(Episode 82) Shamanic Healing for the Five Elements

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Share your thoughts in the comments below after you’ve listened to the episode. We’d love to hear from you!

Welcome to our latest episode, where we delve into the pursuit of balance through elemental practices. When we discuss the elements, we are referring to the five Chinese elements: Earth, Wood, Metal, Fire, and Water. Join us as we explore how these practices can enhance our well-being, harmony, and balance in today’s fast-paced world.

Key Themes:

  • Balance and Harmony: We discuss the crucial role of achieving balance in our lives and how connecting with the five Chinese elements can lead to mental, physical, and emotional harmony.

  • Shamanic Traditions: We encourage listeners to engage with shamanic practices to balance the five elements.

  • Connecting with the Elements:

    • Earth: Learn how drumming and preparing food can help you connect with the earth element.

    • Wood: We talk about hugging trees and listening to the wind to strengthen your wood energy.

    • Metal: Discover how wind chimes, singing bowls, and crystals can help you align with metal energy.

    • Water and Fire: Understand the importance of balancing these opposing forces through moon and solar gazing, and why spending time near water can cultivate Ying energy.

  • Leadership and Organization: We delve into how wood energy is associated with leadership and metal with organization, offering insights for those looking to improve in these areas.

  • Creative and Calming Practices: The episode covers how to stimulate creativity with Fire and calm the mind with Water, as well as safe alternatives to direct sun gazing.

Even if you just have 5 minutes, fast forward to one of these key moments, then bookmark this episode for later to learn:

  • [00:00] Introduction to the concept of balance and harmony through elemental energies for overall well-being.

  • [04:30] Discussion on the significance of grounding in the year of the Yang Wood Dragon.

  • [06:50] Importance of integrating shamanic traditions to balance the five Chinese elements for personal harmony.

  • [08:40] The role of astrology in self-awareness and its limitations without the addition of personal growth and free will.

  • [10:20] Practices to connect with the Earth element: drumming and cooking.

  • [12:05] Techniques for connecting with Wood energy: tree hugging and listening to the wind.

  • [14:00] Using wind chimes, singing bowls, and crystals to align with the metal element.

  • [15:35] Leadership and wood energy, organization and metal energy: exploring their interconnections.

  • [17:20] Engaging with Water and Fire energies through moon and solar gazing.

  • [19:10] Recommendations for inviting more Water energy into one’s life for Ying energy and balance.

  • [21:00] Calming the mind with Water practices and stimulating creativity with Fire practices.

  • [22:45] Advice on safe sun gazing.

  • [24:30] The healing benefits of altering old patterns and enhancing consciousness through these elemental practices.

  • [26:10] Emphasizing the role of nature in achieving relaxation and deepening awareness.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Download the Microcosmic & Macrocosmic Orbit Meditations at  ⁠acenterfornaturalhealing.com/shop⁠⁠⁠.

Strengthen your immune system, restore your gut health, and improve joint mobility and circulation with our unique line of expertly formulated probiotics, digestive enzymes and proteolytic enzymes at www.aharabotanics.com. Use promo code HEALTHY10 for 10% off your first order!

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(Episode 59) Creating Space: 3 Practices to Allow New Energy Into Your Life this New Year

Once you’ve listened, scroll down to the comments and let us know — how will YOU create space in your life this new year?

With the onset of the lunar new year and the beginning of the Year of the Water Rabbit, creating space is essential to allow new energy to enter your life.

In this episode you’ll learn how to create space in your physical environment, your body and mind to attract new possibilities in this new year and beyond.

The Year of the Water Rabbit

The Chinese New Year starts with the first new moon of the year, which in 2023 was on January 22nd. The change of the zodiac occurs based on the first solar term (the beginning of the 24 solar terms), which is on February 4th.

The solar terms are based on the elliptical orbit of the Earth around the Sun, divided into fifteen degree segments. These solar terms also determine the seasons. According to the luni-solar calendar, February 4th is the start of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Vernal Equinox is actually the middle of the Spring season.

