Seven Strong Signs You're a Wood Element Person
A Quick Overview of 5-Element Theory.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is built upon a very simple science: Nature. Unlike Western Medicine, its approach is based on a nonlinear, integrative understanding of how life flows in a cycle.
Plants demonstrate the natural flow of life by their life cycle. A seed gestates and then sprouts, growing upward toward the sun to blossom and bear fruit with seeds for the next generation, before declining, dying and returning to the soil.
As life moves in a circle, it has a rhythm. There are five distinct stages of the cycle, each with its own distinct pattern and quality of energy. Each of the five elements describes a phase of change: Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal. The element doesn’t represent the literal substance, it is rather, a way of describing the nature and the particular characteristics of the energy as it moves through the change cycle of life.
Your Elemental Nature
You’re constantly experiencing the five elements as you flow in the cycles of your life. This can be on the macro level – whether you’re in the ‘prime of your life’ of the Fire element or in the ‘ageing gracefully’ stage of the Metal element. Or on the micro level – whether you’re starting a new project (Wood), sitting with loss (Water) or settling after a big event (Earth).
You might have already noticed that there are elements or stages of change that you are more comfortable with and stages that you resist or even avoid.
Within your own energy system, you’ll have a natural tendency toward expressing a particular element. A way of being that feels familiar and easy for you, a stage of the change cycle that feels more comfortable to you and that perhaps you’d like to stay in! For example, you might really like the beginning of a new venture. Brainstorming ideas, entertaining possibilities and planning for success. In other words, you’re in your element in the WOOD phase of the cycle.
Of course, you know where this is headed. You also have an aversion to a phase of change, a way of being that doesn't feel pleasant or comfortable to you. For example, perhaps you hate dotting the ‘i’s and crossing the ‘t’s, you loathe the task of editing your work or you find it difficult to throw way things. In other words, you’re not at home in the METAL phase of the cycle.
Being out of flow in your life is often simply a result of an elemental imbalance. Getting to know and deeply understand your elemental nature is an invaluable skill. Rather than battling with yourself or trying to force, you can find your flow by ‘working’ with your elemental strengths and weaknesses.
Identifying characteristics of the Wood Element in You
Are you primarily a Wood person? Before reading through the list, see if you can connect with the element within you.
Think about the qualities of wood - of the forest, the trees, the plants. How does this energy feel? How does it move? What does it do? What are its strengths?
Jean Haner describes it this way:
The Wood Element is the vitality of Spring, when all of nature bursts forth with new life. A tiny sprout has such strong desire to be alive it can break through concrete in it desire to find the sun.
We recognise Wood energy by observing trees. A tree grows up and up, its trunk rising in a vertical line. There is an active “push” to trees and plants that is inherent in their design; it’s how they’re meant to behave. While Water has a floating motion and is about “being” here, the Wood element possesses a strong upward movement and is about “doing” - taking action.
Seven Signs you have a Strong Wood Element:
You have a strong desire to make an impact in life, to make the world a better place.
As soon as you finish one thing, you immediately think, what’s next?
You enjoy staying active - physically and mentally - and find it difficult to sit still for very long. You especially love exercising in nature, playing games, making repairs or brainstorming ideas for new businesses you’d like to start.
You’ve had the experience of someone trying to block your progress or prevent you from reaching a goal and you often feel frustrated by what you perceive as a lack of progress.
You’re a lifelong student, always looking for ways to learn and to develop yourself.
You’re too hard on yourself, and you tend to be upset by other people’s judgement of you.
You do best if you feel in charge of your own destiny and have a sense of forward momentum in life.
Taken from: The Five Element Solution - Discover the Spiritual Side of Chinese Medicine to Release Stress, Clear Anxiety, and Reclaim Your Life. Jean Haner.