4 Tools for Strengthening Your Wood Element.
The wood element is about growth, outward change, expansion, and rebirth. Wood energy is most prominent during the spring season.
Change in itself is painful. Healing is painful. Staying the same is also painful. So often we become overly identified with our pain. For example, I just have bad digestion, “I always have neck pain”, or “I’m just someone who suffers from depression”
Pain is something that gives many people an identity and although unpleasant and isolating, has become a part of them. Letting go of a part of you is never easy but is entirely necessary for growth and healing. The springtime is the perfect time to identify these obstacles and find ways to overcome them, because of the naturally supportive external energies of new life and rising yang energy. I wanted to offer 4 tools, which have been useful in celebrating the wood element and encouraging the spirit of consistent growth.
1. Buy the ticket, take the ride.
Commit to doing something which makes you slightly uncomfortable, and just show up for it. Do this on a regular basis. This will set you apart from 99 percent of people. This could be traveling alone, taking a martial arts class, making one YouTube video a week, etc.…. Commit to something and do it no matter how you are feeling. The hardest part about class is getting to it. Once you are there, the process takes way and transformation is inevitable. This is very closely associated with the adage, “Do the action gain the power.”
2. Understand when someone’s else’s energy is effecting you and deal with it.
The ancient Chinese refer to this as Gui or demon energy. In summary, the Gui is some force that has taken grip of some part of the person at some level. There are specific acupuncture treatments which focus on this within the J.R. Worsley school of 5 elemental acupuncture but there are also ways one can rid themselves of these energies without acupuncture. Cold showers, washing your hands under cold water, burning sage or palo santo, visualization exercises of cutting energetic chords from the people who invoked influence, and changing clothing, are all ways to remove energetic influence from you. If you work as a massage therapist, reiki practitioner, acupuncturist, health counselor, or just have had unpleasant social interactions with specific individuals recently, that you have not been able to let go of, these tools are useful ways to rid yourself of these external influences and reconnect with your own energy. If you feel as though you are having unusual thoughts which are dramatically non-characteristic of you as an individual it is very possible there was some transference of energy. This tool is less of a tool and more of a cause of inhibition of growth. Because of its importance in staying on tract I have decided to include it as a tool for growth as it is such a common problem which so few people are aware of. Observe how you feel after trying one or several of these practices and see if it is easier to let go of the negative influence.
3. Become the watcher:
The watcher waists no time with judgments. The watcher observes mind states as they arise and pass. The watcher is one rugged muthafu…. who does not let the world shake him. If it happens to, he sits in its discomfort curious to deconstruct it. Why did that interaction bring up such uncomfortable feelings? Why did that interaction make me feel ungrounded or insecure? What is that really about? Uncomfortable interactions are the catalysts for healing. They are not about blame, they are about taking responsibility and moving forward.
4. Save your energy, talk less, observe more
The less you speak, and practice the middle path of emotions the closer the mind moves to a state of peace. We are taught to believe that being very stimulated, excited, or dramatic is a way to make an impression on the world, on people. That being animated all of the time means you have charisma and personality. This neurologically wires the brain to be more reactive and less introspective. This is probably the #1 largest leak of energy. This forces the yang to come to the surface. When it is always at the surface, the yin which roots it becomes deficient (adrenal fatigue, overwhelm, irritability, night sweats, hot flashes, outburst of anger, emotional instability). When you become the observer you will notice other people will ware themselves out just talking. Becoming extremely emotionally worked up is something that happens less and less as we progress on a spiritual path. Another way of thinking of this is save your qi! As the Dao de Jing says, “Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.” Part of talking less is a natural progression of quieting the mind, learning to be with discomfort, and operating from a place of deeper stillness. The less reactive we become to the world the less it can sway us. This will enable us to grow more consistently and faster than the majority of individuals who do not practice the art of qi conservation, quietness, and meditative existence.
Hopefully this has stimulated some productive reflection,
I look forward to connecting soon,
Brandon