Autumn is the season of metal in Chinese Medicine. The energy is exacting, precise, cutting, reflective and alchemical.

Just as the trees drop their leaves, we too are to let go of the old. This is the natural rhythm of the season.

Many of us have outgrown jobs, relationships, locations. With integrity, now is the time to cut loose that which no longer serves you.

Sometimes these decisions come in a brilliant flash. The action required is crystal clear. At times, we are reconsidering change year after year. The action required is still murky. Reflect.

The time around the solstice will center us once again as the transition/earth season. The newness of how are choosing to live may feel, momentarily, unsettling.

We will dream up our next best life in the stillness of winter. We will rest and restore.

The spring will come, like it always does, and we will move forward anew.

Learn simple yet powerful ways to improve your health issues with my Element Wisdom Cards. 365 days of lifestyle practices, nature cure treatments, questions, suggestions and Jedi mind tricks!

The metal element rules the lungs. Skin is an expression of the lung. The function of the pores to open and close depends on the balance of our internal metal.

One of the best investments that I made in the last 10 years is a home sauna. I don’t choose to use public saunas for two reasons. It’s a poor use of my time to travel from home to sweat everyday. And I am, by nature, not a renter when it comes to value. I own my wellness.

Regular saunas (4-7/week) dramatically reduce heart disease, dementia, hypertension according to recent studies. No wonder it is a traditional wisdom! It detoxifies our cells and improves our immune function.

In naturopathic medicine and nature cure, saunas are considered hydrotherapy.  Ideally, a sweat is followed by a cold plunge or shower.  Then a rest period and UV sunlight exposure.  We prescribe three rounds of hot, cold, rest, sun.

Dr. Cox has invested many hours into selecting this made in the USA no plastics or glues sauna for home use .  https://www.heavenlyheatsaunas.com/

Please let them know Dr Cox referred you. You will receive $150 off your purchase and we will receive the same! Your sale helps keeps small businesses open.

1-800-697-2862 | info@heavenlyheatsaunas.com

For daily fall wellness tips

purchase my Metal/Autumn Element Wisdom Card decks.

Dr Cox guides your wellness practice with simple tip, health habits, inquiries and jedi mind tricks!

How much water should I drink?

A good formulation is to divide your weight in pounds by half.  Convert that number to ounces.

Notice the liquid measurement of your favorite water bottle or glass.  How many times a day do you need to refill it to meet your personal total?

For example, my favorite water bottle is yellow stainless steel with honey bees. It contains 15 ounces.  my formulation is 115/50 = 57.5 oz.  My daily water intake goal is 4 containers a day.  I always fill a bottle up before I drive in my car.  I refill the bottle at my destination if possible.  I keep a 32 ounce stainless bottle in my car at all times.  

Adding mineral once a day to water can help with absorption.  My favorite minerals are in liquid form from the great salt lake. 

You can purchase them here via my online pharmacy link

https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/selizabeth-cox

Oils, food grade lotions and water spritzes are helpful in combating the drier air, hydration even for your skin begins on the inside (after all your skin is just another organ). I love coconut oil, shea butter and floral waters.  

For more fun & simple fall wellness tips purchase your own Metal/Fall card deck. 73 cards of inspiration, affirmation, direction and inquiry to help you have your best autumn yet! visit www.element-wisdom.com (link in bio) or click the card deck below.

Mindsets and patterns dictate our actions. Our actions create our outcomes.  The fall season is the time for self-reflection and honest evaluation of our daily mental habits.  Our habits are responses or reactions to the stories that we tell ourselves.  Moment to moment awareness, returning to the breath and interrupting our mind talk with inquiry creates pause.

Purchase your Element Wisdom Card decks here

“If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.”- E.L. James
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Allow your inner light to shine through as we move into days of diminishing daylight. Our moods may change with less light. 

Diamonds form from elemental carbon between 237,000 – 1.3 million times atmospheric pressure deep within the earth.  Carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe according to mass. This makes carbon rather ‘ordinary’.  However the brilliance of the diamond is acquired from intense pressure to ordinary carbon.  Like carbon, our extraordinary-ness is derived from our ordinary-ness plus stress.  The practice of being present moment to moment helps us appreciate the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Less direct ultra violet light during November-February inhibits our inherent vitamin D conversion.  To better understand this seasonal stress, This science article explores what qualifies as deficient in vitamin D and what effects a deficiency can have on you. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19460619/

Visit element-wisdom.com for more information about Element Wisdom Cards and how this self-care tool can help guide you in your wellness journey.

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photo credit: Dimitris Christou

 This tip if from the Metal/Autumn Element Wisdom Card deck.

I invite you to daily wellness journey with Element Wisdom Cards.

