The Five Elements At The Heart Of Chinese Medicine
The aim of acupuncture and Chinese medicine is to move the body toward balance. So, what does balance look like? It may look different for each person. There are 5 Elements at the heart of Chinese medicine, and one goal is to have a healthy mix of all of them. The 5 Elements are Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal.
Each element is linked with different organ systems, allowing physical symptoms to sometimes indicate an element imbalance. For example, coughing may be indicative of an imbalance in the Metal element, while sluggish digestion is often associated with Earth.
Emotional tendencies also can be indicative of a particular element. Feeling a lot of anger or frustration? Wood element is talking. Lack of joy? Fire may be depleted.
Every person’s baseline - even when healthiest - will look a little different, because we all have unique inherited tendencies and life experiences. If you have been around other humans you know that healthy processes vary from person to person. Your best diet and exercise habits may not match your siblings or partners. Seated meditation may work wonders for you, while your neighbor needs moving meditation, like yoga, to relax.
The 5 Elements offer one framework of looking at things and recognizing patterns that may indicate imbalance. In the book, "Between Heaven and Earth", by Harriet Beinfield, L.Ac. and Efrem Korngold, L.Ac, O.M.D., the 5 Phases are discussed in terms of Archetypes, helping readers grasp what each element looks like in dominance. Ideally all phases are within all of us, but often one or a few can be more dominant and show up in our personality or approach to the world. You may resonate with different archetypes at different times in your life or when you are acting in a particular role- for example, as a parent or among a particular group of friends.
Here are the archetypes as described in “Between Heaven and Earth” and their associated element
Philosopher/Water: seeks truth and uses imagination to explore mysteries
Pioneer/Wood: blazes trails with a bold, adventurous spirit
Alchemist/Metal: observes and analyzes to extract fundamental principles to encourage universal order
Wizard/Fire: inspires faith that all dreams can be realized through magnetic and inspiring energy
Peacemaker/Earth: through stability and relaxed energy seeks harmony and unity
Because our circumstances are always in flux, so is the balance of the 5 elements, but you may notice that you fall in line with one or two more frequently. Many tools including acupuncture, qigong and feng shui have the goal of attuning to all of the elements and fostering balance and equanimity between them.
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