What’s Your Element?

Do you know which elements are strongest in you? If not, you can learn more by taking the Element Quiz. Understanding your dominant element helps you move through each season with greater insight and balance.

Autumn, ruled by Metal energy, is a time of clarity, reflection, and release.

It invites us to exhale—shedding what no longer serves and making space for what is essential. Just as trees let go of their leaves, this season reminds us that release is part of renewal. But depending on your elemental makeup, Metal’s energy can also stir up grief, rigidity, or a tendency to hold on too tightly.

One archetype of the Metal element is the alchemist or the artist—one who refines experience into wisdom, beauty, and truth. At its best, this energy is discerning, spacious, and deeply honoring of life’s impermanence. But when out of balance, it can become perfectionistic, detached, or overly self-critical—clinging to ideals or resisting change.

By recognizing how your dominant element interacts with Metal energy, you can embrace autumn’s invitation to let go with grace—releasing what’s complete, breathing deeply into the present, and finding renewal in simplicity and spaciousness.

Find your element and scroll below to learn more:

For Metal types, autumn is your home season—a time to refine, release, and realign with what is essential.

This is your moment to breathe deeply and clear what’s accumulated—physically, emotionally, and energetically. Let go of the unnecessary so that what remains can shine with simple truth. Structure and ritual come naturally to you; use them now to create beauty and meaning from what’s been distilled.

Yet be mindful: when Metal energy becomes too rigid or perfectionistic, it can contract into isolation or self-criticism. Balance discernment with softness. Allow yourself to feel rather than analyze, to grieve rather than suppress, to open rather than armor.

Tend your breath. Keep your body and spaces uncluttered. Surround yourself with clean air, gentle sound, and spacious light. Nourish your lungs with moisture-rich foods—pear, white mushrooms, almonds, and daikon—and drink plenty of water to balance autumn’s dryness.

REFLECT:
What am I ready to release so that what’s most essential in me can breathe more freely?

For Water types, Metal season offers a mirror—a chance to bring shape and clarity to your natural depth.

Where Water flows inward and unseen, Metal invites refinement and reflection. This is a time to surface your insights, give voice to what has been gestating, and create gentle structure around your intuitive knowing. Metal’s crisp air can help you distill what feels vast or nebulous into something tangible—an expression, a boundary, a breath of fresh perspective.

But if Metal’s energy feels too sharp, you may sense pressure to define or control what is meant to remain fluid. Resist the urge to overanalyze or retreat into isolation. Instead, let the cool clarity of this season sharpen your intuition without freezing it.

Balance introspection with movement and breath. Keep your body warm, your fluids flowing, and your voice open. Nourish the kidneys and lungs with mineral-rich foods, hearty broths, and warm teas that anchor your inner tides.

REFLECT:
How can I honor my depth while allowing clarity and form to emerge naturally—without force, only breath by breath?

For Wood types, Metal season invites pause and perspective.

Where Wood surges upward with vision and growth, Metal calls for pruning—refining your direction and letting go of what’s no longer aligned. This is a time to slow your striving, assess your aims, and clear away what clutters your focus. The precision of Metal helps sharpen your purpose, transforming drive into discernment.

Yet if you resist this slowing, you may feel confined or frustrated, as though your forward motion is being stifled. Remember: pruning isn’t punishment—it’s preparation. By releasing what’s unnecessary now, you create the clarity and space your spring growth will need to flourish.

Ground your energy through steady breath and simple routines. Support your liver and lungs with clean air, gentle movement, and foods that balance both elements—leafy greens, radish, and warm soups that keep your energy flowing freely.

REFLECT:
What can I release now to give my next season of growth more clarity, purpose, and ease?

Temper your fire with the clarity of Metal.


As autumn arrives, Fire’s passion is invited to refine into purpose—its warmth distilled into focused light. Where Fire reaches outward in expression, Metal draws inward toward discernment and release. Favor foods that are light yet grounding—pears, daikon, white beans, and warming spices that support the lungs and help you exhale with ease.

For Fire types, this season offers a cooling, clarifying balance after months of expansion. It’s a time to let intensity settle into insight—to gather what has meaning and release what has merely kept you busy. But without awareness, you may resist this refinement, chasing stimulation or holding on to relationships and experiences that have run their course.

When Fire doesn’t yield to Metal’s clarity, the flame can burn erratically—either scattered in too many directions or dimmed by exhaustion.

Honor this shift by cultivating stillness and breath. Let your heart’s fire be shaped by intention and truth—radiant, yet contained.

REFLECT:
How can I allow my passion to be guided by clarity, so that what I offer burns clean and true?

Let Earth find renewal through Metal’s clarity.


As autumn unfolds, Earth’s steady abundance is invited to release what has been gathered—transforming fullness into spaciousness. Metal helps Earth refine and let go, clearing away excess so nourishment can circulate freely once again. Favor cleansing, moisture-rich foods like pear, radish, miso, and leafy greens to support digestion and breath as the season turns cool and dry.

For Earth types, this is a time to practice discernment—to simplify, declutter, and release what’s been weighing you down, whether in body, schedule, or relationships. Your natural generosity and sense of responsibility may cling to what feels familiar, but letting go makes room for new growth to take root later.

When Earth resists Metal’s cutting edge, stagnation can build—resulting in heaviness, worry, or the feeling of being stuck in cycles of caretaking or overdoing.

Honor this shift by clearing both your inner and outer spaces. Let the clarity of breath and simplicity of rhythm help you rediscover balance and lightness.

REFLECT:
What am I ready to release so that my care—for myself and others—can flow freely again?