Hello, lovely listeners, and welcome to Backyard Magic. I'm your host, Nicole Berrios, and please grab your favorite beverage and come join me in the backyard. It doesn't look nearly as bad as last week, and it's monsoon season. I'm so excited. We're gonna talk a little bit more about that because I'm excited, and I might randomly burst out into songs or sing song, sing songgy voice, because I'm just excited about monsoon season. So grab your favorite beverage. I will have mine. Uh what's in my mug today is green tea. Again, I know it's boring. I'm starting to sound like a broken record, which I just realized that there might be people listening who don't know what a record is. That sounds so weird to me. It makes me feel so old. But also, technology has changed a lot and very quickly since I came around to be on the earth. And honestly, records were pretty old school when I was born. I remember we had a turntable growing up. Little three-year-old Nicole was putting Guns N' Roses Appetite for Destruction on the turntable. I loved that album. It's still pretty good if you're in the mood for some hair metal. And then I don't know what happened to the turntable after that. I feel like we we had it when I was really little and then we just didn't. And I've always admired my mom's record collection, which she still has, but I don't think she has a turntable. I'm gonna have to double check. I feel like that could be the perfect Christmas gift this year. To get my mom a turntable. Heck, I should get myself a turntable. I don't even own a record. Like, why would I why would I need to own any records? But they're totally making a comeback. They are. There's like specialty shops that still sell music out here where I live, and I'm sure there's other places too. And like albums, records, totally making a comeback. There's just something about like the tangible medium of like holding your music, or at least holding the the, you know, the cover that it came in, that it was packaged in. Like I said, albums are a little bit before my time. I only remember them from being a little little kid in the 80s. And when I was growing up, really it was CDs. Well, no, first it was cassettes. Cassettes. And then it was CDs. I still have my first CD that I ever got, which guess what it was? It was No Doubt Tragic Kingdom, which is why I was so stoked to go to that No Doubt show that I went to in May, because that was that was the first CD that I ever purchased. So epic, but I still I still have that CD. Anyways, I'm babbling. I was just listening to a podcast about the new moon in Cancer, which happens when this episode comes out. It will be like the day before that the new moon happened. So we'll still be in the window, but it's in Cancer, and the we're also in a Mercury retrograde, so it's like new moons are about planting seeds and like kind of looking forward, but the retrograde is kind of like shifting things, so it's like instead of looking forward, we're kind of looking back a little bit, and it it's gonna be more about like nostalgia and things that have happened in your life. So I guess that's why I'm going on a little memory lane trip here, going down a trip on memory lane, thinking about CDs and albums. And anyways, I think I'm just excited because monsoon season is here. In the middle of fire season. That's what I that's really what I wanted to talk about today. So come into the backyard, uh, grab some green tea with me. It's the last I've got of it. I'm done with the green tea after today. I just finished it, and I don't know what I'm gonna be drinking next. So you guys will have to tune in next week to see what's in my mug next week. I don't even know. I saw this funny meme or like a reel on Instagram, I think it was, and it was somebody interviewing Elmo, you know, Sesame Street Elmo, and they were asking like this, it was like a manifestor uh meme or a reel about manifestors. And so this person, this interviewer was asking Elmo like what his five-year plan was. And Elmo's response was Elmo doesn't know what he's gonna be doing in the next five hours, let alone five years. Except, you know, he said it in Elmo voice, which I can kind of do because sometimes my daughter wants me to do Elmo with her. Um, I'm not gonna do it here though. I'm not gonna um yeah, subject you guys to Elmo voice. But I just I thought that was the funniest meme because it's so accurate. That's how I feel the majority of my life is like I don't know how I'm gonna be feeling in the next five hours. Like planning out five years, psh, no idea. Like five-year plan, no idea. I've got like loose goals, things that I would kind of like to accomplish, but that's just not a manifestor speed. Manifest your speed is like sudden, like lightning bursts of creative energy hit, and I have to get it done immediately. And there's like, there's no foresight here. That's for uh that's for the other energy types, I think, which I so envy them for being able to come up with a five-year plan. Oh, I forgot what I was talking about. The monsoon season has me all addled. Oh, right, because I don't know what I'm gonna be drinking for my tea next week. Yep, because I I can't plan anything in advance. Okay, so here we are. Got some green tea, we're out in the backyard. If you tuned in last