There is a moment towards the end of summer when I start to feel that something is changing.
The days are still warm, sometimes very warm, but the light is different. The evenings begin to arrive a little earlier. Nature hasn’t quite moved into autumn, but the intense, expansive energy of summer is beginning to soften.
Traditional Chinese Medicine gives this moment a name: Late Summer.
TCM recognises five seasons rather than four. Late Summer is associated with the Earth element, and I have always found this particularly beautiful because Earth represents our centre. It is the place we return to when everything around us is moving.
And life, as we know, is always moving.
We change jobs, relationships change, our bodies change, children grow up, parents get older. We move house or country. Sometimes we choose the change and sometimes it arrives without asking permission. Even an ordinary week can feel like a constant balancing act between work, family, responsibilities and everything else demanding our attention.
Earth reminds us that stability does not mean preventing change. It means finding a centre within ourselves while change is happening.
Late Summer and the Earth element
In TCM, Earth has a special place within the Five Elements because it is not only connected with Late Summer. Earth energy is also present during the transitions between all the seasons.
Think about that for a moment.
Before moving from one kind of energy into another, nature gives us a little Earth. A moment to settle, integrate and prepare.
I think we need these transitional spaces in our lives too.
We are very quick to move from one thing to the next. We finish a meeting and immediately open an email. We complete one project and start thinking about the next. We come back from holiday and throw ourselves straight into work.
We rarely give ourselves time to digest what has just happened.
And digestion is a central theme of the Earth element.
The Spleen and Stomach: digesting more than food
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Earth is associated with the Spleen and Stomach.
The Stomach receives nourishment, while the Spleen transforms it into energy that the body can use.
But there is another side to this that I find particularly relevant to modern life: we don’t only digest food. We digest life.
Every day we take in conversations, news, emails, social media, responsibilities, worries, ideas and other people’s emotions.
That is a lot to process.
When there is too much to digest, we may begin to feel heavy, scattered or mentally exhausted. We can find ourselves thinking about the same thing again and again, unable to let it go.
In TCM, excessive thinking and worrying are associated with the Earth element. I love the image of a “knotted” mind because that is exactly how it can feel. One thought wraps itself around another until we no longer know where one ends and the next begins.
Late Summer invites us to ask a very simple question:
What am I trying to digest right now?
And perhaps an even more important one:
Is it too much?
Nourishing your Earth energy
Supporting Earth doesn’t require a dramatic lifestyle change. In fact, Earth loves simplicity and regularity.
This can mean eating nourishing meals at regular times rather than skipping lunch and grabbing something later because you are busy. It can mean choosing warm, cooked foods that are easier to digest, particularly as the weather begins to change.
It can also mean creating a little more rhythm in your day.
Regular meals. Regular sleep. Moments of movement. A few minutes without your phone. Time to finish one thing before beginning another.
These things may sound almost too simple to matter, but our bodies respond to rhythm.
And sometimes finding balance is less about adding another healthy habit and more about noticing what has become excessive.
Too much work? Too much stimulation? Too much information? Too much thinking?
Earth asks us to find the middle.
Qi Gong for Late Summer
Qi Gong is a wonderful practice for this season because it brings us back into the body and helps us reconnect with our centre.
One practice I particularly recommend is Zhan Zhuang, or standing meditation.
It may look as though you are doing very little. You simply stand, breathe and become aware of your body. But that apparent simplicity is precisely what makes it so powerful. Instead of constantly moving outward towards the next task, you stay.
You feel your feet on the ground. You notice your breath. You allow your attention to settle.
I also love twisting and spiralling movements during Late Summer. These movements gently massage the centre of the body, support digestion and encourage Qi to circulate.
And I think they work beautifully on another level too.
As the body twists, releases and returns to centre, that busy, knotted mind can begin to soften as well.
We digest the meal. We digest the day. We digest the experience.
Then we let it move through us.
Finding your centre
Perhaps this is the real lesson of Late Summer.
Balance is not a place we reach and stay forever. Life will keep changing and so will we.
The practice is learning how to recognise when we have moved too far from our centre and knowing how to return.
Sometimes that may mean resting. Sometimes moving. Sometimes eating something nourishing. Sometimes switching off the noise and simply standing quietly for five minutes.
You don’t need to get it perfectly right.
You just need to listen.
And perhaps, before autumn arrives, Late Summer can give us a little space to do exactly that: to digest what the past months have brought, notice what we no longer need and find our centre again before moving into the next season.
Explore the Energy of Late Summer With Me
If you would like to experience these ideas rather than simply read about them, I’ll be exploring the Earth element and the energy of Late Summer in a dedicated masterclass.
We’ll look at what this transitional season means according to Traditional Chinese Medicine and practise Qi Gong techniques to support the Spleen and Stomach, encourage the free flow of Qi and help you feel more grounded and centred.
Join me for the Late Summer Energy Masterclass on 12 September 2026, at 3:00PM CEST
