To create more clarity and help us understand the importance of these elements in our lives, I want to say just a little more about these three elements. What happens when we go out of balance with the physical element? The answer is in the Restricting Element.
For a wood element archetype, this being associated with the liver, the form of imbalance is generally created through excess rather than depletion. It can fool us and look like the symptoms of depletion, because if it becomes chronic, over years of time, excessive enegy will result in a burn out like depletion. This often creates physical symptoms associated with a congested liver, such as skin issues, breakouts, hardening or inflexibility in muscles and tendons, emotional upsets, eye issues and poor eyesight, to name a few.
Wood's restricting element is metal, so when a wood's energy is out of balance, it will show up in a metal form: Paying too much attention to what others think, and being overfocused on detail. Alternatively, the way to restore balance for the over-doing wood, is to turn toward the nourishing element: Water. Water pursuits-developing spirituality and cultivating ease and gentleness in life, will restore balance and regenerate the wood element. An interesting example of this is happening in the sports world right now, and his name is Tiger Woods. In November, Tiger experienced an event that was triggered by many years of excessive behavior. His family, partnership, and golfing career were suddenly placed on the line because of this excess in his life. Today, Tiger came out of seclusion to announce that he was changing his ways, and going back into his Buddhist practice, as he had let go of it for some time. This is the exact illustration of a wood element person restoring balance in his life! (Thanks to Blew Thunder who follows the sports world and gives me updates!
Now lets look ar metal archetypes. Metals are associated with the lungs and large intestine. When they are out of balance, it is usually caused by a state of overwhelm that results in retention of toxicity in the body, and/or respiratory system issues. Over long periods of time, symptoms can develop into more chronic conditions such as asthma and colon cancer.
When metals are out of balance, they reflect the restricting fire element, becoming scattered and distracted, or acting on every impulse. The way back into balance is to look toward the nourishing element, earth. Drawing attention back into their own center and creating balance in the world around them is imperative to restoring a metal's balance.
The water element is associated with kidneys and bladder. With this element, depletion is usually the cause of imbalance. Depleted kidney energy is considered by Chinese medicine to be the cause of all aging. This usually creates symptoms associated with kidneys, such as swelling and edema, lower back pain, decaying teeth, loss of hair, hearing loss, pain or injury in feet and legs, pelvic issues and reproductive system issues.
The water element out of balance will appear as a restricting earth element. Loss of the self in others-getting caught up in the emotional lives of others to the extent of losing ourselves; feeling powerless in life, and perceiving victimization all around are issues.
To restore balance, a water must turn to the nourishing element of Metal, and re-establish boundaries and attend to the details in order to restore balance.
Tomorrow is Saturday, and I will likely not be blogging again until Monday morning. Just in case-have a beautiful couple of days, enjoy the process (and the juices!)
Kachina