week, then you heard the the story about the pool and the filter and the it was green. Anyways, we have a new filter, the water can refresh now, and everything is blue. It's crystal clear blue, no more green water. Thank goodness, thank goodness. Anyone who has a pool, like I don't know. When that water gets green on you because your equipment broke, it's the worst thing in the world. It's so stressful. At least to me it is, especially in the middle of summer because this is fire time and we really need water to curb some of the fire energy, which is the theme of today's topic, when I can actually get to it, since I'm in a babbly mood today. Oh, what else is new? Oh, welcome to the fire element, friends. Okay. I did an episode like this back in the springtime for the wood element. So let me let me back up. First of all, if anybody's new here, hi, welcome to the backyard. We have rambling conversations about magic and other fun stuff. Magic, tarot, witchcraft. Today we're gonna be talking about more about seasonal living, which lines up very nicely with, you know, witchiness and just being in sync with wherever you are in the world. Okay. Seasonal living. And so if anybody is new here, I'm an acupuncturist by training. That's what my I have two degrees are. My two degrees are in acupuncture and herbal medicine. I'm also a shamanic practitioner, that's also by training. And these two, these two professions, they go together very nicely because it's all about seasonal living and just kind of syncing yourself up with the cycles, what's happening in in the world around you, not necessarily with what the people and society around you are doing, but more like the flow of the land itself and the flow of the weather patterns where you are, like what's growing in your area. Basically, how do you fit in on the land that you're living on and what's happening seasonally? Okay, so seasonal living. In Chinese medicine, there are five elements. This is called Chinese medicine five element theory. It's slightly different than Western four-element theory. I did, I like I said, I talked a little bit about this in the wood episode. If you want to hear more about wood, you can go check out that episode. I will link to it in the show notes for you. So it's uh the five elements are wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. And each one generates another, it's like it's a very, it's like simple, but it's also kind of complex. It's like a simple system, but you can get very, very detailed with it and very complex. It's one of the many things that I love about Chinese medicine. It's simultaneously simple and it has incredible depth and can be as complicated as you want it to be, but it could also be as simple as you want it to be. I love it. So fun. So five elements. Each element has a dominant season that it's associated with, and within, like under that umbrella, it also has other things like dominant emotions, dominant flavors, dominant um oh, what are there? It's like season, color, flavor, scent. Um for people who are doing um like acupuncturists who do five element diagnos like a diagnostic process, they also look at a person's body type and like their personality type. You can get super in depth with it. When we crossed over into summertime in the northern hemisphere, we shifted from the wood time of year, which is spring, into the fire time of year. So we've been in the fire time of year for almost a month now. And what this means is that this is the time of year where the fire element is at its peak. First of all, what is fire? I feel like fire is one of the easier ones to wrap your brain around because most people know what fire is. Like not just on an elemental level, but people kind of understand and even admire um like fire personalities. So, like within this five-element system, every individual it has like a dominant element that they associate with. It's kind of like how they operate in the world, kind of like a horoscope, you know, like um like your zodiac or your human design, kind of like that. So you you'll have a dominant element and then you'll have a secondary element. So that's the the one that you show up as like the next, like second, second best first and then second. And so, like, I'm gonna kind of go over some characteristics of what a fire person looks like so that you can kind of wrap your mind around it. Like, it'll help you understand how the fire season shows up and how it might be impacting you if you live in the northern hemisphere and it's summertime. Okay, fire people, people who just have more fire in their in their charts, in their lives, are bright, they're charismatic, they're funny. Like they're the type of they're they're like comedians, they're like the type of people that can just show up, light up a room, make you laugh. Um, they can also be very intense kind of people because you know, fire can burn hot. They can be on the dramatic side. A lot of actors, I think, are are fire personalities. And if if they're not in real life, in their you know, regular non-acting life, then they definitely channel it when they're acting. It's pretty interesting. So those are those are kind of like the the more positive attributes of a fire person, but like like everything, there's like the the brighter side, and