Healing Your Emotions: Discover your five element type and change your life. Angela Hicks
the earth above the acorn, will be pushed out of the way as the tree first emerges. Pushing the stone out of the way is not an aggressive act. It is just that ‘an acorn does what an acorn has to do’. The acorn emerges and over time, given suitable conditions, grows into a tall, green-leaved oak.
As we discuss this Element, we will see several connections between how an acorn transforms into an oak and how the Wood Element enables us to develop into mature human beings.
THE BACKGROUND TO WOOD IN CHINESE MEDICINE
The Wood Element consists of the notion of Wood itself — as expressed in the character and the acorn — and all the Wood associations. The key associations are:
| Organs | Liver and Gall Bladder |
| Spirit | Hun – the mental-spiritual aspect of the Wood Element |
| Colour | Green |
| Sound | Shouting |
| Emotion | Anger |
| Odour | Rancid |
These associations are discussed in more detail in this section. Familiarity with them will enable us to recognize Wood types and understand the connections between the Organ functions and mental processes described later.
The Organs of the Wood Element
The Chinese described the functions of the Organs differently from the way they are described in the West. In the West, we have a physical and functional description. The Chinese gave both a metaphorical description and also a functional description in terms of ‘Qi’ (the energy of the body and mind) and Blood.2 They also attributed various mental and spiritual functions to the Organs, for example, for Wood, the spirit is called the ‘Hun’.
The Liver and Gall Bladder and its Mental-Spiritual Aspect
Metaphorically the Liver is said to be the ‘General’ who makes plans and the Gall Bladder is the ‘Decision maker’.3 This means that our ability to organize, plan and make decisions is related to the well-being of the Liver and Gall Bladder. The Liver and Gall Bladder’s capacity to organize, plan and make decisions is in the service of the ‘Hun’ or ‘Ethereal’ Soul. This is the mental-spiritual aspect of the Liver. Our Hun is responsible for our ‘life plan’, sense of purpose and sense of direction.
Ordinarily this process will be smooth and completely unconscious. In times of difficulty, however, the planning process can come to the surface. Jacqueline, a Wood type, told us:
I’m aware that if I don’t have a specific forward direction, it’s easy for me to get depressed. Once I have a direction again I’m happy. I think I’m over-directed sometimes and I have to have something I can see ahead. Seeing ahead of me is so important that I tend to be two jumps ahead of myself and take on too much.
As well as being the ‘General’, the Liver is said to make the Qi of the body and mind flow smoothly. To help us to understand this function more clearly we can think of a baby sitting on the floor. The baby notices a soft toy and reaches out, picks it up, shakes it up and down, gurgles and laughs and then lets go. From noticing the toy to dropping it is a smooth process.
Suppose, however, that just as the baby reaches out for the toy someone shouts ‘No’. The baby might tense up, pull back and look towards the ‘No’. The energy is interrupted and flows jerkily. After the first ‘No’, the baby might again see the toy, but hesitate and look around. The smooth and natural flow of Qi has been broken.
At first the baby’s smooth flow is interrupted from the outside. With sufficient interruptions, however, the Liver will no longer be able to smooth the Qi from the inside. Later in life this can produce a wide variety of symptoms — from moodiness and depression to irregular periods, period pains and clots in the menstrual blood. These are expanded in the section on the symptoms of the Liver and Gall Bladder.
A second function of the Liver is ‘to store the Blood’. ‘Blood’ in Chinese medicine is similar to that in Western medicine. It moistens and nourishes all parts of the body. When we are resting, Chinese medicine teaches that the Blood goes to the Liver and replenishes it. When, on the other hand, we are active it travels to our extremities so that we can move.
When the Liver is not storing the Blood adequately, we will not be nourished in our extremities or on the outside of the body. Symptoms which arise can include numb limbs, pins and needles or breaking nails. Weak or blurred vision can also occur as the Blood is not nourishing the eyes.
THESE SYMPTOMS MAY ARISE WHEN THE LIVER AND GALL BLADDER ARE WEAK OR OBSTRUCTED
Some of these symptoms are more physical and some more mental or of the spirit. Chinese medicine being ‘energetic’ did not make this an important distinction.
Difficulties with planning, making decisions and ‘having a future’. Nervousness, timidity and a lack of courage and initiative. Eye problems, e.g. blurred vision, ‘floaters’, specific eye diseases and headaches with mild to severe pain. Muscle tension, held-in feelings, repressed anger, emotional outbursts, depression, moodiness, feeling emotionally overwhelmed and over-sensitive and having difficulty in making plans. Upset digestion with belching and regurgitation, allergies, nausea, vomiting or an inability to digest fats. Tightness in the chest which may also manifest as a breathing difficulty and discomfort under the ribs. Tiredness, dry skin, muscular weakness and spasms, mild dizziness, pins and needles and dry and brittle nails and poor sleep. Period-related problems such as pre-menstrual tension and pain.
Observable Signs of a Wood Type
Practitioners of Chinese medicine rely heavily on observable signs. Some key things that can be noticed about Wood types are:
