The Metal Element: Lung Qi, Grief & Letting Go

17:24

17:24

The Metal Element: Lung Qi, Grief & Letting Go

Rated

4

Type

talks

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

4

In this Dharma talk, we explore the Metal Element through the lens of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Yin Yoga, and contemplative practice—an inquiry into the deeper intelligence of letting go. Autumn is the season of release, inviting us to loosen our grip, metabolize grief, and return to a more intrinsic sense of self-worth. Together, we examine the relationship between lung qi, breath, the nervous system, and emotional resilience, while exploring how imbalance can manifest as clinging, perfectionism, or disconnection. Through both Eastern and Western perspectives, this teaching reveals the lungs as a bridge between the outer world and our inner landscape—receiving life fully, and learning how to let it move through us.

Traditional Chinese Medicine Letting Go Grief Self Worth Breathwork Forgiveness Impermanence Emotional Resilience Meridian Grief Processing Diaphragmatic Breathing

Meet your Teacher

Boulder, CO, USA

Meet your Teacher

Boulder, CO, USA

Transcript

So, It's here in the autumn time, At least in the states presently, The autumn is the season we find ourselves in now and this is the season of the metal element. This is when the chi in the lungs need to be most attended to, Balanced. If you are a metal type or if you have excessive or deficient lung chi, Then you'll feel it most pronounced in this season. The energy of autumn is letting go. The energy of autumn is grief and release. Just like the way leaves fall from the branches of the tree, The innate wisdom of metal element is, I know who I am in my own central channel, Like that sap elixir of a tree doesn't need to hold on, Cling to the leaves. Once they dry up, Once they lose their vibrancy, Their chi force, The leaves drop. Let it go. Put it down. Set it down. No need to hold on. So, The metal element is both knowing your own self-worth and not having to cling to external conditions or stimulus or objects or people or substance to fill yourself, To find yourself, To feel intrinsically worthy. Autumn is where we let go of waste. We let go of what's old and stale in our lives, And that leaves us receptive. It leaves us open, More porous, Receptive to what's emerging, To the potentiality of where this life can go next, And we have to trust, We've got to trust that letting go is going to bring in something more profoundly appropriate for where we are now. We're continuously evolving lifelong. That's what the neuroimaging suggests, That we are shifting in the circuitry of our brain function lifelong. We are evolving lifelong. So metal is really about being comfortable with release, Being comfortable with death, With grief, With longing, With uncertainty, With jumping off the cliff into the abyss, Knowing that you'll be held, You'll land somewhere brand new that's just more vibrant, More vital for where you are now. The lungs are called, In Chinese medicine, They're called the receiver of pure qi from the heavens, Celestial qi from the heavens. The lungs, They're the most porous organ in the body, Very, Very fine, Fine, Porous, Mesh, Seas, Those capillary walls that take in oxygen, Expel carbon, Carbon dioxide, And so they're located from the collarbones all the way down through the diaphragm. They're pink and pearly, They're almost translucent, They're iridescent when we're born and through the first few years of our life, And then of course as we breathe in toxins through the air and we process grief and longing and sorrow, The lungs will accumulate any debris that we haven't fully exhaled out, That we haven't fully released, The leaves that we haven't fully let uncling from the very tips of the branches. The lungs are the first way we assimilate qi from the external world into our bodies. It's the first organ to receive the qi from around us, The oxygen from the atmosphere, The lungs get that first hit and then it's distributed via the blood cells through the bloodstream and of course prana through the meridians to different organs, Different channels. From a western perspective, Left and right lung, The left lung has two lobes and it's lower because it has to make room for the heart. So two lobes of the left side of the lung and then three lobes on the right side and the bottom of that right lowest lung lobe is just above the liver. The lobes of the lungs become more dense closer towards the center of the body, So a lot thinner fascia and cell walls, A lot thinner tissue, A much finer part of the organ lives up here underneath the collarbones and as it comes down to the base of the ribs, There's a lot more tissue, A lot more cellular activity for oxygen-carbon exchange. And so when you're breathing through the lower lobes of the lungs, What we call diaphragmatic breath, When you're pulling that oxygen in through belly breath, Diaphragm, Lower lobes of the lungs, You're getting a richer, More efficient breath because you can transform more oxygen into waste products. You can pull in more oxygen and output more carbon dioxide from here when you're breathing here versus when you're breathing up here. The shallow breathing where you have to actually ignite the scalenes and the jaws and pull the shoulder heads up to get more room in the upper lungs to pull air in. It's a much more effective breath when we're breathing from the lower lobes of the lungs and it's through the lungs that we distribute