Autumn
Classical East Asian medicine would call that the season talking. Autumn belongs to the lungs, and the lungs carry grief. Grief done properly is just letting go. Trees manage it every year without any fuss. We tend to stop halfway.
Do this now. Breathe out and notice where it stops.
Anyone who has lost something and never let it fully land usually quits that exhale early. The ribs stay up, the chest stays braced, and the next breath is already on its way before the last one finished. A relaxed exhale doesn't need you at all. The diaphragm lets go, the ribs drop and the lungs spring back. A guarded chest overrides the whole thing, and the air stays parked. The grief parks right alongside it.
The shape follows the breath. Pec minor shortens, pulls the shoulders forward and closes the space under the collarbone where the lung channel comes up. The fascia carries that pull down the arm into the base of the thumb, the exact route the lung channel takes. Watch a grieving person sleep. The hands curl, thumbs tucked inside.
The lungs open into the nose and look after your skin, and the classics trust them with the protective qi that guards your edges. A grieving lung shows up right there: blocked sinuses, dry skin, the cold you've had since September. The po lives in the lungs as well, the animal soul, the part of you that's plainly here in your senses. Grief drags it inward, and the world goes a bit muted.
Let the breath finish. Breathe out slowly, past where you'd normally stop, until the lower ribs drop. Wait, and let the next breath come and get you. Press your fingertips into the hollow under the collarbone, open your hands wide and let the thumbs fall away. Stay in the pause. That quiet is where the real work happens.
Day 5 of Dharma Body is the lungs, grief to breath. Brian opens up the tissue that keeps the chest guarded, pec minor, the intercostals and the deep front arm line, so the ribs can fall again. I bring Still Point Technology into the pause at the bottom of the exhale, where grief finally completes. Mornings belong to your own body, and afternoons to proving it on a partner.
Dharma Body runs 11 to 17 December at Movement Recode Studio, Gading Serpong, with eighteen places in person and a live broadcast with lifetime replay. Seven days take you through seven meridians, and the lungs get a full day of their own.
See the full immersion and book your place here.
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