The Metal Type Personality According to Traditional Chinese Medici

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The season for Metal runs from August 7 to October 20 according to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). We call it energetic Fall. In TCM, the energy of each of the five elements aligns with many aspects of life. One of those aspects is the personality. This articles discusses the Metal type of person and personality traits. Are you or someone you know a Metal type? Let’s find out.

Describing this or any other element type isn’t all black and white. Sometimes we’re out of balance in our type.

What we outline below is the basic personality of the Metal type in perfect balance. The opposite of any characteristic discussed here demonstrates an out-of-balance Metal type.

TCM embraces a fivefold concept known as the Five Element/Five Phase Theory to explain a wide variety of phenomena from cosmic cycles to the interaction between the body’s internal organs to personality types.

The five elements are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. You may not predominantly be a Metal type but we all tend to be one predominant type from among the five elements. It’s important to note that no one is one hundred percent one type alone.

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Think ‘graceful’ when you think of the Metal Type.

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Metal types are like the Eiffel Tower rising stately into the sky, reaching toward the heavens, magnificent, graceful and elegant. Metals give off a lithe energy.

Metal yearns for refinement. Metal type personalities spend energy toward perfectionism and purity. They never stop chipping away at a rock so they can reveal the precious jem within.

Metal types are orderly and stoic, regulated and resolved. They don’t exactly express feelings like most other people. They get excited, yes, and feel emotion, but they mostly hold feelings like joy and happiness within.

Think also ‘solitude,’ ‘inward’ and ‘spiritual’ when you think of the Metal Type.

Metal type personalities express their emotions when they’re alone in solitude. Even when Metal types do outwardly express emotion it will be merely a smile or nod of the head.

Metal types often find themselves alone much of the time. Even so, they usually don’t feel lonely for they feel companionship with nature and the unseen realm.

The energy of the Metal type personality pulls inwardly. This type lives in the mystical spaces in-between. Much like walking a labyrinth they easily find a zen space within themselves in the solitude.

If you highly prize solitude, serenity, and reverence, you may be a Metal type.

Metal types are usually highly spiritual. The Metal type personality constantly works towards pure consciousness. Metals need and want to connect to the present moment. They must have and will work to secure their freedom to be alone, work, and connect with the Divine.

Others interpret the Metal personality’s presentation of self as aloof or even arrogant. Others often misjudge that Metal feels more enlightened than everyone else. These assumptions couldn’t be further from the truth. Metal doesn’t feel that way.

We call the archetype of Metal and the Metal Type Personality the Alchemist.

“The alchemist transforms the mundane into something grand, releasing the old and breathing in the new. Metal energy brings inspiration, newness, and value into every day life.”

— Charles A. Moss, MD in Power of the Five Elements: The Chinese Medicine Path to Healthy Aging and Stress Resistance

They are masters at meeting life right where it is and rising above it.

The challenge of meeting life where it is motivates the Metal type personality. They love to rise above any challenge.

Stoicism in Metal personalities helps Metal weather life’s ups and downs without becoming unduly upset. They’ll feel distressed like everyone else but won’t generously express their distress.

Metal personalities enjoy the journey to be one with and flow with change. The Metal type in balance won’t overly fret over losing job, marriage, or a friendship. Alchemist Metal sees the big picture, loves the challenge of rebuilding and recreating. Metal knows better days are ahead.

Metal holds high values and strives to be honorable. In Metal personalities’ way of thinking, they can’t live with themselves otherwise.

The Metal Type personality wants authentic meaningful relationships.

Metal types in balance have a knack for letting go of what’s no longer needed in their lives: earthly possessions, distractions, toxic thoughts.

Because of this ability to let go of the old or the past, they quickly detach from others if they carry a lot of emotional baggage. When something feels off or feels like drama, Metal departs if at all possible.

Metal type personalities will actually move away from relationships — physically and/or emotionally — when they feel those relationships offer nothing to enhance their own journey.

This is why Metals can seem indifferent when relating to people. These Metal types do understand that long-term detachment from people can be unhealthy. But after a period of time they will seek to reconnect if they sense it’s impairing their growth.

Metals want to connect with people, just not in large groups or social circles. They prefer one-on-one encounters and are deeply grateful for every personal encounter.

Metals aren’t known for being funny but when they express humor it’s always dry, brilliant and sophisticated.

Metal types don’t like trite conversation. They like conversation to be deep otherwise they see no point in enagaing.

Interestingly, Metal personality types themselves are long winded in communication however it will always be meaningful.

Metals would rather be alone than participate in a shallow relationship based on need.

When Metal personalities do make friends they’ll usually allow, even hope for their new friends to express their feelings. And Metal will not judge or run away. Instead Metals will open their hearts.

It’s important for the Metal type personality to consistently open the heart. Without it he or she will develop lack of flexibility in relationships.

Metals seek a cosmic connection to other people with complete mindfulness. They naturally illuminate aspects of the relationship that really matter. They shine their generous kindness on you gradually as you get to know them.

If you are Metal’s companion you become a better human being.

Metal thrives by serving a group of people. It’s where the Metal personality feels at home.

The Metal Type personality strives to simply life.

The Metal type shows an uncanny ability to simplify life. Metals strive for simplicity to focus on what’s most important for their personal evolution.

In any aspect of service and work, Metal can distill the most complex concepts and drill down to the essential. Metal will always communicate elaborate instructions and information in a way that anyone can understand.

If Metal type personalities are teacher or leader, they listen to others in earnest. Then they extract the most vital information in its purest most meaningful form.

The Metal type personality focuses sharply and relentlessly. No matter how long a project takes, Metal resigns to taking step after step to completion and with little or no complaint.

Metals prefer to finish projects completely before they take a dinner break nibbling on small snacks until then. They don’t want their focus broken.

