How to Balance Your Earth Element

Late summer is a short and unrecognised season, but it has a special relevance in the Tao and in the 5 elements tradition. Late summer is a time of decline, as we start to draw inwards and reflect, preparing for the colder seasons ahead.

It's also a time of great abundance, as we enjoy the fruits of our labour. What was once a seed has finally come to fruition. Think of the golden fields of grains ready to be harvested. These are the blessings of harvest time from the land - the Earth has generously provided us with food to live and thrive. This is a time to take stock and appreciate what Mother Earth offers you.

Earth relates directly to the Mother archetype, how we’ve been mothered and our ability to nourish and care for ourselves. 

Trusting that you have enough and that you are enough is good Earth medicine - this is essential to your sense of stability and security. With your Earth element in balance you feel at home anywhere.

A person with a balanced Earth element presents as responsible, well grounded, honest and practical. They live in an orderly way and have good endurance and strength. They nurture themselves and others, compassion comes easily to them. They usually like to prepare food and feed others, they’re happier at a dinner party than a nightclub.

A person with an imbalanced Earth element shows up with chronic tiredness, weak or sluggish digestion. They are worried and plagued with self-doubt and live a messy, disorderly life. It also shows up with patterns of scarcity and getting stuck in manifesting - not able to bring ideas into action, or generating new ideas to no avail.

Remember nothing is set in stone, there’s lots of ways to enhance your Earth element with the Tao practice!

And although the Earth element is associated with the late summer, it’s also worth noting that the Earth element is associated as between seasons, and around the Spring and Autumn equinox.

Organs Related to the Earth Element

The Spleen/Pancreas and the Stomach are the organs associated with Earth. They provide for the proper breakdown, digestion and transportation of nutrients and information.

The Spleen-Pancreas

The Spleen (Yin organ) is responsible for transportation and distribution - ensuring that nourishment from food and drink gets to all the cells. Qi imbalance or dampness of the Spleen can result in fatigue, sluggishness, bloating, flatulence, loose stools and all sorts of digestive issues. 

The Spleen is described as the source of Qi and blood formation, so it's really important that you care for your Spleen as much as possible. 

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the function of the Spleen also includes the Pancreas, so Spleen-Pancreas is a more correct term.

The Stomach

The Stomach (Yang organ) is where most digestion happens, allowing nutrition to be absorbed. It’s been likened to a bakery - by blending the right ingredients and baking them, you can get a delicious cake. If the ingredient amounts are wrong or poorly mixed, you’ll get an inedible cake that can’t be used and give you digestive problems.

Deprived of nourishment, the other organs, systems and cells function poorly, making the Spleen-Pancreas and Stomach vital to your health and energy. Many acupuncturists will focus heavily on Spleen health in treatments because of its influence on other organs and energy systems. It’s the original influencer!

As you can see the Earth element is very much about digestion, not just of food but also our experiences and emotions. This is our energy digestor!

The sensory organ related to the Earth element is the mouth. If you suffer from bad breath or bleeding gums, your Earth element may be compromised. A natural remedy for this is gargling salt water or a probiotic powder. It's also a good idea to visit your dentist and floss!  

Earth Element: Emotions, Mental & Spiritual Side

Worry, mistrust and overthinking are the negative emotions of the Earth element.

With the Earth element out of balance, it might be difficult to receive help, or you may go into the exhausted martyr archetype, people pleasing, trying to fix other people or wallowing in self-pity, requiring attention and sympathy from others.

The positive virtues of the Spleen are trust, fairness and openness. With Earth in balance, you have a natural ability to show empathy and compassion, along with having healthy boundaries.

The spiritual aspect of the Spleen is known as the Yi or Intellect - it’s our ability to think clearly, study, concentrate, memorise and generate thoughts.

Yi guides us not to use our Qi for others at the expense of our own needs. Give when you’re resourced enough yourself, otherwise you go into an energetic decline and can’t live a vibrant life.

The Yi is about setting intentions and bringing visions, ideas and inspiration into form and through to reality, manifesting in the physical realm.

Earth Element Foods

Avoid raw foods and instead favour warm, mildly cooked foods to aid digestion and support your Stomach and Spleen-Pancreas.

Prepare food simply with mild tastes. Avoid complicated flavours, too much food combining or highly processed foods. Be moderate in cooking times as well as oil and seasoning used. This time of the year is truly about the middle path.

The taste of late summer and the Earth element is a sweet taste - enjoy carrots, squash, apricots and sweet potatoes. Root veg are classic Earth element, literally growing in the soil.

Earth Element Lifestyle Tips

Here’s some tips to get balanced in your Earth Qi:

• Enjoy the abundance of seasonal fruit and veg! Understand it as a gift from the earth and give gratitude for your food when you eat.
  
• Don’t double-task when you eat! Eat with presence and awareness - turn off the TV, put away your screens and avoid eating while you’re working or doing something else.
  
• Support your digestion by eating early - have your last meal of the day by 6pm or 7pm latest to allow your Stomach to rest overnight. This ensures you’ll awaken with more energy the next morning.
  
• Do a 5 minute Chi Nei Tsang massage on your belly daily to aid digestion and support Earth balance.
  
• Practice saying No and setting healthy boundaries. 

In our Elixir Membership we follow seasonal living with Qigong, Taoist meditation & energy practices that support your organs and health for each season of the year. Check it out here.