Tending Your Fire: Thriving In Summer
We experience Fire, one of the elemental powers, most fully in the season of summer. This is the time when the young energy that arose in the spring expands to its maximum potential.
We, who are part of nature, can enhance our own health by understanding the special functions of the hottest of all the seasons. Through this awareness we can help balance our own Fire energy.
When nature’s energy flourishes and blossoms in the summer, it is time to enjoy the fruit from the seeds we have planted and the visions and plans we have made. If a tree doesn’t flower and bear fruit, there can be no harvest; for us, similarly, if we do not allow ourselves to flower during this season, we will deprive ourselves of a late summer harvest to carry us through the year.
Autumn, the season of letting go, will be all the more difficult for us if we haven’t experienced the fruition of our hopes and plans.
When Your Fire Is Low…
According to Chinese traditional medicine, the Fire element manifests in our body through the heart, small intestine, pericardium, and the function known as the triple heater, which regulates internal body temperature.
A few of the myriad symptoms that can arise if our inner Fire is deficient are:
Chills and numbness of the extremities
Impaired circulation of the blood and bodily fluids
Menstrual, urinary, and sexual dysfunction
The lungs can lose their ability to expand and contract fully and easily, resulting in poor oxygenation of the blood, coughing, and nasal congestion
Sluggish digestion, abdominal pain, and watery diarrhea
When Fire Is Excessive…
At the other extreme, excessive heat can result in:
Painful inflammation of the joints
Hypersexuality
Chronic infections
Dryness of the lungs
Inflamed throat and sinus
Burning diarrhea and urination
Constipation
Anxiety and sleep disturbance
Fire affects the amount of fluid in the body: Too much heat dries up our internal reservoirs and waterways, and at the other extreme too little heat can result in an excess of fluid. Menstruation, sexual secretions, lubrication at joints, digestion, and metabolism, to name a few, reflect and depend upon the balance of our Fire element.
How’s Your Fire?
Just as a healthy plant naturally produces flowers, a healthy person produces a healthy Fire. When our Fire is healthy, it responds appropriately to meet the tasks at hand. Like a thermostat, it knows when and with whom it can be warm and open, and when and with whom it needs to be more protective.
How is your Fire? Is there joy and laughter in your life?
Are friendships important to you? Did you grow up in a warm family?
Was it cold? Hot and cold? Hardhearted? Brokenhearted?
How are love and sex related for you?
Know that in summer the energy of Fire supports you in enriching your enjoyment of life, your relationships, getting closer, opening outward, being receptive to others. Your flowering may not be as bright or as big as you want, but remember that every flower is different and unique, necessary and perfect for where it is. There will be another summer; in the meanwhile we will have many chances to open, to extend compassion, to forgive. While we all need love, the sick need it most - not only the physically ill, but those who are suffering in mind and spirit.
We’ve looked at the sadness and emptiness of a Fire imbalance, but any of the Five Elements in distress will produce its own brand of suffering. All of us can respond with love: By giving and sharing we build our own Fire, open our own flower, and bring more of the summer sun to the world.
Would You Like Support Balancing The Fire Element Within You?
Let’s Work together!
Book a FREE 15 Minute Discovery Call With Me!