We are transitioning from the Year of the Water Tiger in 2022 to the Year of the Water Rabbit.

Since the Rabbit’s natural element is Wood and according to the Five Elements, Water nourishes Wood, this year of the Water Rabbit is considered to be a harmonious year.

In order to fully experience the benefits of this new year, it’s important to make changes to create space in your life.

Ready to live a life of endless possibilities?

Click the button below for your FREE audio guide to learn 4 essential pillars rooted in Classical Chinese Medicine and Daoism that'll support you to transform your well-being and create an extraordinary life.

How to Create Space

Creating space in your environment can be done first through decluttering your home and office, and getting rid of the things you don’t need in your life.

One of the methods we like to employ for this is rooted in the KonMari Method from the book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. In it, Marie encourages that you go through each category of your belongings (clothes, shoes, jewelry, makeup, kitchenware, etc.) and determine which items ‘spark joy.’

Anything that doesn’t bring you joy when you’re in its presence should either be discarded or given away.

This allows you to really scale back on the extra clutter that you don’t even enjoy having in your life!

We also recommend that every year you try to get rid of at least 30% of all your belongings. It may sound like a lot, but you’ll be amazed at how much extra clutter accumulates over the course of a year!

The next thing to be mindful of is your breathing.

Inhalation allows you to draw in fresh energy, while your exhalation allows you to let go and release toxins from your body.

When your breathing is shallow, not only does this inhibit you from letting go, but it also inhibits the Qi from effectively flowing throughout your body.

Ultimately, the way energy flows in your body will be reflected in your life.

Taking deep breaths allows you to maintain the movement of energy and blood, thereby creating space physically and emotionally.

In terms of the physical body, creating space requires the movement of Yin stagnation and this can be done vibrational through Water Breathing, which has been discussed in past episodes. Salvador demonstrates this breathing in this episode.

Emotionally, releasing emotional stagnation requires moving the blood of the Pericardium Luo, which is done by tapping the inner arm, which is explained in this episode.

Overall, you want to make sure to create space in your physical environment as well as your body through deep breathing and in your emotions through simple exercises that free the stagnation physically, mentally and emotionally.

As you create space, you allow for new and endless possibilities to come into your life.

Scroll down to the comments and let us know — how will YOU create space in your life this new year?

Resources mentioned in this episode

How to Do Ujjayi Breathing

How to Attract Endless Possibilities

(Episode 25) How to Manage Stress to Experience More Joy

by Setareh Moafi, Ph.D., L.Ac. & Salvador Cefalu, M.S., L.Ac.

Enrollment for the From Surviving to Thriving online course reopens for a limited time on August 1-18, 2023. Click here to join the VIP waitlist and get your FREE eBook, 3 Toxic Beliefs That Keep You Stuck in Survival Mode.

In the previous episode we discussed the perils of excessive Heart Fire, but the Heart is also associated with other powerful emotions like joy, passion, love, creativity, and altruism.

We experience these aspects of an open Heart through a calm and centered presence, which can sometimes seem unattainable or unreachable.

In this episode we discuss a powerful way to help you achieve a balanced state in your Heart, and in doing so, you’ll experience more joy. 

The main stressors of life are ever-present and stress is a natural and necessary part of our livelihood. In the morning, the stress hormone cortisol helps us wake up and fuel the start of our day, although high levels of cortisol can cause anxiety and discomfort. Stress in general can trigger and enable us to accomplish and move so it is needed to a certain degree. 

The question becomes how we can manage this stress so it doesn't dominate our life?

One key aspect is the Heart-Kidney relationship (discussed in a previous episode) that’s usually affected by an imbalance of stress in our lives. In order to harmonize the Heart-Kidney relationship, the in-between Wood element needs to be addressed.

Wood is a very reactive energy that needs to be tempered with harmonization of the Liver and relaxation of the nervous system.

