Never underestimate the effect our personal experiences have on how we perceive the elements in other people

I am drawing together my thoughts on the Water element for a seminar we are dedicating to this element on Monday 27 February 2023 (see our website www.sofea.co.uk for details).  

 

I am always surprised by how different our individual take on the elements is, particularly those of other experienced five element practitioners.  Very often I notice that they are observing the elements from quite a different perspective from my own.  As practitioners, we must never forget that our own element will colour how we perceive our patients;  we must therefore do all we can to take this into account in our diagnoses.  This is something that can easily be overlooked.

As students we were given some key descriptions to help us define an element.  In the case of Water, these were words like "fear" or "ambition", as well, of course, as the well-known sensory signals of colour, sound and smell.  But each of us will react to the emotion "fear" in our own unique way, prompted by the particular life experiences which have formed us from an early age.  These lead us to create a unique vision of the world shaped by what we have each been exposed to.

 

At our Water seminar I will therefore be very interested to hear how other practitioners experience this element, particularly practitioners whose own element happens to be Water.  I know that I will learn much that will be new to me, as I always do, which is why I enjoy these seminars so much.

  

"We must not simply visit this world"

I have just come across a lovely poem by the American poet, Mary Oliver, called "When Death Comes", and this is its last stanza:

..."When it's over I don't want to wonder

If I have made of my life something particular and real.

I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,

or full of argument.

 

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world."

 

I love the thought that none of us should "end up simply having visited this world".  Sadly, perhaps, too many of us do, and so few, the rare ones, can say at the moment of death that their life has been more than just a mere "visit", but added something, gave something back.

 

I have been thinking deeply about this, and realise that I see one of the aims of my work as a five element acupuncturist has been to help patients transform a life which may be being lived at a quite superficial level, that of the "visit" described by Mary Oliver, into one which adds significance and depth to that visit, in other words gives us the ability to recognize that each life has a purpose to fulfil.  I always remember the thrill I felt when I first heard JR Worsley say that we should always try to visualize for ourselves a fulfilled life for each patient, and that we should hope that this can be achieved through the treatment we offer.

 

The implication here is that a patient's guardian element should become the focal point for this fulfilment, enabling a patient to find the means within themselves not just to "visit" the world, but to add something significant to the world.  I have always found that a lovely thought, which has inspired me in my practice and my teaching.