Balancing your Water Element

Our Water element is healthy when:

When we feel we have a rich cultural heritage
We are connected with family, friends and peers, community and government
We feel calm
Life comes easily to us
Our will is strong and behaviour gentle
We are already born winners

When our water element is poor when:
We feel like we are in survival mode all the time
We feel weak, even when we are ready to fight; we know we are going to lose
Being flooded with adrenaline and stress hormones
Feeling fearful
Being prone to fits of despair, anger or depression
Feeling easily discouraged and powerless

• If you recognise these feelings, then you might be holding a pattern of fear - this is water rising out of control (a flood).   Fear destroys our enthusiasm for life and extinguishes joy.   However, there is a way out!    The way to settle fear down is to do everything possible to develop feelings of safety, trust and conditional support.  
• Find a good counsellor to help you bring clarity to your fears – this person would be able to teach you how to deal with them in a practical/logical manner.
• Do things that bring you into the here and now:   a hobby that absorbs you and takes your concentration, meditation, or an exercise that requires some technical ability/requires mental focus like dancing
• Stability also quietens down fear:   This means having a rhythm in your life.  Have a good diet, cook meals for yourself and eat at the same time each day.    (The body goes into a stress response when meals are not regular).    Get into a routine of sleep, exercise, work, meals and play – and stick to it.
• Live in a home that makes you feel comfortable.
• Spend time gardening
• Learn earth Chi Kung – an exercise which brings stability to the body.

Stability, rhythm, perspective and balance all make our fears evaporate.

Information on the Water Element comes from Gilles Marin’s book Five Elements, Six Conditions (abridged).

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