INSIGHT: Emotions Stuck in our Earth Element

Insight: Last night in Acupuncture class we were discussing the Earth Element and how the emotion of "worry" or "rumination" wears down our Earth Qi.

"Rumination" is like chewing on something, then bringing it back up rather than swallowing it and allowing it to digest.

This made me think of the times we have some kind of emotionally impacting EVENT, and then can't seem to get that event out of our minds - it keeps popping back up into our thoughts, or we keep bringing it back up in our conversations.

We say "why can't I just LET IT GO??" Here's the insight: We don't have enough Earth Qi to finish chewing and swallow it so it can digest. If it's in our digestive system (Metal Element) we can let it go - but it's not getting there.

This also makes a lot of sense with an old esoteric Acupuncture treatment that uses a series of points along the Stomach (Earth) meridian to clear toxic emotions that overwhelm us to the point of not being able to function normally.

I think it would be worth the effort to strengthen our Earth Element in the case of emotional events we can't seem to process and let go. How do we do this? Here's a few ways off the top of my head, I'm sure there's many more:

Do these with a conscious intention to allow the emotional event to process and be purged.

1. Abdominal massage with essential oils. We could even use an oil specific to the type of emotion or event. (Emotional Energy of Aroma is my essential oil workshop topic for April)

2. Moxa Belly Bowl with 64-point acupressure treatment to the lower legs, emphasis on the ST & SP meridians.

3. Acupuncture along the ST meridian while receiving Medical QiGong Qi emission to the middle burner. (See my upcoming workshop, joint with Lamar on April 6th.)

Also consider doing a short cleansing fast or home enema (internal bath) AFTER one of the above treatments, and only if it feels right. In some cases the bodywork may need to be repeated several times, sometimes once will do the job.

This follows the treatment concept I find immensely effective of putting the body in the right circumstances energetically to heal, and allowing it to use it's own internal intelligence to handle the details. In this way, we don't concern ourselves with figuring out HOW to emotionally resolve the event, we ALLOW the event to resolve.

If this sparks any insights for you, or you work with this concept I would love to hear your feedback on it. Thanks! 

Learn tons of great information from my On-Line Essential Oils Course series. You can study here at our school in Alaska from anywhere in the world!

Recipe: Sweet Potato Chowder, Earth Element

We had a lot of fun in last night's 5-Element Nutrition class on Balancing Your Earth Element.  One aspect of the Earth Element is that if you eat too much of the "sweet" flavor it becomes heavy and damp, so it's important to try and consciously incorporate some of the other flavors to balance it.  These are: salty, sour, bitter, and pungent.

Note that the energetic "sweet" flavor is not just sugar. Sugar is an extreme sweet, so less extreme examples are whole grains, fresh fruits, and veggies like carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, and others that have a natural farm-fresh type sweetness to them.  This category also includes simple carbohydrates that break down into sugar.

As promised, here is the recipe for the Earth Element food we tried. This recipe uses sweet potatoes which are energetically "sweet" and balances them out with celery and green peppers which are both "bitter".  It's super easy to make.  Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Chowder

Place the following ingredients in a crock pot, then turn on for 4-6 hours OR cook in a large pot on the stove top for about 45 minutes.  This makes about 6-8 servings, and yes - you can freeze it and take some to work for lunch here and there :-)

1-28oz can chopped, peeled tomatoes
1-15oz can garbanzo beans (chick peas) drained & rinsed
3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled & chopped
5 celery stalks chopped
1 beautiful green pepper chopped
2 Tbsp millet (I used millet grits)
2 cups broth (vegetable or chicken)
Top off with water to cover vegetables
small spoonful quality sea salt
Spices: 1 tsp Turmeric, 1 Tbsp Cumin, 1 Tbsp Garam Masala (or to taste)