Elements of medicine

Does the idea of ‘elements’ within a model of medicine make you cringe?

Does it make you think of a shaman or druid that has some obscure connection to nature and is living in some hard-to-reach jungle that can only be accessed by a 3-day paddle in a canoe?

Maybe it can be thought of as some rudimentary version of our new and improved version of medicine.

Modern medicine emerged around the 18th century, stemming alongside the industrial revolution, predominately gaining traction in western Europe and North America.

This version of observing the body has of course done wonders for health, healing, and reducing morbidity. As the clockmaker intricately knows all the parts of the device, we keep our physicality neatly segmented and ordered so as to be able to pinpoint the location of pain or disease.

I personally have received over 30 X-rays, MRI’s, and CT scans of my legs, shoulders, spine, and skull. Without these amazing devices, I wouldn’t be able to walk, or possibly think. And so, I thank modern medicine.

When it comes to daily living, high resonance imaging, steroids, and operations performed by a skilled physician aren’t really appropriate or necessary. So then where do we lay between these two extremes, of health and disease?

As one of the key principles of naturopathy says, prevention is better than cure!

This is where an intimate connection to the elements comes in!

A beautiful introduction coming from the Taijitu Shuo version of Taoist cosmology says,

From the 1 – the Tao, the universe, whatever word you choose to give to call the all-encompassing...

came the two – Yin and yang – light and dark, day and night…

then came the 5 – the elements – Earth, metal, water, wood, fire

from the 5 came 10,000 things – everything else basically.

So what does it all mean?

Outside of our climate-controlled dwellings, beyond the constant tick-tock of the clock, before the year-round foods that are transported great distances and kept fresh via our fridges, there was, and still is, a rhythmic dance.

Cycling through rest, ascent, outward expression, descent, and decay.

If one of these components is skipped, denied, suppressed, or stuck, imbalance begins.

There is no real perfect state of “balance” however - delightfully level and supreme in evenness. There is just a balancing act continually unfolding, as the tightrope walker moves across the line, swaying from side to side.

Picture a baby’s mobile that sways over the top of the cot (not a mobile phone, the string suspended from the ceiling with the toys hanging from it). You can add or subtract any toy from each string, it will alter the way the mobile sits but it will always find a new resting place.

This is the perfect analogy for contemplating our physiology and mind. Sometimes we are a little in the excess, and others perhaps deficient, but we still function. Through summer we can be a bit more sunburnt and sweatier, in winter cold stiff hands and paler colored skin.

Learning the way to balance out our lifestyle in response to our environment is what the prevention model is based on.

The greatness of this is it is so rudimentary on the surface and profoundly complex simultaneously. From the macro to the micro this dance of opposites and complementary energies moves. The level at which we wish to observe it simply depends on our capacity to do so. Over the coming weeks, I will be breaking down this ancient science that stems back thousands of years, for you to easily grasp, embody, and enjoy.