[00:00] hello, everyone.
[00:13] This is Valerie Beck, and we are here with a solo episode of from the Ashes today.
[00:19] And I actually want to dive into a framework from Ayurveda which uses the five elements.
[00:27] But instead of using the five elements to help us understand health and disease,
[00:34] today, I want to use the elements instead to look at how we can better align our actions to our goals.
[00:45] So this all started because I have been doing the artist's way with my clients in the vibrant visionary collective,
[00:55] and we are doing three pages of free write every morning. It's called the morning pages in the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.
[01:05] And we were doing this daily every day for two months.
[01:10] And I noticed that last week I was super angry as I was writing. And it was. It was more like I didn't feel really angry and in the body, but the words that were coming out were all expletives.
[01:30] F bombs everywhere.
[01:32] Just rage. And I was watching myself write,
[01:37] and I'm like, where is this coming from? And I did have also an angry outburst at my husband around that time as well.
[01:46] So observing that, then I was coaching another group on five elements and personal goals.
[01:56] And as I was coaching them,
[01:59] I realized that I am full of fire.
[02:05] And I have been in the past couple of weeks really focusing on shifting that fire energy and going into it now I have been trying to add in a little bit of earth element to help to balance the fire.
[02:23] I'm. I'm speaking in a lot of abstract concepts right now, but just to set the,
[02:28] you know, the picture here.
[02:31] So aside from my mood recently, I've also started to do a lot of strength training,
[02:40] a lot of gentle strength training,
[02:42] because I have been chronically injured for about three years now doing gymnastics. And I pulled a move three years ago that pulled my knee out of socket, and I hyperextended my knee and tore so some ligaments.
[02:56] So I was able to naturally get it better. Back to functional, back to running, back to jumping, back to dancing. And now I'm back in the gym for gymnastics.
[03:08] And I.
[03:09] When I finally got to an orthopedic doctor earlier this year,
[03:13] he basically told me that I don't need surgery. Would be about the same as if I were to actually buckle down on strength training, get my legs really strong.
[03:23] It would be like I'd go be going back to full power.
[03:27] So that kind of like sealed the deal on that, I was like, okay, I guess I will focus on the conditioning.
[03:35] And so I don't know how I got there,
[03:40] but I found a pilates video on YouTube and I decided to go for it. Oh, I think so. Before that,
[03:50] I've been getting kind of bored of going to dance classes here in Tokyo and was not motivated to go to them anymore, even though I have a membership.
[04:00] And so the dance studio that I've been going to has a Pilates studio too.
[04:07] You just have to pay a little bit of extra if you're not a Pilates member. So I was like, okay, let me try it. And it was really hard.
[04:15] I noticed how much I actually struggled to keep poses to do some of the repetitions that they were asking me to do, even though we were in like, you know, laying down or whatnot.
[04:27] And I was like, I really lack strength and somehow I've been able to power through, but I'm really,
[04:35] you know, struggling to do some of these very basic beginner Pilates movements.
[04:41] And so I started doing Pilates every day just to, like, on my mat at home,
[04:45] following a YouTube video.
[04:47] Okay,
[04:48] so this is all leading up to me coaching this group on the elements and reaching personal goals.
[04:58] So as I was coaching,
[05:01] I was with the group and they were. And I was guiding them through it with a co coach.
[05:07] And I realized as I was talking about the elements, that it's not just about finding the elements that are prominent and that are your strength to leverage.
[05:18] It's also finding out what you have been over leveraging and also where you are lacking in focus,
[05:29] what you are under leveraging.
[05:32] Okay,
[05:34] so now that I've gotten to the elements,
[05:36] let me introduce a little bit about what I'm talking about in Ayurveda. There's an. There's the concept of the five elements of the universe.
[05:47] These five elements are not what we know as elements in chemistry. They are elements as then they are the elemental forces that govern the universe or the elemental ideas of.
[06:01] Of different ways that the universe presents.
[06:07] What in the world is that?
[06:08] So there are five of them. It's space,
[06:11] air,
[06:11] water, earth and fire.
[06:15] So on the very abstract level,
[06:18] space is what it doesn't have any substance itself.
[06:23] It's what contains everything else. And it's where everything from where everything else emerges, possibilities emerge, thoughts emerge,
[06:32] matter emerges,
[06:34] everything emerges from space. Without the space,
[06:38] nothing can be held, nothing can exist.
[06:41] Okay,
[06:42] so then I'm going to go element a by element to explain this, like, wide concept. And then I'm Going to zoom in a little bit each time.
[06:51] Now, air element is the element of motion.
[06:55] Nothing that moves in the universe can move without the element of air. Just think of air as the element of motion,
[07:05] all right?
[07:06] So air can govern literal movement of matter or waves or particles.
[07:15] It can govern the movement of blood circulating through your body and can govern your gross muscular movement, govern the movement in your mind.
[07:27] So the next element is fire.
[07:29] Fire is the element of transformation and heat,
[07:32] all right? Anything that requires heat, transformation and light in the universe has the element of fire involved.