Metal types believe they’re here for a purpose. They work with passion and zeal to finish everything they came to Earth to accomplish. In the process, Metal will often temporarily forget others in their lives while they’re on a mission.

This said, Metal type personalities are some of the most altruistic people you’ll meet.

…

Endnotes:

Dondi. The Five Elements: Understand Yourself and Enhance Your Relationships with the Wisdom of the World's Oldest Personality Type System. Tarcher Perigee, 2016.

Best Practices for Living In Harmony with Energetic Fall

In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the Metal element corresponds to the energy of energetic Fall (August 7 to October 20). To understand the energies of the season, keep in mind the metaphor of the mountain composed of minerals of all kinds. Its base is wide and firmly rooted to the Earth. At the same time it reaches upward towards the heavens with authority and might.

Keep in mind this metaphor of the mountain as you realize that Metal:

• gives us our sense of quality and value

• offers us an avenue for looking at the majesty that lies beyond ourselves

• extends to us the power to let go thereby returning us to us our essence

• represents a paternal energy.

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Our inner attributes of the Metal element give us a sense of self-worth.

Metal is meant to be the period of tranquility of our conduct.

Metal reflects back to us our core issues. Even if we don't have a particular affinity for Metal, we are all called to deal with our core issues during Metal/Fall.

Metal calls us to connect with the most refined aspect of ourselves. People with an affinity for Metal tend to to be drawn to beauty. They enjoy symmetry and find inspiration in purity. 

Metal qualities include fortitude, independence, focus, intensity, righteousness, fluency in speech, determination and power. 

Metal’s Emotions

Metal types inevitably learn the importance of becoming less opinionated, accepting change, and letting go of the past. Metal types tend to dwell on the past if they are unaware so they need to be attentive to the action of letting go.

In TCM, the emotion of grief is associated with Metal. The challenge is to express grief and then let it go otherwise it can fester into persistent negativity and abject sadness. 

There’s often an acute awareness of time passing and growing old in the Fall. Know that this is part of the energy of the season. Just let those thoughts go without dwelling on them. 

In Fall, the Metal element is at its peak and particularly responsive to treatment. At this time of year, if we are out of Metal balance either physically, mentally or spiritually, the season's energies are very much supportive of bringing us back into Metal balance.

The energies of the season can support the replenishing of depleted mineral stores in the body and/or bringing Metal back into balance mentally and spiritually. 

Metal governs human behaviors such as organization, order, communication, the mind, setting and protecting boundaries. 

For your best harmonious energetic Fall experience, explore these:

1. Engage in self-evaluation.

2. Be open to new experiences; let go of always only what is familiar.

3. Stand up for what is right.

4. Follow your heart.

5. Persevere through challenges.

6. Take action even if you’re fearful; embrace hope.

7. Consolidate and begin storing energy for the upcoming Winter months.

8. Take time to meditate.

9. Speak only when necessary; stop the small talk.

10. Exercise your will calmly and quietly.

11. Contain yourself and behave with a degree of restraint.

12. Gather your soul and spirit together; explore your core issues.

“There are three months of autumn,

they denote taking in and balance.

The qi of heaven becomes tense.

The qi of the earth becomes bright.

Go to rest early and rise early,

get up together with the chicken.

Let the mind be peaceful and tranquil,

so as to temper the punishment carried out in autumn.

Collect the spirit qi and cause the autumn qi to be balanced.

Do not direct your mind to the outside and

cause the lung qi to be clear.

This is correspondence with the qi of autumn and

it is the Way to nourish gathering.

Opposing it harms the lung…”

— from The Neijing Suwen

Autumn Wellness: 16 Ways from Traditional Chinese Medicine

The Fall energetic season, season of the Metal element, begins August 7 and ends October 20 according to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Here’s how you can achieve Autumn wellness with lifestyle practices sure to balance and uplift you.

As the wheel of the seasons turns to Fall, the days shorten, the earth cools, and the expanded energy of summer begins to consolidate. – Nishanga Bliss in Real Food All Year: Eating Seasonal Whole Foods for Optimal Health & All-Day Energy. 

Best lifestyle practices create Autumn wellness.

No matter the season always take your cues from nature. TCM’s Five Element Theory provides a framework of seasons and elements to help you learn to live in harmony with the natural cycles of life.

Each of the five seasons associates to an element. You will most probably find your own PHYTO5 skincare line from one of the five elements.

Autumn wellness begins at the level of emotion. And the degree of Autumn wellness you enjoy shows up in your skin.

If your skin, for example, looks and feels dull and congested presenting fine lines and the start of loss of elasticity, the Fall quantum energetic Metal line will help you bring those symptoms into greater balance.

It will also help you balance emotion since all the five element lines are quantum energetic. Lesson worry, grief and regret and gain a sense that all is well.

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Align with the season’s Metal element for Autumn wellness.

Understand the attributes of the Metal element and you can reflect them in your lifestyle practices.

• Metal energy is consolidating with an inward movement much like a flower closing its petals.

  • Focus on being one with nature. With Autumn ushering in a more inward yin energy, it’s time to start closing your petals for awhile. Autumn wellness comes from your beginning to slow down at this time of year.

• We mine Metal from ores in the Earth’s crust—the thick outer shelf of rock. Metal’s motion is determined, forceful, strong, unyielding, self-reliant, reserved and sophisticated.

  • Tap into your inner reservoir of strength. Attune yourself to it so you can carry this dependable strength and sense of self into Winter and Spring.

• Every element in the Five Element Theory associates to organs of the body. For Metal, the yin organ is Lung. Through the lungs we not only regenerate ourselves from the prana in the air we breathe, we also eliminate carbonic gas produced by cell metabolism.

  • Your respiratory system and nose are key during energetic Fall. Consciously breathe in the heavenly qi (also known as chi or prana). A good exercise for Autumn wellness is the six breaths a minute exercise you will find here.

• Metal associates to the yang energy large intestine—organ of elimination.

