Tuesday, December 22, 2009

5 Element Meditation: Fire Element




According to the ancient Daoists, we are made up of the 5 elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Harmony in life is achieved when we balance these elements.

We focus on increasing our fire element when we want to increase our creativity, joy, energy, inspiration, and love. The fire element meditation is particularly helpful for those who feel like they have lost their joy in life, feel their emotions are dulled, need to be more creative and spontaneous, need more humor, and/or want to be more loving and connected. Due to the fact that the fire element relates to our heart and small intestine organs, this meditation will also help to strengthen these organs.

Fire Meditation:

Sit comfortably in front of a candle flame, or even better, a wood fire. Close your eyes and keep the image of the flame in your mind or gently focus your gaze on the flame. As you inhale, imagine breathing in light from the flame. As you exhale, imagine exhaling light into the flame.

Feel sparks of creativity and joy emanating from your body. Feel a deep sense of love filling your heart and shining outward to connect with everyone and everything around. Feel the divine beauty. Feel the sense of opening up, of freely connecting with yourself, others, and spirit. Open to the positive qualities of the Fire element: love, empathy, beauty, humor, spontaneity, fun, and inspiration.

Finally, simply sit receptive to what the flame has to teach you. Do not judge. Simply allow whatever thoughts and feelings that come up to do so.

You may meditate as long as you like, but typically between 20 min to an hour is ideal.