The Five Elements: An Overview
I love a good personality quiz. Myers-Briggs, the DISC assessment, they all help us to understand ourselves better and how we interact with the rest of the world. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has its own way of describing personality traits using the Five Elements.
The Five Elements are the substances that make up everything in our environment (at least according to TCM): Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood. Like their unique characteristics in nature, each of the elements also has unique characteristics that are found in people, both in our bodies and our emotions. Acupuncturists use their understanding of the Five Elements when they treat patients, but for the purpose of this blog, we’ll be focusing on how these elements present in our emotional lives. Keep in mind, we all have these elements within us, maybe just in slightly different doses.
Fire
It’s probably no surprise that Fire is where love and passion live. The literal meaning of the word passionate is “ready to suffer for what you love.” Fire is all about feelings. Feelings are generated by your senses, by what you perceive. Fire is that thing inside you that makes you want to be seen, but your fire is also what allows you to see and perceive others. Fire allows you to be empathetic.
Fire is the source of your senses, not just sight, but also touch, taste, smell and sound. This ability to perceive the world with your fire isn’t analytical, it’s intuitive. Fire is how you create love and beauty and artistic expression. Fire is a very sensual experience.
Earth
Earth is the element of care, of nourishing and giving sustenance. Your Earth is what makes you want to care for others, both at home and in the larger community and society. When your Earth is at the forefront, you’re probably making someone’s favorite dish, picking them up from the airport, organizing your neighborhood’s voter registration drive, and planning (and hosting!) the next family reunion. You want to be connected to other people. We call this – giving or receiving help from those around us, and being repaid in gratitude – the Care Cycle.
Not only is your Earth compelling you to help those in need, it’s also allowing you to recognize what is needed. This applies to people as well as events or projects. When you are strong in your Earth element, you’re very organized and adept at juggling multiple care cycles.
Metal
The Metal element is all about order. Have you ever seen a kid who can explain every rule, every technicality of a football game? Or a tax attorney who tells you exactly where the line is before you step out of bounds? That’s Metal. When your Metal element is working well, you have a very good sense of what is right and wrong, not only by your standards, but by your community and society’s standards; your Metal is what gives you good judgment. Metal is also what makes you want stability and order.
On a personal level, that Metal-driven desire for order gives you a certain level of polish. You have an attention to detail, whether that means you make sure your belt matches your shoes and you’re neatly dressed, or you always choose the perfect wine pairing for a dish; the Metal inside you knows that there is a natural order of things. Interestingly, Metal also makes you polite when you interact with others, because you respect people’s boundaries as well as the broader social rules.
Water
Water is the element that gives you purpose. When you’re calm, when you’re introspective, that’s your Water within; it allows you to think deeply and feel deeply. When you listen to a friend and give sage advice, it’s because you’re able to reflect back to the person in the stillness of water what they truly want or need. Water makes you crave for knowledge of the divine, and strive for the common good.
Water rules how you go through time and is what allows you to endure long stretches of hardship and come out wiser for the experience; Water helps you mature. Water also gives you the ability to sustain serious commitments, especially when it comes to relationships. If this all sounds very deep, it is! Your existential understanding comes from Water.
Wood
The element of Wood is all about power, growth, and expansion. When you have that feeling of motivation, either mentally or physically, that’s your Wood. Wood also allows you to motivate and lead the people around you to achieve a greater cause. Wood is what makes you ambitious, competitive, brave, and a natural leader.
While it seems like Wood is all about external manifestations, on an internal level, Wood makes you innovative, inquisitive and flexible. (It also makes you a little nosey about what other people are up to, but you carry off your prying with charm.)
Conclusion
All Five Elements exist within every person. Some people exhibit stronger tendencies of one or more elements, but everyone displays a facet of the elements in their lives: we all love, we all care, we all use logic, we all have goals, and we all experience growth. Now when you observe other people, or reflect on your own behavior, you can think about which element is being actively expressed.
