The Compassionate Sword: Harness Metal Energy to Let Go

Beneath my boots the cold earth crunches. The blue skies are arrowed with geese angling south, and the daylight here on the West Coast is now compressed to a timeframe that I can count on both hands. And while the low sun sparkles over the crisp landscape, so too lowers the fire within, in preparation for the long and steady simmer of Winter.

November is a bridging month in the Chinese elemental cycle, and an optimal time to fully harness Metal’s ebbing Excalibur energy of cutting loose. Opposed by Spring and beginnings, Autumn/Metal is conclusive, qualified by consolidation and reflection, letting go, and enlightenment. Its lulling influence shifts us into quiet activities, slower actions, and heightened presence, as if the psyche is taking inventory of the experiences, and the maturation, that have cycled through. Perception is freshened and clarified.

This is the time to prepare the foundational soil for an eventual new cycle. Choose quality ingredients: consider what you want to enrich your forthcoming journey with. Be in service to your Self. Actively reflect upon and acknowledge that which you have been over-looking or living by default, and see life with fresh eyes. Intend for peace to saturate both your connections with others, and every area of your life. Your desire for it will encourage the shift to unfold. This energizes the release of blocks, defense, and filters that your emotional experience can create.

Energy flows and changes form. When you carry-on without acknowledging or reconciling a feeling, you are signalling your system to accommodate something. This is like leaving a sock on the floor, and rather than picking it up, you begin a habit of stepping over it.  You are perhaps unconscious of what you are accommodating. This can render stagnancy in chi flow, from subtle to substantial.

Letting go allows the body, the energy flow, and thought behaviors, to re-set and re-balance.

It is less about how to let go, and more valuable to acknowledge that perhaps there has been a legitimate reason for holding on. There are many aspects to your being that are registered automatically; your brain is an efficient processor. Sometimes you will hold onto a perception or experience as a result of not knowing there is another option, another way to perceive or feel. Offer your inner/little self what he/she needs in order to feel safe and capable of letting go. Remind him/her that “the absence of” is, in truth,  “the presence of” peace. Surrender the inhibiting what-if’s.

Remove your armour and pick up your compassionate sword. Intend for release simply by recognizing that maybe you have been unable to fully move forward in some area in your life. Acknowledge that there may be lingering discontent in a person-connection from your past. Or simply remember that every phase and age of your life benefits from the spacious refreshment that release generates. Decide that you will permit peace to flush through any held perceptions and emotions, and enjoy the echo of “letting”. As flow re-sets, vitality, stamina, and illumination will nourish you henceforth, body, heart, and Soul.

Tips for meridian stimulating and balancing for Metal season: Lung and Large Intestine

Breath: Notice the clear and vibrant essence of the new breath. In the lungs it slips into the little pockets of space and magnetically gathers old, held energy, perhaps the residue of hesitation or grief. Feel the increased space as it exhales from you. It is not necessary to practice big breaths, only the intention of clearing space. Do the same practice with the front and back abdomen, and specifically with the large intestine. Observe the breath flush up on the (front) right, across your body, and down and out on the left. Exhale through the nostrils.

Self-Massage:

Acu-massage the full web of tissue between the thumb and the index finger on the back of the hand. Stimulating this area encourages lymph clearing. Massage either side of the nose, just below the bridge; exhale through the nostrils as you use pressure inward and upward towards the bridge. Move your hands in circles both on and off your abdomen, up the right, over, and down the left. Use large gentle “pinches” to wake up the area.

Yoga Asana Practice:

During asana practice, emphasize your awareness of the “pistol” or “L” form of the index finger and thumb, and the inner/outer arm. These are the pathways of the Lung and Large Intestine meridians. Focus on asana that open the front, side, and back chest to encourage more ventilation through the lungs. Practice twists, low lunges, and knees-to-chin to massage the abdomen, ground Metal’s “up in the air” tone, and vitalize the flow of letting go. The abdomen and side body also house much of the lymph circuitry, which is part of the body’s waste removal system.

Down dog: Plant firmly through the thumb and thumb-root and the index fingertip and knuckle, externally rotate the biceps to stimulate the full lung and large intestine meridian stream.

Cat-Cow: Exaggerate awareness of opening through the collar bones and tail in Cow, and push firmly through the hands (see index finger and thumb note above) to fully expand the upper back. Send the tail bone towards the earth with intent. These actions both expand the lungs, and gently massages large intestine associated points.

Triangle, Twisted lunge, Warrior I & II: Open the collar bones and rib cage, engage “pistol” hand formation, direct breath through the abdomen.

Knees-to-chin: While this pose, and any reclined twists that precede it, massage the inner body, also consider lying on the back with knees up. Gently massage the edges of the sacrum and top of the iliac bone against the floor through movement.