The Five Element Emotions

Much of our work at Art Remedy is based on the ancient Chinese wisdom of the five elements, still commonly used in Chinese medicine today to heal bodily ailments.

The five elements reflect the flow of 气 (Qi – life force energy), believed in ancient times to be controlled by the planets in our solar system (hence why in Chinese the planets are named after the elements).

This is a simplified version of the chart but amongst many other things, each element corresponds to different emotions.

You see, the idea here is that just like joy, grief and anger are just as meaningful and meant to be emotions. There is nothing wrong with you feeling them. And there is no need to rush from one feeling to the next, after all it is cyclical. The problems however, occur when we get stuck in any of these phases.

A secret to overcoming emotional blockages is looking at the 克 cycle. 克 in Chinese means to overcome. So for example, metal cuts wood, and water puts out fire, they “overcome” it.

The same applies for the emotions associated. For example, a person overcome with and feeling unable to move out of anger or resentment, may need some grief or sorrow.

Perhaps they have not allowed themselves to feel such feelings. And the deep hurt they may be denying needs to be expressed for wood to be in harmony. When in harmony, wood may manifest instead as assertiveness and decisiveness.

There’s a whole lot more to share in regards to the five elements, but I hope this was a nice introduction to those who aren’t familiar with it.