  • Understand that elimination and cleansing are both physical and psychological activities. And they’re important lifestyle practices for achieving Autumn wellness.

• Worry, grief, and regret relate to energetic Fall and Metal.

  • Bringing balance to these emotions means you develop courage. You arrive at a sense that all is well.

  • Sadness and discontentment prevail for people who are out-of-balance with their emotions in the Fall. If you’re feeling sad or stuck, remember the Law of Impermanence. This too shall pass. For emotional Autumn wellness allow yourself to weep when you feel to. But also summon the courage to face what's ahead.

• Metal represents the Westward direction—the direction of dreams and visions. In Taoist mythology, the White Tiger guards the West. White Tiger stands for righteousness, independence and determination.

  • For your Autumn wellness stand facing West and consciously honor the Westness of Autumn and your own morality and independence. Imagine your loftiest goals. Intend before you go to bed at night that you receive messages from your subconscious by remembering your dreams.

• Various colors represent TCM’s seasons and elements.(1) Energetic Falls colors are yang steel blue and yin white or silver.

  • As you amplify your inner journeying during this appropriate season for introspection, light yin energy white candles. This Autumn wellness lifestyle practice counters the growing darkness of the season.

• As we let go of the previous season of Earth, symbol of harvest, embrace the letting go attribute of Metal.

  • Practice letting go in all things. Lung and the breath will help you with this. But for more ideas, visit our blog on this topic of letting go in Autumn here. For serene Autumn wellness, allow Metal’s energies assist you to release old resentments or hurts and begin anew.

• The cooler weather of energetic Fall almost forces us to slow down, retreat and enjoy life in a whole other way.

  • For your Autumn wellness prepare yourself for the even deeper introspective dive you’ll be taking once Winter comes. Bring negative and destructive habits to a minimum. They could be uncomfortably intrusive during both Fall’s and Winter’s times of withdrawing and hibernation.

• In keeping with Metal’s inward drawing yin energy:

  • Meditate or pray. Autumn’s the time of year when spiritual vision will come easier to you. Take advantage of these energies for your spiritual Autumn wellness.

• You consumed lots of fun food during energetic Summer. Metal and Fall support internal cleansing.

  • Eliminate impurities from your body and skin. Consume more plant-based foods and less animal products. This will encourage impurity elimination.

Sour foods and energetic Fall go hand in hand for dietary Autumn wellness:

Sour foods like lemon, plum, pear, and mango work to obstruct bodily functions, which makes them helpful in alleviating diarrhea, excessive perspiration, and hemorrhoids, among other conditions. Sour foods are most active in the liver, where they counteract the effects of rich, greasy food. Sour foods are related to the Fall season. —Rosa Ross and Suzanne LeVert in Chinese Healing Foods

Start eating root vegetables. They increase Autumn wellness.

Your diet should be dictated by the rhythms of the external world. Food gains power to maintain health from its relationship to the external world...  Root vegetables such as burdock and turnips have downward-moving energy so give in to the natural desire to eat them in the Fall. — Misha Ruth Cohen in The New Chinese Medicine Handbook: An Innovative Guide to Integrating Eastern Wisdom with Western Practice for Modern Healing

• Metal signals a time when you have to start being more vigilant with hyration. The Westward winds and lower humidity dry the skin.

  • Help your body rehydrate for Autumn wellness. Dink lots of pure water and eat juicy high water content produce. The produce of Winter will have lower water content. So take advantage of more watery produce in the Fall.

• The crispness of Metal and Fall have arrived.

  • Breathe in and appreciate the new scents of nature and the season. Note the subtle or remarkable changes in the quality of the air you breathe.

Skin needs Autumn wellness too.

PHYTO5 offers a complete quantum energetic skincare line for each season and element that not only works at the level of skin but emotion and vital energy too.

1. Spring • Wood (green and blue green): Clarify oily skin, lighten spots and stimulate blood flow and vital energy for a matte finish. Develop emotions of kindness and self-confidence.

2. Summer • Fire (red and purple): Soothe irritated sensitive skin, reduce excess redness, cool and calm skin. Regain a sense of joy-in-balance.

3. In-between seasons • Earth (warm yellow and ochre; there are four of these 18-day periods in the year): Detoxify impurities, balance blemishes and acne, reduce enlarged pores. Feel more free to express yourself creatively. Finish unfinished projects.

4. Autumn • Metal (blue and white or silver): Eliminate impurities, decongest and brighten dull skin, plump fine lines. Have a sense that all is well.

5. Winter • Water (violet and blue-black): Super-hydrate mature very dry skin, increase elasticity and balance moisture retention. Gain a sense of zenitude.

…

Sources:

Bliss, Nishanga. Real Food All Year: Eating Seasonal Whole Foods for Optimal Health & All-Day Energy. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 2012. Print.

Ross, Rosa and Suzanne LeVert. Chinese Healing Foods. New York: Pocket, 1998. Print.

Cohen, Misha Ruth. The New Chinese Medicine Handbook: An Innovative Guide to Integrating Eastern Wisdom with Western Practice for Modern Healing. Fair Winds Press, 2015. Print.

Photo courtesty of Lolame at Pixabay

Healthiest Fall Foods Are White Foods

In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), color doesn’t only reflect the energy of each of the five energetic seasons. Color indicates ways and gives us clues about how we can live in harmony with the season. TCM’s colors of energetic Fall are blue (yang energy) and silvery white (yin energy aspect).

The colors for all five seasons of TCM are:

• Spring: warm green and teal

• Summer: red and purple

• Between seasons(1): yellow and ochre

• Fall: blue and silver white

• Winter: deep violet and black.

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White foods are Fall Foods.

White foods will help fortify your health during energetic Fall.

The white foods we mention here we suggest as complements to your diet or as seasonal replacements for certain fruits and vegetables.