Since the associated Liver organ of the Wood element helps with the smooth flow of Qi or energy, it essentially tempers the stress response, allowing you to settle your Heart and experience more joy.

Calming your Liver Qi changes your reactivity and allows you to cultivate peace that improves the quality of your life. 

Want to learn easy ways to calm your Liver so you can bring more joy & calm to your life—even during the most turbulent times?
Join us for the From Surviving to Thriving online course. 2023 enrollment begins for a limited time on August 1st!
Click here to join the VIP waitlist and get your FREE eBook, 3 Toxic Beliefs that Keep You Stuck in Survival Mode, now!

(Episode 14) Balancing the Wood Element Archetype

by Setareh Moafi, Ph.D., L.Ac. & Salvador Cefalu, M.S., L.Ac.

Once you’ve listened, click here to take our Five Element Personality quiz to find out which of the Five Element personality types, then leave your insights in the comments below.

Wood Energy

The Wood element naturally dominates the Spring season. In Japan, the Wood element is often called “tree” and this is fitting because trees ascend to the sky. Likewise, Wood energy ascends its Yang Qi or energy upwards to the head. When this Yang Qi is exuberant in spring, it can send too much Qi to the head causing allergies, hypertension, dizziness and headaches as the Yang Qi exerts a lot of heat when it becomes very active. 

The emotions associated with Wood can also become more prevalent in Yang seasons of Spring/Summer, especially when Qi is pent-up. In extreme cases, we witness rage, anger and frustration as signs of overexertion of Yang Qi. 

For these reasons, it’s important to address the energetics of the liver and gallbladder since they’re the main organs associated with the Wood energy. 

3 simple ways to balance Wood energy:

  1. The liver tends to accumulate a lot of heat. An effective way to counter some of the heat is through liver detoxification. Simply preparing cooked leafy vegetables or supplementing your diet with dandelion and burdock root can also help cool down the liver. 

  2. Avoid or reduce substances that may add to the heat, such as alcohol and coffee

  3. Practice meditation—especially practices focusing on improving the breathing mechanism that can help cool and relax the nervous system. 

Yin Wood & Yang Wood Personalities

We can also look at the Wood element from the Yin/Yang perspective.

A Yang Wood personality will often be expressive—they’re the leaders and commanders of society.

A Yin Wood personality, on the other hand, will often be intelligent but shy and less assertive with their dreams.

While wonderful when Wood personalities are in balance, like all Five Element personality types, off balance Wood personality types can become intolerable. Yang Wood type can become angry or temperamental when out of balance and Yin Wood type will resort to withdrawing and excessive daydreaming. 

Although each of us possess a dominant personality type among the Five Elements, we’re all comprised of all five elements. Our individual personalities arise from the unique combination of the elements and it may change over time.

As the influence of the environment around us increases—especially during childhood—we may experience a shift in our personality. A person who was more Wood as a child may be reshaped by parents or those around them if they’re told to suppress some of the emotions as they are expressing their natural personalities.

Certain environments may also force us to take on attributes that are more suitable such as CEOs that strongly favor the Yang leadership and assertive personalities. 

Tips to balance Wood personalities

  • Yang Wood types can temper bright clothing with pastel colors to express themselves. 

  • Taking public speaking classes or expressive activities may help Yin Wood types that are feeling out of balance. 

  • Exercise is generally a great way to keep Wood types in balance. Yang Wood types will find more gentle forms of exercise such as yoga and Tai Chi helpful while Yin Wood types will benefit from participating in more active sports such as martial arts. 

  • Massage, acupuncture and meditation are beneficial to both Yin and Yang Wood personality types as a way to relax the nervous system and temper the common emotions witnessed in those with Wood energy imbalance. 

Once you’ve listened to the episode, click here to take our Five Element Personality quiz to find out which of the Five Element personality types you most resonate with and leave your insights in the comments below.

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