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The Five Elements

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), everything within the universe (including ourselves) is governed by five natural elements: Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood. The energies of these five elements reflect the basic forces of life. This underlies the principle that all things are interconnected, as opposed to the western approach of a separation between mind and body. These elements possess dynamic qualities and describe a type of energy flow.  They interact with, build upon, and nourish eachother, mutually reinforcing eachother's energy. When one element (or organ/system of the body) becomes imbalanced, it can cause another to also become imbalanced.

Each element has a particular nature and relationships with the other elements. When the elements are in harmony with one another, all things function smoothly. Each element is associated with specific organs and systems within the body, with the seasons, tastes, bodily fluid, and with one of the five senses. Each element is also associated with specific mind/body functions, body types and constitutions:

Element	Season	Organs	Body Fluid	Sense	Taste
Fire	Early Summer	Heart Small Intestine	Sweat	Bitter	Speech
Earth	Late Summer	Stomach Spleen	Saliva	Sweet	Taste
Metal	Autumn	Lungs Large Intestine	Mucus	Pungent	Smell
Water	Winter	Kidneys Bladder	Urine	Salty	Hearing
Wood	Spring	Liver Gall Bladder	Tears	Sour	Sight

During a treatment, a TCM practitioner will ask many questions to discover the balance of these elements within the body, including information on current health conditions being experienced, medications being taken, emotional health including any stress or anxiety, lifestyle, personality, and predominating emotions and thoughts. Other principles such as yin and yang, 8 guiding principles, and external/internal causes are also used in diagnosis to determine which TCM treatment(s) would be appropriate.

The 8 Guiding Principles

The 8 guiding principles are used as a diagnostic method to analyze patterns of energetic disharmony. Continue on to learn about the "8 Guiding Principles."

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