then there's more of the shadow side. So on the flip side, if fire people kind of go haywire, this can show up as oh, I I mentioned intensity. It can show up as being too intense, being incredibly hyper, like unable to stop. Think about this as like manic depressive. Like somebody who's in a manic phase, like they just can't, they can't stop. It's like they can't turn it off. That's too much fire. Like that's a fire pattern in Chinese medicine. Um, it can also honestly, it's just it's too intense, is what it is. Like, if you think about fire as the element, we need fire, you know, in our lives. Like we need like the sun. The sun is the epitome of fire. Like we need it. We can't live without it. Like we relish it, we live for it, we love the sun. And just look at cats. Like cats gravitate to sunlight, just always sitting in little pools of sunlight. But if there's too much of it, it burns. I mean, look at all the wildfires that happen. Like, there's there can be too much of it, it burns. But and usually what happens though with fire is that it burns and then it's done. Like sometimes it might burn a little longer, but it it eventually burns itself out because it's too intense and it will crash eventually. I'm intimately familiar with fire because my my kid is a fire kid. And so, like, every everything about this, I'm like, oh yeah, the intensity, but also like funny, they're just so funny, like always trying to amuse and entertain and just be silly, but then can also get very easily overwhelmed with emotion and then get very intense and then unable to stop, like hyper-fixating on something that's too fun, and then being unable to stop. I just witnessed this at a kid's birthday party this past weekend, and it was it was not fun. It was not fun. Side note, kids' birthday parties suck, man. Like, I feel like it sets everybody up for failure. It's just too much excitement, it's too loud, there's too much sugar. It's it's bad for kids and parents. And also, PSA, if there's any parents listening out there that are going to be throwing a kid's birthday party, if there's any sort of water involves in this birthday party, please make sure that there's a lifeguard of some sort or a parent, somebody needs to be watching the kids while they're near water, even if it's two feet of water, like on a water slide. Yeah, that's all I'm gonna say about that. Hire a lifeguard or commission somebody to be the lifeguard. Anyways, basically, at this time of year in the summertime, all of these fire tendencies, or like the the way that a like a person who naturally exhibits fire in their like as their personality, like all of this kind of gets heightened just by the vibe of the season. Um, fire is also yang, like summertime is the epitome of yang energy. I think we've talked about this before. There's yin and there's yang. Yin is the opposite. Yin is cooling, it's nurturing, it's dark, it's quiet. Yin is winter time, yin is water. Fire is the opposite of that. So yang is it's it's it's fire, it's warm, it's intense, it's um energizing, it's you know, like life-giving, that that sort of thing. And you can't have one without the other, which is why in the wintertime it swings the other way, like there has to be change and flow and balance and all of that. But right now is peak yong energy. It feels kind of frantic. It's like, I don't know, it's a little bit buzzier. Something that I have noticed about myself this year in particular, I've really observed it, is that I kind of fall off the wagon with my spiritual practice at this time of year. Like, I've still been doing a decent job. It just I mentioned in the last episode, like putting up my boundaries, like putting on my armor, getting myself grounded, shielded, that sort of thing. And when my backyard doesn't have a green pool, I will be back there, like just doing some general work. But like bigger rituals, granted, I the this is the whole point of this podcast, is like small, meaningful, anybody can do from anywhere, sort of rituals. But like I do like to do some witchy stuff, and sometimes I like to do bigger workings. And what I have noticed is that I really struggle to do any of that in the summertime. I definitely feel more pulled to it in the autumn and the winter. I think it has something to do with the light and the fact that it's so bright here, especially where I live because I'm in the desert. So it's bright, it's hot, AF, and there's just too much yang energy. I almost feel like the spiritual working that I do at this time of year is to embrace yin as much as possible because the yang is gonna burn me. It's interesting. I've heard other people say that too, that they don't feel as magical during the summertime. And in my head, I'm like, but you can be magical any time of year, and that's true. And there are parts about the summertime that I do feel are very magical, like monsoon season. But for the most part, it is kind of hard to tap into it. And really, yeah, I think it's because it's too intense. There's too much young, it's too hot, too much sun, which is why I wanted to talk about it in this episode, because I'm like, I can't be the only one here that struggles with this, especially living in a hot climate. I feel like it might be slightly more manageable in other climates, where