Earth Element
Welcome! We’re continuing our exploration of the Five Elements through the lens of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. In this next installation you can expect a detailed description of the Earth element, healthy eating tips, a meditative food exercise, an important point on an Earth acupuncture meridian and an Earth Tai Chi video. All in the service of increasing your physical and mental health and wellbeing in this latter part of the Earth season.
Earth Element info
The energy of the Earth element is synonymous with late summer. The intense sun and blazingly hot temperatures of summer have transitioned into muggy, high humidity days as we continue the energetic descent towards fall. Earth is all about abundance – countless fruits and vegetables are ripening, and their harvest traditionally provided the sustenance necessary to survive the colder months ahead. A key theme surrounding the Earth element pertains to giving and receiving – especially of nourishment and sympathy, including the ability to digest and assimilate both food and information.
A balanced Earth element gives and receives appropriately, existing in reciprocal relationships while also maintaining personal integrity. An imbalanced Earth element can look like excessive giving with little/no receiving or excessive receiving with little/no giving. The Earth itself is a good example of continuous giving with little/no receiving – the Earth gives sustenance freely to all creatures, despite our constant and excessive consumption and destruction of natural resources.
On a human level, who we are as adults is directly impacted by the quality of mothering we received as children. When a child is in distress, their first instinct is to call out to their mother for sympathy and nurturing. If Earth is imbalanced, it may show up in adulthood as someone who exaggerates, whines or complains excessively in an attempt to elicit sympathy. Sympathy may also be completely absent, as in someone who has no compassion for others, or can’t receive sympathy or help and tries to do everything themselves.
Eating Tips
The organs associated with the Earth element are the Stomach and Spleen; the Stomach digests and macerates food and drink and the Spleen helps transform food and drink to make it into qi and blood – both organs are involved in transporting the food essences throughout the body. This is why not only what we eat, but how we eat it is so important to health. If we’re consuming lots of greasy, fried foods, dairy, sweets, and cold or raw foods, it can lead to what’s called “damp” which causes slow circulation, obstructs proper qi flow and impairs the transformation and transportation of fluids in the body. Symptomatically it can lead to feeling sluggish or tired, with loose stools, painful joints, nausea or weight gain. Similarly, if we eat when we’re distracted, in a hurry, working or watching tv, we won’t digest the food as well and we won’t extract its full range of nutrients. Consuming cold food or iced drinks puts a strain on our stomach fire, so warm and cooked foods are best! The ideal when eating is to slow down, chew thoroughly and enjoy your surroundings. Don’t eat too late in the day; eat with friends or family and express gratitude for your meal.
Mindful eating exercise
Begin with a perfectly ripe peach, mango or juicy fruit or food that you enjoy. Sit in a quiet, comfortable place where you won’t be disturbed for a few minutes. Hold the piece of fruit in your hands and really take it in with your senses – the color, the shape, the texture, the weight, the smell – with curiosity rather than judgment. You may notice saliva forming in your mouth, a secretion of Earth. Give appreciation for it’s being here and consider for a moment the causes and conditions that had to be present for it to become manifest – the sun, soil, rain, the farmers, those who transported it, etc. Now slowly raise it to your mouth and with eyes open or closed take a bite. What do you notice as you chew? Pay attention to the juiciness, the flavor, the texture, etc. really savoring it.
It may not be possible to eat like this all the time, but even doing so for a bite or two of a meal can be nourishing.
Qi Gong
While acupuncture is one of the most effective ways to assure the proper flow of qi, there are other effective actions we can take. Qi gong was developed thousands of years ago as a branch of Chinese Medicine and it involves a series of slow, coordinated movements and breathing. An ancient saying goes, “where there is free flow, there is no pain, where there is no free flow, there is pain.” By facilitating the free flow of qi, qi gong can help maintain health of body, mind and spirit. Mimi Kuo-Deemer is one of my favorite practitioners for Qi gong – her approach is clear, descriptive and informative. Here’s a link to her Earth Element Qi Gong video. You’re welcome to try the whole sequence, or simply pick one or two moves that resonate and practice those.
Acupressure Points
What are they and how are they used? While needles can have a more pronounced effect, these are acupuncture points that can be activated with finger pressure. Either press and hold the point with medium pressure, or, while engaging with pressure you can make small clockwise circles – either way, hold it for anywhere from 1-3 minutes on both the left and right sides of the body. This can be done as needed or a handful of times a day.
Stomach 36 (ST 36, Zu San Li, Leg Three Miles)
Location: Find the two indents on either side of the lower part of your kneecap (“calf’s nose”). The point is located 4 fingers down from the calf’s nose, and one finger width to the outside of the highest point of your shin bone (tibia). It may feel tender or sore as you press on it.
Uses: It increases strength, energy and stamina (by strengthening qi, blood and yin) and strengthens resistance to getting sick. It improves digestion and appetite and relieves indigestion, nausea and epigastric pain. Imbalanced Earth is prone to circular thinking and worry, so this point being the Earth point on an Earth channel can help calm the mind and spirit, quell uneasiness and lift feelings of depression. It also clears damp and can help with shortness of breath and cough. It’s such an essential point that the ancient texts said that with ST 36, “all diseases can be treated.”
Other ways to engage Earth
It’s helpful to remember that our Stomach and Spleen are responsible not only for digesting physical food, but also our mental and emotional experiences and any media or anything else that we consume through our senses. So this begs the question, what nourishes us and how can we help nourish others? While this will vary person to person, this might include being out in nature, meditating, consuming healthy foods that we enjoy, reading or watching something inspiring or uplifting, a warm cup of tea, etc. We might also ask ourselves, just as the trees produce fruit, what in our life is bearing fruit, and what isn’t? This will help us as we enter fall which is all about letting go of what no longer serves us so we can focus our energy in generative and health supporting areas of our life.
If you’d like to explore the Earth element further or are having any gastrointestinal or digestive issues you’d like to resolve, please reach out! For more information about my practice, please visit here.
In health,
Corey