Purchase here

In Chinese culture the circle shape is associated with the Metal/Fall season and represents oneness, unity and being fulfilled. Perhaps one of the most common circles we encounter in our daily lives are mirrors. It is in a mirror that we can physically reflect on ourselves, however it is possible to reflect without a mirror as well. Look for circles today, but more importantly, reflect on what makes you whole. 

One self-care practice that I invite some of my patients to incorporate into their daily lives is looking into their eyes in the mirror daily and speak aloud ‘I love you’ or ‘You, darling, are fabulous’ or some such phrase. It works to change the way in which we see ourselves and reflects how to accept compliments with grace. Will you accept this November challenge to voice and reflect love to yourself? 

The organs of the Metal season are the Lungs and Large Intestine

Metal: structure, boundaries

The characteristics of metal are hard, strong and precise.

The emotion connected to the lungs and large intestines is being excessively judgmental or stuck in grief or when out of balance and letting go of that which no longer serves and healthy boundaries when in balance.

To learn more about our seasonal self-care card deck visit element-wisdom.com

RETURN TO EARTH ELEMENT

Autumn days come quickly, like the running of a hound on the moor.
–Irish proverb

Autumn is right around the corner for all of us in the Northern Hemisphere, while the folks in the Southern Hemisphere are preparing for warmer, spring weather. 

In 2019, the Autumnal Equinox arrives on Monday, September 23, at 3:50 A.M. Eastern Standard Time. The autumn equinox happens at the same moment worldwide marking the astronomical start of fall in the Northern Hemisphere. After the autumnal equinox, nights begin to grow longer than the days until the winter solstice in December, when the days start to grow longer and the nights are shorter. The Autumnal Equinox represents the symmetry between light and darkness, as a balance is struck between day and night.

According to the Chinese Medicine understanding of the cycle of the seasons, we have technically returned to Earth phase, or Doyo, which is the transitional time when the seasons change, four times per year. After this return to earth transition, we will be in the metal phase of the seasons which invites reflection and resonates with breath and sound healing.

The Earth element is associated with times of change throughout the year, which happen between each of the seasons around the two equinoxes and the two solstices. These transition phases begin about 7 days before each equinox and solstice and continue for about 7 days after, which constitute an approximate three-week period of adjustment between the seasons. The Doyo, or Earth, is its own “mini-season”. In case you missed our earlier post on the Return to the Earth Element, click here.

I  embrace and promote the wisdom of seasonal cycles  increasing awareness of and balancing our individual constitutions within dynamic change and to honor repeating cycles throughout our return to our wholeness.  

WHAT IS THE EQUINOX?

The word “equinox” comes from Latin aequus, meaning “equal,” and nox, “night.” On the equinox, length of day and night are roughly equal.

During the equinox, the sun crosses the “celestial equator”—an imaginary line or extrapolation of Earth’s equator line into space. The equinox occurs precisely when the sun’s center passes through this line. When the sun crosses the equator from north to south, this marks the autumnal equinox; when it crosses from south to north, it marks the vernal equinox.

At this exact moment, the lengths of day and night are approximately equal around the world in the Northern and Southern hemispheres — hence the term “equinox,” which is derived from the Latin phrase meaning “equal night.”

Image credit: NASA

Why the Autumnal Equinox Doesn’t Fall on the Same Day Every Year

Depending on the part of the world and time zone where you live, the equinox usually falls on either September 22 or 23; although it can sometimes occur anytime between September 21 and 24. That is because the equinox is not an exact, daylong event but is defined by the position of the Earth and the sun at a particular moment in time. 

Ancient Autumn Traditions 

The fall equinox has been celebrated by cultures for ages as people track the transitions of the Earth’s paths around the Sun. Indigenous cultures recognized EARTH wisdom and understood that the Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, and Autumn Equinox reflect our own inner spiritual journey.

• An ancient stone monument called Intihuatana at Machu Picchu in Peru, which means “Hitching Post of the Sun”, serves as a solar clock to mark the dates of the equinoxes and solstices.  
• In Mexico, the Mayans built a giant pyramid called Chichen Itza. On the equinoxes, a snake created by light appears to slither down the pyramid’s steps.
• And of course, in England, Stonehenge is aligned with the equinoxes and solstices.

An image of the serpent appearing on the side of the Temple of Kukulcan on the equinox at Chichen Itza

SIGNIFICANCE

The Autumnal Equinox is a significant time of year to honor the harvest, which may be an actual harvest of fruits and vegetables from your garden or the harvest of efforts and intentions for your life that you set earlier in the year.  This Earth seasonal return represents the harvest time of year, when we acknowledge the gifts and abundance in our lives. It is a time when we can see, in nature, a reflection of our own lives as we go through cycles of growth, harvest, death, and rebirth.