[07:41] So when mass converts to liquid or liquid converts to gas, or when you have. When we have nuclear explosions or transformations,
[07:50] all of this requires the element of fire, which is element of transformation.
[07:56] So fire is obviously going to be a hot energy, and so it sparks action.
[08:01] So keep that in mind.
[08:04] Now,
[08:04] water element. Water is the element of cohesion and flow in the universe. It's what binds things together and keeps them flowing.
[08:14] And so when we think about water element,
[08:19] we can think about liquid. You know, how it continuously moves. But it doesn't have a set structure.
[08:26] That's water in the body. You can have water. It's not just H2O, like liquid. Any kind of liquid is water. Anything that requires cohesion is water. But you could also think of it conceptually as like the attachment in relationships, the emotionality of things,
[08:45] okay? Last is the element of earth. So earth element is the element of solidity and stability,
[08:53] right? Think of things that are immovable,
[08:57] require earth element,
[08:58] mass,
[09:00] right?
[09:00] Has a very solid structure as opposed to liquid or gas.
[09:05] Earth element is what allows that to be.
[09:10] Okay,
[09:11] so think of it both as like, you know, when there's mass and there's solids,
[09:16] there's earth,
[09:17] but also the idea of stability,
[09:21] the idea of. Of resilience,
[09:24] the idea of immunity.
[09:28] All right?
[09:29] So now how can we use this, these ideas to reach our goals, our personal goals?
[09:37] So I was explaining this, right? If we know how the elements are characterized,
[09:44] then we know how they behave.
[09:48] And if we start to see how we behave, we can start to associate our behavior with an element.
[09:56] And each element has a different way of manifesting in behavior.
[10:03] So space element, because it's the idea of empty space, it's what contains everything else.
[10:09] You make space.
[10:10] You can make space for new things to happen in your life. You can make mental space,
[10:16] right? Clearing your mind. You can meditate. You can open up time in your schedule. Those are all ways of creating space.
[10:24] Space.
[10:25] Some people are really good at keeping their schedule. Spacious,
[10:29] right?
[10:29] Some people are really Good at not being bogged down by thoughts.
[10:35] Some people are really good at keeping things empty.
[10:39] And this is a tactic because when you don't have so much clogging up your space both physically and mentally,
[10:47] then you're allowing for other things to come in,
[10:51] other things to manifest,
[10:53] right? And if you have too much clutter,
[10:56] then you aren't giving that opportunity for things to come in now. So people who are good at leveraging space usually have a lot of opportunities coming into their life. They have a lot of exciting things happening to them because they create the space to do it.
[11:15] Now if you are leveraging air,
[11:18] air is that movement is the element of movement.
[11:21] When you have the ability to move your thoughts, direct your attention,
[11:27] right?
[11:28] Cultivate your inspiration.
[11:31] It creates this exciting energy.
[11:34] There's a spontaneous energy about air.
[11:37] And so air can be very exciting.
[11:42] People who are good at leveraging air are good at keeping the variety in the spice of life,
[11:48] right? They're good at thinking of, of. Of really creative things.
[11:53] They're good at, at being excited.
[11:57] Although air, because it is flighty, that kind of attention sometimes tends to be short lived. But I'll get into that in a second.
[12:05] Water element.
[12:07] You leverage water element with flow, right?
[12:12] So people who are really good at nurturing their environments and themselves and to, and to just flow with what's going on have this water element to them. They're leveraging water.
[12:27] I like to focus a little bit more on the relational piece of this because that's where you can see it the best,
[12:33] is that people who have very good relationships tend to be able to leverage water element. Well,
[12:39] they're good at keeping boundaries fluid,
[12:43] right? So you know, they can set them, but they're also not so rigid in the way that they do things. They're more welcoming to people. That's how they're leveraging water element.
[12:54] But also they, they're good at tending to their environment because they understand the energy of relationship.
[13:02] So that's water. Then we have earth. So earth is that element of stability and strength.
[13:10] And so people who leverage earth element are really good at keeping routines.
[13:15] They're really good at keeping themselves stable,
[13:19] keeping things predictable,
[13:21] right? If we want to look at it from a even grosser perspective,
[13:27] they are good at things that keep them stable and then also like strength training,
[13:35] right? So they are really good at keeping themselves strong and that makes them resilient.
[13:42] And I know I skipped fire because in my chart, fire is the last one, but fire is the element of just do it. You know, it's get things done,
[13:52] add the spark, you know, take big action, push through the challenge.
[13:57] That is the idea of leveraging fire energy.
[14:02] And that's pretty clear cut.
[14:05] So the question as I was coaching this group was, well, how do we leverage an element to get us closer to where we want to go? That was the first question.
[14:16] And I was like,
[14:17] well,
[14:19] right now I'm actually doing a lot of strengthening. I'm actually doing a lot of, of grounding and stabilization that I didn't realize I need. I didn't know, like, I mean, I knew I needed intellectually, but I didn't embody it.
