If you plant a garden, you know that August is your garden’s most bounteous month. Squash, eggplant, potatoes, onions, sweet corn, peppers, and of course, succulent tomatoes—an altogether different fruit from the mealy, pinkish orbs in the grocery store—are plentiful and at their juicy best. Late summer is the time we harvest and assimilate Earth’s bounty, the fruits of our labors.
It’s likely no coincidence then that Chinese medicine designates late summer as the time when the Earth element is predominant. It is also fitting that Earth is the element that governs the stomach and spleen—organs that assimilate and distribute nutrients in our bodies. Taoists call the belly the “elixir field.” In addition to the belly’s role as assimilator of food, from before birth the navel contains a reservoir of life force, a gift from our mothers. According to Yoga teacher Cora Wen, the belly is a “source of deep power and the root of intuition.”
Positive emotional qualities of a balanced stomach-spleen include trust, honesty, acceptance, openness and equanimity, while an imbalance might engender anxiety, worry, excessive thinking, obsessiveness and doubt. The expression, “butterflies in your stomach,” perfectly describes the edgy agitation of anxiety and worry.
August’s pose is Jathara Parivartanasana (Revolved Belly Pose). Jathara Parivartanasana tones the organs of the upper abdominal quadrants, including the stomach, spleen, liver and pancreas, and relieves low back discomfort. Revolved Belly is a spinal twist, a class of poses generally considered to be soothing to the nervous system. Twists promote equanimity and balance, qualities that help dispel the negative consequences of an imbalanced stomach and spleen. In particular, lying-down twists are cooling, balancing our bodies’ tendency to overheat in late summer.
Begin by lying on your back on a mat or blanket with your knees bent and the soles of your feet resting on the floor. Extend your arms out at shoulder level so that they are at a 90-degree angle to the body. Turn your palms upward. For your first few breaths, relax your back body into the floor, allowing your feet, pelvis, shoulder blades, backs of your arms and back of your head to settle into gravity each time you exhale. Observe how these contact points connect with the floor.
