Life transforms, whether we like it or not; and we have officially entered a dramatic phase of year where the energy and nutrients in trees leave the leafs and travel down to the roots causing a dramatic change in the colour of leaf from green to red, orange and brown, before falling away to enrich the ground for new life in the year ahead. Nature’s ritual sacrifice and rising of life renewed.
Where would we be without transformation? Nowhere. No life as we know it would exist. No growth and recognition of depth of life, and soul and love and gratitude.
All change, all transformation, involves letting go. It’s the way through, the passage, so new inspiration may enter, and new seeds emerge. With the potential of revealing a greater image and magnificence then ever before. In nature, the seeds once laid and planted in spring are by now fully grown and harvested. That which is no longer needed for the continued growth of the plant or tree is released and the preparation for winter — a time of dreaming and deepening into new seeds and new visions to be planted next spring — has begun. Winter is when nature itself enters its great dream of re-becoming. Of renewal.
As far as we can tell, the tree doesn’t stubbornly cling to its leaves for dear life moaning, ‘It’s mine, the wind can’t take it and the earth can’t have it!’ The soil wouldn’t get needed nutrients from the composting leaves, which would limit the tree’s own ability to grow anew and create healthy leaves and fruit in the coming seasons; affecting other trees in the process.
This is not the way of nature. It’s actually more of a childish or teenager way of engaging life than it is the dignified and wise way of seeing in eldership.
But we do this at times, clinging to what’s ready to go, don’t we?
We hold and grasp in agitating worry of what won’t come. We stifle the natural momentum, force and creativity of life itself, and wonder why we’re feeling a little sluggish; stuck or unclear. ‘Better drink more coffee, that’s what will help…’ Turning to this or that ‘hack’ to get through. Not realizing the great calling calling within.
(We should make the distinction here though that, if something is physiologically imbalanced, this imbalance can get in the way of both necessary release and new nourishment. Addressing that through supplementation or diet change, or some of our favourite and safest to take helpers — the adaptogens — can go a long way in helping us in general. Even helping us in this great movement of life in our letting go and renewal.)
The Power of Seasoned Support
According to Chinese medicine we are in the time of the metal element.
The metaphysical theme of this season: Clearing out for clearer vision, and new inspiration — literally a breath of fresh air — is exemplified by the organs of the season — the large intestine and the lungs — your agents of letting go what is not needed, and of taking in new life as breath (literally ‘inspiring’) in the lungs. (The language of inspiration, to inspire air, and the respiratory system is no accident.) These are also two of the prime organs of detoxification — the body’s way of letting go of what’s not needed, and would otherwise be harmful to the flow of life.
Many of us struggle with letting go. We tend to see it more as loss than transformation, more like separation than the permanent interconnection of impermanent things. We have lost the art of dignified surrender which, if done well, makes us more not less. We hold it all together pretending to be individuated superheroes which usually ends up in unnecessary tension, isolation based anxiety, and a bad case of constipation.
Seriously…Not dignified.
Loss sucks, and it hurts, when viewed that way. In fact, one of the reasons we resist letting go so much, is the fear of facing grief, which happens to be one half of the feelings associated with autumn and the metal element organs. The flip side of that though, is having experienced and released the grief, fresh inspiration flows free.
In the power of this season, there’s an extra sense of help when it comes to letting go of the waste, and becoming receptive to a breath of fresh air. After digesting the lessons we’ve learned in the previous season, there’s always a chance of getting re-acquainted with what really matters. Deep in the heart. Revitalized through the great dreaming, and the surging inspiration of spring.
(Ps. Some teachers even consider the energies of letting go to be such a vital and conscious force in life that, if we don’t actively engage it through little acts of letting go: Through rituals of release, through myth or some other avenue, they will enact themselves in our lives in much more chaotic, dramatic, and unwelcome ways. There are definitely more and less dignified ways of engaging the inevitable energies of letting go in our lives. So we hope little offerings like this help create a greater movement of harmony in your days.)
Try This —
If you’ve ever held on tight, resisted letting go, or fought to keep it all together to the point of what you’re holding and keeping together has lost all its life force and sustenance — or are doing it now —the good news is, we are in the season of change and simply by watching, and attuning, to the dynamic play of energies around in nature — we can learn, we can feel held in it by the mycelium rich forest floor, strong and supportive. And with that, able to release.
Because here’s one of the secrets of letting go: If we feel we have to hold it all together by our isolated little selves, with little to no support, letting go is almost impossible. Letting go then feels more like collapse or defeat then a part of a natural cycle of ease, surrender and growth. Held and supported by larger forces. No better way to learn and feel this than by going to the forest itself.
