January brings a flood of expectations, resolutions, to-do lists, and all the “new year, new you” energy.
But here’s the quiet truth most of us feel (especially if you’re holding up a household, a job, or other people):
You’re entering the new year… already tired. 😩
That’s not failure. That’s feedback.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, late summer is ruled by the Earth element, the part of us that governs rhythm, digestion, nourishment, and support.
Earth isn’t about force or pressure. It’s about what sustains us.
So we’re choosing a different kind of “new year.”
One grounded in recovery, not resolution.
One that honours your body’s needs, not just its output.
One that asks: “How can I feel supported in this season?”
Start here, gently.
Your body and your future self will thank you.
Here are 3 ways this video might help you:
🔥 Explore why your body might feel heavier, slower, or more fatigued, and why that’s a classic Earth-fatigue sign, not a personal failing.
🔥 Discover how chronic, low-level fatigue can hijack your hips, back, breath, and digestion.
🔥 See the impact of pushing for rapid transformations.
🔥 Learn why Earth energy is crucial for sustainable growth,
🔥 And how to set grounded goals that focus less on “changing everything” and more on nourishing and strengthening your center so what you build actually lasts.
✨ Join us today for insights and gentle, body-based ways to tap into your rhythm again, so your goals grow from a place of restoration, not depletion.
Rather read the transcript?
Here it is…
January hits, and suddenly the world wants you to hustle! Set big goals, make bold moves, be your best self, but, maybe your body is whispering something else. Something softer, steadier, wiser.
Hello and welcome.
I’m Sarah Gowans, remedial massage and craniosacral therapist, and Emotional Integration facilitator at BlossomingMe and the Healthy Learning Lounge. Here we’re a sanctuary, where you can go to tap in and nurture your journey to health, to wellbeing, and to a positive mindset. We focus on helping you clear stresses, tensions, and blocks that can hold you back from living your most fulfilling life.
Imagine a Garden
Imagine a garden. Most New Year resolutions are like planting seeds in dry soil. They sound good, look good even, but the soil is dry, undernourished, and tired, so they can’t even take root. In Australia, in the Southern Hemisphere, we are in late summer. It’s the time of traditional Chinese medicine, TCMs, Earth element, and our stomach and spleen, meridian channels. This is the time of integration and preparation. It’s about digesting our past, restoring what’s been depleted, and building the support structures we need, so that we can grow slowly, steadily, and sustainably.
Burnout …
And let’s be honest, many of us are entering the new year already burned out. Physically, emotionally, and mentally. The body is tired, the mind has been overworked, and the nervous system is trying to hold it all together. You can’t fire up a system that’s already running on empty. Burnout lives in our body, particularly in our hips and back. Burnout isn’t just a mindset either. It’s a musculoskeletal reality. You might notice your hips feeling heavy, your lower back achy, especially by the end of the day, or your core might feel like it’s just checked out. This isn’t laziness. It’s what happens when your support muscles are compensating and getting depleted. It’s a classic sign of earth-element fatigue. The cost of pushing on without replenishment at this point is burnout that settles even more strongly into your body. And if you are taking time to set your goals for the year ahead, like so many people at this time of year, your goals won’t land if your body, the one that’s carrying these goals into action, is in survival mode. So begin with restoring your base, your body.
This video is your permission to start this year differently.
It’s your guide to earth-aligned goal setting, where we focus less on changing everything and more on strengthening your center so that what you build actually lasts. We look at why Earth Energy is essential early in the year, the danger of overlooking nourishment, if your goals are too ambitious, and how to set goals that feel grounded, not guilt-ridden.
Step 1: Reflect
Earth loves integration. So, before you leap into whatever is next, Earth wisdom is to digest what has already happened. We tend to rush forward in January, but pause for a second. Think about last year. Your body remembers what your mind might have skipped over, and the earth element thrives on this reflection, on the chewing over experience, the way your spleen and stomach processed food. Ask yourself:
- What did I carry last year that was maybe too heavy?
- What strengthened me or filled me up? Or really lit you up?
- And where did I run on empty?
The earth element perspective teaches us that insight is nourishment. We don’t grow from skipping ahead. We grow by learning, assimilating, and integrating what we have lived. And this helps your nervous system, too, to complete its stress cycles and reset its baseline. And further, in chakra terms, this connects directly into the solar plexus. The center of our personal power, and our digestion of food, thoughts, and emotions. An extra earth-aligned tip: Reflect on one part, one phase, or one role that you’ve had. You might like to journal these reflections, and when you do, remember to be kind and compassionate, refraining from any criticism. You might even find these phrases useful: “This worked well.” This is what I learned”, and “This is what I need moving forward”.
Step 2: Start From Your Center, Not Comparison
See, earth element governs our centeredness, our balance, and therefore our self-trust. Let’s be real. With every scroll on social media shouting at you, what you should be doing, the New Year often triggers comparison. But Earth reminds us that your center is your compass. Not the noise. Not the pressure. Your center. From a musculoskeletal lens, your core and pelvic floor represent this idea physically. When they’re undernourished from stress, exhaustion, or perfectionism, you may feel off-center, off-balance, wobbly, or just externally motivated. The modern science tie-in leads us to the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve supports this shift by calming our nervous system. When we focus on our internal cues rather than external ones, especially ones that stress you out. Energetically, this then links to the root and sacral chakras’ safety, identity and boundaries. And earth element strengthens all of these foundations, encouraging us to ask: “What would feel truly supportive right now? What do I need? So that I can feel more me, not more them.”
