Fire

Although everyone has the Fire element within them, some people become deeply invested in Fire’s way of being. We call this the Fire constitutional type and it is a collection of habits. We can put that collection of habits into 3 categories: habitual thoughts, habitual emotions, and habitual behaviors. Fire constitutional types will invest their body’s vital Qi and resources into thoughts like “I am not enough”, “I need to try hard in life”, “its isn’t safe to relax and let go” and “I need to be seen, appreciated, and acknowledged”. These thoughts create emotions like anxiety and a need to feel in control. These thoughts and emotions then create behaviors like trying to control others and life’s outcomes, manipulation, lying, pretending to be someone you are not, and people pleasing behaviors. Over time, these thoughts, emotions, and behaviors can create diseases like insomnia, adrenal fatigue, and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

These thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are a collection of habits. For Fire types, this collection of habits feels safe and comforting in the face of the uncertainties and unknowns of life. Like most habits, they aren’t necessarily healthy…like biting your fingernails or smoking a cigarette, they are ways of self-soothing. Rather than facing the vast enormous uncertainties and unknowns of life, we retreat into our habits which make us feel a sense of security.

Ultimately, we need to ask ourselves if investing in these thoughts, emotions, and behaviors is a worthy investment of our Qi. We can choose where we want to invest our Qi. When we begin investing our Qi in the present moment, trusting life, and trusting the unknown, we create the pathway to remembering the peace, joy, and love inherent within or original nature. We do that in the section Fire Returning to Original Nature.

• Joy: Essentially all positive emotions stem from the joy associated with the Heart and the Fire element. Our mental and emotional state is determined by our mind and emotions which are governed by the Heart in Chinese medicine
• Love: Our ability to give and receive love is governed by the Fire element.
• Connection: Our ability to connect to others is governed by the Fire element. In health, Fire gives us the ability to see someone for who they truly are, hear what someone is really saying, and to be fully and genuinely present with someone as you interact with them. It is so rare in our lives for someone to truly see and hear us. Some people go through much of their lives without feeling seen or heard. We connect with others with our Small Intestine. The energy of our Small Intestine, similar to the 3rd chakra, reaches out and feels others.
• Relationships: When we perceive ourselves as separate from the whole, or the Tao, everything in life becomes a separate entity to which we relate. How we relate to ourselves, others, and life itself creates our state of being. On a less existential level, all relationships in our lives: relationships to our family members, romantic relationships, co-workers, the person in line at the grocery store, etc. are all governed by the Fire element. In health, Fire constitutional types can be at ease relating to others, getting to know others, and forming friendships.
• Intimacy: Intimacy happens on all four levels: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Many Fire types feel comfortable with vulnerability and letting others into their inner world. Fire types can create enhanced intimacy by making others feel at ease and warmed.
• Vulnerability: Many Fire types feel very comfortable being vulnerable and open. A willingness to feel and experience fully all emotions and experiences including pain and discomfort. Some Fire types, however, put a wall around their heart thus controlling intimacy and vulnerability with others.
• Communication/speech: Our ability to express ourselves and listen to others is governed by the Fire element. Fire types generally are good communicators, able to express themselves clearly and articulately.
• Truth: Although Water types are the great seekers of truth, Fire types are the speakers of truth. Fire, which governs speech and communication, speaks the truth. Fire in health helps us say the truth even when the truth is difficult to say.
• Warmth: Fire constitutional types can warm up a room. This can be from a big smile to laughter to entertaining. Being around a Fire constitutional type can feel like sitting around a campfire where you experience laughter, connectedness, and emotional warmth.
• Laughter: Laughter is the sound of the Fire element. Being able to let go and laugh is one of the great joys of life. Laughing to the point of tears can be cleansing for the Liver. Fire gives us laughter.
• Play and fun: Summer is the season of Fire. Summer is when we relax and let go. Summer is the season of fun. Our ability to play and have fun is governed by the Fire element.
• Sage: A Fire type that is healthy and mature can have a sage-like quality about them. They can radiate peace and contentment. They can truly be okay with everything just as it is.
• Wants: getting in touch with your wants leads to you fulfill your sacred plan for this life. 
• Returning to peace, joy, and love: Most spiritual traditions talk about the Heart as the gateway to connecting with the Tao, God, Spirit, Source, the Universe, or whatever word you use to describe the intelligent benevolent existence tissue of which we are all a part. When our Heart and the Fire element is balanced, we are able to see glimpses of that peace, joy, and love inherent within.

