How do you organize your life around your dreams? Start by asking yourself:
HOW CAN I FEEL GROUNDED AND SUPPORTED?
Then let the Earth Element do the work! Yes, the Earth Element could help.
Oh the Earth! All you have to do to find this element is look out your window, step out your door, feel it holding up your home or apartment building, notice what it provides when you go to the grocery store. The Earth Element is one of the Five Elements, also known as the Five Movements, Wu Xing (wu-hsing). It’s a system that’s used in Feng Shui and Chinese Medicine to describe and understand patterns, and consists of Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, and Fire. If you want to learn more about the Five Elements, take a look at my previous blog.
The Earth Element is particularly potent right now as we have entered its season, late summer. You can feel it especially in places that experience all the seasons. The air is a bit cooler, but it’s not fall. It will get warm again, but it’s not high summer. We’re in this middle place between summer and fall, the realm of the Earth element. You can see it in the grasses turning yellow, the sun sitting a bit lower in the sky, the golden quality in the light. You can feel it in the way that you may be called to organize your life—getting back to things, returning to school, creating a container for yourself, your schedule. Perhaps you long to be more grounded after a summer of activities. In the Elemental Values Deck, some of the values associated with Earth are balance, consistency, community, nurture, stability. If you’re looking to organize your life around your dreams, this is the season where there’s an abundance of Earth energy available to support your actions.
Earth is the ultimate container. Supporter. It shows up in your life when you create some consistency, “containers” for your activities and energy—and often this leads to feeling more grounded. This consistency also support the earth within you—the stomach and spleen. These organs are associated with Earth. In some ways this season is a time of letting the stomach digest everything that has happened in summer. Cooking it all up with the fire of the spleen, in the cauldron of the stomach, and turning those experiences into nutrients you can use, while getting rid of any murky stuff. And, don’t you feel better when your digestion is working properly? What happens to your digestion when you feel stressed or overwhelmed? How does this affect your ability to dream? Earth is all about cultivating calm, support, community, and feelings of gratitude. Being grounded.
Each element has it’s own quality and character, personality. Earth’s personality is the sustainer and peacekeeper. Earth is grounded, patient, engaging in the routine with reverence. The normal, everyday consistency that is stability. It’s nourishing, regenerative. Maturity. It’s the environment, the container holding and supporting—the medium in which everything happens. It’s neutrality, gathering, abundance and gratitude. Humility, serenity, calm and collected. Sustainability. It is family, friendship and community. The ability to realize, to manifest—to make real. Earth is created by Fire, the element that precedes it in the cycle. The Fire of summer is turning to ash and creating a fertile Earth.
Earth is also related to the concept of the Center—being centered. In Feng Shui the Earth element is at the actual center of the Ba Gua. The Ba Gua is an energy map used to make adjustment in spaces. It consists of 8 external spaces surrounding a central space. Each of these spaces represents an area of life, the center represents Health. Being at the center, the Health/Earth Gua touches every Gua, every other area of life. When you think about this, you can see how health, being healthy or even more noticeably, being unhealthy, affects all other areas of your life! Locate the center of your home (just like it sounds, find the inner most center of your home). How do you feel in this spot of your home? What’s there? An open space, a wall, a room? Is there clutter? Do you feel grounded and supported in this space? This is where the Earth element lives in your home. How would you like it to feel? How would YOU like to feel? You can look to the Earth Element to create an environment that feels grounded and stable. When I do a Feng Shui consultation, this is one of the first places we look. It’s foundational, just like the Earth.
What does this have to do with your dreams? Earth is the element that makes things real! And I’m assuming you want your dreams to become real. To become real, realized, sometimes your dreams need support, stability, community, and grounding. This is Earth. To translate this into your actual life, take Earth actions. Like letting the murky stuff go, and creating an environment that supports digesting those nutrients, so they can balance your whole life. To create this environment, you organize your life around these Earth Element principles. In this Earth season, would you be willing to choose to take actions that are supportive, grounded, and consistent? To choose yourself, knowing that this is the only way to move towards your dreams, and also support others?
Here’s some ideas of how to use the Earth Element to create this environment:
Establish containers for yourself, maybe that’s a schedule, simple routine, something you do regularly that can bring in some consistency and stability. Do not overwhelm yourself with too many of these. I’m drinking warm water with lemon every morning, just started 3 days ago!
Walk in nature. Walk barefoot on the grass, dirt, in the backyard, at the park. Meditate regularly. Could be for 2 min or 30 min—choose an amount that doesn’t stress you out. What helps YOU feel grounded and connected to the earth? Do that.
Nourish your body with exercise and healthy, life giving, foods. Both of these help out your digestion. Do some yoga, or an intense workout. Maybe you do this with others, creating community.
Express gratitude! Was the water in the shower warm this morning? Hallelujah! Thank you world! Did water come out of the tap? Woo hoo, that’s amazing!! Was there water at all? So grateful!!!
Complete a project. Was there someone you were going to reach out to, an idea you had put away, just some final touches to do, some clutter to get out of your house?
Sit in a chair, on a couch, on the earth, and let yourself be held. Maybe you bring a cup of tea or a book.
Reach out for actual support. I’m not talking “likes” on your social media. Ask for help. Then reach out with your own support.
Know that you’re amazing, unique, here to be bring what only you can bring. Maybe you need to do a little work with your thoughts to get here. It takes practice, you can do it.
Take some deep breaths: inhale for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4, hold for 4.
Does your environment need to feel a little more grounded and supportive? Environment has a huge effect on our ability to dream and thrive. Look to Earth to help out in your space. In Feng Shui, Earth is represented by the colors yellow, brown, ochre—earth tones. The actual earth and soil, ceramics, rocks, stones, tiles, brick. Containers like baskets, vessels, beds, chairs. The shape of a square, sacred geometry, mandalas. The sound of singing. Go back to the center of your home (your bedroom, or your office works too) and place any of these colors, shapes, sounds, or objects to amp up the earth energy. You can also hang a small round crystal or paint a small round yellow dot on the ceiling at this center point. Or simply place some yellow flowers in this spot. Lots of Sunflowers out this time of year! Balance your environment so that it can support and ground you. Let your space be a reminder that you’re on the path to living your values, to living your dreams.
Try some of these actions, notice what happens. Remember, small moves create big changes.