Are You Suffering From Being Critical or Judgmental?

Last week, I shared some of the beneficial qualities of the metal element, associated with the lungs, that energetically runs the strongest in autumn, according to traditional Chinese medicine.

Knowing these qualities of integrity, discipline, and courage helps us focus on them because this is the season when they are easiest to fortify and bring them into balance. And it feels good to strengthen our discipline and integrity- but sometimes it takes courage!

Breath work is one of the quickest ways to release emotions and energy that may be blocking our integrity or discipline. When we regulate our breath, we regulate our emotions. When our emotions are stable, we can feel courageous enough to start a new discipline or return to one that we know benefits us — and stick with it.

However, with any of these elements, there is an imbalance in expression that we need to be aware of.

Observing the qualities of metal energy, they are reflective, strong, ethical, integral, and exact. Metal tendencies are precise; they dot all i's and cross all t's. But when metal energy is excessive, it manifests as sharp, cold, critical, judgmental, and dogmatic. It can appear cold-hearted and abrasive.

Utilizing the self-reflective qualities of metal, we can bring the excessive (sharp, cold, critical) or weak (lack of integrity and weak discipline) into balance by first observing our behaviors and making course corrections.

When feeling cold, distant, critical, or judgmental, we turn to the heart, the fire element that can melt the metal and create alchemy. The heart is served by purpose.

When we bring our dharma, or our gifts and talents, to serve the world, this is called 'turning our metal into gold'. When the fire of the heart can soften the hard, cold metal, it then becomes more useful and malleable, not so rigid.

We can incorporate this into our yoga practice by adding more heart openers and back bends to activate the fire element. Back bends have a profound emotional release, which can help alleviate pent-up emotions that block the flow of heart energy.

Once the heart is open, we have a deeper understanding and can be more compassionate, rather than critical or judgmental. This is the alchemy of the fire, softening the metal.

Add long, slow abdominal breathing, which helps us to observe where we can open our hearts more, rather than guarding them with excessive metal, and we can correct where we may have gone off course.

Hope to breathe with you soon.

From my heart to yours~

Namaste,

Maggie