• it is here, in the Fire element, where the terror of humiliation lives. So much of our daily actions are guided by the need for approval from others and an effort to avoid humiliation.
• in an effort to feel a sense of control, Fire types can try hard, effort, give 125%. This can lead to burn out over time.
• in an effort to feel a sense of control, Fire types may have a hard time relaxing and letting go. It may not feel safe to let go and relax for a Fire type.
• may seek out people who are controlling. Being in the presence of a controlling person can feel safe and help create the feeling of letting go.
• trying hard, efforting, giving 125% to everything, generally overdoing everything, (again in an effort to feel a sense of control) can create chaos. This can also create lots of tension in the body….never relaxing or letting go.
• feels a need to be somebody special…recognized, famous, special, unique. Unable to appreciate the ordinary-ness of just being. Needing to be somebody rather than just being.
• will often speed through life. Slowing down feels uncomfortable
• likes to chase excitement. Excitement feels like a good investment to many Fire types.
• may seek approval from others and may often fall into people pleasing habits.
• in order to feel approval from others, Fire types may pretend to be someone they are not.
• may turn to manipulation as a way of feeling in control.
• may have a hard time committing to things like relationships, professions, or schooling.
• generally good at starting things, but have a hard time seeing things through to completion.
• dive deeply into intimacy too quickly. This can be physical or emotional intimacy. Not taking the time to allow trust to build over time.
• some Fire types don’t feel comfortable with intimacy or vulnerability and put up a wall.

• Anxiety: Fire types tend to experience anxiety more intensely than others. Anxiety is a future oriented emotion. If you look at the thoughts that create anxiety, they are generally about the future and what might happen in the future. You can distill all thoughts that cause anxiety down into “What if” thoughts. “What if I don’t get the job” “what if he’s lost interest in me” “what if they think I am not good enough”.
• Excitement: Fire types tend to chase excitement. Fire types love to experience excitement and seek out exciting experiences. This can be fun in moderation, but can easily snowball into seeking out dangerous and risky activities.
• Joy: The Heart is the gateway to experiencing original nature. The Fire element is what gives us positive emotions. All positive emotions stem from joy.
• Love: The Heart gives us the ability to give and receive love. All experience of love originates in the Heart.
• Control: Although control isn’t an emotion, it is a state of being. Fire types spend enormous amounts of Qi trying to maintain an illusion of feeling in control. This can also manifest as allowing yourself to be controlled by others.
• Shame: At the darkest part of the Fire type is the ability to experience extreme self-hate and self-denigration. There can be a belief that there is something inherently wrong with us…that, at our core, we are flawed and we make things worse. This is an intense place to be. This is shame.

(Note: these thoughts are the root of the above emotions and behaviors. When we isolate and question the thoughts which create these emotional states and behaviors, we create the ability to free ourselves from these mental and emotional habitual tendencies.)

• I am not enough
• I need to effort, to try hard in life. I need to try hard to get others to like me.
• I need to be seen in a certain way. I need to be seen as __________ (wealthy, pretty, athletic, smart, etc)
• I need to be somebody special, recognized, famous, unique. I can’t just be me. I can’t just be.
• It’s my job to make others happy. If I try hard enough, I will make her/him/them happy.
• It isn’t safe to relax. It isn’t safe to let go and let life take its course. If I relax, something bad will happen.
• “What if” thoughts. Thoughts which awfulize or catastrophize the future.
• It’s not safe for me to slow down and take my time. Everything needs to get done right now.
• I need things to turn out the way I want them to turn out. I can control the future. If I let go, it will all fall apart. If I let go, something bad will happen. I can’t trust life. I can’t trust the natural course of life.

Listed below are diseases associated with the Fire element and the mental, emotional, and behavioral tendencies that may cause them. This information is based in my experience as a medical intuitive and practitioner of Chinese medicine, so what is presented below is just my opinion. My hope is to give you self-awareness, clarity, and insight into yourself through what your body tells you. This information can be a springboard for you to journey within and get to know your habitual tendencies which can manifest as disease.

If you are a Fire constitutional type, this does not mean you are predisposed to the diseases below. Anyone can have these diseases. Diseases are usually caused by multiple factors including infection, poor diet and lifestyle choices, environmental toxins, genetics, aging, and habitual mental and emotional patterns. I hope this information starts a conversation within yourself. Ask yourself: “does this resonate with me?” “can I see this in myself?” “if I don’t resonate with this, does this bring up other feelings, memories or information that gives me insight into myself?”. These are mere suggestions rather than absolute truth.

