of season fruits or from industrial foods, it leaves the Lung system more obstructed and burdened by mucous.
Find ways of tending your emotions related to loss, sadness, and grief. These are the natural feelings tied to Autumn. They are also part of other forms of release and letting go that come in the human journey. Check out the next section to learn more about working these emotions.
Allowing the Emotions of Grief and Sadness that come with Loss
In a way, the subtitle above says it all. Our lives need space to experience the natural emotions that come with loss. Traditional cultures, particularly the ones with authentic vibrancy, have rituals and ritual spaces for grief and sadness. In the absence of traditions that make room for sadness and/or grief, we are left to the messages we adopted from our family or rules we self-generated because they made sense. Sometimes, those rules and messages bind our Qi, not allowing the full range of life's forces to be expressed.
Here a 7 ways I would describe the way Chinese Medicine counsels us to deal with grief and sadness.
Since every emotion has a season, every emotion has a time and a place.
Autumn (a.k.a. the moments when peak positive things begin to fade) is the natural time and place to experience loss, sadness, and grief.
The motion of Sadness and Grief is to bring us down into things, closer to the ground. Whereas, anger lifts us up.
Emotions are only problematic when there is a fixation with them.
Too much or too little of an emotion (like sadness and grief) is a disharmony with nature.
On the otherside of sadness/ grief is a spirtual clarity about life's temporality. This clarity fosters integrity and goodness.
There are healing practices for the body, mind, and spirit that help us come into harmony with nature and natural emotions. I would offer that acupuncture, herbs, bodywork, as well as Internal Family Systems coaching are good options for coming into harmony with our own nature.
