Over the past few years there have been many articles and commentaries on the antiquity and efficacy of acupuncture treatment. Most of the health conscious, earth-loving, alternative seeking people would consider and recommend acupuncture as a valid method of dealing with pain or suffering when all the regular methods have failed. And though acupuncture is described as a holistic form of healing, there is very little publicized information regarding the aspects that make it holistic.

To be considered holistic, a healing modality needs to address the mind, spirit, as well as the body of a patient. Unfortunately, the focus on acupuncture is centered on the relief from physical pains and, let’s face it, if all you want is relief from your headache, take an aspirin – it’s a lot less expensive. But, if you want to get to the root of your headaches, you may have to dig a little deeper, and then you enter the real of the mind and spirit, and that includes your emotions.

Acupuncture and Emotions

The emotions are very important in Five Element Acupuncture. A balanced, healthy person should experience the whole range of emotions, as they are appropriate. If a loved one dies it is appropriate to feel grief, but with the passage of time, a balanced person accepts the loss and can celebrate the life of that loved one. If someone is stuck in agonizing grief years later, that calls for further investigation.

From a diagnostic point of view, each of the Five Elements has an emotion that is associated with it, so the skilled practitioner tests each of the emotions, looking for appropriateness in the responses. There are other associations with each of the elements, such as the color on the face, the sound in the voice and the odor of the body. The moment any element is imbalanced, these things change, as well as things like taste preferences and temperature distribution.

How a person acquires an imbalance is debatable, it could be an unkind word at just the wrong moment, or it could be something very traumatic like a death or molestation. There are those who believe we are born with our imbalance, as some type of unfinished business. However it happens, everyone has an imbalance in one of the elements by the age of seven or eight. An interesting thing about this is that our imbalances form our personality characteristics, so the very thing that causes our weaknesses also creates our strengths. When this deep-rooted imbalance is addressed, we feel good within ourselves. It is from that sense of well being that health is generated.

Elementally Speaking

Let’s look at the Element of Earth. The two organs that are part of the Earth Element are the stomach and spleen. The emotion of Earth is sympathy, the color is yellow, the sound is "singing" and the odor is fragrant. If this element is balanced in a person, there would be no significant yellow on their face, they wouldn’t smell fragrant, and though they like to sing, their voice wouldn’t sound "singy" all the time. They would be able to give and receive sympathy, as it is appropriate, and their digestion would be fine.

What you might observe, if this element is imbalanced is a person who is always whining about their ailments or problems, always looking for attention, but never able to accept suggestions on how to improve things. Another possibility would be a person who always rejects sympathy, takes care of everyone else, but neglects their own needs.

Symptom wise, the above example becomes very interesting because the energy flows from one element to the next in a cycle called the "Sheng" cycle. In the Sheng cycle, each element is the ‘mother’ of the one following it and the ‘child’ of the one before it. Fore example, if a mother becomes sick and unable to care for her child, the child will cry and become distressed. In our Earth-imbalance example, the child of Earth is Metal, with the associated organs of the lungs and large intestines. A person with an Earth imbalance might then present with symptoms on the lungs or large intestines (the child crying from neglect because the mother is sick.) They might have asthma or constipation. Sometimes the symptoms can occur the opposite way . . . if the child becomes sick, then the mother becomes worried and distressed. In our Earth example, the mother of Earth is Fire, with the heart and small intestines as the associated organs, so the symptoms presenting could be heart problems, circulation problems or food absorption problems. As you can see, chasing symptoms is never the treatment of choice.

A Personal Perspective

In Five-Element Acupuncture, a practitioner always diagnoses by the color, sound, odor and emotion, because these point to the cause of the imbalance. As and Earth-imbalance person becomes more balanced, by treatment on the cause of the problem, the changes anticipated will likely begin with the intangible signals, such as changes in the emotions. So our person who complains all the time, looking for sympathy, may start feeling like they don’t need to obtain attention this way, or they may begin learning to identify what their need is and express it ("I just need for you to hear my problem, I’m not asking you to solve it for me.") And since this imbalance has formed their personality, they will become happier with giving and receiving sympathy. They have the potential to become a very nurturing and caring person, so what used to be a distress signal now becomes a blessing as their Earth begins to produce a "harvest." And each element has its own special blessing, when in balance. Personally, I know my own blessings have been bountiful, as I’ve become more balanced.

Today, when seeking modalities to healing any type of illness and/or physical symptoms, remember that the mind, spirit and emotions have got to be addressed – or else the "healing" is no more than a "quick fix."