TCM is all about balance so keep this concept in mind when you’re in the throes of Fall food prep. And just because white foods are optimal during Fall, don’t eat white foods to the exclusion of most others.

The organs of Fall in TCM are lung (yin) and large intestine (yang).

Our skin is so closely associated with the element of the season, Metal, and particularly associated with the lungs that TCM refers to the skin as our third lung. Lung needs to be strong enough to keep the dryness-causing wind out during Fall.

White foods nourish the lungs. TCM considers white foods clear foods which are very beneficial for skin and for nourishing the lungs at a time when our bodies need good lung energy the most. 

Pear is just about as efficient as apple in Autumn. Its nature is cold and nourishing, balancing the yang in our bodies and helping to prevent dryness and coughing. Its properties are particularly activated when adding white flesh pear to warm soups.

White or snow fungus is one of the most popular fungi in the cuisine and medicine of China and is very nourishing to the skin. It can also help reduce lung damage caused by smoking. It has a refreshing taste and is best used in sweet soups along with pear mentioned above.

Some flower bulbs can be eaten and are enormously nutritious. The lily bulb is one of them. These bulbs can be gathered in Autumn, cleaned and sun-dried. The lily bulb’s nature is moist and it helps to pacify emotional anxiety and uneasiness as we transition from one season to the next. Consume sun-dried lily bulb with white fungus and honey or sautéed with garlic and celery.

Lotus seed has strong properties for healing colds and reducing fevers. Use less than a handful of lotus seeds (purchased in Chinese grocery stores and pharmacies) and make a warm, sweet soup with the above-mentioned ingredients (pear, white fungus and lily bulbs). Cook all together with some crystallized cane sugar (not common refined sugar) on low heat.

The water chestnut is very good for clearing the lungs and again, very beneficial for people who smoke. 

White beans are very detoxifying and rich in minerals. They also contain a little known trace mineral, molybdenum responsible for manufacturing a number of detoxifying enzymes. They fight against the storage of energy as body fat and their high antioxidant content provides anti-aging properties.

Abounding in vitamin C, lotus root helps to maintain the integrity of blood vessels, organs and skin. (Vitamin C is both antioxidant and an important component of collagen.) Lotus root can be steamed, stewed or fried.

To treat dryness that comes with Autumn, here is a more exhaustive list of white foods that can be very effective. They can help clear heat, promote fluid production and moisten the lung.

• almonds

• apple

• bamboo shoots

• cauliflower

• hempseed kernels

• jicama

• sun-dried lily bulb

• lotus root

• lotus seed

• pear

• pine nuts

• rice

• tofu

• water chestnut

• white bean

• white fish

• white fungus

• white mushrooms

• white radish

• winter melon

…

Endnote:

(1) Between seasons relates to the four 18-day transitional periods of the year sandwiched between each of the four major seasons. Earth is the element of these between seasons periods of the year.

Source:

Liu, Zhan-Wen, et al. Health Cultivation in Chinese Medicine. Peoples Medical Publishing House (PMPH), 2012.

Tips for Your Vitality In Fall and Winter

According to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), energetic Fall and the season of the Metal element run from August 7 to October 20. Energetic Fall’s the time to gently immerse yourself in the quieter, more introspective energies of the season. It’s a time of harvest and preparation for the upcoming energetic Winter. Here are tips for making a smooth transition from energetic Summer to Fall and beyond.

Autumn is a time of establishing a rhythmic order. There is a downward energy, grounding our bodies, minds and even our food into the earth. It is the ideal time to focus on the colon as life energy contracts and will prepare for a dormant state in the winter. Autumn is associated with white, and also the time of year our ‘white’ foods are at their peak. They are the digestives and immune boosting foods such as: apples, pears, cabbage, cauliflower, garlic and leeks. – Kate Kennington, Cleansing with Kate

As you prepare yourself for Winter (season of the Water element), get yourself more organized at this time of year. Establish more order in your life.

Throughout energetic Summer (season of the Fire element), you probably feasted and fested. You might have been more physically active enjoying vacations, social events and holidays.

But the season of Autumn provides you the new opportunity to retreat within body and mind and reflect on your life positively and productively.

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What can we learn from the past two seasons in a way we can constructively apply throughout Fall and Winter?

If you have unfinished projects you started in Spring and Summer, energetic Fall is the perfect time to complete them. The energies of the Fall season will support and encourage you to begin indoor projects that involve more mental and introspective processes. 

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The lung and large intestine are the internal organs associated with Fall and the Metal element.

Lung is associated with the emotion of letting go. The very act of conscious breathing enables us to let go of what we don’t want as we fully and deeply exhale.

Some people so love Summer that Fall can be a challenging time for them. Now they have to give up longer days, warm weather and some outdoor social activities.

Utilizing the lungs to practice slowing down the breath helps you come to your center and the now moment. It will help you focus gratitude for the Summer which has passed and the Fall which has arrived.

Slower deeper breathing helps you maintain your physical vigor throughout both Fall and Winter. It can improve mental clarity and a nicely balanced emotional state.

Soul and spirit should be tranquil to keep lungs pure… – The Neijing Suwen

TCM finds the lung to be the "tender organ” since it’s the uppermost organ in the body making it particularly susceptible to wind and cold. As the temperatures change, be proactive with your health and dress appropriately for the weather.

Proper sleep encourages Fall vitality. The ancient medical text, the Neijing Suwen, advises we should retire early at night and rise with the crowing of the rooster during Autumn.

“There was temperance in eating and drinking. Their hours of rising and retiring were regular and not disorderly and wild. By these means the ancients kept their bodies united with their souls, so as to fulfill their allotted span completely, measuring unto a hundred years before they passed away.


The wise man will surely conform to the changes of the four seasons, adapt himself to the cold of winter and the heat of summer, neutralize joy and anger and live a regular life.

