Dr. Attaway has worked in Holistic Women's Health for nearly 20 years. Her clinical experiences are now translated into coaching groups, workshops, and written media. She promotes simple strategies for getting and staying healthy.
This article began as a flowery piece about the beauty of Chinese medicine and the changing of the leaves. But as I was writing, it morphed into something less romantic and more direct. We are living through crises all over the world. It’s life and death around the globe, yet we spend our days obsessing over our looks, getting rich, being known, and finding the perfect carpet. It’s time for humanity to move past our consumer lust fest and rediscover happiness and contentment.
It’s time to lose our sh*t
Drop it like it’s hot and move into the next phase.
Our lives are filled with endless amounts of crap. We are stuffed! Stuffed with food, ideas, information, images, desires, and arbitrary goals that we just make up time and time again. It overwhelms the Mind and clouds the spirit.
No wonder people are so unhappy – we are ravenous for more everything all the time. Our plates are full, yet we keep consuming. We are more depressed, anxious, frustrated, and overwhelmed than ever.
Time is spent scrolling, shopping, and strategizing, and then complaining of lacking time. There is time, but it’s wasted on the endless loop of mental and physical clutter.
The solution to our problems can’t be bought
It’s reclaiming a life of intentional simplicity and realigning with the tools of the natural world.
We need to let go of our obsessions, compulsions, comparisons, and addictions and rediscover how people are designed to live. We can enjoy all the spoils of modern life without sacrificing ourselves.
If you want more money, stop spending all of it.
What does this have to do with the fall season (in Chinese Medicine, the season of Grief)?
Chinese medicine declares fall as the season of grief, loss, and letting go. As the crisp air withers the leaves, the flowers die and the fruit is picked for jars. This is the closing of summer’s bounty. When the leaves turn from green to gold, our internal environment should follow, softening into gratitude and settling down before winter.
Instead, we go crazy eating, drinking, partying, shopping, and traveling, to the point of physical sickness come January. The holiday season prevents the natural decline towards rest and catapults into a spending frenzy. Instead of settling in, we “Go all out” and stuff suitcases, homes, and bellies with more, more, more.
Like trees that drop their leaves, we are designed to release what no longer serves us and let that sh*t go. We should begin the journey inward, putting away the past and preparing for winter.
Decluttering to let go
Releasing physical clutter brings clarity and peace, just ask Marie Kondo. You really don’t need any more stuff. You only need a few things that spark joy.
Clearing out your home, car, and garage opens up space in your life.
I spent two years going room by room, making edits and permitting myself to close the chapter on things I didn’t like, didn’t want, felt obligated to keep, or held onto for some craft project in the distant future… It took a lot of effort. There were some tears. But it was liberation!
Clearing your calendar and your Mind does even more. The trick is maintaining it.
I had to make the choice, simple as that. I choose to live with less and be grateful for what I have. I choose to spend more time being creative, outside, and quiet. I choose to enrich my life with simple pleasures.
When you let go of excess you make more space to live
Fall is the time of year to reflect and be grateful. Gratitude is a state of being, not a coffee mug slogan.
A grateful heart craves time and space to admire the majesty of the world. It has no need for advertisement.
The physical release of the body
In our bodies, the lungs and large intestine do the work of releasing. One releases carbon dioxide, and the other releases digestive waste. The body knows that good health requires the release of its crap. Take in what’s needed and then take out the trash.
Our emotions get in the way.
Emotional clutter fills the space, blocking the passage of the waste.
Accumulated emotional debris compounds moodiness, anxiety, and depression
To feel grounded and manifest your destiny, you must maintain a connection to Heaven. (This isn’t religious Heaven; it’s more the idea of a Creator or Cosmic Realm or Divine…) A clear connection from Heaven is a conduit into the heart and Mind, allowing us to reach our highest potential.
The connection to Heaven is through the breath. Our lungs take in air that becomes inspiration. This is why spiritual traditions and Mindfulness practices focus on the breath.
Connection to Earth is through food. We consume what is grown on Earth to thrive.
We maintain a proper connection to Heaven and Earth by taking in what we need and releasing what we don’t. Without release, you block the flow and lose the connection. Hoarding is a mental health issue, right?
Letting go clears the pathways to Heaven that inspire us to keep living
Breathwork stimulates the lungs to release stuck emotions. Take a breathing class, go running, or by scream into the abyss. It doesn’t matter, the lungs purge old stuck feelings that block the connection to Heaven. It’s part of a runner’s high.
Screaming feels good. It’s a release. You choose!
Chinese medicine says when a person can’t let go they become constipated. Where the mind goes the body follows. How many constipation commercials do you see on TV every day?
We are a society that can’t let go. But we are full. It’s enough now. So let’s take this season and lose our sh*t, literally and figuratively. Dump it. Get rid of it. Let it go. Purge!!
Free your time, declutter, take a shopping fast, and pause your need for constant consumption.
Lose your mind. Say what you need to say. Get out of the box. Let it rip! And then forgive. Forgiveness is the placeholder.
Everywhere you feel a void put forgiveness there
Forgive your parents and the neighbors who drive you crazy. Forgive your siblings and your political rivals. Forgive yourself for not living up to all your ridiculous expectations. Forgive yourself for all the doubts that you put up as roadblocks.
Let go and forgive. Make space inside yourself.
Fill yourself with forgiveness and gratitude.
That’s where abundance lives, in the empty space between all the things.
Read more from Dr. Erin Attaway
Dr. Erin Attaway, Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine
Dr. Erin Attaway is a leader in Women’s Health and fertility medicine, A busy mother, business owner, and entrepreneur, she promotes reliable and accessible resources for women to integrate into their lives. She believes good health is simple if you’re willing to do the work. Her mission is to empower women everywhere to care for themselves how they deserve.
