What does it mean to live in your element?

You’re probably familiar with the phrase “in your element.” It’s when you’re doing something that naturally suits you, that comes easily and makes you happy.

That’s an aspect of what I mean when I refer to living in your element. My coaching focuses on helping you tap into your life force—the energetic quality that makes you you.

When you’re moving through life in a way that’s aligned with your essential being, you’re living in your element.

When I refer to living in your element, I also mean it literally.

I’m referring to the five elements from Chinese medicine. This is an elegant system in which five natural elements—Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, and Earth—each correspond to specific beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, physical symptoms, emotional states, bodily organs, seasons, and colors.

The oldest Chinese medical texts, written thousands of years ago, discuss how balance among these five elements leads to “moment-to-moment aliveness.”

Moment-to-moment aliveness! Written 2,000 years ago! Isn’t that what we’re all searching for today?

Everyone has traits from all five elements, however, we each have a primary element. What this means is that you are predisposed to the qualities inherent to one of the five elements.

This includes observable qualities as well as habitual feeling states and thought patterns that inform how you move through the world.

Your primary element is your energetic signature. It’s an imprint that influences everything in your life. Critically, it’s a tool for expanding your self-awareness and pointing you toward opportunities for growth.

Ever wonder why you find yourself returning to the same thoughts and behaviors, even when you know they’re not serving you? Or why certain things you were taught “should” be energizing actually drain you?

Your primary element helps you make sense of how you experience the world—and directs you toward ways to shift the default habits and patterns that aren’t serving you.

Understanding your primary element provides a map to the internal and external actions that can help you transform your vulnerabilities and play to your strengths.

If the Five Element system intrigues you, get in touch. I incorporate these elemental principles into my coaching conversations.