”

— Both passages from the Neijing Suwen

…

Sources:

Maciocia, Giovanni. The Foundations of Chinese Medicine E-Book: A Comprehensive Text. 3rd ed., Elsevier Academic Press, 2015.

Kennington, Kate. Cleansing with Kate: A Whole Food Guide to Nourishing Your Whole Self. 3rd ed., Kennington, 2014.

Photo courtesy of Daiga Ellaby at Unsplash

A Dozen Tips for Completing Unfinished Projects

As we approach the end of each energetic season of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), we begin thinking about the next season and how to prepare for it. We want to get the most out of the gifts each season offers. 

In TCM, we have not only four seasons but five. The fifth season is an 18-day transitional or bridge period between each of the other four seasons (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter).

Each season corresponds to on the five elements:

• Spring : Wood

• Summer : Fire

• Fall : Metal

• Winter : Water

The fifth energetic between-seasons period corresponds to the Earth element. We don’t give it a name other than Earth.

Any time we near the end of one of the four major seasons it’s smart to get things in order for a comfortable harmonious next season. Earth demands order, completion and tidiness. Earth loves you to take care of business.

One important way to take care of business is to finish proejcts you’ve begun. Maybe you’ve felt challenged to complete them. Here are some tips.

1. Get yourself connected to the reason for the project. If you don’t believe in it, you won’t have any real motivation to complete it. Humans are motivated by pain or pleasure and most of the time, we’re motivated by pain. Get connected to any undesirable consequences that will come your way if you don’t get the project finished. If the consequences aren’t all that undesirable and you still can’t get motivated, maybe you’re just not supposed to finish it.

2. Write down the stepping stones that make up your project with pen and paper. Use pen and paper rather than electronically record with your computer or smartphone; it’s just not the same thing. Writing it down with pen and ink is a statement of commitment.

3. Write only three or less steps to take each day. Use index cards and place them in a prominent place to check in with them such as on your kitchen counter. When one step is accomplished, rip up the card and throw it away.

4. By the inch, it’s a cinch. If three steps a day are too much, one will do. In 30 days, you’ll have more than 30 accomplishments you might not have realized before and that's a lot!

5. Record it. Use you the Reminders aspect of your iPhone to prompt you to complete a task. Make sure you ask Siri (or Siri alternative for Android) to remind you at a specific time on a specific day. Promise yourself in advance that when the reminder comes up, you’re going to take action right then and there.

6. Be realistic. Don’t set up a barrage of tasks to complete all on the same day. Spread it out.

7. Once a day, spend at least 30 uninterrupted seconds seeing yourself with the end goal accomplished and while you’re in a good mood.

8. Have a friend hold you accountable. Ask him or her to commit to calling you once or twice a week to check in to get a progress report from you. Ask your friend not to accept too many excuses from you. If you keep coming up short, maybe you’ve set yourself up to climb too high a mountain. Ask your friend to help you get reasonable with your goals and the steps you believe you should take towards completing them.

9. If the project seems daunting, instead of mapping out plans from start to finish, reverse engineer it. Start at the end result and go backwards jotting down or diagramming what it would take to achieve each step.

10. Just get it done. It’s okay if it’s not perfect. Do your best but don’t hold up completion of the project because it’s got to be perfect.

11. Ask for help. If you get stuck, don’t know how to execute the next step or just can’t seem to budge yourself off dead center, call a friend for ideas or encouragement.

12. Reward yourself when the project is completed with something within reason and which you’ve been wanting to give yourself for awhile. Celebrate!

Best Eating Practices for Energetic Fall

Any time we come to the conclusion of an energetic season in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), it’s smart to check in with your diet. Make sure you're aligning your eating practices with the season. When you live in harmony with the spirit of the season and nature, you’ll live a more vibrant life.

In the case of energetic Fall, observe the season. Notice that our natural environment is beginning to slow down and contract. It’s preparing to rest for the Winter. 

If we choose to align ourselves with nature’s current seasonal behaviors, we’ll slow down, too. We’ll sleep a little longer, become a little more contemplative and inwardly focused and we’ll eat warming, nourishing foods, especially foods that nourish the lungs, the organ associated with Fall. 

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Best eating practices for energetic Fall include eating lung clearing and moistening foods (lung is the organ associated with the season) like apples, pears and persimmons. Sounds like it’s time for some fresh baked pie!

Foods with gently pungent flavors strengthen the lungs and should be balanced with sour foods which work to protect the skin against attack from the winds of Autumn. 

Gently pungent flavors come from herbs and spices like basil, coriander, bay leaves, capers, cardamom, chives, cinnamon, cloves, dill, fennel, ginger, oregano, nutmeg, rosemary, safflower, thyme, and turmeric. More powerful pungent flavors such as white pepper, garlic, chilies, onions and horseradish are best to use sparingly at this time. Gently pungent vegetables include cabbage, leeks and turnips.

Sour foods to balance the pungent might include sauerkraut, sour plums and apples, olives, pickles, lemons, limes, grapefruit and yogurt.

The Fall energetic season is the time when we may tend to eat less salads and raw foods while cooking our food at low temperatures for longer periods of time. For example, steam your food rather than do a quick stir fry. Or make some hearty, slowly cooked and simmered stews and soups that include navy and lima beans which are very good for the lungs. Begin phasing in to your soups and stews root vegetables which we will soon even more heartily use in the Winter.

Using small amounts of Himalayan sea salt in your cooking will help alleviate dryness caused by windy Autumn.