• Fire addiction: Self-loathing. Self-hate. Self-denigration. Can’t stand to be with yourself. Can’t stand to be in your own skin.
• Fire depression: The realization you have no control. Whereas, anxiety is the mistaken belief that you do have control and the effort of trying to control.
• Adrenal fatigue: Efforting, giving 150% to everything all the time. Direct result of seeking approval. Look to your childhood for a parent/family member whose approval you did not get. Draining your vital resources and reserves in the hopes of getting the parent/family member’s approval. Also: taking responsibility for other people’s happiness. The Triple Warmer (which relates to the adrenal glands) sees herself as the one who makes others happy or warms up the room. If someone is not happy, you expend effort and energy to make them happy. This also drains vital resources and reserves because you can’t make someone else happy. Only they can make themselves happy. So you are like a dog chasing its tail, fighting a losing battle that can never be won and draining vital resources and reserves in order to do so.
• Acne: Pretending to be more than you are. Wearing a mask. Pretending to be happy, okay, when underneath the mask you feel unhappy, not okay. Thoughts of “I am not enough just as I am” take over and create the need to be liked, acknowledged, admired. Unable to value yourself just as you are. (Metal influence here)
• Agoraphobia: Very harsh self-criticism, self-denigration. Going over past events and interactions with others with punishing self-hate. Unable to face life due to debilitating self-criticism.
• Anxiety: The need for approval. The need to feel in control. Future oriented: trying to control the future…’What If’ thinking. Dreading the future. Distorted thinking blows future events out of proportion making something relatively easy or light seem difficult and overwhelming.
• Insomnia: (Anxiety’s twin) The need for approval. The need to feel in control. Dreading the future. At 2:00 AM, tomorrow feels heavy and stifling.
• Borderline personality disorder (BPD): Cannot trust love. The need to control love. Manipulation of loved ones in order to feel in control. The stories we believe about life situations and other people become stronger and more concrete than reality itself. Believing our own stories more than we believe reality.
• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD): The illusion of control is achieved by repeating routines, rituals, and habits. Seeking safety from the terror of the future and the unknown.
• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): A habit of speeding through life. Slowing down feels unsafe. Fire’s reaction to fear is to speed up and press the accelerator pedal down. Speed feels like the right thing in the face of fear. Speeding through connection with others and life in general which creates poor connection and reinforces fear.
• Diseases of heat and eruption: eczema, ulcers, hives/skin rashes, allergic reactions/histamine response, canker sores, body odor, bad breath: Mental and emotional eruptions which are unprocessed, unacknowledged, and suppressed. Fire types tend to be emotionally reactive and go to an emotional 10 quickly. A need to examine honestly what is causing emotional eruptions in your heart and mind.
• Overactive histamine response: Fire types tend toward quick and intense histamine responses making them more prone to allergies and allergic reactions. This correlates to Fire’s emotionally reactive nature. Fire types can react emotionally and intensely. The histamine response reflects this intense emotional reaction.
• Heartburn/gastroesophageal reflux disorder (GERD): In Chinese medicine, Qi that surges upward when it shouldn’t is called rebellious Qi. A deep mistrust of life as it is. The reaction to that mistrust is rebelling against life. (Heartburn is not always caused by emotional imbalance. It is often caused just by poor food choices and a weak digestive Qi.)
• Celiac disease: (With Wood and Fire) Celiac disease mainly effects the Small Intestine, which is the paired organ of the Heart. Unable to enjoy and appreciate life as it is. The thoughts about life in which you invest are distorted creating fear and anxiety in everything and the function of the Small Intestine shuts down. Unable to see, assimilate, and absorb the good of everyday life.
• Prostate issues: Sexual intimacy without emotional intimacy. Allowing the intimacy of sex to replace the intimacy of emotional and heart connection.
• Heart disease/atherosclerosis/coronary artery disease: Holding back love. Unable to give love completely and freely. Unable to receive love completely and freely. Trying to control love, trying to protect yourself from hurt.
• Heart attack/myocardial infarction: The joy has been squeezed out of life. The need to feel a sense of control has taken all the fun, play, laughter, and joy out of life.
• High cholesterol: The joy that is available in relationships, loving, and intimacy becomes a burden. Feeling burdened by loved ones and relationships in your life. The need to identify and fulfill your own needs in relationships rather than people pleasing and doing what you think others want you to do. (With Earth influence here.)
• Narcolepsy: So much efforting for control and to earn approval from others that the heart, which regulates sleep, is exhausted and shuts down.
• Schizophrenia: Consciousness has broken, shattered. Shen (the Spirit of the Fire element) cannot rest or feel safe. Heat in the Heart.
• Eating disorders (see also Metal Eating Disorders): Traveling on the spectrum of control and chaos. Sometimes in the state of rigid control of yourself and your eating habits and sometimes in the state of total loss of control of yourself and eating habits which feels like chaos. This relates to binging-type eating disorders.
• Hyperkyphosis/dowager’s hump: Hiding how you truly feel. Being told by others that you are not allowed to feel what you actually feel. Being told by others that what you feel doesn’t matter….that your needs and wants don’t matter. Hiding how you really feel from others. Physical representation of pushing your feelings to the back, hiding them away.
• Mania: A combination of chasing excitement, fantasizing about an exciting future, and dreading the future. All of these create speediness and revving the engine, which is the heart. In a manic state of being, speed, heat, and chaos feel right. So we cultivate and engender more speed, heat, and chaos. We fan the flames and throw gasoline on the fire.
• Hyperhydrosis: Terrified of what others think. Desperate to please.
• Stuttering: the feeling of “I am not enough”.

