Welcome to Late Summer!

the "mini" season between summer & fall can be a game-changer if you work it right

There are five elements in Chinese Medicine, and each one is associated with a season:

• Fall- Metal
• Winter - Water
• Spring - Wood
• Summer - Fire

         AND

• Late Summer - Earth

Late Summer starts at the end of summer and is characterized by unusually warm days. It's the end of the most active and yang time of year and begins the transition towards winter, the most yin time of year. It's a bit shorter than regular season, and chops a bit off the end of the traditional time for summer (here in Texas we definitely don't mind lol) and moves on into the beginning of fall.

In TCM (traditional Chinese Medicine) and daoist philosophies, the Earth element is the center of of the five elements and is the base everything is built upon. So this associated season can be one of the most powerful places to start to maintain your health. The earth element is also said to nourish the muscles in the body, so this is a great time to make some changes if you are dealing with stiffness, fatigue, or chronic pain related to muscle injuries. 

To honor this season and your body there are a number of things you can do to harmonize with Late Summer:

• Watch the sunset, go for a walk with the cicadas - spend time observing the environment around you begin its transition from hot and dynamic yang energy to the more subtler, gentler (and thankfully cooler) time of year.
• Nourish the Earth element associated organs the stomach and spleen by eating easily digestible foods like soup and congee. Ginger is a great tonic for the spleen, so try adding it into you cooking. The color of earth is yellow, so eating  foods like gourds with their yellow, orange, and brown colors will help nourish you right now.
• The tissues associated with the earth element and late summer are the muscles. Ease your muscles with regular body work or acupuncture. Take a hot bath with epsom salts. Try doing more stretching and yoga or qigong instead of cardio or strength training. Our free community classes just started, so come check them out here. 
• The emotion associated with this time of year is 'worry', 'pensiveness', and 'overthinking'. Meditation and prayer are great ways to learn how to leave these troubles behind and not linger on bad thoughts. Herbal supplementation is particularly helpful in this area. So contact your local herbalist, curandera, or acupuncturist to see what plants can help support you this time of year.

So don't just let this time of year pass you by unnoticed. Take your health to heart and give yourself some nourishment as we head into fall and you'll breeze through cold and flu season easily. And to my fellow Texans, I can't wait to see y'all outside on the porch now that this brutal summer is winding down!

​Stay healthy, friends!
​~The Red Raven