Autumn is a time of establishing a rhythmic order. There is a downward energy, grounding our bodies, minds and even our food into the earth. It is the ideal time to focus on the colon as life energy contracts and will prepare for a dormant state in the winter. Autumn is associated with white, and also the time of year our “white” foods are at their peak. They are the digestives and immune boosting foods such as: apples, pears, cabbage, cauliflower, garlic, and leeks.  – Kate Kennington, Holistic Health Coach

Here’s a list of supportive nourishing foods to incorporate into your best eating practices for Fall as we build our immune systems in preparation for Winter:

1. almonds

2. apples

3. apricots

4. asparagus

5. bananas

6. basil

7. bay leaves

8. black pepper

9. broccoli

10. cabbage

11. capers

12. cardamom

13. cauliflower

14. celery

15. cheese

16. chilies (sparingly)

17. chives

18. cinnamon

19. cloves

20. coriander

21. cucumber

22. dill

23. fennel

24. garlic (sparingly)

25. ginger

26. grapefruit

27. grapes

28. Himalayan salt

29. horseradish (sparingly)

30. leeks

31. lemons

32. limes

33. miso

34. mustard greens

35. navy beans

36. nutmeg

37. olives

38. onion (sparingly)

39. oregano

40. pears

41. persimmons

42. pickles

43. radish 

44. rice

45. rosemary

46. safflower

47. sauerkraut

48. sour plums

49. sourdough bread

50. soy beans

51. sweet potato

52. thyme

53. turmeric

54. turnips

55. vinegar

56. walnuts

57. white pepper (sparingly)

58. yogurt

How to Amplify Your Vital Life Force Energy

If you want a higher quality of life—health, healing and vitality, live in ways that amplify your life force. But what is life force?

Energy medicines, with their long-standing traditions rooted Asia, India, ancient Greece and Egypt, operate on the same foundational tenet: Yes, the body is physical matter. But it’s just as much unseen vital energy—the life force that animates all living beings.

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The Life Force Definition Expanded

Various spiritual philosophies call life force energy by different names.

• prana: In yoga, Ayurveda and Indian martial arts, the Sanskrit word for life force or vital principle; the life-giving force;

• pneuma: In stoic thought, the vital spirit, soul, or creative force of a person;

• qi: the circulating life force whose existence and properties are the basis of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM); this life force energy fills the universe.

According to TCM, there are many kinds of chi or qi imbued with a life force energy all their own. TCM calls this qi heavenly because it includes the energy of the planets, stars and constellations, sunshine and moonlight, and the energy of God the Infinite Itself—the source and force of creation and Universal Love.

The near one hundred year old seminal books, Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East, chronicle the teachings of advanced Himalayan Masters. These Masters possess unlimited wisdom on human potential—physically, mentally and spiritually.

And they define life force energy this way:

It was only a short time ago that your learned men began to know of the delicate system of arteries and veins composing the circulatory system of your bodies. It is still left for them to determine that there is a far more delicate and subtle circulatory system throughout the body, which carries the life force to every atom.

Through your nervous system this life force is sent to a set of cells in the brain. These cells, in turn, act as a distributor for the [life] force and it is sent out to every atom of the body along the nerves, for which it has an affinity. It also acts as a protection for the nerves.

If the life force is dissipated, the cells become set and cannot change for the new cells that are formed to take their place are thrown off instead of the old ones, which gradually decompose and die.

If the life force is conserved, the cells change as readily at five hundred years as at ten.

Conserving, even amplifying life force energy, is part of how the Himalayan Masters enable themselves to live indefinitely.

Networks of Life Force Energy

Did Modern Day Deepak Chopra, MD Study the Himalayan Masters? He defines life force energy very much like they do.

In Chopra’s first book on agelessness, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative to Growing Old, he discusses how humans are magnificently organized networks of energy, information, and intelligence.

He explains how we participate in dynamic exchange with our environment, fully capable of transformation and renewal.

Chopra defines vital energy as a subtle energy flowing throughout the body.

We may think the human body is little more than biological matter similar to machinery that deteriorates steadily and unavoidably over time.

But Chopra explains life force energy in the human being differently: When life force energy flows abundantly, we slow the aging process.

We amplify our life force energy through lifestyle and belief. It’s all in the way we treat our bodies and even in how we treat and utilize our minds.

The universal principle of “Like Attracts Like” is always at work. So anything we do to reaffirm life and vitality will reaffirm, even increase, life force energy, and vitality and life itself in our bodies.

Especially during yin energy times of year—the seasons when we withdraw more into ourselves—take time to absorb the heavenly qi and increase your life force energy. These yin energy seasons according to TCM are energetic Fall and Winter.

The energies of these seasons will absolutely support you to amplify your life force energy.

PHYTO5 offers respective lines of quantum energetic skincare for the skin conditions associated with TCM’s five seasons and for the seasons themselves. Quantum energetic, they’re formulated to help you balance your skin condition, vital life force energy and emotions.

Earth’s Helpful Qi

Earth itself has energy to give you that will encourage your life force energy flow. The martial art, Qi Gong, calls the practice of absorbing natural lie the art of gathering heavenly qi. When you practice Qi Gong or any of the following activities, you grow your life force energy.

1. Walk barefoot.

“Prana contained in the ground is called ground prana or ground vitality globule. This is absorbed through the soles of the feet. This is done automatically and unconsciously.” — Choa Kok Sui in Miracles through Pranic Healing: Practical Manual on Energy Healing.

2) Practice prayanayama or pranic deep breathing (also known as Tan Tien(1) cleansing breath).

Accomplish pranic breathing nourishing to life force energy by:

• touching your tongue to your palate;

• breathing through your abdomen and through the nostrils;

• inhaling slowly and holding for one count;

• exhaling slowly and holding for one count;

• being sure you don’t over-expand or over-contract the abdomen.

If this seems too complicated, simply practice six breaths a minute. The life force energy you amplify with this practice will slow aging and many of its causes.

Read our instructional blog on six breaths a minute here.

Life force energy charges your aura as well as your body. Choa Kok Sui also says:

“Pranic breathing energizes you to such an extent that your aura temporarily expands by 100% or more. The inner aura expands to about eight inches or more, the health aura to about four feet or more, the other aura to about two meters or more.”