Step 3: Earth Element Thrives in Rhythm, not Rigidity
Think about your digestion. It prefers routine meals, not feast or famine. Your body and mind work best when you use a similar strategy for goal setting. High-pressure resolutions that often overstretch, overextend, and overwhelm us can trigger our nervous system response. In contrast, Earth goals regulate and support. They don’t demand. So think daily, weekly, or seasonally. Doable rhythms that nourish you, through repetition. For example, rather than choosing a goal of losing 10 kilos. Try, I’m going to move my body in a way that feels really good to me three times a week. This not only gives you a positive image of what you are aiming for. More importantly, it helps you focus on small habits that are easy to repeat regularly. This is also how our vagus nerve resets. Not with intensity, but with predictability, steadiness, and safety. This supports the nervous system as a whole; it responds better to incremental change that is rooted in safety. So instead of leaving you feeling paralyzed, you may feel inspired to act, taking even just one small step. You might like to try referring to your goals as:
- habits that you are inviting in,
- supports that you’re layering on,
- or rhythms that you’re returning to.
That not only help towards your goals, but make you feel good.
Step 4: Earth Element is Our Foundation, and Foundations Don’t Rush.
You can’t build a house without checking that the ground it’s going to be on is solid. In our body, the earth element is our inner grounding. It’s our digestion, core, and energy reserves. Earth element also governs the spleen and stomach meridian channels, and these are responsible for transforming food into energy for us. When they’re drained or blocked, you may often feel weak, scattered, or ungrounded, but when they’re nourished and supported, you can feel strong, centered, and resilient.
The root chakra, and even your pelvic alignment, both echo the same message: support first, and then you can stretch. Meaning that we should eat in ways that really, truly fuel you, sleep in ways that restore you, and finally move in ways that support you, not deplete you.
Looking at this from a scientific context, earth-fatigue mirrors low mitochondrial function, impaired recovery, and nervous system strain. So recovery is not laziness. It’s a biological requirement for healing and for strength. If your body is asking for rest, listen.
So before you build new routines, check in. Do I have the resources, physical, emotional, and logistical, to support this? Rest, movement, meals, and breath.
Put your restoring routines into your calendar first, before you add your stretch goals.
And remember to let things really take root. Growth isn’t supposed to be immediate. The Earth element reminds us everything good takes time. Just like roots need time underground before the plant can bloom. Your new habits need time to anchor. You don’t need quantum leaps. You need consistency, recovery.
Energetically, this then supports your solar plexus and sacral chakras to build your confidence, vitality, and flow. The more resourced you are, the more likely your goals are to take root, and for you to feel good doing it.
The mantra of Earth-aligned goals is “slow is sustainable, steady is strong, and grounded is ready.”
So by tending to the soil rather than just throwing the seeds on top. By reflecting on your wins, on the lessons that you’ve had and learned from, and by taking time to truly restore your body and your energy, instead of just chasing transformation, this builds the conditions for true change to emerge naturally.
This is the earth element way. And it just might be the most powerful New Year’s plan of all.
And join us next time to understand the physiology and energetics of earth element fatigue, and how this low-grade muscle fatigue may be affecting your hips, back, neck, shoulders, or jaw.
And thank you for joining me today.
From my heart to your heart,
Namaste.
Sarah xx
And the help you even more
If you’d like to delve even deeper into concepts like this, you can take your new year to the next level with my “Simple 3-Step Heart-Centered Formula for Goal-Setting” eGuide.
You’ll find it in our new FREE app.
Click the link below to download yours!
Book your appointment here:
Interested in further reading?
From Thoughts to Tension: A Guide to Mental and Muscular Fatigue
Breathe and Release: Unlocking the Secrets of Upper Back Tension
Restoring Your Inner Strength: A Guide to Overcoming Physical Fatigue
Decoding Stress: How the Fire Element Affects Your Shoulders
Ease digestive issues, mood disorders, and settle your Vagus Nerve, using the Triple Heater meridian
About Blossoming Me
BlossomingMe offers a fully integrated approach to your wellbeing. Located on Sydney’s Upper North Shore. Sarah is our Cranio-sacral and Remedial Massage Therapist and health and lifestyle coach. She can help relieve those problematic knots, tightness and other specific ailments to promote a healthy recovery. These complementary massage therapies can be combined to suit your needs, and include: craniosacral therapy, shiatsu, acupressure, reiki, remedial, swedish, and body-mind-massage.
Our qualified Osteopath, Alexis, offers a drug free, minimally invasive, “hands on” treatment focusing on the musculoskeletal system with its associated muscles, tendons, ligaments, membranes, bones and joints. Alexis takes a functional approach. This means that she focuses on the way a component (body part, tissue or group of tissues) performs its role, as well as the way the body works, performs and integrates as a whole. Our team can support you to improve your posture and therefore your overall health.