when summer's done, you actually get a fall, you know, like you get a proper autumn season with leaves and crisp, cool afternoons. Oh, that sounds so fabulous. If there is one thing that I really, really, really miss about living not in the desert, it is fall. And the the only other place that I've lived is Southern California, which doesn't really have much of a fall, but compared to where I am now, it did. The leaves fell in the fall. There were some cool, crisp days, not many, but there were. It was you could go to the pumpkin patch and like not have to do it at seven in the morning because it's too hot after that. So many weird things about living in the desert. But one of them is that it's too hot in the summer. It's so, so, so hot. And it it brings up all of the fiery things that I was just talking about. Um, like you can probably hear it just listening to me right now, how I just feel a little bit brighter, a little bit more bubbly, a little chattier. I mean, I'm always kind of chatty, but it's all just right at the surface because I'm plugged into the fire of this time of year. A little funnier, you know, a little more charismatic. But then it it easily flips on its head where I am like, I'm so overwhelmed, I need to put on noise canceling headphones. Or like, I have to go be in water immediately, which is why not having your pool function. I know this is a first-world problem. Totally get it. Privilege, yep, I get it. Uh, it was rough not being able to get into the water. Totally. That actually having a pool was a really big part of me recovering from seasonal affective disorder. At this point, I feel like I don't necessarily need the pool. It's nice to have, but now I I know how to work with water in other ways that doesn't involve me needing needing a pool. But that's um, yeah, that's a bigger story for another day. If you live somewhere where it I feel like this is most places in America, it gets hot at this time of year. And I feel like it's humid in a lot of other places too. Like I hear about that in um like the northeast and the Midwest and the South. That's pretty much the whole country. The whole country gets humid. I feel like everywhere west of the Rockies, it's different, it's drier, um, except for maybe like Washington and Oregon. I well, I guess it depends on the area, because I know like the the more eastern parts of those states is more arid, like deserty, like high desert, so it's probably pretty dry there. I know I don't know, I never looked into it. You guys will have to let me know if anybody lives in those areas. What's the weather like where you are right now? Where I am at this time of year, it's hot and it's dry. And I know everybody will say, like, oh, but it's a dry heat, and that makes it better. You know what else is a dry heat? An oven. Ovens are dry heat. Have you ever stuck your face in a hot oven? Like, not to burn yourself, but you know, like you were going to pull something out of an oven and you didn't like get your face out of the way in time, so you just get a blast of 350-degree temperature, like right in your face. That's kind of what walking outside here feels like. Or getting into your car. Good lord, getting into your car if it's been sitting in a parking lot with no covered parking. It literally feels like stepping inside of an oven. And fun side note, car batteries only last like a year here. I just had to have mine replaced, and I got I bought my battery last year. And I just had to have it replaced. It didn't even last a year. That's crazy. It's too hot. The mechanic said it has to do with the like the battery acid, like the liquid and the battery acid, it evaporates too quickly here because of the heat. So, and your battery corrodes faster. And I'm like, yeah, that makes sense. So you just you have to plan every year or every two years, if you're lucky, that you gotta buy a new car battery. Same with tires, tires go faster here, too. Anyways, it's hot, it's like an oven. That is, until monsoon season comes around. I didn't know that there was a monsoon season here until I moved here, which it was a pleasant surprise to me that this was a thing that happens. Like I remember my mother-in-law told me about it, like, oh yeah, monsoon season, you know, like if it floods and you go into an area, like if you're driving your car and you go into an area that's like a known flood zone and you get stuck, like if a first responder has to come and get you out, you have to pay for it. And I was like, Oh, that's a thing. She's like, Yeah, because you were doing something stupid. Like you were warned, don't go there. And if you go there and you need help, you have to pay the bill. