Learning about the the Five Elements of Chinese medicine is a journey inward. The Five Elements are a guidebook and map to the inner world of our thoughts and emotions. They show us how our habitual mental and emotional patterns are reflected in our physical body. They show us how we invest our Qi, our body’s precious energy resource, in our habitual thoughts and emotions.

The theory of the Five Elements is that each of us is prone to certain personality traits and habitual tendencies. This is similar to other personality-type systems like Enneagram and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. What is unique about the Five Elements of Chinese medicine is that these personality types and habitual tendencies are then linked to our bodies and our health.

Each of us has one predominant constitutional type: Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, or Earth. Each of these constitutional types has habitual mental and emotional tendencies as well as organs, body systems, tissues, senses, sense organs and much more associated with it. In Five Element theory, our constitutional type is our weakest element or the element within us which is most easily hooked. For example, I am a Fire type and I am so very easily hooked by what other people think and seeking approval from others. A Metal type may not be quite so easily hooked by what other people think, but by holding themselves to high standards. Water types get easily hooked by power, the imbalances of power, and feeling powerless. Wood types get hooked by feeling it is all on their shoulders and tend to put lots of pressure on themselves to achieve. And Earth types get hooked by burden often feeling burdened by life or they feel they are a burden to others. Once our predominant constitutional type is off balance, this creates imbalance in all of the other four elements within. The Five Element physician seeks to identify the predominant constitutional type and bring it back into balance with acupuncture, moxibustion, herbal medicinals, and other modalities. This then brings all of the elements within the body into balance thus creating health and harmony.

However, what I present here in my version of the Five Elements goes one step beyond just bringing your constitutional type back into balance. What I present is a pathway to awakened mind or mental and emotional liberation. Taoism has a concept called original nature. Original nature is our deep, intimate, inseparable connection to the Tao. We are the Tao and the Tao is us. It is interwoven and interconnected in and through everything and everyone. Being one with the Tao is our true nature, our original nature. When we remember that connection, this can evoke feelings of peace, tranquility, serenity, contentment, and love. It also feels like “okay-ness”…a great sense that everything is okay…absolutely and totally okay…just as it is.

Five Element medical theory states that our constitutional types form as a way of coping with pain, uncertainty, fear, anxiety, and other emotions that show up in life. Beginning at a young age, we find comfort and security in the habits of our constitutional type rather than face the seemingly enormous uncertainties and unknowns inherent in life. These habits are essentially habitual subconscious mental and emotional reactions. Most of us lack the tools and awareness to work with those uncomfortable emotions of pain, uncertainty, fear, and anxiety. So we react to them. These reactions reflect the habits of our constitutional type that feel comforting and safe. However, like smoking cigarettes or biting fingernails, these habits aren’t necessarily healthy, but they feel comforting and safe.

For example, when faced with the vast uncertainties and unknowns of life a Water type may think “the world isn’t safe” creating emotions of fear and powerlessness. A Fire type may think “I need to control this” creating anxiety. A Wood type may think “it’s all up to me” creating a feeling of pressure. A Metal type may think “what’s the use, everything dies anyway” creating grief. An Earth type may think “this is so hard” creating a feeling of burden. In all of these habitual reactions, we remove ourselves from the peace and joy of the present moment.

As we identify our habitual thoughts and emotions, we can ask ourselves how much of our vital Qi we want to invest in these thoughts and emotions. And if we do choose to invest in those habitual thoughts and emotions, what is the return on investment? What life situations do we create when we continue to invest in our habituated thoughts?

The information provided for each element is divided into four sections: introduction, the constitutional type, diseases, and returning to original nature.

In the introduction section, we learn the basics of each element. We learn how everyone has this element within them. We learn what organs, body systems, tissues, senses and sense organs, and other physical attributes of that element. We also learn about that element’s life themes and spirit, or aspect of consciousness.

In the constitutional type section, we learn what it is like to be the constitutional type of that element. We learn the gifts, behavioral habits, habitual emotional states, and habitual thoughts of each constitutional type.

In the diseases section, I present my impressions of the symbolic meaning of diseases from my experience as a medical intuitive and licensed acupuncturist. This section gives us insight into the sacred messages our body gives us through disease. Disease shows us how our habituated mental and emotional patterns manifest in our physical body. In this section, I also give tips for balancing the physical body of each element.

In the returning to original nature section, we explore ways to reframe our habituated mind creating mental and emotional freedom which leads to remembering the peace, joy, and love inherent within, or original nature as it is called in Taoism.

I hope you will join me on this journey inward. It can be fun and light if we let it. For me personally, understanding myself as a Fire constitutional type has given me a great sense of mental and emotional freedom. I hope to give that to you too. There is a saying in Taoism that the sage steers by the torch of chaos and doubt. I think this means that chaos and doubt, uncertainty and unknown, are inherent in life. If we can feel at home in and amongst the chaos and doubt, we find peace. If we can embrace the uncertainties and unknowns of life as a guiding light, we can relax into life just as it is.