Healing through the 5 Elements of Chinese Medicine

Chinese Medicine, the 5 Elements, and Personal Transformation

I’d like to invite you on a journey with me. Over the next 5 months we’ll be taking a look at the 5 Elements of Chinese Medicine and Philosophy. My intention is to help you to understand and utilize the 5 Elements in order to 1) take more responsibility for your health and wellness, 2) improve your awareness of the connection between emotions and health, and 3) to provide practical tools that you can use on a daily basis to improve healthy, increase energy and vitality, and decrease pain. Ultimately, the 5 Elements take us into the very heart of healing and allow us to reconnect to the natural rhythms of our bodies. This aspect of health and healing has been painfully overlooked in modern healthcare. I firmly believe that to the extent that we can return to that natural, innate state of awareness health, we can regain a sense of vibrancy, life, and wellness. Finally, and perhaps more importantly, this connection to Life itself can have dramatic and profound implications for the health of our planet, our environment and our global family.

The 5 elements found in Chinese Medicine offer us a very unique and comprehensive paradigm in which to understand nature and health. I was recently blessed to have spent time with renowned Buddhist author and teacher Sharon Salzberg, I asked her what healing was and how to approach it from a deeply authentic place. She stated, “The nature of healing is to enter into a deep communion with each person you work with. Do not have a ready-made template, but let that healing come from the authentic space of communion.” One of the most phenomenal tools to enter into this communion is the 5 Element paradigm.

The magic of any authentic vitalistic healing practice is that it recognizes that our lives are part of an ever-changing interdependence of life experiences, traumas, belief systems, environmental inputs, physiological influences, emotional factors, and structural components. In other words, to separate parts from the whole is antithetical to a vitalistic paradigm. Curing a named disease or symptoms is not the purpose of the 5 element tradition, nor is it the purpose of any authentic vitalistic tradition. Healing from the deepest level of being is the function of the 5 Elements. In my clinical experience, many times my work will result in a reduction of subjective complaints (symptoms) and changes in objective measurements (X-Rays, Labs, MRIs, etc), but that is not the goal per se. Healing is not merely a diminution of pain or named disease, but rather a collective increase in quality of life, relationship to spirit, improved relationships, self-actualized behavior, better life choices (exercise, diet, spirituality), and ultimately an expanded sense of self that goes beyond our cultural norm of materialism and narcissism. The 5 elements are unique in their capacity to provide a roadmap and structure to this healing experience.

Because the 5 elements look at the entirety of a person’s makeup, we don’t look at symptoms as discrete entities. For instance, anxiety and depression often have a set number of medications prescribed (Paxil, Effexor, Prozac, etc). In our 5 element work, anxiety and depression are simply the body’s feedback system.  Anxiety and depression are thus only meaningful in the context of the person and their constitution.  Thus, a person who is predominantly a Fire constitution would be treated differently than someone who is primarily an Earth constitution. Returning to the wisdom of Sharon Salzberg, we approach healing through this communion, not through a fixed, pre-determined template that seeks to correct symptoms.

As we progress each month we’ll look at one element in detail (Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood).   Everyone has a specific constitution that they are born with and  each of us will reflect one fundamental elemental tendency. As you read end enjoy these articles, you will find one of the elements that resonates most closely with you (and those you spend time with). From this new awareness you’ll be able to use the information to tailor-fit a wellness program for yourself.  This includes herbs, supplements, exercises, attitudinal shifts, acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathics, flower essences, and breathing/meditation techniques specific to each element.

Furthermore, once we have an awareness of our elemental constitution, we can learn new tools to cultivate health by learning to create balance according to our unique constitution. This is the magic of the 5 Element model. It provides us with an organic way in which to access an individualized healing program that is right for our unique makeup.

Join me on this fun and educational journey towards health and wholeness. In addition, we’ll have monthly lectures to delve more deeply into each element and how to apply this knowledge to your life.

Matthew Lyon, DC, L.Ac is a chiropractor, acupuncturist, and herbalist. You can learn more and download Dr. Lyon’s free eBook at www.drmattlyon.com.