If you want to use energy to heal yourself and manage your life, it’s helpful to understand that energy can have different qualities. Eastern cultures that have studied energy have characterized it in different ways. One way is by five natural elements or agents: wood/tree, fire, earth, metal, and water.
These elements are associated with different things that share the same energy characteristics. Many things you can think of have an associated element from time—time of day, days of the week, months and seasons of the year—to emotions, colors, planets, compass directions, sounds, organs in the body, and more. Even money is said to be of the energy of water.
Each element has a strengthening or dampening effect on another in a cyclic pattern. In the generative or nourishing cycle, wood feeds fire, whose ash becomes earth, in which metal is created over time. Melted metal becomes liquid, like water, and water nourishes trees and other plantlife. If one part of your life is lacking then you can enhance it with the element before it in this nourishing cycle.
On the other hand, if one part of your life is getting out of control, you can subdue it with the element before it in the “destructive” or controlling cycle: metal cuts wood, which breaks up the earth with its roots. Earth dams water, which puts out fire. Fire melts metal.
In any situation, space, or your body, you want to keep the energy balanced by balancing the five elements. All elements should be present without one being much stronger than another. Balancing the elements in a space is one aspect of the art of Feng Shui. Balancing them on your person or in your life is a big part of Asian astrology. Balancing them in your body, especially in your organs and meridian channels, is a part of Asian medicine.
According to that health philosophy, each energy channel, or meridian, is associated with one or two organs, which are associated with an emotion and an element. When an organ is weak or ill, you want to strengthen its energy by taking actions, such as eating food, associated with its element or the element before it in the nourishing cycle of elements. If an organ has too much energy, especially old emotional energy that is stuck there, it’s important to release that energy.
One method you can use to do this is by making sounds with your voice. Every sound has its own unique frequency that stimulates its associated internal organ. The waves of your vocal sound enter your body and brain and vibrate each cell with circular movements.
The sounds I commonly use to release and activate the energy of our organs are:
Ahh - heart (fire) - stress
Eee - stomach (earth) and liver (wood) - anger, loneliness
Ooo - lower energy center, kidneys, and bladder - fear
Huh - lungs (metal) and stomach (earth) - sadness and anxiety
Shh - bladder (water) and uterus - fear
Sss - kidney (water) - fear
When you make each sound, close your eyes and focus on the vibration.The more you practice making these sounds, the deeper your breathing will become and the longer you can sustain each sound.
When you relax and your mind becomes quiet, visualize the organ associated with the sound you are making. With visualization, the effect of sound vibration can increase.
If you have any problems in one of your internal organs, or if you have too much of a particular emotion, do this meditation with the sound related to that organ. Imagine that your organ is healed and fully regenerated. For example, if you have a weak liver, focus on your liver and keep practicing the Ee sound. Imagine the sound waves surrounding and healing your liver.
The sound Om has all five elements of energy, stimulating not only the internal organs, but also the brain. By concentrating on your body as you make the sound, you can feel how the sound vibrates from the brain, spreads through the chest, and fills the whole body, as your thougths and emotions stop and your mind expands out to the cosmos. The best time for Om exercise is at dawn.
There are
many other methods of self-healing that incorporate the five elements. When you incorporate Five Element Theory into your life, you can manage your energy at deeper level to have a healthier and happier life.