[14:33] I always thought that, like, I could just push through and if I push through even more, I'll just get stronger naturally rather than actually having a routine to build.
[14:45] So if you, if you hear my words in that,
[14:48] you can tell that I have a lot of fire,
[14:52] right? You can tell I have a lot of, of natural fire. So I'm really used to pushing through.
[14:59] But me utilizing fire right now isn't going to help me. If I want resilience and strength in my routine and my injury is going is not going to get better by adding fire to the fuel.
[15:18] In fact, what I need to do is slow down a little bit,
[15:22] add actual strength to my muscles,
[15:27] add some strength to my routine, have it be more regular so that it's more predictable,
[15:34] so that I am not relying on brute force to get me through things, which leads to injury.
[15:41] All right?
[15:43] So all along I realized I was over relying on fire.
[15:50] And not only that, but up until this point, I didn't realize how much I was neglecting Earth element,
[15:59] even though fire is technically my strength because, like, that's the one I've relied on the most.
[16:05] It also serves for us to think about what have we been neglecting that's causing an imbalance?
[16:14] Because if we over rely on something, we are going to push that energy out of balance.
[16:20] We're going to push that energy far beyond where it's meant to go.
[16:24] And each of us has a constitution that determines what our natural balance is.
[16:31] So if I'm always pushing fire,
[16:34] I can get over fiery and I can burn out and I can get angry, right? So if you remember earlier on in this episode, I said how I was so angry in my journals, I have been relying on fire a lot.
[16:49] And then going into this Pilates daily routine,
[16:53] I have learned the value. And I know this sounds really silly because like, of course it would help,
[16:59] but this value of having a gentle workout routine that builds my muscle and I've also been recently adding on protein into my diet. That's all Earth element that I didn't have.
[17:11] And now I see it in my body.
[17:13] I'm like experiencing it in my mind.
[17:17] I'm a lot less anxious,
[17:19] I'm a lot less tired,
[17:22] and I am still doing my activities, but I'm doing them better.
[17:29] And that is really interesting because I'm now closer to my goals.
[17:35] And this is, you know, this is a superficial goal of like doing gymnastics and getting flips, but, like, it could relate to any other goal I have in my life of where I have been pushing, pushing, pushing.
[17:49] And when I allow myself to stabilize and ground,
[17:54] it actually brings me more of what I want than me pushing.
[17:59] So then the question becomes for you,
[18:02] listener,
[18:03] where are you over leveraging an element?
[18:08] And then on the flip side,
[18:10] where are you not leveraging an element enough?
[18:15] I'll give you one more example.
[18:17] There are people who tend to overthink.
[18:22] They're very, very good at playing scenarios in their head and looking at all the different possibilities and getting distracted.
[18:32] Do you know what energy that is?
[18:35] It's air element.
[18:37] And oftentimes these people are really creative. So they love getting distracted because they do get something out of it. And it's to a point.
[18:44] It does help them stay in creative energy,
[18:48] like this inspirational, light, creative energy.
[18:52] But when there are too many choices, when their mind is moving way too much,
[18:58] right, then they get anxious,
[19:01] overwhelmed,
[19:02] their attention is scattered, they can't get anything done. They can't actually finish any projects.
[19:07] So someone who is over leveraging air,
[19:10] they might have great ideas and enthusiasm,
[19:14] but very little follow through.
[19:17] So what element should they leverage more to get to where they want to go?
[19:25] So that depends on the person,
[19:26] right? If air is very mobile, you know, there are actually several elements that are going to help to balance that.
[19:33] One is water and one is earth. So depending on who you are,
[19:37] you may want to leverage one of those two.
[19:40] Air is very drying also, by the way. So if there's a dry aspect to your energy,
[19:46] then water obviously is going to help with that.
[19:49] If it's more that air is making you feel unstable and anxious,
[19:55] earth might be the one. Or you can do both water and earth,
[19:59] right?
[19:59] So water element,
[20:01] nurturing relationships,
[20:03] right? Talking to people,
[20:06] expressing your feelings may be one way for you to calm down some of the excess tension that you have in your mind and body.
[20:16] Or with earth,
[20:18] it's creating routine,
[20:20] right? It is carving out stable time for you to.
[20:27] To do something at a predictable time to create routine is really boring for some people with a lot of air energy,
[20:37] but it's necessary sometimes for them to be able to, like, just breathe and let go some of some of the excess energy and, and, and those thoughts.
[20:47] All right,
[20:49] so that's just kind of a brief overview of the elements and some of the ways that I've been navigating my own journey using these.
[20:59] And since I've been doing it, it just reinforces that I am, I have chosen the right path for this season and I am feeling really good in my body because I have less physical pain.
[21:11] I feel stronger. I see my muscles toning up and I feel less irritated, and that's amazing.
[21:20] So let me know how you like this episode.
[21:23] Let me know what element right now is the one that you want to balance and which one you want to leverage.
[21:31] Thank you for listening and I will catch you all soon.
