Health can be seen as a river of integration that flows between the two opposing forces of Chaos and Rigidity. (For more on this idea, please see Dr. Dan Siegel ‘s book, Mindsight.) Too much chaos gets us into trouble, but too much rigidity is equally risky. The key to emotional and physical health is to strengthen the links between the differentiated parts of our selves, our lives, and our communities. Just like biodiversity keeps an ecosystem healthy and a diverse workplace gives rise to the most creative & innovative ideas, health requires an inner life that’s inclusive of ALL of the parts of ourselves.
This month, we’ll be exploring this river of integration as it applies directly to emotional health.
Over the next five weeks, we’ll be exploring emotional health through the lens of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). In TCM, we can use the Five Element Theory to help us think through the relationships between different systems of the body, including our emotions. Each emotion correlates to one of the five elements, and each element has a web of relationship that includes all of the other elements.
The Five Elements are:
- Water
- Wood
- Fire
- Earth
- Metal
And the emotions that correlate with each element are:
- Fear (Water)
- Anger (Wood)
- Joy (Fire)
- Rumination or Worry (Earth)
- Grief (Metal)
Listen to the episode and explore the ways that these emotions and elements seem linked in your own experience. We’ll be back next week to talk in-depth about the emotion of fear, associated with the Water element and our current season of Winter here in the Northern Hemisphere.