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense. But I was just like, it floods here? It's so dry here. I moved here in April of 2011. And so it was it was already pretty hot at that point when I moved here. I remember feeling shocked by how hot it was. I actually recently went back and looked up old records of the weather, like the recorded weather from 2011. And it was only like in the 90s at that point in April of 2011. And I was like, oh man, I was such a fresh out of Southern California girl at that point, thinking that the 90s was intensely hot here. Now, when it gets into the 90s, I'm like, yeah, this is nice. It's weird. Your perception of heat changes when you live here. But I remember that first year in April and May, just feeling I had to like take the dog out to, you know, do his dog thing, because we lived in an apartment at that point in time, and like walking him around and thinking, oh my god, I'm like, it's not even summer yet. What is going to happen in the summer? And so, yeah, summer is hot here, but then if we're fortunate enough, monsoon season rolls around sometimes in June, usually comes in July and August. Last year I feel like it was late. I feel like it showed up around September last year, but it did show up. And when monsoon season comes around, we get humidity, which I think is fabulous. I don't live in the Midwest, so I don't have to deal with that kind of humidity. It's it's not that kind of humidity. It's it's refreshing, honestly, after like so many like months of just dry, really, really dry and hot oven type temperatures, having humidity come onto the scene is refreshing. Um, if it were like this all the time, I'm sure that I would feel differently. But because this is like a temporary, like a short little blip seasonal sort of thing, I think it's lovely. It's also really nice because you don't have to put lotion on nearly as much. And you don't need chapstick. It's like all these things that we take for granted, or that most of us just don't think about like during monsoon season, it's like, oh, I don't need as much stuff right now. Like my skin is just naturally less dry because there's more moisture in the air. So awesome. One thing that I am particularly love about monsoon season is that because it happens in the middle of fire season when you know it's peak young energy, like everything's all revved up, we're all anxious. Like, oh, that's another quality that I forgot to mention. Like things that can go south during this time of year, people get more anxious, just edgier. Your sleep is gonna be suckier, you know, because there's just there's too much light, too much young energy, it's too hot, like all of the things, it all just accumulates into making people feel restless, edgy, anxious, sleepless, all of those things. Because it's too much fire, basically. And what controls fire? This one is easy, you all know it, we all love it. It's water. So when monsoon season comes around, it's like it naturally tempers the fire, and it feels so amazing, like so amazing, so refreshing. Because I I walked outside this morning and was like, uh yes, monsoons have arrived. I feel like it's been it's been coming in, like you can feel it. It's one of the things that I have gotten very good at over the years, like connecting with the land and doing my you know my backyard magic practice, is you can easily just step outside and feel the seasonal shifts. Like even in the autumn, I could I could feel the seasonal shift, even though it doesn't cool down until like Halloween, for real. Like it'll be hot here until about Halloween. Um, granted, it won't be as hot in September and October, but still, it's still warm, you're still sweaty, it's still gross. You don't actually need to turn your air conditioner off until about Halloween. And then if you're lucky, you might get to put on a long-sleeve shirt in November. So weird living here. But monsoon season is beyond refreshing. Like you can you can walk outside and you can feel the shift because you can feel the humidity. You can also smell it, and it smells so good. I've I've mentioned in another episode before, like how to um find the magic in the desert. You can smell chaparral, which is a bush. It's like a bush plant that grows out here abundantly. Um, it's also known as creosote. You can call it either or creosote or chaparral, same plant. And it smells like rain. That's the best way I can describe it. It literally smells like rain. And whenever it gets wet, like when it with the sign of the first rain, you can smell the chaparral in the air. Like this morning when my daughter walked outside, she mentioned it. She was like, Oh, it smells like monsoon. I'm like, Yeah, you can smell it. It's amazing. And it it like, oh, it just cools everything right on off. And I'm like counting my my lucky stars that monsoon showed up. It did rain a little bit last night. It wasn't a lot, but it rained some. Um, sometimes, if we're if we're fortunate, it will dump rain in monsoon season, just buckets and buckets and the most amazing thunderstorms. Um, we also get dust storms out here, which is not super fun and it's also kind of gross. But if we're lucky after a dust storm, it brings rain with it too, so it kind of blows or like cleans the dust up. It's so interesting living here. But yeah, we do get really, really cool electrical storms. It's such a nice reprieve in the middle of summertime. So for anybody who is listening and lives in a hot, dry climate, like I do, I know there's other parts of the country and the world that have places like this, water is your friend. Like, I know this, it's like self-explanatory. Like, yeah, of course, water is going to help you when you're hot. But I feel like when there's so much fire, you really, really do need to be like intentionally working with water in some way in order to like keep the young energy from being too too