Dr. Jon Conant, DACM, LAc

Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine, Portland

Supporting nature's desire to keep you happy and vital.

Autumn, a time for release and renewal

In Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine, each season is associated with a particular energy, channel, set of organs, and emotion.  Within each season, it’s associated energy is at it's peak.  Besides it's time within the season, it is also a part of a greater cycle of transformation that flows through the year.  In this progressive cycle, metal is the energy similar to that of autumn.  Metal is associated with the powers of transformation, protection, release, and inspiration, and the lung and large intestine are it’s represented organs. Emotionally, metal is related to letting go, and often in fall we feel punctuations of loss or grief, resentment, regret, or inspiration to create change.  Autumn is a time where this emotion is both most energized and supported, and offers an invitation to release those things that are weighing on us in order to renew and ensure a more contemplative and nourishing winter, which later supports a more vigorous spring.

Everywhere around us, leaves transform their colors and trees release them to blanket the ground, transforming into fertile soil through the cover of winter to nourish the roots and sprouts in the spring.  Likewise, harvest occurs nearing autumn, in which the nourishing parts of the plant are separated and taken into storage, and the extra plant matter that is left outside to provide the soil nutrients for spring.  Similarly, the lung and large intestine provide a passage of healthy exchange between ourselves and the outside world, where we can release turbid qi outward in order to make room for the pure energy that will nourish us inward.  Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine can be very helpful to help facilitate the healthy flow of this energy and it's related organ system, whether it’s manifesting through emotions such as those mentioned above, digestive upset, current or past persistent respiratory infections, or seasonal affective disorder symptoms, to name a few.  For more, please email me, or schedule an appointment or free brief individual consultation.