🗝 Earth, Air, & Metal
Content Warning (CW): discussion of mental health, ruminating thoughts.
So, here's the thing. I'm about to be super vulnerable.
I am someone who struggles with ruminating thoughts.
Sometimes they are intrusive.
I do not claim to be a professional or really have the ability to diagnose others, but it turns out, I live in this body with this brain. No one else is living in this body with this brain other than me. So, I research things I struggle with. I'm committed to a path of suffering less, so that I might be of service to others who desire to walk the same path.
Avoiding the classic WebMD "you have cancer and are going to die, maybe?" diagnoses, I like to read medical studies, reputable articles, and books, and often I temper this clinical, scientific information with boots on the ground data collection from real people. Talking to friends, visiting message boards, asking teachers, and finding healers/helpers who specialize in whatever I'm researching.
I bring all this up because: research, the internet, ruminating thoughts themselves are very air element. Cerebral. Mentally stimulating. And also? Potentially anxiety inducing. Getting me out of my body. Keeping me stuck in NEW ruminating thoughts about how I'm going to have cancer, or how that guy I once thought I loved talked about cancer a lot, and then about how he betrayed me, and then why can't he just SEE how much he hurt me, and then I wonder if he's still with that girl, and then I wonder if she's posted a new picture, and then... and then... and then... and then.
Because I already have a pretty spectacular inner critic who is constantly berating me for not being thin, pretty, or successful enough, you can see where I cause a LOT of my own suffering. I'm in my mind all the time. I can tell I'm living life out of balance because I'll stop prioritizing my physical health. I can succumb to cycles of OCD around cleaning, exercising, and social media scrolling. I often feel drained, thirsty, and despondent. I isolate myself from new experiences and get into very rigid routines.
Heard of a villain era before? Well, the last 3 years have been a deep journey into earth element era. I've simply had to get back into my body. Earth invites us to feel, deeply. To slow down. To establish our foundations. To ensure our basic needs are not just met, but also thriving in order to feel balanced. I lived most of 2020 in my head, and several circumstances (global pandemic included) forced me to see how much that caused me to suffer. Stabilizing and nourishing my nervous system was and is hard for me, and I'm still working on it. Many of us have not been taught how to self-soothe when we're in fight, flight, fawn, or freeze and thus many of us can stay stuck in this hyper-activated state for days, months, years, causing the dis-ease that WebMD just warned you about. That said, because I've been grounding more, I'm now able to better observe my intrusive and ruminating thoughts without believing they're true all the time. I want to share what's helped me for any/all who might benefit from them.
These are the actual things I do to ground, not just some copy paste from a surface level Chopra article. Let me reiterate: these habits are not always easy at first. Start small, pick one or two that speak to you and practice them over time, building slowly. Starting with 15 minutes 3x a week is a beautiful place to start.
GROUNDING PRACTICES
spend time outdoors
wear an extra layer or hat to keep warm
drink more water
wake with the sun
pause and take 3 big belly breaths
surround yourself with warm comforts (blankets, candles, nourishing food, nice people, etc.)
ground through scent (oils, incense, etc.)
practice conscious rest (forward folds, legs up the wall, guided meditations, naps, baths, etc.)
listen to gentle music
practice chanting, humming, singing, or play instruments to create vibration + bring soothing to nervous system
learn about something new that interests you (I LOVE learning about traditional chinese medicine’s 5 element theory)
All this leads up to the element I actually want to talk about most: metal. Metal rules the season of fall, and it rules the lungs and large intestine. When in balance, metal energy is malleable and adaptable. When out of balance, it becomes quite rigid and fixed. Taking time to meditate on the physical/literal qualities of metal is a beautiful way to connect to this element.
I've been thinking about how metal fits in with Western astrology, since there's no exact correlation. Scorpio season falls smack dab in the middle of metal element. Scorpio is fixed water element and rules the subconscious, the underworld of our thoughts and emotions, if you will. I also learned recently from the amazing Jeff Hinshaw of Cosmic Cousins that Scorpio rules the physical underworld of Earth, from where metal, stones, and crystals are excavated. Scorpio also carries an energy of depth, investigation, and transformation. In thinking of how stuck I can get in air element, and then coming back to the body with earth, I've begun to click into how metal is an excellent bolster to this journey.
Metal invites energetic boundaries, prefers structure and routine. It's like this combination of earth and air and Scorpio's fixed water, where we can go deep into our ingrained patterns of behavior to better understand the daily habits that do OR do not serve us.
Metal rules the lungs and large intestine, which each possess the function of transformation. Lungs pull in fresh oxygen and let go of waste through carbon dioxide. The large intestine aids in processing and eliminating waste. Their functions are to let go of that which doesn't serve our physical, energetic body.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, these two organs are associated with the emotion grief. Grief is this complex emotion of letting go of something we love, almost a melancholy we take on when we acknowledge something we loved cannot physically come with us forever.
Because of this gorgeous complexity, I couldn't help share these thoughts before we fully leave fall/metal season. The converse emotion to grief - joy - is available to us in small moments. I find (the strangest!) joy when I fold hand towels at the yoga studio where I work. It's a structured activity that keeps my mind and hands busy, while being of service to those at the studio.
Metal invites us to explore discipline in our routes, NOT rigidity. I'm currently practicing a 90-day sadhana (daily spiritual routine) for my 300 hour yoga teacher training. Knowing myself and how my mind works, I've incorporated a metal mentality: for the first 30 days (or 60... or 90... we'll see), my task is to be really compassionate and flexible with my sadhana. I've been practicing the same simple, bare requirements (meditation, breathwork, mantra, intentional yoga, dinacharya) to help me build the habit of actually enjoying sadhana. Some days, especially with meditation, I show up and I feel angry, impatient, and not believing it will help me. By allowing myself structured flexibility, I invoke metal's willingness to adapt a routine for my highest path rather than staying stuck in rigid requirements that might make me give up.
And, with the balanced malleability of metal, I've recently found the ability to create new beliefs around habit-building. That it can include play, joy, and lightness. It can be whatever I need it to be that day, so long as I'm intentional. That I can keep track of it and notice that I dedicate time to myself each day - even if it's just 5 minutes - and that's an incredible feat for me. I've been processing so much of the grief I experience the last 3 years, and I'm so grateful right now for the sometimes excruciating, and very mucky, journey. Metal has afforded me to build sustainable routines based on solid foundations I built throughout my earth era. It encourages me to channel my air element by grounding it, excavating its roots, getting to the source of some of my habitual patterns.
This is why "they" call it a practice, y'all. It is ever evolving, just like you and me and everything around us. The elements have become this really special way for me to explore my own identity, environment, tendencies, and misperceptions. I hope this exploration serves you, and that you allow metal's wisdom and strength to guide you towards your own unique, rooted, daily practices. It's self-soothing, my friends, and it's free.
Also: I made a Metal Element playlist. Hope it serves. Ilysm.
