The Five Elements

It’s winter!  That’s old news by now, especially if you live in Minnesota.  So, unless you live somewhere without the four seasons many of us experience – spring, summer, fall, and winter – you know what that means: short days, long nights, cold and snowy weather. 

Long ago, it seems, all the plants and trees reached out toward the sun with millions of leaves like open hands, gathering energy to grow. Now, they all stand bare, their leaves long since shed, all that extra gathered energy drawn back and inward, to the core, to the roots. 

Winter is the season of returning to the root. 

So it is in the world, and so it is in us. And why shouldn’t it be?

We are born in the world and we live in it. Our bodies are made of its elements, and so is the food we eat that nourishes and sustains them.

How could we ever be separate from what we are a part of? 

Winter is the season of abiding at the root. 

We see it in the world, but where is that in the body?  As we say in SFQ Level One, everything is energy. Spring Forest Qigong is a way of working with the body’s energy to help it to heal. As we also say in Level One, many things can create the energy blockages within us that lead to health challenges. One of them is the weather and seasons.  We know this, of course; most of us can remember a childhood, with or without Qigong, where our mom or grandma told us, “Put on a hat or you’ll catch cold!” Or, “Now you see what happens when you don’t wear a scarf!” Simple wisdom, but so true.  But this goes beyond that. 

Qigong people noticed long ago that as spring comes, many people get liver problems.

As summer comes, many people get heart problems.

As fall comes, many people get lung problems.

And as winter comes, many people get kidney problems. 

We are born in the world and we live in it; we are in the world, and the world is in us; winter is the season of residing in the root, and in Qigong, the kidneys are like the root of the body. 

In Chinese Five Element Theory, the Five Elements of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water are used to describe many things and the way they interact with each other, including the seasons and the organ systems of the body.

If you can imagine how one Element transforms into the next in that cycle, you can understand a lot about our world. 

Imagine – when you have Wood, it feeds Fire. Fire’s burning generates ash, to nourish Earth. Earth condenses to generate Metal. If you imagine Metal as concentrated Earth, condensing more and more, out of that condensation arises Water. Water nourishes Wood to continue the cycle. 

You can see this easily in the seasons.  Spring is Wood, summer Fire, late summer Earth, fall Metal, and winter Water.

But you can see this in the body, too! In Spring Forest Qigong, we explain this in terms of emotions (like in the Five Element Qigong Healing Movements course). That course not only teaches healing movements, but fuses them with specific positive emotions to amplify their healing power. 

When we feel happy, it’s usually about something. When we have so much happiness, we can express joy – happiness for no reason at all. When there is so much joy, it is like the explosion of fireworks or the blossoming of thousands of flowers. In the wake and after the echoes of that joy, peace follows. In the fullness of deep peace, we feel satisfaction, contentment. Knowing contentment, we are moved to express gratitude.  These are the Five Elements at work in the body. 

Happiness --> Joy --> Peace ----> Contentment ---> Gratitude

We’ve already gone “very far afield” ... so let’s get back on track and give you something you can take home with you. 

Just as when one season isn’t the best – too dry a spring, too cool a summer, – the next season reflects it, so it is in our body. 

Not surprisingly, many people have kidney challenges in the winter.

Some people feel like they can never get warm. And... very often, as winter sets in, many people move on in their lives, pass away.  This is because kidney energy is the life-force energy. It is the most important energy for your life, and for healing. Any problems in the body always begin as a weakness of kidney energy.

This is why all the Qigong movements we teach build and stimulate kidney energy, and this is why as healers, we always help support the kidneys. Even to grow as healers and helpers of others, we take extra care to nourish and replenish our own kidney energy. 

So, aside from doing your Qigong healing movements, here is one very powerful, very simple thing you can do every day (especially in the winter) to support your kidneys and your life.

If you find you have kidney stones, fatigue, low sexual energy, or any issues at all with the kidneys – this is a practice you want to make time for every day. 

Cup your kidneys.  Hold your hands like cups. Gently bend slightly forward, then cup or pat your kidney area. If you can’t reach that high or don’t know where that is, just pat as high up your back as you can reach, visualizing your kidneys as being right under that area. You can do this for one to three minutes, three times a day or more.

Doing this, you not only help to stimulate your kidney energy and heal any challenges related to the kidneys and the kidney-system, but you support your body through the winter, into the spring. That way, when the rest of the world is ready to shake the frost off and get going and growing, you will be there right in the midst of it, healthy, happy, and full of energy.