After writing that last post concerning Liver chi flow and transitions, I realized that I should clarify something.

I talked about the associations between Liver chi, Wood energy and Spring, and how well one deals with birthing-type transitions may depend on the ease of this chi flow.

Well. Just to digress for a moment, we need to visit the Earth element, which governs the Stomach/Spleen meridians. The season associated with the Earth element is "late summer"... that interesting no-longer-summer-but-not-quite-fall period in the northern hemisphere, around September/October.

However, it is also said to align with the transition time between all the seasons... you know those 'indicator days', like an unseasonably warm or cold spell? Agitation or unease during these shifts can be indicative of imbalance in our Earth element.

Both are about navigating transition, so what's the diff here?

The Earth element has to do with our inner sense of stability and groundedness, and our relationship to the 'earth', whatever that may be for us. Large shifts or transitions, like in seasons, or life circumstances or relationships can feel like the ground giving way beneath our feet. When what we've come to take for granted as real, stable and permanent decides to take a different form, we may experience a scary feeling of groundlessness, especially if we're not sure where we're going to land. (I've never really experienced an earthquake, but I imagine it's something like that.)

So, the Earth element is about our inner stability with and relationship to ever-shifting external circumstances: rootedness. The Wood element governs the ease with which we channel internal powerful growth energy: flow.

Feel the difference?

If you're feeling some vague discomfort during this time of seasonal transition, take a moment to see how you feel. Is it something like impatience, irritability, or frustration? Or more like melancholy, worry, or off-centeredness?