In the fall, when it gets dark earlier, many people notice that their mood sinks too. Some feel low, others struggle with depression. Everything becomes dark and heavy, and nothing moves anymore. If this is where you are right now, you are not alone.
In the West, depression is an illness with a fixed definition. Chinese medicine isn't satisfied with “that's just how it is.” It asks questions: Which organs are affected? Which element? Where exactly does the cause lie? Behind that one word are many different causes, and those are what we need to understand. Depression can sit in any of the Five Phases, and in each one it shows up with its own themes.
Metal: the Lung and grief
In the fall, life draws back, and energy draws back with it. We feel this in ourselves too. Depression in the Metal element has to do with letting go and grief, and with not being able to allow either one.
It feels like standing in fog. You can't see a way forward, everything is heavy, and within that heaviness lurks a pain you would rather not touch. Going into the darkness here means meeting loss and many feelings that suddenly become noticeable and are almost unbearable. Life seems meaningless, and the connection to heaven is gone. Goodbyes are hard to bear, and you can't catch your breath. The Huangdi Neijing says, in essence: grief makes the Qi dwindle.
This form of depression often appears in old age or after a major blow in life. It can also develop when you have suppressed a lot of pain over the years because there was never the time or the space for it.
The Metal element is as much a part of you as all the other elements, and it holds a hidden treasure. When you go into the darkness and allow it, you find that treasure: gemstones and gold lying beneath the surface.
Water: the Kidneys and winter depression
In winter, the Yang in nature is tiny. Everything is calm and still, it is dark, and many people feel lonely at this time of year.
The missing light from outside is one component of this, but it does not cause the depression on its own. What matters is your own Yang. When Kidney Yang is depleted, it no longer warms you from within and no longer brings light.
The Water element can also mean exhaustion. If you have never taken a break, you drain your original source, and along the way you forget who you really are. Burnout and depression shouldn't be confused here. Depression involves a deeper underlying theme: your own identity, the question of who you really are. It is coupled with Yang weakness. You can't go on anymore, and you don't want to.
There is often also a gap between what you want in the outside world and what winter forces on you. If you live very much on the outside and always want to move forward, it is hard to go into rest in winter. In this rest, though, you can meet the question of who you are. That takes the darkness and the stillness of winter. They give you room to question many things, to reorient yourself, and to notice your dreams.
Wood: the Liver and spring depression
Wood is often overlooked in depression because at first glance its dynamic doesn't seem to fit. Wood and the Liver stand for development and creativity, for living your dreams and moving forward. Liver Qi wants to move freely.
In our society, that can't always be lived freely. Expectations, ready-made plans, and financial security sometimes hold us in a pattern where we can't make our dreams real. The path we have taken feels as if it can no longer be changed. When you suppress your dreams and needs for a long time, you lose courage, see no way out, and feel that you can't develop.
This is Liver Qi stagnation, and it becomes especially noticeable in spring. Life around you unfolds, and you don't.
Depression and Qi stagnation also often appear in people who retire and are suddenly forced into rest. They are used to doing and creating, and they have defined themselves through it. Now they sit at home, all of that suddenly falls away, and the Liver stagnates.
This can also be the result of a life lived entirely in Wood, in which questions of community, family, and one's own worth to oneself were never lived. Behind this there are often deeper themes of the other elements: Can I enjoy life in the moment? What is my own worth, apart from achievements and results? Metal then measures itself by outer value and money instead of by its own worth.
On the physical level, this often shows up as Qi stagnation, so the first step is to move the Liver Qi.
After that, each person chooses how deep they want to go, and in the flow of the elements they can also work with the other elements.
Fire: the Heart
This is probably the element many people think of right away. The Heart and Fire are connected with joy, and depression is often described as the absence of joy.
Depression from the Fire element often has to do with the Heart Emperor being hurt and overwhelmed, and with the Heart having closed. The Emperor holds the highest office and should be protected. When that fails, the eyes grow dull, and contact with yourself and with other people breaks off.
The fire can still flicker restlessly and nervously. But the connection to your soul and your higher self has been lost.
There is also summer depression: life is in full bloom outside, and you feel cut off from it.
It often appears together with post-traumatic stress disorder and in connection with Water. So depression here is much more than the absence of joy.
Earth: the Spleen
Earth and the Spleen can also play a role in depression, though with a different dynamic. Exhaustion is at the forefront: you have given a lot, and you can't give anymore.
Dampness and phlegm play a central role here. They make everything heavy and dampen your feelings. Life feels heavy, you can't move forward, and you are caught in your own brooding. Depression in Earth doesn't have to be a deep, dark hole. Often the feelings are simply muted.
Earth often shows up together with one of the other elements. When it only revolves around itself, this heaviness and exhaustion crush the other elements.
Wood can no longer be creative and move forward, and the Qi stagnates.
It would actually be self-care for Earth to move into Metal, to let go and sort things out. Instead, Earth keeps holding on, and so it prevents the return to its origin in Metal and Water.
Medication: never stop on your own
Never stop taking your medication on your own. Reducing it always belongs in the hands of your doctor. Never alone.
Medication from the perspective of Chinese medicine
From the perspective of Chinese medicine, many antidepressants are phlegm-forming, and you feel less. In depression, this may save your life at first. It does not replace working on the cause, though. When you are ready, you can work with your doctor on a plan for how to reduce the medication.
How you can work with this yourself
Chinese medicine can support you through practitioners, herbs, and acupuncture. Even so, that doesn't replace working with the element and the organ and giving them a place in your life.
The first step is to understand for yourself what is happening in you. Which of these elements do you recognize yourself in? Often it is more than one. Then you can hold acupuncture points, treat them with suitable oils, adjust your diet, and return to the Five Phases, to the five seasons, which don't only take place outside but also want to be lived within.
There is a workbook for each element and organ:
Metal: The Metal Element and Lung & Large Intestine
Water: The Water Element and Kidney Strength
Wood: The Wood Element and Liver and Gallbladder in Flow
Fire: The Fire Element and The Heart and Its Guardians
Earth: Held by Earth and From Digestion to Clarity
You don't have to change everything at once. In the DaoSense membership, you work step by step and at your own pace, moving through the whole year with the seasons, in flow, each month with an organ or an element. You come to understand the connections and integrate them into your life on many different levels, with Qi Gong, Sound Healing, and more.
If you want to start directly with a workbook or a specific topic, you can also buy them separately in the shop.
The membership costs $14 a month or $140 a year. Learn more about the membership
Trauma and the Five Phases
Experienced trauma can also affect all the elements and disturb the flow between them. You can work with this theme in the workbook A Healing Journey. It is available in the shop or in February as part of the membership.
