SEPTEMBER'S A.S.P.I.R.E. Newsletter: Finding Balance in the Turning Light
- Erin Bannink, DVM, DACVIM
- 5 days ago
- 7 min read
Animals • Spirituality • People • Integration • Relationship • Evolution
September Edition:
Finding Balance in the Turning Light
Dear Metta Pets Family,
On September 23 the earth reaches a moment of perfect balance — the fall equinox, when day and night stand equal before the light begins to lean toward darkness. It is a quiet hinge in the year, one our animals seem to feel before we do: a little more rest in the afternoon, a little more stillness at dusk.
This month, I find myself standing in my own kind of equinox. One season closed on August 25, when So Your Pet Has Cancer… Now What? officially entered the world. Thank you — truly — for the messages, the pre-orders, the shares, the reviews and the quiet act of simply showing up for the launch. I feel the beautiful heart of our community, and it inspires me.
Now a new season opens. And like the equinox itself, it asks for balance: honoring what has been completed while staying open to what is beginning.
That is the invitation for September — for our pets, for ourselves, and for anyone standing in the in-between.
Newsletter Highlights: Upcoming Events
This Saturday: Free Webinar: Beyond Surviving
Sept 14: Free On-Line Max Meditation
Upcoming in-person Retreat with me. You are invited!
New Book Bundle Upgrade
Body, Soul, Spirit lessons and practices for the season
I hope to see you soon!
With Love,
Erin
Find Your Balance
FREE Online Events
Beyond Surviving
A free webinar event with Dr. Bannink
Don't miss out on upcoming sessions designed to improve quality of life for you, your pet and your clients.
Saturday, September 5, 2026
11:00am-12:00pm EST
Live Only, No Recording
What if healing could mean more than simply surviving a difficult experience?
In this presentation, we'll explore the interconnected nature of physical health, emotional well-being, energy, spirituality, and the human-animal bond — and practical ways pets and their people can cultivate greater resilience, vitality, connection, and quality of life, during a health challenge and beyond.
A special invitation will be available exclusively to those who attend.
Max Meditation for Stress Relief
Connect With Your Inner Peace
Monday, September 14, 2026
7:00 – 8:30 PM EST
Live Only | Zoom
Treat yourself to a guided meditation journey designed to relax the body, quiet the mind, and bring you into a deeper sense of calm and stillness.
The Max Meditation System blends ancient and modern techniques — deep relaxation, breathing, guided imagery, and uplifting visualization.
No previous meditation experience needed.
This is a live-only experience and will not be recorded.
Beyond Ordinary Retreat:
Transformation at the Source
A in-person special event with Dr. Bannink
October 21-25
Rochester, Michigan
Something may already be calling you.
Perhaps you've walked a long path of personal growth and sense there's a dimension you haven't yet reached. Perhaps you're only beginning to feel the pull toward a deeper, more aligned, more expansive life. Wherever you are, if something in you is ready, this retreat was designed for you.
Most personal growth work happens at the level of the mind and emotions. But the reason so many of us plateau — even after years of dedicated effort — is that the root of our stuckness lives deeper still: in the spiritual blueprint, the energetic foundation beneath everything else.
This October, as an initiate and Guide in the ancient Mystery School Tradition, I'm bringing you a retreat that works at that level. Through ancient tools from the 3,000-year-old lineage of King Solomon — passed down and proven across generations, not invented last year — participants receive healing, teachings, and sacred initiation that catalyze lasting shifts at the source. The shifts people report aren't subtle adjustments. They are fundamental re-orientations.
I bring over 20 years of clinical medicine and integrative healing to this work, so you can trust the maturity and integrity behind it — even as it opens into something ancient and sacred. It's a rare space where ancient wisdom, grounded practical application, and spiritual initiation meet.
BODY — Honoring the Body's Seasons
Creating a Foundation for Well-Being
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, autumn belongs to the Metal element, and its home in the body is the lungs — the organ of breath, and of taking in what nourishes us while releasing what no longer serves. As the air turns crisper and drier, the body's job shifts too: from the outward, expansive energy of summer to something more contained, more conserving, more inward.
This is hopeful news. It helps us understand the cycles of the year, and how our bodies naturally respond to this. The season itself is offering us a built-in invitation to slow down, breathe deeper, and nourish ourselves more intentionally — and to extend that same care to our animals.
A few simple, life-giving ways to move with the season:
Add moisture and warmth to meals. Cooked, warming foods — soups, stews, and gently steamed vegetables — support the body as the air turns dry. Pears, sweet potatoes, and bone broth are classic autumn choices for both people and pets who can enjoy them.
