The Autumn Clearing: A Clinical and Ancestral Approach to Processing Emotions
By Mae — Herbalist. Healer. Your grandmother's remedies, backed by a nurse's knowledge. ·
The Season of Letting Go
It is September here in Portland, and the light is changing. You can feel it in the way the shadows stretch longer across the kitchen floor in the late afternoon. In traditional Chinese medicine, we look at the late summer transitioning into autumn as a shift toward the Metal element. This is the season of the Lungs and the Large Intestine. Clinically, we think of respiratory health and digestion, but energetically? This is the season of grief, of release, and of clarity.
After twenty-five years at OHSU, I spent enough time in sterile hallways to know that our bodies keep the score. We hold onto emotions—frustration, sorrow, unresolved anger—like a hoarder holds onto old newspapers. We think we are protecting ourselves by keeping these feelings tucked away in the filing cabinets of our subconscious, but all we are doing is creating stagnation. In my practice, I often see patients who come in with chronic tightness in the shoulders or a stubborn, dull ache in the gut. They want a tincture or a quick fix, but what they really need is a way to process the emotional backlog that has become physical weight.
The Anatomy of Emotional Stagnation
When I was a nurse, we focused heavily on pathology—the what and the how of the disease. Now, as an herbalist, I look at the why of the imbalance. From a Western physiological perspective, when you suppress an emotion, your sympathetic nervous system stays in a state of low-grade "fight or flight." Your cortisol remains slightly elevated, your inflammatory markers tick upward, and your vagus nerve—the great highway of your parasympathetic system—remains constricted.
My mother, who grew up in Guangdong, used to tell me that a person who refuses to cry is like a river that has been dammed. Eventually, the water becomes stagnant, dark, and murky. She wasn’t a doctor, but she understood the physics of the human soul. When we don't process our emotions, we don't just 'get over them.' We store them in our connective tissue. That’s why you feel 'heavy' when you’re sad or 'tight' when you’re anxious. It is literal, clinical, and energetic fact.
A Three-Part Practice for Emotional Clearing
Processing emotion isn't about wallowing. It’s about movement. If you want to clear your internal landscape before the winter sets in, try these three steps this week.
1. The Somatic Audit (The Physical Release)
Before you try to think your way out of a feeling, move it. If you’re feeling a surge of irritation or heaviness, don’t sit at your desk and analyze it. Stand up. We practice Tai Chi to move Qi, but you can use any rhythmic movement. I want you to try 'shaking.' It sounds silly, I know—my grandchildren laugh at me when I do it—but it works. Stand with your feet hip-width apart and bounce your heels, letting your arms dangle. Shake your hands, shake your shoulders, let your head wobble. Do this for three minutes. You are signaling to your nervous system that the threat has passed and it is safe to discharge the tension.
2. The Ancestral Tea Ritual (The Herbal Support)
In our tradition, we use herbs to support the organs associated with specific emotions. For the 'stuck' feeling of autumn, I always turn to Chrysanthemum and Goji berries. Chrysanthemum is cooling and clarifying; it helps 'clear the heat' from the liver, which is where we store frustration and anger. Steep a handful of dried flowers in hot water. As you sit with the cup, don't look at your phone. Just breathe the steam. The act of pausing for five minutes to drink a warm beverage is a clinical intervention for your nervous system—it forces a shift from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic state.
3. The Metal Element Journaling (The Cognitive Clear)
Metal energy is about refinement and boundaries. Take a piece of paper and write down the 'heavy' things you are carrying. Don’t worry about making it poetic. Just list them. Then, draw a line through them. This is a practice of acknowledging the emotion without becoming the emotion. In nursing, we triage patients—we decide what needs immediate care and what can be managed. Do the same for your thoughts. Which ones belong to your present, and which ones are just old 'debris' you’ve been carrying since last year? If it doesn’t serve your current life, physically rip that paper up. It’s a small, symbolic act, but it tells your brain that you are choosing what to let go of.
Cultivating Clarity
Processing emotions isn't a one-time event; it’s a hygiene practice. You brush your teeth every day to prevent decay; you must clear your emotional channels to prevent stagnation. As we head into the cooling months, I encourage you to be gentle with yourself. You are not a machine, and you are not a filing cabinet. You are a living, breathing part of the natural world, and just like the trees, you have a season for shedding what no longer serves you.
I’d love to hear how you’re navigating this transition. Are you finding it hard to let go of the summer’s pace? Or are you welcoming the quiet? Pull up a chair in the comments below—let’s talk through it.
Warmly, Mae