While the five elements of traditional Chinese medicine—Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water—exist as a harmonious collection of energies governing the functions of the human body, they are also manifested in action in the human psyche through what are known as the five Virtues of traditional Chinese medicine.
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The physicians of ancient China treated patients with acupuncture but they also very much examined their patients’ lifestyles and psychological states to assist them to determine the various changes the patient would need to make in order to achieve balance.
They saw embracing the Virtues of the five elements as a way for people to fulfill the potential of their five element ‘type’ and ultimately, achieve emotional health leading to holistic balance and well-being of not just emotions, but mind and body as well.*
Not only does each of the five elements in traditional Chinese medicine embody a Virtue, there exists within the element's energy the potential for its negative emotion, also called a poison.
These five element Virtues and their poisons are:
Wood
Virtue: patience, forgiveness, kindness [poison: anger, frustration, anxiety]
Fire
Virtue: politeness [poison: overbearing exuberance]
Earth
Virtue: integrity [poison: blame, overwhelm or over care-taking]
Metal
Virtue: innate ability to know right from wrong while not passing judgment [poison: grief, sadness, agitation]
Water
Virtue: wisdom and inner peace [poison: annoyance, worry]
Traditional Chinese medicine believes it very valuable to contemplate the presence or absence of these Virtues in our lives, but it’s particularly valuable to first examine our relationship with the Virtue of our constitutional element. Traditional Chinese medicine points out that we all tend to be one predominant constitutional ‘type’ from among the five elements of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water, though no one is one hundred percent one constitutional type alone.
As any given Virtue erodes, an habitually occurring behavior arises depending on the presence of an excessive negatively expressed emotion. Put simply, the Virtues of our constitutional element most exalt us if we cultivate them or they can cause us to be very out of balance and ill if we do not.
According to the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine (the Nei Jing Suwen), if you are ‘sick’ you are not living according to the laws of nature which are the basis of the five elements and types. And if you live with Virtue—correct and authentic conduct—you will be less susceptible, illness will be lessened and you will live a long life of quality.
Virtue and knowing how to live according to your well adapted element type definition include the Virtues of compassion, responsibility, honesty and integrity, among others. The five Virtues can be avenues for personal growth and the unfolding of one’s unique path in life. A Virtue for your type is usually one which seems most difficult to accomplish yet what is very much needed in order to move beyond certain key limitations in your behavior, personality and character. In fact, when persons are maladapted or out-of-balance with their dominant element, the antidote for their maladaptive behavior can often be found in the Virtue for their element and type.
Virtues for Wood
Patience and forgiveness are virtues for the Wood type. These come from the innate and natural vision and insight of the Wood energy. These virtues of patience and forgiveness can neutralize the toxic emotions of the out-of-balance Wood type: frustration, anger, impatience and hostility.
The Wood Virtues can help create a path back to balance so the Wood type may more clearly see how to make necessary life and character changes and adjustments and how to create new plans and more realistic goals.
The practice of forgiveness, especially for the Wood type, can help resolve feelings of anger, resentment, frustration, and hostility. It allows a more positive experience of life by accepting responsibility for one’s perceptions and actions. By doing so, Wood becomes less of a victim of circumstances and the actions of others, because he takes responsibility for the manner in which he has responded to those events. The Virtue of forgiveness can ultimately lead to Wood’s feeling like she has a greater sense of control—the very thing Wood strives for most in life.
The Virtue of patience may actually assist the Wood type to prevent cortisol dysregulation when Woods allow patience to bring balance to their sense of time pressure and competitiveness that is common with this type.
Wood types should practice having patience with themselves first, breathing deeply when feeling any tension of time contraints, stress and resulting impatience. They should adopt an attitude of non-attachment to outcomes and they will tend to find that patience comes more easily. Wood types should be wary of projecting their own needs for things to change or to materialize quickly onto others, always aiming to simply give others a break in the spirit of non-judgment.
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Endnotes:
*We have published an article on the following five element types:
Wood Type Personality
Earth Type Personality
Metal Type Personality
Water Type Personality
Kirkwood, John. The Way of the Five Seasons: Living with the Five Elements for Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Harmony. United Kingdom, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2016.
Po-tuan, Chang. The Inner Teachings of Taoism. United Kingdom, Shambhala, 2001.
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