What Happens When Life Slows Down? The Wisdom Of Autumn

In Chinese philosophy, life moves in cycles — rising and falling, opening and closing, ascending and descending. Each movement contains the seed of its opposite.

In the yearly seasons, spring gives birth, summer expands in beauty, autumn receives, and winter preserves. The downward movement (the energy of descent), is not a collapse, but a grounding force that leads to new generation. In Daoist thought, this descending energy is called 降气 (jiàng qì) — the energy that settles, grounds, and brings things back to their root. It is the autumnal energy, when Heaven’s Yang begins to contract and Earth’s Yin begins to dominate. This descent allows transformation and life cycle. Without it, nothing could be renewed.

In our bodies, this same movement exists. For women, one of the clearest reflections of this principle is in the menstrual cycle. At ovulation, the body expresses a Yang action of an egg, an expansion, outward movement — a kind of summer within. But once the egg is released, the follicle transforms into the corpus luteum. If no conception occurs, this structure declines and dissolves, marking the autumn of the cycle — a graceful descent, a letting go. Blood descends, energy returns inward, and the body begins to prepare once again for the next beginning.

This same wisdom appears in nature. After summer’s abundance, the leaves fall, the fruits are gathered, and what is no longer needed returns to the soil.
When I pulled out the vegetables and grass from my garden, clearing the earth for winter, I was performing the same cycle. The act of ending — of removing, cleaning, letting go — is not destruction, but the preparation for renewal.

In master Tung acupuncture style, there is a basic concept which is called the “Shen Jing” theory 【神经】. This term was translated into English as nerves, reaction areas or innervations. In master Tung’s acupuncture book which was published in 1973, each point was referred to a western anatomical part such as a nerve/ an artery/ a body region and to one or more Zang- Fu organs or an extra Fu organ. This differentiation can help us understand master Tung’s theory as a five Zang theory concept. After diagnosing our patient and realizing his/ her pathology we can choose the correct acupuncture point combination relying on each point’s specific “Shen Jing” connection.

In Chinese medicine, autumn represents the movement of descent — a time when nature draws inward and the Lung governs the letting go. When this descending energy is impaired, we often see processes that fail to reach completion — physiological, emotional, or cyclical. In clinical practice, this may manifest as conditions where the body “does not finish” — such as menstruation that fails to end on time, emotional states that linger, or healing that remains incomplete. From the perspective of Master Tung’s acupuncture, these patterns indicate a stagnation or weakness in the descending function of Lung Qi. To restore this natural movement, we may choose Tung’s points that regulate and strengthen the Lung’s downward flow. Points such as Ling gu (22.05) and Da bai (22.04) — which belong to the hand region and have a profound influence on the Lung channel — can be used to encourage release, completion, and closure. By harmonizing Lung Qi, we support the body’s autumnal rhythm: the ability to descend, let go, and bring processes to their natural resolution.

So, when we observe an ending — whether it’s the end of a season, a project, a cycle, or even a stage of life — we can understand it as the downward breath of the Dao. It is the action of descent — the smallest expression of the universe’s wisdom that nothing truly ends- everything returns to begin again.