It’s lung and large intestine season! 🍁🍂

Breath, Lungs, Large Intestine & a Warming Tea!

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Lung and Large Intestine belong to the Metal element and form a paired system. Autumn is traditionally associated with Metal — a time of drawing inward, refining, breathing deeply, and letting go of what is no longer needed. But to balance ourselves before we let go, we need to be grounded.

In backbends, we need to establish a strong support to the ground beneath and inside ourselves, in our lower belly/pelvis.

Earth is associated with stability, nourishment, and centering, and in the Five Element thinking, it also has an important relationship with seasonal transitions. Earth gives us the ground from which we can meet the transition into autumn. We come back into the body (especially the lower belly, the “hara point”), grounding strongly into the floor or earth beneath us by feeling our feet and legs; we press into the earth, breathe in evenly and slowly through the nose, and expand through the whole body, extending our spine.

When we breathe out, we release slowly, again through the nose or,if it’s at the beginning of our yoga practice or if we have lots we want to let go of, it also helps to sigh, or tone ahhhh! This is a strong sign to our nervous system that it’s OK to release!

From this intentionally grounded place, we can begin to explore the qualities of Metal: creating space for the breath, opening the chest and shoulders, and allowing ourselves to release. Just as nature is withdrawing and letting go around us, our movements and our inhalations and exhalations can become a simple practice of synchronizing with nature. This process is repeated with each breath.

Open free space to breathe at Ama Yangri, in Nepal, March 2026.

But rather than going deeply into the theory, today I want to make this blog practical and useful.

Let the energy flow unrestricted!

Tap, Release and make it flow

Using relaxed fingertips to tap upper body meridians is what I think works very well in this season to make the energy flow. Sit comfortably in easy pose on your yoga mat, elevate your hips slightly by sitting on a cushion or block.

Lung meridian tapping: Start first below the collarbones and go back and forth a couple of times. Then start just by the indent below the outer side of your left collarbone and tap down your left arm and further via the inner arm towards the thumb for the Lung meridian. Then do the right side. You can repeat this several times if it feels good to you. Remember to breathe slowly and evenly in and out through your nose!

Large Intestine tapping: Begin at the inner side of your index finger on your left hand and gently tap upwards, crossing over to the outer side of the hand, outer forearm, to the elbow, and up along the outer upper arm. Continue across the shoulder and up the side of the neck towards the face, finishing beside the nose. When you come to the neck, I feel it’s nice to use the fingertips on both hands and massage gently from the back side of the shoulders to the side of the neck, up over the cheek, and to the sides of the nose. Breathe your way along! Repeat several times on each side, stopping where it feels like the area needs extra attention.

Do not worry about "doing the tapping perfectly", focus more on bringing attention, movement, and awareness to the areas of where the meridians flow.

Take the awareness onto your yoga mat

Yoga and Traditional Chinese Medicine are different systems, and I don't try to pretend otherwise. But in my own yoga practice, I feel the energetic pathways very distinctly, which is why I like to draw attention to what both traditions can teach us.

For the Lung and Large Intestine pathways, I particularly like postures that open the chest, shoulders, and arms. And to be able to open up these parts, we need to be strongly grounded in our pelvis and to the ground beneath. 

Cobra is especially good since we do lots of them! With each and every sun salutation and between asanas.

Bhujangasana — Cobra Pose gently opens the front of the chest; do not force the chest up, let your body lengthen from toes to crown, while you breathe in and softly support yourself in your lower belly (the hara point or by pulling the "poas buttons" back and up as Richard Freeman & Mary Taylor, calls them) and with your arms.

Ustrasana — Camel Pose offers more opening across the chest and shoulders. Again, this pose needs strong grounding with your lower legs into the earth, internal rotation in your upper thighs, and a reaching up and back with the arms while breathing in; before we even think about going back, we create space through our whole spine! Lengthening one arm backward and then the other, alternating, also feels awesome!

Keep your elbows high and push your palms together, breathe deeply and gently in the eagle arms pose.

Eagle Arms (Garudasana Arms) work very nice through the shoulders and along the arms, and it is especially nice if you want to create space between tense shoulder blades.

Don't force the stretch. Go with the breath. Breathe into the tense places and just stay there for a few breaths. Release and come gently out of the pose. 

And even a wide-legged forward and side fold, if you like, with the fingers interlaced behind the back, allowing the arms to move overhead, creates a lovely sense of space across the chest, shoulders, and arms. Remember to ground strongly into your sit bones and find your psoas buttons for internal support.

And then: a warm cuppa!

My autumn morning tea at the moment is a blend of one earth element tea and one fire element tea, together with fresh ginger and some honey.

I use approximately (2 g) of an earthy Shou Pu-erh and half (ca 2,5 g) of a strong black tea.

I particularly like an ancient-tree Shou Pu-erh made by the Yi people in Yunnan, available from my teacher Shana at Wild Tea Qi, together with Sealy's Vintage BOP from Glen Nevis Tea Plantation in Sri Lanka. The deep, earthy character of the Pu-erh and the strength and naturally fresh citrus notes of Sealy's Vintage work so well together.

Breathing. A little tapping. A few conscious yoga postures. Warm tea. Ginger!

Preparation:

Rinse the tea once with hot (boiling) water, then place it in a preheated teapot (ca 500 ml) together with a few pieces of fresh ginger. Add water at 100°C and steep for 4–5 minutes. I keep the pot under a tea cosy while it steeps — and afterwards while I'm drinking it.

I drink my tea warm, usually with a little honey. A splash of milk or oat milk also works very well if you want something softer and more substantial. Then I make a second infusion, pour it into my thermos and sip it slowly throughout the morning until lunch. Very easy, so good, and a gentle way to energise your morning. 

If you want to purchase some wonderful teas, welcome to contact me here. And if you want to book a tapping, yoga, and tea session. Always adjusted to the season we are in, you find me here.