Help, I Can’t Decide Between Two Types
As we said earlier we have all of the Five elements within us so you may resonate strongly with more than one type. Some of you may find that two or more Elements describe you strongly. If this is the case both Elements are probably important even though only one of them is your constitutional type. You may find that you benefit from doing the exercises associated with both types. Alternatively, you may find you benefit from doing the exercises for one type more than the other. In this case it might indicate that this Element is your constitutional type.
I Think I Know my Type But I’d Also Like to do Some of the Exercises for the Other Types
We have done our best to identify exercises which will particularly benefit each of the types. Many of the exercises are, in some contexts, however, useful for other types. For example, ‘Focusing’ from the Wood exercises on page 43 is useful for many different types and the exercises on forming relationships which are in the chapter on the Fire exercises (page 84) are useful for many of us at certain times of our lives and when we want to improve our relationships. The exercise ‘Dealing with Loss’ on page 172 is included with the grief exercises. This exercise is useful for anyone who has suffered a loss of any kind. Please feel free to do exercises not associated with your type if you recognize that they might benefit you.
The purpose of the exercise chapters is to give us ways to grow and develop and achieve more balanced emotions. Once you know your type we would suggest you read through the exercises associated with that chapter first and then plan your approach to working through them.
Good luck. We hope you enjoy the book and benefit from the exercises!
Notes
1 Unpublished paper, D Roger, Y Birks, A Forbes, B Najarian: Toxic and Non-toxic Personalities — Individual Differences in Susceptibility to Illness; University of York, 1998. This paper was presented at the 9th European Conference on Personality at the University of Surrey in July 1998.
2 If you have any doubts about repetitive negative emotions causing illness, then you can consult the growing base of Western research which supports the ancient Chinese view. Some of this is easily available in Goleman, Daniel, 1995: Emotional Intelligence; Bloomsbury Publishing, London. This book was on the bestseller list in 1997. In chapter 11, Goleman gives many examples of the research done in the West on the connection between emotional disturbance and illness.
3 See Hicks, Angela: The Five Laws for Healthy Living; Thorsons, 1998, for a practical discussion of the Chinese wisdom on how to develop a healthy lifestyle. The book in your hands concentrates on the internal causes of disease whilst The Five Laws for Healthy Living also gives an account of external and miscellaneous (lifestyle) causes of disease.
4 We know that everyone has an imbalance in one of the Five Elements from early on in their lives. Discussion continues as to the nature/nurture issue, that is, how much we are born with and how much arises during our early childhood. The authors believe we are born with the imbalance.
5 You can read more about the ancient Chinese use of Five Element theory in Needham, Joseph: The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China 1, pages 142—57.
6 This book first appeared around 200 BC. It appears to be written by more than one author and it has been available as a source of inspiration continuously since publication. It does give solutions to medical problems, but it is much more a discussion of the fundamental questions of medicine. There are many different translations and it has different titles in English, e.g. The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine. See bibliography for these.
7 See for example, Koo, Linda Chih-ling, 1982: Nourishment of Life; pp 127–31.
8 See Eckman, Peter, 1996: In the Footsteps of the Yellow Emperor; pp 208–9.
9 JR Worsley called the primary imbalance of a person the ‘Causative Factor’. This is the name which is most often used by practitioners who use this Five Element style of acupuncture treatment and it suggests that the constitutional weakness of the organs has an important effect on both our health and our emotional expression.
THE WOOD TYPE – ASSERTING OURSELVES
At work everyone admires Delia. She’s dynamic and efficient and if we want someone to take responsibility we know we can rely on her. ‘I’ve always been the kind of person who likes to get things done’, she told us, ‘In fact with other people I have to sometimes hold myself back because it’s so easy for me to jump in and organize them. I tend to find myself in leadership roles, I suppose it’s because I put myself forward. I can often see things that others don’t notice. In fact if someone says something isn’t possible I’ll rise to the challenge and do battle. Sometimes it’s just bloody mindedness to show that it can be done.’
In her social life Delia is just as dynamic. She belongs to many organizations which she hopes will help to change the world and make it a better place to live. One organization is Amnesty International: ‘I get outraged when I hear people are being treated unjustly. It really makes my blood boil.’
Delia’s facial colour has a greenish tinge to it and she speaks with a precise and clipped voice. These, along with her assertive disposition are indications that she is a Wood type. Acupuncture treatment helped her to deal with occasional tightness in the chest and migraines and abdominal pain prior to her period — she says she feels ‘smoother’ and ‘better in herself’ generally. She also worked on herself using some of the exercises in this book. One particularly useful exercise was learning to experience a situation from another’s point of view.
In this chapter we will be looking at the characteristics of a Wood type. As you read, you may appreciate why Delia is a Wood type and understand more about her underlying motivations. We will start by looking at the Wood Element in Chinese medicine.
Figure 2: THE CHINESE CHARACTER FOR WOOD
The Chinese character for Wood is Mu (see character drawn above). This character represents a tree. The vertical line is the trunk and root of the tree; the horizontal line is the earth. The line at the top represents branches. The lower lines are the roots which clearly form the main part of the picture.1
The Wood Element is associated with Spring and the time when all vegetation begins to grow. We can imagine an oak tree and its beginning as an acorn. The acorn begins to grow under the ground and pushes outwards and upwards. Already, at the start, the acorn knows where it is going. It is destined to become an oak tree. Acorns do not become maples, birches or scotch pines. The blueprint or plan of an oak tree is already contained in the acorn.