Late summer is associated with what is called the earth element in Chinese medicine, which is linked to our stomach and spleen. It is a time when many people experience thoughts occupying them more, and when worries and stress can more easily take hold if we forget to stay grounded and maintain calm.
Late summer is the ideal time to work on how we can prevent mental clutter, worries, and stress. This is because, according to traditional Chinese medicine, late summer is the stomach-spleen season and thus the season of worries.
After a more relaxed and enjoyable summer season, where many have been on holiday and enjoyed life, many experience increased pressure and mental challenges when they return to work. This mental pressure can later develop into stress. Late summer is a very mental season. The spleen is also said to be linked to mental strength, so there is a good connection. But it is one thing to use one's mental strength and another to reach a point where we worry or even become stressed by worries and burdens.
We all know about worries. We can worry about anything. And when we worry, thoughts easily race in a flurry of mental clutter.
Worry is a state where thoughts focus on possible negative outcomes of a given situation. Thoughts revolve around "what if" scenarios. Worry in small doses can help us prepare for future challenges, but to a greater and more persistent extent, worry can become harmful to us. Excessive worry can result in exhaustion, stress, and a feeling of helplessness, or even anxiety attacks. Worry feeds fear, just as fear can arise from worry.
We live in a knowledge society where knowledge has become our most important resource. Many of us spend most of our working day behind a screen or in meetings and phone calls, where we need to use our brains to solve the day's work tasks.
While in the industrial society it was the body that was worn out by work, today it is our brains that are overburdened. A significant difference is that we can now also work anytime, anywhere. And it is perhaps expected that we work and are "on" all the time. Previously, a letter was sent by post and one could wait for weeks or months for a reply. Today, we expect replies to emails the same week – yes, sometimes even the same day – or within a couple of hours. We don't have as many natural breaks, and for many of us, work often blends with leisure time. We can be "on" all the time, and perhaps never really take time off.
For many of us, being "in our heads" also means that we forget to be present in the moment. We are so busy evaluating the past and planning the future, that we don't even register what is happening right now and here around us – or even within us. We may be so busy that we ignore the body's signals and perhaps don't really feel it or how we are. We can be so much in our heads that we actually can't feel ourselves and our body anymore. In some cases, this leads to physical symptoms such as headaches, muscle pain, and back problems, while in other cases it manifests as psychological symptoms such as stress, anxiety, and depression. This is the body's way of drawing attention to itself and telling us that it needs our attention and care.
Late summer is linked to your earth element, and it is therefore time to ground and find peace. Be with what is and become aware of everything that you take on or that is imposed on you. It is therefore ideal:
🌿 to work on grounding yourself
🌿 to become more mindful and aware of what is | to gain an overview
🌿 to work on preventing stress
🌿 to reduce work pressure
... and not least to find peace within ourselves and surplus for everyday life.
If you want to delve deeper into late summer or the changing energies of the seasons, you can read much more in my book The Energy of the 5 Seasons which you can find in my webshop HERE. You can also join the late summer course for stomach-spleen, where we work with the energy of late summer with yoga, mindfulness, and acupressure - you can find the course HERE.