The elements are best understood with imagery. WE are talking about living, breathing energy, so its description will need to be just as poetic and alive in order for it to be accurate. The elements are not meant to be understood, they are meant to be felt and experienced within and without ourselves.
Water is an element of depth, not because the text books say so, but because water itself can be deep. It is also true that water can be shallow, sunlit and playful. Water can have sunlight dappled over it as it laps over the rocks. Water can be a lot of things, and shows up in many different ways in our psyche. What I suggest is that water offers us the opportunity for depth, and winter being the season of water, it is a perfect time to access that place of deep rest where we can find our inner resolve and reserves.
Water also offers other opportunities: the playfulness of tide pools, the intensity of a torrential downpour, the drama of a tsunami. Cleansing.
When we rest, say before speaking, when there is that stillness before acting—we are accessing a place of silence, stillness and wisdom. When there is the pause, like there is in winter, we are giving ourselves the opportunity to exit and act from a place of wisdom.
If we rushed from summer back into spring, then there would not be a reset. Many trees would not blossom, the soil would not build. The same is true in our lives. We cannot have infinite growth.
In the five element cycle, water comes after metal, and before wood. Metal is autumn, a time of loss. Wood is spring, a time of quick and spontaneous growth. The 5 element phases are, for us, primarily a guide for how to live in each season. It is said that, if we live right in the current season, then the following season will be healthy. For example living with rest, stillness, emptiness—with warm and cooked foods in winter, will help our spring to be full of powerful growth.
The physical nature of water is to go everywhere, to fill every crevice of our body and the earth. The psychological nature of water is the same. Water, according to Chinese medicine, is the element of fear and vigilance. Vigilance is this energy of being hyper aware of every outcome, and seeing around every corner without effort. To water, caution comes naturally because water is everywhere at once and can see all the potential and possibilities.
The physical nature of water is that it always has the potential for rapid movement, as well as stillness. If we observe water that has been frozen on a river of ice, we can notice that its willpower has it moving. That is, when the ice thaws, the water is already moving. In this way, the water has never truly stopped moving: its motive and willpower continue onward despite maybe months of being frozen.
The same principle can be applied to our psyche and spirit. Our willpower, when healthy, is what drives us to where we need to go. Regardless of how long it takes, the persistence of water within us, will continue pushing until a path is cleared. Water can be passive, and achieve this through osmosis. Osmosis is like our spiritual birthright. As long as we keep the faith, knowing that in the end the truth will deliver us, then it happens by default. Again, it may take time, but the inherent power within us is always alive. Water is the depths of our reserves, of our genetic gifts. Water is like our energetic inheritance. Even if things seem bare, if we seem lost, we can access this power and inheritance with 5 element acupuncture and the water element.
Those who have trauma in their body will have difficulty taking up space.
The water element is our deep sense of fear, of vigilance. Like a dog who was beaten will overreact to every raising of the voice, and every sudden movement, our water element can become this way as well.
Often, we fear being big and expressing our dramatic potential. This fear is almost always a learned behavior. To take up space, at one time, was considered an affront and was punished to some extent.
The reality of our water element, is that it needs to overflow.
If we hold on to our fear and prevent ourselves from being big and overflowing, at times, then all of that energy will become pent up and stay in the body—in the form of fear and anxiety.
We can practice overflowing in ourselves by allowing our most powerful and driving emotions to expand to their full potential. This expansion will feel uncomfortable, maybe even not allowed. However, we can teach ourselves that acting in this way is empowering, and will help us clear a path for our own existence.
There is a common practice in therapy called “flooding”. This is the intentional allowing of ones emotions to swell and overtake. When we do this, it becomes possible to clarify and release our pent up feelings.
As an exercise, I suggest trying to feel your deepest feelings, and allowing them to come out. The goal is eventually for this to allow your drama to unfold in your outside life. It is about speaking up, and not putting your feelings second.
Vigilance is the positive side of fear.
Fear is water when it is out of balance.
There are some times when being small is in our best interest. If there is a true threat, we need our vigilance and fear to keep us small and hidden. This energy protects us.
Vigilance is the ability to be aware of many things at once. Vigilance is the energy of waiting, of sensing everything around you. When we are vigilant, we prepare for the winter, we prepare for disaster.
A vigilant person is aware of all their resources. A vigilant person does not waste, but protects their resources.
The zhi is the Chinese word for the spirit of the water element. The zhi is our inherent will power. The zhi is what drives us forward with our deepest innate power.
When there is rest, like in winter, there still exists a potency. This potency is like a waiting seed. In spring it will erupt. For now, we protect the seed as it holds our entire genetic inheritance.
The organs of water are the kidney and the bladder. The bladder has a lot to do with our ability to be dramatic and to take up space. The kidneys hold our deepest and most precious essence.
The kidneys hold our JING, which is one of the three treasures in Chinese medicine. Qi and Shen are the other two. Jing is our inherent energy, our most potent and powerful life force energy. Unlike QI, Jing can and does run out and cannot be restored. It is important to protect our Jing by not over exerting ourselves, especially in winter.
Five element acupuncture attunes us to the water element through specific points on the kidney and bladder channels. Stimulating these points, with moxa and acupuncture, strengthens and empowers certain aspects of our mind, body and spirit—which help us to thrive during winter months, and to heal our nervous systems, kidneys, willpower, drive and sense of vigilance.
Everything is connected. Pressing a kidney point on the inner ankle will reverberate throughout the entire body, into the organs, and into the emotions like fear and anxiety. There are point that are very grounding, and points that help us to move more freely in the world and feel better in our skin.
To sustain our drive, our inherence, and to facilitate our deep ability to rest, acupuncture in winter is a powerful tool.
I use warming points, tools like heated stones and acupuncture to nourish and heal on the deepest level.
Winter is the Yin within the Yin, the most yin time of the year. During this time, we rest and nourish our internal life, we honor our potential and drive. This way, In the spring, we will be prepared to sprout and grow with creativity and assertion.