3) Sit in a nature setting and absorb the flowing natural energies. Invite them into your own vital life force energy.

4) Eat living food rich in real earth nutrients. When you eat fresh produce it’s like eating light. Living fruits and vegetables actually contain trapped light you can absorb to increase your life force energy.

Try to eat more organic than conventionally grown produce. Some experts say organic contains a higher overall nutritive content not to mention its own life force will be more intact than conventionally grown.

5) Drink pure water. Water absorbs prana life force energy from sunlight.

6) Absorb the life force energy of the sun, moon and galaxy. Your skin and eyes will absorb their qi life force energy. This nourishing energy will travel into your brain and circulated through the pineal, pituitary and hypothalamus glands to animate them with life force.

7) Hug a tree.

“Certain trees such as pine trees or old and gigantic healthy trees exude a lot of excess prana. Tired or sick people benefit much by lying down or resting underneath these trees.” — Choa Kok Sui.

And says Jasmuheen in The Madonna Frequency and the Food of Gods:

“Trees and all plant life are living fields of intelligence that just happen to exist within the confines of a different molecular structure than the human bio-system. They operate via a group consciousness and are not as individualized as we are and they love receiving our carbon dioxide as much as we benefit from breathing in the oxygen they generate.”

8) Walk in breezes to absorb wind prana life force energy. Its life force will cleanse and revitalize you.

9) Ask in prayer to feel and receive qi life force energy. The universe will bow to your prayer.

10) Meditate. Meditation gives you a sound and solid foundation for increasing your life force energy from within.

“In a comfortable place, on a warm evening under the stars … sit in meditation. Engage Tan Tien breathing(1). Find the rhythm of your breath and your center of balance and close your eyes. Let your breath open and relax the joints of your body. Now with your breath, circulate the Chi through the Orbits.(1)” —Elise Dirlam Ching et al in Chi and Creativity: Vital Energy and Your Inner Artist.

11) Practice Tai Chi and/or Qi Gong. It will surely increase your life force.

“What sets Tai Chi apart from other exercise programs is its internal work. In a series of postures, or forms, the mind and body work in unison to move Chi (vital energy) from one part of the body to the next.” — John Young Man So in Tai Chi for Everyone: A Life-long Exercise Program for Longevity and Health.

12) Do yoga to amp up your life force energy. Even practicing  at your own pace and level is all you need to achieve an increase in life force vitality.

13) Learn to feel your chakra system and work with it to amplify your life force energy.

“Chakras are personal energies. They are energy vortices, or wheels, inside the body that receive and moderate universal life force energies, or chi. Each chakra acts as a kind of valve or regulator and controls the flow of energy through our system. The universal life force (chi) enters the body through the chakra at the top of the head and travels down the spinal column to the other chakras. When we are living in harmony with the Universe, these vortices, or valves or chakras, are open and allow an abundant flow of chi energy.” — Connie Johnson, Connie in Spiritual Concepts for a New Age: Psychic Serenity in the Human Experience.

14) Don’t underestimate the power of visualization. Visualize the flow of qi life force energy flowing throughout your body and mind.

“With consistent practice one can visualize Chi flowing inside the cavities and meridians of the body, creating a sense of health and well-being.” — John Young Man So in Tai Chi for Everyone: A Life-long Exercise Program for Longevity and Health.

15) Receive life force energy amplification from an energy medicine practitioner and/or bodyworker.

“Prana can also be projected to another person for healing. Persons with a lot of excess prank tend to make other people around them feel better and livelier. However, those who are depleted tend to unconsciously absorb prana from other people.” —Raphael Merlotte in The World Before Lies.

Bodywork includes many holistic therapies like massage and acupuncture. The work they do will positively get your energy flowing and ignite your life force energy.

16) Finally, laugh, laugh and laugh some more. Laughter is an uplifting healing therapy. It makes your whole being come alive with animated life force energy. It brings you into a relaxed state paving the way for unrestricted life force energy to flow and heal.

…

Endnotes:

(1) Orbits: “Energy flows from the Tan Tien(2) down to the base of the spine, then up the back along the spine to the crown, then over the head and down the front of the body.  Practitioners believe this exercise prevents the body's natural Qi (Chi, energy) from becoming depleted.” —http://sarinastone.com/microcosmic-orbit-practice.html

(2) Tan Tien is loosely translated as elixir field, sea of qi, or simply energy center. Tan Tien are important focal points for meditative and exercise techniques such as Qi Gong and other martial arts like Tai Qi Ch’uan; also in TCM.

…

Sources:

Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East, Vol. 1. DeVorss & Company, 1935.

Sui, Choa Kok., and Choa Kok. Sui. Miracles through Pranic Healing: Practical Manual on Energy Healing. Metro Manila, Philippines: Institute for Inner Studies Foundation, 2004. Print.

Jasmuheen. The Madonna Frequency & the Food of Gods. Noosa Heads, Australia: Self Empowerment Academy, 2005. Print.

Ching, Elise Dirlam., and Kaleo Ching. Chi and Creativity: Vital Energy and Your Inner Artist. Berkeley, CA: Blue Snake, 2007. Print.

So, John Young Man. Tai Chi for Everyone: A Life-long Exercise Program for Longevity and Health. Place of Publication Not Identified: Lulu.com, 2008. Print.

Johnson, Connie. Spiritual Concepts for a New Age: Psychic Serenity in the Human Experience. Print.

Merlotte, Raphael. The World Before Lies. First ed. 2012. Print.

The Timing of TCM's Seasons Doesn't Exactly Line Up with the Gregorian 4-Season Calendar

People are often surprised when we announce the start date of any energetic season according to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). For example, Metal energetic season—the energy of the Fall—starts on August 7. Early August still feels like the peak of Summer with no Fall in the air yet. 

