Indian Summer Season 2011
About two weeks before and two weeks after the September 21 equinox, our bodies and Mother Earth come to a still point as we prepare to make a shift from the fast moving upward and outward energy flow of summer.
By honoring this still point energy, we can prepare our bodies to experience a gentler
and more synchronistic transition into the slow down of the autumn energy pattern.
Energy flow slows to a stop, like a pendulum preparing to swing the other direction.
It is now that the body has the most energy available for regenerating the digestive system and core energies. It is also a likely time to experience symptoms if we overeat or continue to eat the foods of the previous season, without shifting into the new season’s foods.
Now is the time for fasting on squashes and root vegetables. Eating slowly cooked meals, soups, steamed roots, and eating only when we are hungry can help us to avoid the reaction of an autumn cold or flu. Often, this is just the body’s natural response to our failure to recognize that our metabolism is changing, and we need to change what we are eating.
Focus on building the digestive system
The core organs include stomach, spleen, pancreas, and the digestive system
as a whole. These organs are related to nurturance, and their condition can reflect our ability to receive and utilize nourishment. Our physical body’s health and vitality are closely related to the ability of these organs to function smoothly and digest and assimilate nutrients. They are also directly related to the emotional attitude of acceptance, and mental stillness and clarity.
Primary digestive system imbalance: Weakness, deficiency, or depletion
Causes of imbalance:
- Over consumption of rich, hard to digest, mucus forming foods-dairy, white flour/refined sugar, soft drinks, eggs, meats and fats, pastries
- Over consumption of coffee, raw foods, alcohol, tobacco
- Stressful lifestyle
- Eating on the run, insufficient chewing or attention to food, sabotaging digestive process
- Eating too late at night
- Eating too many foods at once
- Over-eating any type of food
- Poor food combining
- Ignoring or minimizing personal needs
- Harboring a belief in lack or scarcity
Symptoms of core depletion:
- Tiredness, chronic fatigue, lack of energy
- Excess or deficient body weight
- Physical or mental stagnation, feeling “stuck” in life
- Weak digestion, indigestion, nausea, bloating, gas, etc.
- Loose stools, constipation
- Blood sugar imbalances
- Feelings of lack, unfulfillment, inability to bring forth satisfying expressions of creativity, need
- Emotional swings, compulsions, addictive patterns, instability
- Inability to identify or meet personal needs
- Compulsive eating, never feeling full or satisfied, hungry but not sure what you want
- Food cravings
