Chinese philosophy maintains that in order for one to be balanced and healthy, all of the elements in the body have to be balanced. One must first understand how the elements work together to achieve and maintain complete health in order to do this. Chinese medicine can assist in defining what areas you should be looking at if you are looking towards nature to find a cure for your ailments.
Chinese medicine uses the interchangeable relationship between nature and the body in order to help one gain optimal health. The five elements are linked together and applied as to how one is able to live and there is the ability for one to understand how to remain balanced and healthy.
Consistent with Chinese medical theory, each organ is associated with one of the Five Phases. It is believed to be more effective to treat an organ during a particular time appropriate to it. The order of the Five Phases in which they are cited in the Bo Hu Tong and other Han dynasty texts, is Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. The organs are most effectively treated, during particular four-hour periods throughout the day, beginning with the 3 a.m. to 7 a. m. period.
The five elements are all put into the proper alignment and place after they have been divided and completely understood. This is known as the Shen Cycle, which converts into the Nourishing Cycle. The cycle of the elements is used to helps one to become completely balanced and healthy. According to Chinese medicine principles water nourishes wood, wood fuels fire, fire makes earth, earth yields metal and metal produces water.
Accordingly within this same cycle of nourishing, each of the elements can also destroy each other, wood parts earth, earth absorbs water, water quenches fire, fire melts metal and metal chops wood. This is known as Ko, or the Regulating Cycle and when the opposite elements are combined they cancel each other out. Both of these cycles are considered the natural order of things in keeping with Chinese medicine philosophy. This natural order to help either balance out an imbalanced element in one's body, or help to nourish something that is out of order.
The philosophy and principles of combining the natural elements of earth with healing is at the very roots of Chinese medicine. By sequencing together the elements, either through nourishing them, or cancelling them out, it allows one to keep the natural order in ones own life. It is simply understanding when one's body is in the specific element and understanding how it should respond.
