Welcome to the Blog
The five seasons provide a blueprint for our lifestyle, food choices and self-care practices to maintain balance and health throughout the year. We are invited to eat, move and live differently by each season to create harmony in our world and balance in our bodies.
Explore articles by their most appropriate season below, or see my most recent ones:
Summer
Summer energy is reflected in circulation, temperature regulation and cellular metabolism. We thrive on our connections to each other and the joy that comes from them.
Late-Summer
Late-Summer, considered its own season, is characterized by the harvest, when our earth gives us food and our digestive organs and ability to nurture ourselves and others comes into focus.
Fall
In fall, energy starts to contract back into the body as the plants also shed and retreat. The metal element allows us to grieve, set boundaries and let go of what is no longer in service.
Winter
Winter is defined by stillness and quiet, a time to connect with our deep inner knowing, the collective subconscious and the seeds we plant that come to fruition in the spring and summer.
Spring
In spring the upward energy is abundant, motivating us to move forward with our lives, engage in healthy resistance and creativity and vision new possibilities.
Recent Articles from Gillian Rose, MAcOM, LAc.
Moderation: A Challenge from the Earth Element
Moderation is a “yes” person’s best and most challenging friend. It asks us to say, “no,” “maybe” or “just a little” more often than we’d like. But it allows for a settledness. An opportunity for quiet. With internal reflection, the true answer can reveal itself. And it doesn’t ask us to deny ourselves the things that bring us joy. It just asks for balance.
The Power of Love, the Power of Fear: Undulations of the Fire Element
As summer unfurls with a lushness and sense of abandon, we are asked to find our interconnectedness and joy. Joy is the emotion associated with the fire element, early summer’s realm, and the fire’s energetic is to reach out, to connect with others. I find myself...
The Healing Power of Rest: Reflections on the Water Element
The Water Element The winter season welcomes in the water element, and as I have written about before, it is the element and season that houses our great potential. The seed of our ambitions. The deep well of our creativity. Cultivation this time of year is potent. As...
Grief Brings Us Home: Contemplations on the Metal Element
“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” — Leonard Cohen Grief has never been easy for me. I am fortunate enough to have not lost someone I am close to suddenly or out of turn, with the exception of my first dog. When confronted with another’s...
Where’s the Joy? Meditations on the Fire Element
Years ago, when I was living in New Orleans and having a particularly difficult summer, I received a letter from my father. He had just been at a meditation retreat, where a friend told him about this question, “Where’s the joy?” In the midst of a difficult moment or...
The Empowerment of Anger
Anger is a societal issue as much as a personal one. We have come to associate anger with violence, although studies show that anger leads to violence only 10% of the time. Anger expressed in a healthy, timely manner can actually prevent violence. Still, anger is one...
Living Through the Season of Fear: Self Care in Difficult Times
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” — Audrey Lorde The days are getting shorter and even before the sun sets, the horizon is dim. Darker, wetter, colder, winter is the season of Yin. It is a...
Help your Brain, Memory and Mood: Eat Well. It’s science. And ancient Chinese wisdom
We have entered late summer, the season of the earth element. Plants that were a bright and vibrant green in spring and a dark, sumptuous green in early summer have turned golden. It is the time of harvest and preparation for winter and yet the days are still long,...
Spring Winds of Change: Emotional Self Care through the Spring Transition
In my corner of the world everything is blooming. Sleepy browns and subtle greens have been replaced with something vibrant, humming. The air carries a rich cacophony of smells and bird songs. Petals and seedlings whip through the air with every breeze, curling and...
Winter Breakfast: How to start each cold, short day with exactly what your body needs
Our bodies need different foods depending on the season and climate in which we live. Here is a little guide to some delicious, nourishing breakfasts good for a cold winter, including recipes. Yet, remember that every person’s body is different. Your own body’s...