At the Autumnal Equinox, it’s important to take a moment to go inward. Life is a continuous circle of shifting and evolving, dying, and being reborn again. Because change is a constant, it is possible to identify unbroken patterns within the ebb and flow of life. As we become quiet during this time of transition, we are allowing space for our greater vision to emerge and set in motion the intentions for another cycle. I encourage you to take some time September 23 to be mindful of your life cycle and spiritual path. Honor your own growth and inner light.

Express GRATITUDE for everything ~ the easy stuff and the challenging stuff.  Give THANKS for the ability to awaken to our true nature, to the awareness that everything we need is available or made available to us. Acknowledge the gifts and ABUNDANCE in our lives.

WE HAVE RETURNED TO THE EARTH ELEMENT SO LETS TALK EARTH OR IN THIS CASE LISTEN TO THE AMAZING SOUNDS OF  EARTH FROM SPACE.  IT’S SO COOL!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x8P-o296ZI#action=share

Click here to learn more about the scientific underpinnings of  ‘harmonic resonance’ and the sounds of the earth.

DID SOMEBODY SAY BEES?

We have all heard about the declining bee populations caused by pests like tracheal and varroa mites, colony collapse disorder (CCD), and the use of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals. Unfortunately, toxic chemicals like pesticides harm not only bees, but also butterflies, bats, birds, and other animals. A focus on natural, nontoxic beehive management including keeping bees without harmful antibiotics, pesticides, and other chemicals, may not only save the bees but save us!

Bees are responsible for pollinating much of the food we eat. Without pollinators like honeybees, up to 30% of our food would actually disappear including many of our favorite fruits. Foods such as plums, beans, broccoli, and mangoes all depend on pollination by bees.

Natural beekeeping is an approach to beekeeping encouraging minimal manipulation and as hands-off an approach as possible

Backyard beekeeping ensures that the food crops in our backyard gardens are pollinated. Bees forage up to two miles from their hive, so a colony of bees in an area or neighborhood translates to everyone’s gardens and orchards producing more yield. I’m fascinated with and awed by bee wings and their frequency which you can read all about here.

Tips for a Healthy Earth Element Season

The organs of digestion and nutrition~the spleen, pancreas, and stomach~ are associated with the Earth Element. Western Medicine views the spleen as part of the immune system; however Chinese Medicine couples the spleen with the stomach as part of the body’s digestive system. The stomach receives and breaks down the food we eat while the spleen separates the pure from the impure for proper distribution. The pancreas regulates blood-sugar levels in the body.

The Spleen, Stomach and Pancreas comprise the Earth Element organs from a 5 phase system.  The return to the earth during this period of transition invites us to concentrate our healing aim toward blood sugar balance. Naturopathic Physicians choose to address the cause of dis-ease and have a lot of wisdom to offer us!

My colleague, Dr Mona Morstein, discusses diabetes management and healing from a Naturopathic point of view:

PODCAST LINK HERE

The podcast begins with Type I diabetes, gut microbiome, intestinal permeability (17) Type 1.5 (18.3) Type 2 (20) Sleep (22) BMI (26) Inflammation/Oral Health (29)Blood Glucose monitors (32)  Levels (35) Dawn Phenomena (37) Concerns with A1C (39) Fatty Liver (42) Foods and Carbohydrates (44) Supplements (50) Insulin Resistance/Appetite (53) Complications (57)

You can purchase her new book on Amazon: B076DGZW1N

ep108-mastering-your-diabetes-with-dr.-mona-morstein

Here’s some of what you’ll learn:

• The many types of diabetes
• The pitfalls of conventional diabetes treatment
• The food that you’ll definitely want to eliminate to prevent type 1 diabetes
• The dietary approach (es) that’s helped Mona manage diabetes successfully for over 25 years!
• What your blood sugar numbers mean
• The shortcoming of HA1C measurements and new, improved test for glucose management
• What the “dawn phenomenon” is and how to fix it!
• The link between diabetes and oral health
• LIfestyle strategies for managing diabetes
• The shocking link between poor sleep and diabetes
• The best diabetes supplement on the market
• And SO much more

There are now adhesive (no more sticks) 14 day blood glucose monitors that may be right for you.

The product that Dr Morstein has developed is Diamend by Priority One.  

You can purchase Diamend by Priority One, Gymnema sylvestre by Wise Woman Herbals, Super EFA by Genestra (or Vegan Prenatal DHA) along with a large selection of protein powders and your other favorite professional grade products, through our electronic pharmacy, Fullscript.  Search, click and have delivered to your home.  Don’t have an account? Simply create one via the link below. 

To learn more about Dr Mona Morstein:

Dr Mona Morstein’s website