young, and then you flip into like anxious, edgy, irritable, um, can't sleep, all of those things, over just overwhelm, overstimulated. Um, everything gets like out of control, can't focus, all of that. Working with water is a very a very good way to alleviate this. And this could be because this is backyard magic, right? So everything is simple, straightforward. It could be as simple as drinking more water. It could be making moon water and drinking that. I really like the idea of moon water at this time of year because moon the moon is the opposite of the sun, like it's it's incredibly yin. The moon is very, very yin, especially the new moon, which is will have already passed by the time you guys hear this, but the energy is still there, you can totally go make some new moon water and just kind of drink that. And really, like getting in water is so so so helpful at this time of year. If you have a pool or access to one, go do that. If you live near a body of water, go be near the water. If you are lucky enough to be by the ocean, say hello to the ocean for me, because dang, do I miss the ocean. It's like the one thing I miss about living in Southern California. I lived four blocks from the beach before I moved here. Four blocks. Granted, it was the Long Beach Beach, which is like you really shouldn't swim in the Long Beach Beach, but it was nice to be able to just walk there and like walk along the water. Sometimes I would put my feet in the water and then promptly go home and take a shower. But still, it was it was so nice. I miss being able to do that. And so here we've got the river, we've got the lake, it's still hot, but there is water here. And so I recommend that to anybody. Um, if you don't have anything like that, it can be something as simple as getting a container at the dollar store that you fill with water and stick your feet in. Like if you live in an apartment or have a very small space, don't have a bathtub, anything like that, get get a little like a yeah, seriously, a little container from the dollar store that you can put water in and stick your feet in. It just it helps. And if you can also be intentional about like you're doing this to kind of temper the fire, that makes it even more potent because by that point you're well, that's your intention. Like that's what magic is, it's just your intention. Where does your focus want to go? What are you trying to call in? In this case, it would be like grounding the fire energy by using the water to cool it off. You could also do this in the shower too. Like you can totally take an intentional, like witchy shower where you just imagine that the shower is washing all the water off. Now, I feel like I did need to throw something in here for the folks who do live in the Midwest and the Northeast and the South and other parts of the world where there's more humidity than there is here. Because if that's you, water probably feels like the last thing that you want because you're already wet and you're already sweaty, and you take a shower, and as soon as you take a shower, you're already sweaty and gross again, and you feel like you didn't get clean at all. Okay, how do we work with that? That's interesting. So I feel like in that case, you've got too much water in the fire time. I don't know if there is a like practical solution so that you don't feel as wet. But I think um something that would be helpful here is to work with the earth. Um when it comes to dampness in particular, like feel like if you're living somewhere that's too humid, and that I'm going to start seeing more of that in my clinic um this week, especially because monsoon season is here. Um I'm gonna start seeing people with more damp symptoms. So this is like a little more headaches, like feeling heavy, feeling sluggish, um, some digestive upset. Like I'm gonna start seriously seeing all of that this week. Maybe some joint pain, um people who get joint pain when um there's more moisture in the air, all of that sort of thing. That's a different element, actually. That's the earth element. Remember, there's five elements in Chinese medicine, and there's only four seasons. So where's the fifth season? It's actually kind of at this time of year. Um, historically, they call it Indian summer, and it's like closer to the end of August, like a beginning of September. Like that's when the earth element kicks in. But because of where I live, I like to think of this whenever monsoon season arrives. I feel like then we're technically in the earth time of year, but it we're still in the fire time, so there's like overlap. There's like both, like fire and earth. It's an interesting combination, but it can lead to something called summer heat in Chinese medicine, which is basically what I was just saying: like people just feeling heavy, lethargic, stomach upset, digestive upset. Um, I didn't understand summer heat until I went to other countries and experienced summer heat. And because I'm a weirdo and I have to learn everything by experience, I was super excited to get sick with summer heat when I was in Cambodia. And then it happened again when I was in China, and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm having the summer heat. I get it now. Like, now it makes sense. This is so exciting. It's