Let’s clarify the start of any of the five TCM seasons:

The start of an energetic season means that a new and invisible energetic influence is at work and that in time its manifestations will become tangible. The start of the Metal season doesn’t mean that Fall is here.

It means that a new influence is at work and will bring about a change. Yet, when Metal energy comes into play, the manifestation of the Fire/Summer energy is still being felt although the energy of Fire is no longer at its peak. 

A metaphor might help: 

You push a stroller in front of you and decide to give it an extra push and let it roll in front of you on its own. What you have done is create a momentum for the stroller making it move as if you were still pushing it although you are not. You can see two phases in what happened: First is your energetic action and second, the result or manifestation of it. 

While the analogy is not complete, it might help differentiate between the start of a season that initiates a change and the remnant of the manifestation that lingers on over the next energetic season.

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Since it is the energetic “push” that has an influence on humans, animals and plants, in order to maintain a state of balance—wellness—we need to focus on the period of the “push” rather than simply when the manifestations are evident. This is the reason we make available to our clients the dates of the five energetic seasons, because we cannot act simply when the seasonal manifestations are felt.

It is also worth reminding that the energetic seasons are entirely based on the apparent movement of the sun at it travels between the zenith of its course in the northern hemisphere, and the nadir of its course in the southern hemisphere, and back; making the same trip every year. In fact, it is the timing of that trip that defines the yearly calendar. In other words, the calendar is framed by set dates: the two solstices and the two equinoxes. That is the reason the energetic calendar has fixed dates year after year, contrary to the Chinese calendar based on the movement of the moon, yielding different dates for the Chinese New Year, every year.

Tao is a composite of everything, the intrinsic order of all things. The way we interact with Tao, with nature, is described by Yin-Yang and the Five Phases. Chinese cosmology suggests that life’s movement is like a spinning ball on a flowing river, a tide of wind and water, a vortex revolving while rhythmically contracting and expanding (Yin-Yang) as we are varied along by the currents of Tao….

The Five Phases identify stages of transformation, patterns of expansion and contraction, proliferation and withering. Each Phase has an intrinsic primal energy, an ontological influence that shapes events. For example, human beings go through cycles in their lives similar to the seasons in nature—beginning in birth and ending in death, with stages of growth, maturity, and decay in between. Within the life cycle, the power of each Phase can be observed.

—Beinfield, Harriet, and Efrem Korngold. Between Heaven and Earth: A Guide to Chinese Medicine. New York: Ballantine, 1992. Print.

9+ Ways to Prepare for TCM's Energetic Fall Season Beginning August 7

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Energetic Fall and the Season of the Metal Element begins August 7 and ends October 20.

As the wheel of the seasons turns to fall, the days shorten, the earth cools, and the expanded energy of summer begins to consolidate. – Bliss, Nishanga. Real Food All Year: Eating Seasonal Whole Foods for Optimal Health & All-day Energy. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 2012. Print.

• Metal energy is consolidating with inward movement, like a flower closing its petals. Be one with nature. It's okay to close your petals for awhile.

• Metal’s motion is determined, forceful, strong, unyielding, self-reliant, reserved and sophisticated. Use these to your best advantage.

• Metal is associated with the lungs, respiratory system and is related to the nose. Take in the heavenly Chi.

• Metal is also associated with the large intestine, an organ of elimination. Through the lungs we not only regenerate from the air we breathe, but we also eliminate the carbonic gas produced by the metabolism of our cells. Elimination and cleansing is both a physical and a psychological activity. It is one of the purposes of this energetic season.

• Both courage and sadness are emotions associated with this season. Allow yourself to weep when you feel to but also find the courage to face what's ahead. 

• Metal represents the direction West (the direction of dreams and visions). In Taoist mythology, West is guarded by the White Tiger, known for righteousness, independence and determination. Stand facing West and honor the "Westness" of Autumn.

• This season's color is represented by white or blue; light white candles against the growing darkness of the season.

Here are 9 More Tips to Thrive During the Energetic Season of Fall

1. Practice letting go in all things.

2. Release old resentments or hurts. Start fresh.

3. When feeling sad or stuck, remember that nothing is permanent. It will pass.

4. Eliminate negative and destructive habits.

5. Meditate or pray. This is the time of year when spiritual vision comes easier.

6. Cleanse your body. Support the immune system by eating more fresh fruits and veggies and less animal products.

7. Help your body to rehydrate by drinking lots of water and eating high water content produce.

8. Breathe and smell the new scents of nature and the season. Note the subtle or remarkable change in the quality of the air.

9. Complete unfinished projects. Prepare for the winter.

Skin

Dryness is the ruling chi of the Fall season. For skin, the Metal energetic season is the optimum time to address demineralization, surface dehydration, puffiness and congestion, and dull, lifeless skin. PHYTO5’s quantum energetic Metal energetic line has mineralizing and anti-inflammatory properties, increases circulation, promotes oxygenation of skin, diminishes swelling and puffiness, and rehydrates and rejuvenates the skin.

Food

Sour foods like lemon, plum, pear, and mango work to obstruct bodily functions, which make them helpful in alleviating diarrhea, excessive perspiration, and hemorrhoids, among other conditions. Sour foods are most active in the liver, where they counteract the effects of rich, greasy food. Sour foods are related to the fall season. – Ross, Rosa, and Suzanne LeVert. Chinese Healing Foods. New York: Pocket, 1998. Print.

Your diet should be dictated by the rhythms of the external world. Food gains power to maintain health from its relationship to the external world...  Root vegetables, such as burdock and turnips have downward-moving energy, so give in to the natural desire to eat them in the fall. – Cohen, Misha Ruth. The New Chinese Medicine Handbook: An Innovative Guide to Integrating Eastern Wisdom with Western Practice for Modern Healing. Fair Winds Press, 2015. Print.

For an excellent Fall season Qi Gong exercise, check out the YouTube video below.