oxygen to every cell of the body. So you're going to be able to capture more oxygen here in the low lobes and remove CO2 from the blood and expel it. So they expand to breathe in oxygen. They contract to release carbon dioxide. And the purpose of respiration is both to take in and to release energy from the body. It's the birth-death cycle. And this is what autumn is all about, Right? That total exhale. Oxygen is an incredible molecule. It's very young and its vibratory behavior shakes loose. It shakes loose in the cells to liberate energy from the nutrients absorbed. The end of the growing season, Right? A letting go, A falling away, The old leaves, When they fall, They become rich soil, Right? It becomes fertile ground. The more that you release and let go and go empty, The more you grieve, The more you're willing to be with your grief and come back to this humility. Lose yourself, Forget yourself continuously, Reinvent yourself continuously. The more that you do that, The more fertile the ground of being. All those leaves that you drop decay into this rich vibrancy for new growth, Which will bring us to the wood element, The greens, The sprouts that come through, Right? The burnt landscape. So principles of the metal element, Transition, Letting go. Self-worth, Confidence, Pride. Think about metals as like the precious jewels or the precious minerals in the soil. Metal element, Gold, Silver, Trace elements, They give us our sense of self-worth. Someone with healthy lung chi has a lot of confidence and their lungs are fluffed. You got healthy lung chi, You're confident, You're like this. Deflated lung chi, You're like this, Right? Healthy lungs, Healthy metal. I know who I am. Even when everything's ripped away from me, I know who I am. And so the lungs like they set sail, They catch wind. There's this broadness, There's this buoyancy to the upper prana pons. The lungs can hold the heart. If you were to open up in autopsy, You can open up the front of the chest and you'll see the heart is nuzzled in between the upper lobes of the lungs. The lungs, Healthy confidence, Self-worth, I can hold this human heart. Even in the most tender uncertainty and grief and heartbreak and despair and all of it. Metal element is, I've got you, Right? Imbalanced constitution of metal is, I'm lacking my self-worth. So when our metal energy is imbalanced, We don't sense our value. And so we compensate. Status, Money, Power, Sex, Relationships. We're constantly, In the imbalanced metal types, We're constantly seeking respect. We're seeking recognition, Right? We're counting the Instagram likes. We're like somebody else just make me feel important because I've forgotten who I really am. So that can often come through as the perfectionist paradigm, The performer parts, Inner critics, Very imbalanced in lung chi. And then, Of course, Inability to let go, Prolonged grief. And all of us have our own rhythms for grief. And depending on the circumstance and the season, But when the energy of metal is blocked or imbalanced within us, Our expression of grief becomes imbalanced too or inappropriate. Maybe it's overly excessive, Overly ongoing. Or in the other extreme, Because you're in the other extreme, You can be excess or deficient. In the other extreme, Your grief might be absent, As in those who can't express their grief, Right? When metal is imbalanced, It's like that cold metal pole, Like it doesn't feel anything. Blocked, Cold, Stagnant to feeling grief. A sense of clinging, Hoarding, Any kind of hoarding, Even if that's I'm hoarding compliments. I'm like, I'm scouring for compliments, Validation, Right? That's metal imbalance, Because I don't know my own worth. I need other entities or objects or relationships to define me. So, Respiratory issues, Of course. Imbalanced lung chi, Nasal congestion, Emphysema, Colds, Shortness of breath, Bronchitis. Somatic signature of unhealthy lungs is that widow's hump, Right? So much grief, We haven't been able to exhale out. It just all holds right here in the center of the metal channel and we collapse inwards, The widow's hump. From an emotional standpoint, When you're imbalanced in metal, It's hopelessness, Isolation, Remote, Distant behavior, Inability to let go, Pessimism, Negativity, Lack of self-esteem. Balanced lung chi, I'm learning and growing from releasing each attachment. You know, The Buddha would say, Only two things cause suffering, Craving and repulsion or reversion. And so, Attachment, Craving, Being attached to what's here, We don't want it to change, We don't want to let go. Our aging body, Our changing relationship, Our children, Our work life, Your friend moving away, That clinging of, Oh, This isn't what I agreed to. Unhealthy metal. So, Forming new bonds is one of the gifts of the metal element because there's a healthy sense of self-confidence even in the midst of loss. Like, Thank you for the lessons, What's next? So, The key lesson for metal, Let go of seeking and attachment, Forgiving oneself and others, That's a big one. Forgiveness and releasing the past. Affirmation, I'm at peace. I'm at peace with impermanence. Areas of the body, Outer legs and the ribs. But the meridian runs, Right? The meridian runs from the heart, Out the shoulders, The elbows, The inner wrists, All the way through the thumb. So, The heart channel runs out the pinky finger, The metal channel runs through the thumb. All of the poses we've been doing for fire element are also lung openers as well. Heart openers are lung openers. They just work in tandem that way.