In Five Element Acupressure the work is done through the pulse.
Your pulse can pull from an organ of excess energy into another of deficiency. Sometimes push is needed.
The five fundamental elements – Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water are considered essential components of all life and are present in our environment as well as within us. Each element is associated with a season, specific organs, emotions and aspects of the mind body and spirit.
If there is one constant for each of us, wherever we are with the shifts on this planet, its the light. Rest assured the sun will rise in the East and set in the West.
At specific times of the 24hour day, each organ does its work. The time never changes.
The 5 Element seasons are calculated around the equinoxes and solstices, being pivotal times of light. The effects of diminishing light after the Summer solstice, Dec 22nd, as opposed to the the increase of light after Winter solstice June 21st, interplays with us and our own elements in interesting ways.
The peak of Summer solstice, longest day, is most yang, rendering the Fire Element also at its peak. At a raw basic level, the heart, small intestine, heart protector (pericardium) and triple heater(immunity) need extra care. The flavour of food is bitter. (salads are a clue,some more bitter than others, colour red is also good) In the 24 hour day, the heart does its work between 11am and 1pm. The Small Intestine does its work between 1 and 3pm. Pericardium is between 7pm and 9pm. Triple Heater is between 9pm and 11pm.
The shortest day, most yin, being in the depths of Winter resonates with the Water Element containing the kidneys and bladder. The flavour is salt. Bladder is between 3pm and 5pm. Kidneys 5pm to 7pm.
The equinoxes having equal lengths of light and dark in the night day cycle are the peaks of Spring resonating with the liver and gall bladder (most wood) and Autumn resonating with lung and large intestine (most metal). In spring, energy is rising, in autumn the energy is falling. The flavour of Wood is sour and the Metal flavour is hot. GB 11pm to 1am, Liver 1am to 3am
These are four of the elements. The whole round pie has been cut into equal quarters. There is a fifth, the Earth Element. A slither off each quarter becomes an earth season between the prominant quarters. If you were to add all four sliced slithers together, it would amount to a season equal to each of the other four. It governs the stomach and spleen. The flavour is sweet. Stomach desends 7-9am, Spleen rises 9am-11am (into the heart at 11am) Sweet is healing at the season changes.
The stomach is like dry earth and dislikes dryness and needs moist. It controls the receiving, rotting and ripening of food and water. If the stomach does not rot and ripen water and food, the spleen cannot move and transform. The spleen is moist and damp and dislikes more damp, it likes dry.The spleen controls the moving, transforming and distribution of the already rotted and ripened liquids & solid foods to all parts of the body, in order to nourish it.
How constitutionally different we are from each other, in viewing the above perspective of the Earth element. Each one of us has a tendency to sway one way or the other.
Subconciously our bodies are feeling the subtle hints of change well before we are fully emersed in the season. One particular element can be in dominance or compromised, stirring symptoms and emotions as its season nears or ends. The corresesponding organs are feeling the extra load.
The yin organs are injured by the emotions when life doesn't go as planned. The varying degrees of worry, grief, fear, anger, impatience and hopelessness, to name a few, can present themselves and left unresolved afflicts the organ associated with the emotion.
Rumi's poem "The Guest House" is relatable. It begins;This being human is a guest house. Each morning can bring a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor" Barks, C.(trans.) (2004) The Essential Rumi. New York, NY: Harper one. Kirkwood, J.(2016, p. 314) as cited in The Way of the Five Seasons SD
The Summer Fire Element, heart, is theoretically served by all the other elements/organs, each having a role serving the heart. One word to sum up the collective emotions of the fire element is joy. Or lack there of when out of balance in someone who's constitutional element is fire.
The Earth Element resonates with the archetype of the mother, nourishment, the carer, worry and houses the Stomach and Spleen. Ideally at each season change we return to the Earth and nourish ourselves. We centre. Rest more. The Earth is positioned after the Fire Element when summer does its subtle transition toward Autumn. The direction of energy has changed. Summer has passed. Ever so subtly the light is waning. Diminishing.
On the east coast of N.S.W Australia we enjoy the odd cool night, a southerly change and a sense that the heat is finally over, only to be thrown more hot summer days. The to and fro can be tiring with the changeable weather. It does this to and fro at each season change. In winter we're given a welcome couple of warm days, only to be thrown back into the throes of winter.
Im certain these changes are more noticeable as we age.
The Metal element resonates with letting go and belongs to the Lung and Large Intestine (Autumn). Difficult when there is always something else to do.The momentum of energy is in the full swing of falling. Trees are loosing their leaves. Tears fall easlily and can catch us unaware, and not always from sadness.
The polarities of the Water Element(winter) held in the kidneys and bladder can be courageous risk taking at one end of the spectrum to frozen with fear at the other and all the variables between.
The varying aspects of Wood are full hope when in balance and impatience building to frustration and anger when not, and manifests in the Liver and Gall Bladder (Spring). In Spring the energy is rising with motivation to excercise returned. The plants are bursting with growth.
Pulse positions around the body can pull energy from the excess, and send it to the depleted. Energy can be pulled and pushed at the same time if extra force is needed. A person can be treated at a constitutional level, hips and necks can be released, palpitations can be eased, emotional turmoil can be calmed. Jet lag can be resynced.
The 8 Extra Ordinary Vessels are a specialised treatment within 5 Element Acupressure that work with the deeper expanses of energy in our bodies.
They are formed before the meridians in utero.
If the meridians are likened to the rivers of the earth, the vessels are comparable to lakes or oceans,
They are Extra Ordinary
Its somewhere the psych can be cared for.