The earth element’s corresponding organs are the spleen and stomach. A person with a healthy earth balance will have good digestion while someone with an imbalance of the earth will tend to have digestive problems. Earth imbalances tend to manifest as obesity because people overuse food as a way to seek balance while a person with a healthy earth will be very nurturing and harmonious.

There are basic associations with the earth element as shown below:

• Color Yellow
• Sound Singing
• Odor Sweet
• Emotion Sympathy
• Virtue Integrity
• Desires Connectedness
• Virtue Loyalty
• Path Service
• Values Harmony
• Talent Negotiation

An earthy person is very nurturing and likes to help others. I like to think of it as the compassionate giving element. In nature it is the earth that grows our food and provides us with stability – as in having solid ground to stand on. The earth element stands for inter-dependence vs. independence. It nurtures family and relationships. It stands for diplomacy, loyalty and commitment.

When a person has a disorder in their earth aspect they could have an aversion to change or have an addiction to being needed. They may question their role in life and seek comfort from others by seeking to please them. Fear of being alone and fear change is prevalent in their lives. Greed, conflict, insecurity and appearing to be very separate from others are often present. A common trait is to spend excessive amount of time thinking about thing.

Earth has its strongest time from 7 am to 11 am and at its weakest time from 7 PM to 11 PM. Based on this it is best to have your biggest meals when the earth element is strongest and able to absorb nutrients.

The earth can be used to dam or control water. Since the water element is damaged by fear, one can see that the qualities of earth such as service, harmony and loyalty can be very nurturing and help others overcome fear. Earth is controlled by wood as a tree’s roots hold the earth. Metal is nourished by the earth as one would use the earth to make a cast for a metal form. Fire nourishes earth as can be seen by the ashes left behind.

How does the element of earth affect your everyday life? Look for ways to incorporate this newly found awareness and information to improve and seek more balance in your everyday activities.

The author, Jacob Barrocas, lives in Western NC and will be having workshops in this and other useful subjects to help bring balance to your personal life as well as your business. Jacob has a unique background with a degree in Industrial Engineering and Chinese Medicine. His 35 years of experience includes being an Engineer, a Corporate Executive, an acupuncturist, a consultant and a home builder.

For more info about Jacob go to www.consultitgreen.com.

People use drugs, work with therapist, and reduce their productivity staying off center due to the failure to achieve emotional balance. The best tool I have used over the past 30 years is found inside the Taoist study of Chinese Medicine.

Thousands of years ago, the Chinese Taoist began to observe nature and associated what they perceived to be the “Five Elements” – Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal. Over time each element was correlated to an organ system, an emotion, color, taste, climate, body tissues, the time of day and even the seasons. This tool plays a significant role in Martial Arts, Acupuncture and Herbal medicine. This article will focus on understanding the 5 Elements as they refer to the emotions.

Look around at people you know. Observe our news stories and you’re your own feeling. The prevalent emotions in our society appear to be out of control – fear, anger, sadness, depression, excessive joy and ruminating. The Five Element Theory gives us a simple perspective to help understand and effectively cope with these imbalances.

There are practitioners that assist people using herbs, needles and other modalities. Yet the mere understanding and awareness of how this works can have a huge effect on your health and happiness. For example let’s look at how fear affects us from this perspective.

Fear creates an imbalance in the water element. When water is damaged, the wood element fails to be properly nourished and the fire element fails to be controlled. Just look at nature and this is very easy to understand – water makes wood grow and puts out fire.

When the wood element fails to be nourished the wood becomes brittle and inflexible. The fire element burns out of control. The emotion that corresponds to the wood being out of balance is anger and depression. When fire is out of control we see the need for immediate gratification. The fire element then fails to control the metal leading to excess sadness and also fails to nourish the earth properly leading to poor digestion and eating poor quality foods to fill the void.

One can see how all this correlates to the ills of our society. A fear based media, government, health care and religious systems dominate the information we receive. Anger, depression, sadness and overeating can be obviously observed. Greed and excess also are a result of our imbalanced need for immediate gratification. The good news is that this same tool can be used to generate solutions. It is simpler than one might think.

The earth element can control or dam the water element and nourish the Metal. A healthy Earth shows up when we take time to understand, nourish and be truthful. It is very giving and able to forgive and accept. Bottom line it is compassionate. When this is done fear does not exist. How different things can be with just one ancient tool.

This article introduces the use of Five Elements to make your life better. There are many books available on this subject. The author, Jacob Barrocas, lives in Western NC and will be having workshops in this and other useful subjects to help bring balance to your personal life as well as your business. Jacob has a unique background with a degree in Industrial Engineering and Chinese Medicine. His 35 years of experience includes being an Engineer, a Corporate Executive, an acupuncturist, a consultant and a home builder. For more info go to www.consultitgreen.com.