So go into the forest. Attune to the forest, as you yourself let go. Feel the support of that forest floor. Watch how graciously the trees do their work; and the wonder it can evoke in you. Recognizing that life doesn’t stop. It dreams. It fertilizes. It grows stronger, and richer, to grow again. This is the way of nature. And you are, in part, made of nature. Its cycles still move through your ancient DNA. Its rhythms can empower yours. Initiations were often done in caves and underground places for a reason, before rising anew into the great light.
This can also be combined with imagery for a powerful movement (pun intended). Either in the forest, or on the floor of your own home:
Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Let the exhales be the focus. Lengthening and softening their release; until a naturally full inhale arises, transforming into an easeful exhale that releases any muscles holding tight through its slow, gracious, surrender.
Think, visualize, or feel into, what it is time to let go of, even if you don’t know how. It could be situations, it could be people, it could be past resentments and burdens. It could be simply your own way of seeing or relating to a situation.
Visualize a great beautiful and strong tree of any kind. Each of the elements you’re ready or wanting to let go of is a leaf. Notice the colour of the leaf associated with each issue. Is it brown, totally void of nutrients at this point? Red and on its way out? Or is it green and still has a bit of vitality in it? What’s the feel?
If brown, let it fall. If red, know it’s on the way, be patient with it, you’re almost there. If green, be curious what’s still giving it life. Is it you? Or is it simply not ready to change and better to change your vision or relationship to it instead? You can also experiment with consciously allowing the green leaf to turn colour in its own time (without forcing it) before the wind takes it from the tree. See if it can be done or it's clearly not yet time.
Watch the leaf as it falls to the ground and, in super speed, breaks down to become nutrients for fresh new growth to come.
Most importantly, feel the sense of lightness as this falls away from you. (Fake it ‘till you make it if you have to.) Let the sun adorn the tree with its light.
As you feel this newfound lightness, with the image of of the strong tree still in mind, notice any changes in your body. Does any area of body feel lighter? If so, rest your attention there for a bit and enjoy. Savour it.
Ultimately, when we’re letting go and unburdening ourselves of old hurts or resentments, what will fill the space is undoubtedly going to be better than what filled the space before. Especially if we consciously tune into receiving a greater new dream; and planting the seeds to honour that through our dedication, and our great work, in seasons to come. Through our feeding of that new dream and the soil it grows and takes shape in.
Also, when it comes to physically supporting the organs of the season themselves. Help the large intestine with good fibre, magnesium, probiotics and lots of warm water; and the lungs with Cordyceps to strengthen, or Turkey Tail (Coriolus) for infections. And in this darker time of year, where the sun shows its face less, remember the importance of Vitamin D3 and K2. On a side note: Reishi, Lion’s Mane, our Complete 360 blend and Recovery Extra Strength have all anecdotally been known to help people let go in their own minds and bodies too. This wasn’t the expected result in formulation; but something we’ve heard from people time and time again.
Playing In The Release
This ability to let one thing end and another be born, to recognize and allow for potential transformation from one form to another, is the dynamic radiant healthy flow of life itself; like a vital river, which is our natural state when we don’t create blockages through clinging. The formula is simple: Let go and new energies can fill places once held tight. Be the empty cup of water and, with the right attention, cultivation, and dreaming, thanksgiving worthy experiences may fill that cup and overflow out to others. As the wisdom traditions say — it’s life’s inherent way.
Recognize the luminous ground we stand on, are made of, and permeates every cell of our being, every thought we have, every moment of being aware and conscious itself, and what’s there leftist to hold onto? This is meditation. Beyond mindfulness.
Autumn is one big profound reminder of the precious beauty found in impermanence and the fullness available to us when we don’t cling in fear of being without.
No easy thing. Loss and letting go is part of existence in creation. Don’t know about you, but there are no shortage of experiences, or possibilities, we can look back on and say a deep, resonant, thank you, that we have moved on from that. (Even if we would have tried to eternalize the situation or experience in the moment. Think of relationships or positions you’re so glad in retrospect to have finished.) So give thanks to that; give thanks to those endings; give thanks to the endings of our naivety and a wonder of what we are naively holding to now.
Hopefully these times of letting go, and the dreaming to come in winter, can become reminders of what’s most deeply important in life and, the fact that, like with the ending of the leaves, it is no ending at all, but the beginning of a transformation into something new and vital through a dynamic process of dreaming, planning, planting, growing, realizing, harvesting, savouring and ultimately, letting go to start again in greater dreams, visions, and depths of connection. A journey of homecoming.
We may even get to the point where the process of letting go becomes as light-hearted and joyful as playing in a pile of leaves as a child. (Which we highly recommend doing if you are, indeed, struggling with some loss or letting go.) Remember, it’s a lot more fun to play in the pile, than to make a home there; and let that be a reminder to not hang out too long in the grief of release, or to try and rush through it. When complete, new inspiration awaits like a clear crisp day.
Enjoy the journey. We wish you well in your home coming.
