Water: The Philosopher
The virtue of Water is faith
As a Water archetype, you have great perspective on the meaning of life, and embody qualities of perseverance, stamina, and endurance. You tend to be cautious and sensible and enjoy frequent periods of solitude. Although you don’t often share your feelings and thoughts with others, you’re not afraid to defend the truth as you see it.
On an intellectual level, you enjoy delving into philosophy, spirituality, and the great, essential questions of life. You love to research, read, learn, and to understand. You’re a deep thinker, a seeker of sense rather than sensations; someone who strives for enlightenment or the presence of the divine.
While you may seem aloof to others, you’re enormously loyal and can help untangle the most complicated situations.
Your capacity to look at situations with keen observation and without judgment makes you a trusted confidante, while your expansive knowledge makes you a wonderful teacher that in later years can attract the reverence of a sage.
Unlike your opposite element, Fire, which is fully in the moment, you’re mostly concerned with and have great perspective on both the past and future.
You’re self-sufficient and love to get involved in intellectual pursuits, but outside of a few good friends, you desire minimal social activity and prefer to be alone to contemplate, collect and simply do your own thing your own way without interference from the world.
You are a master of endurance, and can easily overdo whatever it is you get motivated to get started, whether it’s work, any physical or intellectual pursuit. As such, your tendency is to go to extremes — either to be a workaholic or feel no motivation to work at all.
Tools to Balance Your Water Energy
When you experience any sign of imbalance, it’s important to be disciplined about exercise, and to balance work and play.
Active invigorating exercise is important to move your Water energy, which left alone can leave you content sitting and lounging all day in front of the television or computer.
Since you tend to be more introverted, social interaction can be an important provocation for change and healing. While this can be difficult as it takes you out of your comfort zone, cultivating social activity (Earth) — simply by doing social work or surrounding yourself with an enthusiastic partner or friends — can help you become more balanced overall.
While you love to expand your knowledge, it’s also important to find ways to share that knowledge with others to balance your element.
A major aspect to supporting a healthy Kidney system requires giving attention to your adrenal glands by avoiding or reducing caffeinated beverages, overwork, overexercise and too much sex, and reducing time in front of the computer. It’s also critical to reduce exposure to unhealthy or stressful relationships.
Especially during the Winter months when there’s less light, it’s best to slow down and go to bed as early as possible to restore your Water energy.
Common Water Archetype Imbalances
For you, imbalances often source from adrenal fatigue resulting from going to extremes with work, or intellectual or physical endurance pursuits. The resulting fatigue can be paired with lower back or knee pain, both of which are signs of Kidney weakness according to Chinese Medicine, and are the primary areas in which you tend to experience discomfort, soreness, weakness, or pain.
When imbalance arises, you may also seek too much isolation, and develop insecurities and fears. While in general you find it easy to slow down and relax, it’s also easy for you to get stuck within yourself, therefore needing motivation from the outside.
Your general tendency, when out of balance, is to be pessimistic and fearful, and you can easily develop weight problems due to a sluggish metabolism.
Earth energy helps to balance excessive Water energy, which may cause you to become overly reclusive or self-absorbed. Earth energy involves community and social relationships and is important to harness in order to balance your need for solitude so as to avoid becoming a recluse and possibly even a hoarder.
Since the Water element is associated with the Kidneys and Bladder, imbalances can lead to problems in these organ systems, including kidney stones, urinary issues, and even the tendency to become plagued with fear since this is the imbalanced emotion related to Water energy.
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We’re Salvador & Setareh — a husband and wife team of Licensed Acupuncturists with an award-winning integrative wellness center that offers customized services, classes and articles to support your optimal health.
We’re grateful to have you here, and we look forward to supporting your journey to wellness.
Setareh Moafi, Ph.D., L.Ac.
Salvador Cefalu, M.S., L.Ac.
Overview of the Five Elements
The Five Elements of Chinese Medicine are known as the Wu Xing, or five transformations or movements of energy. The Five Element theory first appeared in several books on philosophy in the 10th century B.C. The first medical writings on the Five Elements were found in one of the most important Chinese classical texts, the Huang Di Nei Jing, or Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic, around 200 B.C. Further discussion appeared in Nan Jing, or Classic of Difficulties.
The Five Elements are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. These Elements reflect all levels of human function, including but not limited to, the anatomic and physiologic functioning of the organ systems. These elements help explain the nature of biochemical processes and functions of the organism as a whole, including behavior, psychological state, relationships and career choices.
The power of the Five Elements lies in their ability to show us more clearly the world we live in, the nature that surrounds us, and ourselves.
Read More About the Water Element
