Jade Mountain series: The mighty metal element

The Revelstoke Mountaineer welcomes Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner Erin Potter’s summer series focusing on the cornerstone elements of TCM, and how they relate to your physical, mental, and emotional health and well being. The series will explore how TCM is interconnected with the seasonal rhythms of mountain life, and how it can help you achieve goals like improved athletic performance or a more healthful harmony with our mountain climate. Today, Part IV:

Has anyone ever comforted you by saying, ‘You just need to cry it out?’ Perhaps you’ve offered the same advice to someone else. It’s hard to deny the power of that cathartic release; it feels profoundly physical and emotional.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) when we suppress emotions by not acknowledging them, we directly affect our physical body. In TCM the physical body is inseparably linked to our emotional body. In the case of the metal element, the lungs are directly affected by grief.

The results of this suppressed emotion can then potentially filter down into its partner organ, the large intestine. The large intestine is responsible for releasing toxic emotions and when we hold emotions in we may start to see problems with our bowel movements such as constipation, diarrhoea or other bowel issues. Studies have shown that people who have anxiety or are depressed have higher rates of constipation.

Erin Potter. Photo: Willam Eaton

These two organs, the lung and large intestine, belong to the metal element and those people with a predominance of the metal element in their constitution tend to like structure, rules and guidelines within which they can thrive.

The quality of the lungs are reflected in the skin, so rashes, eczema and problems related to sweating can be a result of an imbalance in the metal element.

The metal qi (life force energy) is strongest in the fall. In the cool, clean, crisp air of autumn metal people feel like they can accomplish anything. The colour associated with metal is white, and those with a strong influence of metal in their body may have a pale/white complexion. Strong metal qi bestows a deep inner strength in a person, like ore mined from the mountains.

So go ahead, let go of that emotion that is lingering … just make sure you do it in a healthy way!