Earth Element: Connecting To Its Unique Grounding Qualities

Introducing the Chinese Element Earth, particularly the mental-emotional influence it has on our lives. The basis of my thoughts is Chinese 5 Element Theory. The relevance of Earth, particularly relating to worry that affects so many of us, is approached in different ways. There are a couple of short meditations (you can pause and extend them) and a gratitude exercise combined with detailed explanation. The second meditation is based on the wonderful poem by Rumi, 'Out beyond ideas'.

Transcript

Hello,

Thank you for joining me.

Today we'll continue the work that we started in the recording,

Introduction to the Chinese Five Elements.

I'm encouraging you to become familiar with the elements and to understand the five corresponding mental,

Emotional mindsets that influence our judgement.

This is just one of the many ways that the elements contribute to our lives.

Returning back to judgement,

We will argue that our judgement is an entirely rational decision-making process,

But,

Of course,

It is our mind that makes that argument.

Here's a phrase that I use to remind myself that the mind doesn't have the whole story.

Thinking overrates itself.

Let's sit briefly,

Taking a few deep breaths.

And now returning to normal breathing,

And remembering that idea.

So,

If thinking overrates itself,

Then be here now and see what is happening apart from thinking.

And remember that this is the idea of the mind.

Then be here now and see what is happening apart from thinking.

Notice feelings,

Perhaps you would say,

Emotions,

That come up in the body as you sit.

And find that time,

Which can be very short,

Before the mind starts its stream of comment on the feeling.

You might have a very busy mind.

In that case,

Drop awareness to the soles of your feet.

We don't need to stop the voice in our head.

Just separate feelings in the body from thoughts.

Having this separation between thoughts in the head,

Feelings in the soles of the foot,

Is good.

It feels like the two things are a long way apart.

And perhaps,

In time,

You'll discover that you can give more importance to the sensation in the soles of the feet.

If a busy mind is less of a problem for you,

Then go to feelings,

Emotions,

Anywhere in the body,

And see if you can find the slight pause before the mind starts its commentary.

This is not just something that you can do on the meditation chair.

You can take this into your life,

And it's always good to practice the skills that we have in meditation,

In the rest of our life.

Pause this recording now if you wish to.

Otherwise,

Continue.

We'll begin now to focus on the influence of the Earth element in ourselves.

In particular,

What it contributes when we judge people,

Behaviour,

Ourselves,

Are much more as acceptable or unacceptable.

We can start with the stereotype of the Earth Mother.

The bigger head that gives us possibility of stability and nurturing without question comes off in many cultures and religions.

The Earth Mother has an apparently limitless source of acceptance,

Giving us both succour and compassion.

Some of us will feel that we recognise the Earth Mother within us.

Others will reject it with horror.

Could you recognise that you have a capacity for compassion within you?

A world without compassion will be a sorry place,

And I think you will be surprised at how much you exercise compassion in your day-to-day life.

You can use a form of the gratitude exercise to notice,

For a few days,

Your own experience of observing,

Giving and receiving compassion.

This is really useful,

Especially if you can share your observations with others,

As it helps to bring some clarity on what we and others mean by compassion.

I recommend that you try this exercise for the Earth element.

Just to repeat,

By noticing your own experiences of observing,

Giving and receiving compassion,

And being grateful for all these forms of compassion in your life.

I'll be suggesting similar exercises for the other elements in upcoming recordings.

One aspect of compassion for me is the recognition that we all have more in common than I have often acknowledged.

And yet,

I will never know the whole story of another person.

So in my compassion,

I should be generous in my attitude,

More accepting and forgiving.

Accepting and forgiving without knowing any more about the person that is strictly necessary.

I've got some way to go.

Turning now to inspiration from another source,

The idea of being grounded,

Even being brought back to Earth.

Willie Nelson wrote a beautiful song called Back to Earth,

With these lines in it.

I rode a dream so wild and free for all that dream was worth,

But today my heart just settled back to Earth.

Dreams,

In this case of love that was unrequited,

Eventually had to be faced.

And so the heart settles in the only way it can,

Back to Earth.

Perhaps ultimately there will be a comfort in being grounded,

Knowing that your thinking is based closer to reality.

Romantic love is just one way that emotions can sweep us up and away from a more balanced state.

The Chinese recognise the contribution of emotions to poor health.

Here's a quote from Daniel Reed's book called Chinese Medicine.

The primary internal causes of disease in Chinese medicine are called the seven emotions.

The unbridled waves of wild energy that stampede through the whole system as a result of extreme emotional reactions to external events.

Because of the mental and physical disturbance it causes,

Emotion is also known in Taoist alchemy as the chief hooligan.

While the five senses through which emotional reactions are provoked are called the five thieves,

Because they steal energy and awareness away from spirit and squander them instead on petty sensory distress.

The emotion that takes us away from being grounded is worry.

Eckhart Tolle says,

Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose.

Most people have had some worry in their lives and many find worry to be a problem.

It features in Western medicine when we reach the point where obsessive compulsive thoughts paralyse lives.

Paralysis is an extreme.

Here we'll consider the stages on the way where worry makes grounded decision making difficult.

Essentially worry means that we cannot clearly take in information,

Process it and come out with a decision that seems comfortable to ourselves and others.

Worry creates ever more elaborate negative possibilities that are often emotive.

These convince us that they are reality and monopolize our thinking so we cannot make a decision.

Worry takes us away from reality,

Away from being grounded.

This worrying saps our energy and can lead to us forgetting the trust and compassion that we attributed to the Earth Mother.

We might find ourselves no longer believing in the best in people and that can mean that our decisions tend more towards rejection and criticism than acceptance.

Let's finish this theory with an aspiration to be grounded decision makers who,

With compassion,

Can accommodate acceptance of others and ourselves more readily.

Sitting comfortably,

Take a few deep breaths.

Now return to your natural breathing.

I'm preparing to read a poem by Rumi that encourages me to appreciate grounding.

First,

Experience physical grounding by taking your mind to your feet.

In particular,

The soles of your feet.

Be surprised at the amount of sensation that there is there.

Let your awareness flow to the ground under the feet and realize that there is a sensitivity there to the Earth.

You have an appreciation of the support and stability of the Earth,

That part that it plays in your life.

Pause this recording if you want to spend more time on this.

Now here's the poem by Rumi.

It's called Out Beyond Ideas.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing,

There is a field.

I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,

The world is too full to talk about.

Ideas,

Language,

Even the phrase each other doesn't make any sense.

Rumi has taken us to lie down on the Earth in the grass of a field.

No decisions to make on what is right or wrong.

So no possibility of worry.

And we find that world complete.

As Rumi says,

Too full to talk about.

The concept of each other dissolves when we find this place and we accept ourselves and others as sharing a common thread of humanity.

And this for me,

Epitomizes acceptance in the way of the Earth with trust and compassion.

Thank you for joining me.

I hope you'll join my next recording,

Which will continue the journey through the elements.

Meanwhile,

Go safely and go well.

Goodbye.

Reviews

So what I needed today

Thank you 🌺🌸🌺

Thank you for this interesting guidance and helpful poetry. Your voice is very soothing and encouraging. Focusing on the soles of my feet did help shift the focus from overly busy mind. I will listen to this one again.