Breathe on purpose. A few minutes of slow, deep breathing each day strengthens lung capacity and calms the nervous system. Try it during a quiet moment with your pet curled beside you — their steady breathing can help guide yours.
Take a gentle daily walk. Easy movement in fresh air supports circulation and lung health for you and your animal alike, even a short, slow stroll.
Protect against dryness. A humidifier, extra hydration, and moisturizing balms for paws and noses help skin and airways stay comfortable as the season shifts.
Let the day wind down earlier. As daylight shortens, an earlier bedtime — for you and your pet — supports the body's natural rhythm of conserving energy for the season ahead.
None of this needs to be perfect. Choose one practice this week and notice how it feels to give your body — and your animal's — a little more warmth, moisture, and rest.
SOUL - the Gift in Letting Go
Caring for the Mind and Emotions
In Chinese medicine, the emotion connected to Metal and the lungs is grief — but grief here isn't treated as something gone wrong. It's understood as sacred, purposeful energy: the very thing that clears space for what comes next. Just as the lungs exist to both receive and release with every breath, the soul is designed allow emotions to move through us quickly and freely, to experience and to let go, in a rhythm that keeps us alive and open.
This is genuinely good news for anyone living with a cancer diagnosis, or loving someone through one. If you've felt grief, worry, or sadness this season, you haven't lost your footing — you're doing exactly what this time of year calls the soul to do. And on the other side of that release is almost always more room to breathe, more clarity, and more capacity to feel joy again.
You don't have to rush your grief, and you don't have to fear it. Autumn suggests a gentler way: let the feeling move through, like breath, rather than holding it in or pushing it away.
A Simple Practice
Sit quietly and take a slow breath in, imagining you are drawing in something you need — hope, comfort, strength. Hold it for a moment. Then breathe out slowly, releasing something you're ready to set down — a fear, a worry, a "should." Repeat for five breaths.
Each exhale makes room. Each inhale fills it back up with something life-giving. This is not the work of loss — it is the work of renewal.
SPIRIT - Standing in the Equal Light
Finding Meaning Within the Journey
For one day this fall, light and dark stand in balance. Neither is wrong or right. They simply exist together, each contrasting the other and giving meaning to the polarities in life.
This is, in many ways, the truth of the cancer journey. Fear and hope exist together. Grief and gratitude exist together. The hardest season of your pet's life can hold real joy — a favorite walk, a sunbeam on the floor, a look that says I know you.
Our animals do not experience this tension the way we do. They simply live inside each moment as it comes, equinox and solstice alike. They are, perhaps, our best teachers in how to stand in the balance rather than resist it.
You do not have to choose between grief and gratitude this season. You are allowed to hold both, equally, the way the earth holds the light.
THIS MONTH'S PRACTICE: Equinox Balance
As we cross into the new season, take five quiet minutes to reflect on two lists:
What I am releasing — worries, expectations, or burdens that no longer serve this chapter.
What I am carrying forward — hopes, lessons, or commitments that will guide the season ahead.
You can write these down, speak them aloud, or simply hold them in your mind. Some people light a candle for what they're releasing and let it burn down; others plant something to represent what they're carrying forward. There is no wrong way to mark the turning.
REFLECTION PROMPT
Where in your life — or your pet's life — are you being asked to hold both hope and grief at the same time?
What would it look like to stop trying to resolve that tension, and instead let both be true?
A Note of Gratitude
One week ago, So Your Pet Has Cancer… Now What? became real — no longer just a manuscript, but a book in the hands of pet parents and veterinary professionals.
I've been moved by the early messages from readers who said it gave language to feelings they hadn't been able to name, or inspired hope and healing for themselves or clients.
If you've read it, I'd love to hear what stayed with you and how it helped you.
I have a small but powerful ask: If you found something meaningful in the book, to leave a review on Amazon about what you liked, how you feel it will help other pet parents or veterinary professionals, or what stuck with you the most.
And if you haven't read it yet, it's not too late to bring it home.
Buy the VIP Book Bundle from me (signed copy, Journal, bookmark etc.)
✨Closing Thoughts ✨
The equinox doesn't ask the earth to choose between light and dark. It simply asks it to hold both, in balance, for one turning moment before the season moves on.
You are allowed the same grace. You do not have to choose between hope and grief, between holding on and letting go, between honoring what was and welcoming what's next.
Stand in the balance.
The season — and your animal — will meet you there.
With love and gratitude,
Dr. Erin Bannink
Board-Certified Veterinary Oncologist
Integrative Practitioner
Senior Guide and Metaphysical Teacher, Modern Mystery School International
Author of So Your Pet Has Cancer… Now What?
You Are Invited
Upcoming 5-Day In-Person Empowerment Intensive
with Dr. Bannink
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