not, it's not exciting, it doesn't feel good. It's just I like being able to understand things, even if it means I have to get sick to understand it. So, summer heat, that's a thing. Um, honestly, I think a good suggestion, as is typical and probably biased of me. If you live somewhere really humid and you're like struggling with the humidity and the heat and everything, go find yourself an acupuncturist who can give you acupuncture and prescribe you a formula. There is a formula for summer heat in Chinese medicine. Um, the main herb in that formula is actually patchouli, which I think is pretty cool that it's a Chinese herb and it's for summer heat. Yeah, that would that would be my one of my best suggestions, but also to like work with earth energy. So that would be getting your feet on earth, working with a garden. Um, it could just be earth meditations where you kind of uh help your body to metabolize all of the excess water so that it can get drained into the earth, if that makes any sense. Because in in Chinese medicine, earth controls water. Is that right? Yeah, you know how like water controls fire, like the fire gets out of control, you put water on it. If water gets out of control, the earth tempers it, okay? And you can think of this like water needs a container, otherwise it just flows, it just goes wherever it goes. Um, you can't hold water without putting it in something. Like if you try to cup it in your hands, like it just flows out, like you have to have some sort of a container. So uh earth controls water. I didn't realize that I was also going to be talking about the earth element today, too, but I guess it makes sense because we're in monsoon season. Hopefully, this makes sense. I just felt like I needed to put on my TCM, which means uh traditional Chinese medicine, my traditional Chinese medicine teacher hat today. Give you guys um a lesson in seasonal living and the five elements because it's fun and because it's super, super applicable, because I know y'all are already feeling it just with the weather and whatever shift is happening out wherever you live. So, yeah, if you live somewhere super humid, work with the earth element. Same way if you if you live somewhere really hot where it's more dry, work with the water element. Like you basically you go for the element that controls the one that is there's too much of it. And this is how we get into balance. Um, like I said, working with an acupuncturist is also really helpful because they can do acupuncture points that prime your body to be more in balance with the seasonal shifts, and they could also give you herbs that will help your body like know what to do when it's too hot and know what to do when it's too damp outside. And they can also give you some lifestyle advice, like little tweaks you could make to your diet for the season that you're in. And it's usually really, really simple things like taking note of the temperature of the food that you're eating, and eating foods. If you live somewhere damp, you should probably be eating foods that are a little more on the drying side. And if you live somewhere that's already hot and dry, you should eat foods that are a little bit more on the cooling and moistening side, like uh watermelon. Watermelon's a good one, any type of melon, like for the desert dwellers, and where it's a little bit more dry, super, super useful. It's like electrolytes, it's nourishing, it'll help just make your body feel a little bit more regulated. And then, of course, trying to stay mindful of like whatever spiritual practice that you have. Like I was saying earlier, I've kind of already fallen off the wagon here because the energy is so young. And I feel like that's exactly when I need the practice the most because the practice is very yin and it makes me feel grounded and earthy and better able to handle so much fire. I feel like this entire episode was fire. Like not trying to be hip, you know, like I feel like people saying fire is already kind of old. What is that, like 10 years old now? That's already old. I feel like my kid isn't yet old enough to really be knowing all of the slang right now. So um once I once she gets, you know, into her preteen years, I'm sure I will be hip to all of the new slang. And that will probably trickle over into the podcast, and it will be funny. I think it'll be funny. But yeah, it is. It's just this is a very fiery episode. I kind of feel like that's the whole point. There's too much fire. So with that, I gotta go get in my pool, even though like the dampness has arrived, like there is more moisture in the air, thank goodness. But there's still a lot of fire where I live, and I need to cool myself off, get grounded, let the let the water energy temper some of this fire. And if you're living somewhere where there's already too much water, find yourself some earth to temper the water. That's all I got for you guys for today. Thank you so much for listening to my rambling, fiery, all over the place episode. Hopefully, you got something out of it. Your little journey into Chinese medicine five element theory. I hope you're having a great summer wherever you live or winter, if you are on the other half of the world. Thank you again for listening, and I will catch you guys on the next episode. Bye.