• Slow down: Fire types have such a hard time slowing down, but it is like medicine for them. Try slowing down in life and in your daily routine. Take a break. Take a deep breath. Invest in the thought “there is no hurry”.
• Relaxation response: Most of us go through our daily lives with our nervous system in a constant low grade fight-or-flight mode. This fight or flight mode, or sympathetic nervous system, sends a cascade of stress hormones throughout the body. When we initiate the relaxation response, our body begins to relax engaging the rest-and-digest mode, or the parasympathetic nervous system. This breaks the cycle of stress hormones and lets our physical body know it is safe to let go and relax. A daily routine of consciously initiating the parasympathetic nervous system, or rest and digest mode, can be beneficial for everyone, but most especially for anxious nervous Fire types. To initiate this relaxation response, simply spend about 15-20 minutes or so relaxing on a daily basis. Using a guided mediation or relaxation can be helpful to calm an active mind. I am a big fan of the Calm app.
• Forward bends and restorative yoga: Forward bending and restorative yoga poses descend the energy. Fire types’ energy tends to be ungrounded and ascended.
• Eat meat protein: Fire types with their high metabolism do well with meat protein (such as beef, chicken, turkey, pork, lamb, bison, fish) in their diet. If you have fatigue or low energy, consider eating lean meat protein daily. This could include eggs and fish. For some Fire types, eating meat protein with nearly every meal is beneficial.
• Eat simple carbohydrates and comfort food: Fire types tend to do well with simple carbohydrates like bread, pasta, crackers, and potatoes. If you have sensitivities, the gluten free variety of these may be best for you.
• Self-soothing: Fire types tend to be anxious, nervous, and restless. Practicing self-soothing can be a very helpful exercise which can activate the relaxation response in the body. Watching calming TV shows or movies, reading books with long passages about pastoral scenes, and listening to guided relaxation are all ways to self-soothe.
• Spend time in the sun: It feels so good to sit or lie in the sun. Letting the sun warm you and relax you is one of the great joys of life. Symbolically, the sunshine is joy. As you bask in the sun’s rays, you are absorbing joy.
• Spend time getting in touch with your wants: We live in an era where we have the luxury of fulfilling our wants, which hasn’t always been the case in past eras which were more about survival. Listening to your inner voice tell you what it wants sets you on a course to fulfill your sacred plan for this life. Things like “I want to quit my job”, “I want to travel abroad”, “I want to go back to school” are examples of these wants. Even if there is no chance of fulfilling these wants, you can still acknowledge them. 
• Seeing things through to the end: Fire types are very good at starting new things, but have a hard time seeing things through to the end. Seeing things through to the end can be a good exercise for Fire types as it helps Fire types to slow down, pace themselves, and commit to something.
• The Art of Resting: In our speedy aggressive culture, we do not value rest. But in the ancient traditions of Chinese medicine, resting and conserving our precious Qi is paramount for health. What is your relationship to rest? Do you feel lazy, unproductive if you rest? Can you give yourself some rest today?
• Yoga, Qi Gong, Tai Ji: Everyone would benefit greatly from a regular practice of either yoga, Qi Gong, or Tai Ji. These forms of exercise create strength and flexibility. They balance, harmonize, and strengthen Qi. Yoga, Qi Gong, and Tai Ji strengthen our connection to the peace, joy, and love inherent within. They weaken the habitual mental and emotional patterns which block us from experiencing our connection to peace, joy, and love.